[Vwdiesel] The trip: A tale of cross country encounters. :)

[LBaird119 at aol.com]

  Thought I might as well do an update as to how things went since I've been
back since Thursday evening.
  First day was a great meeting with Dave and Jim.  I never realized LaGrande
was such a windy place.  Heck, most everywhere but here and Dave Barbieri's
seemed to be windy!  Had breakfast with Dave and Jim, then stood outside
talking until we were shivering something fierce, then we were on our way
again.
  We drove straight through the rest of the trip and I swear it keeps getting
harder and harder to do that!  I don't think it's likely to happen again
unless
we're driving something you can lay down and sleep in!
  After a few days of cold and flu in OK, I set out for TX.  My wife kind of
kicked me out so I'd go.  By the time I was to OK City, I wondered what
on Earth I was doing!  This was a LONG bloody drive and I had nobody
to keep me awake or spell me off.  I also had next to nothing of a radio,
no CD player (that I knew of, it was in the back of my seat!) and the DVD
player with all the mp3 cds were also back at the in-laws.  :P  The POS
radio did manage to pickup country or oldies most of the way down.  I never
changed the station, it would just drift from station to station with the
frequency not matching what was indicated.  Kind of strange, oldies and
country was all it'd get!  On the way back it got stuck on some classical
station no matter where I tuned so I gave up then found the CD and tape
adapter. :)
  About 6 hours later I was meeting Dave Barbieri.  I followed him to a motel
where we stayed up and talked until about 1:00 or some stupid hour!  He
came back in the AM and we went for breakfast.  Of course more talk of
VW's and diesels!  He showed me around to the local dealer and VW
private specialty shop.  They have ALL the equipment there!  :)  Don't
ask me where anything was.  We wandered all over different roads to
different towns each time until I was thoroughly confused!  The next
day we visited the local injector pump repair facility where we visited
with them for nearly 2 hours!  Learned a few things.  :)  After that we
headed for another dealer and picked up a gasket for the Passat.  I
had a slight exhaust leak between the EGR and the EGR cooler.
Replacing it did seem to help some so the car did run better on the
return trip but nothing drastic.  No real mileage improvement, which
was suffering from the speeds we were doing.
  About 2:00 and I was on my way back to Dallas.  Hit a MAJOR rain
storm which traffic managed to keep doing 70 to 80 mph through.  It
was actually much easier to see than doing about 50mph!  A few
phone calls and I was set to meet Hayden and Shalyn at an exit
on the way.  Problem was the meeting place was at a different exit!  ;-)
It all worked out and we visited there too long again.  ;-)  This group
can sure visit when you're talking VW diesels!  Then I was off again
at a steady 85 arriving back in northern OK at about 11:30 only to
get up in the AM and start out back home.
  Instead of coming home across TX, AZ and up through CA and OR, we
doubled back.  It was a couple days shorter and Pat wanted to spend
the time with her parents.  That's why I went to TX by myself.
  All in all the Passat ran flawlessly.  Mileage was mostly 40 with a
45 across WY and about 41 to 42 some of the way home.  We drove
mostly 75 ish down and a fair bit of 80 on the way home.  Whoever
thought we needed slow speed limits never drove across a few states!
80 to 90 would be a good speed for the intestates!  Not once was there
a complaint about leg room from the two teenagers in the backseat.  :)
Handling was great.  The Michelin Alpins did great on the snow and ice
with just the usual hopping about as you went from dry to compact snow.
Even through several inches of slush I was able to hold about 65 in order to
pass on the Blue Mountains.  You don't want to follow ANYBODY there!
They GRAVEL the highway for winter traction.  Ain't no sand, it's like the
stuff they use to resurface the road!
  I finally got the Rabbit nearly cleaned out!  It still had antifreeze int
the
carpet from the leaking connections so I flushed and flushed then vac'd
it out.  I've finally gotten most of the "crap" out and put or thrown away.
Then I did a water pump on the mini van.  What a pain.  Today was a
good one though.  :)  I got the bolts from Nate, in the mail, for the Jetta
turbo so I got them in.  THAT car's now done and drivable!  YAY!  I got
the parking brake lever back in Pat's van (after a couple years) so IT'S
done!  We tried getting some work done on the Dasher too but it looks
like the gummed up linkage and gearbox took their toll on the wiper
motor.  :(  At least they're freed up and ready for a good used motor!
  We left with only my work van and Rabbit running and now I've added
2 more to the list of RUNNING vehicles!  Nice feeling!  :)
  Sorry to ramble so much.
    Loren