[Vwdiesel] long, long, long, long, long, long........trip

[dieseltdi at verizon.net]

Well groups, I just got back last night from an unintended long,  
long, long (well I think you get the picture) in the 98 Jetta TDI .   
I was supposed to follow my son for a few hundred miles to make sure  
his old 69 Chevy pickup would make it back to his base in Norfolk,  
Virginia.  Once I was sure the truck was going to run OK, I was  
supposed to turn around and come home (OK, so I expected the truck to  
break down somewhere so I  hedged my bets a bit by packing some  
clothes, just in case).  Sure enough, the truck conked out after 100  
miles with an unfixable (at least on Christmas day beside the  
highway) problem.  So, we left the truck at an east Texas gas station  
and headed east.  By 9:30 pm Central time (we left at 6 am) I had had  
enough driving so we stopped in Pell City, Alabama (just east of  
Birmingham).  The next day it was up at 6 am and off to Atlanta, GA,  
Greenville, SC,  Charlotte, Greensboro and Durham, NC and then into  
Virginia and on to Norfolk.  We arrived about 6:45 pm Eastern time  
and after a quick snack at Applebee's, I dropped him off at his boat  
on base.  I then turned around and drove back to Greensboro, NC (4  
hours), slept about 5 hours and the drove all the way back to Dallas/ 
Ft. Worth, Tx via Asheville, NC, Knoxville, Nashville and Memphis,  
Tenn, then on through Little Rock and Texarkana, Ark and finally  
arriving home at 11:30 pm.  Total driving time yesterday was 18 1/2  
hours.  Point of the story?  The Jetta did this amazing feat (almost  
2800 miles) with out skipping a beat while burning up 25 gallons of  
biodiesel, and biodiesel/diesel/veggie oil mixture and some pure  
dinodiesel on the way.  Only casualty of the trip (other than my sore  
butt) was the driver's side front rotor.  At some point in the trip,  
I developed a tremendous shaking when applying the brakes.  Turned  
out the rotor was warped.  Replaced that today and everything is  
fine.  It will probably take me 3 days to get over this drive.  Back  
when I was much younger, a drive like that would have been nothing,  
now at 48 everything gets stiff very fast.  Any way, just thought I  
would relate this uneventful trip.  BTW the car turned over 140300  
miles and used only about 1/2 quart of oil on the entire trip.  Hayden

Visit my website at:  http://mysite.verizon.net/resosxp8/mydieselpages/
Proud owner of:
2004 Passat TDI GLS, 2.0l, 8 valve, 134 HP, 247 lb/ft of torque  
(making 150 hp with Diesel Power Tuning Box), Blue Graphite,  
Anthracite leather interior, ABS, ESP.
1998 Jetta TDI (Wetterauer Chipset, 2 1/2" exhaust, K&N Filter,  140K 
+ miles, and running biodiesel)
1981 Rabbit Pickup -Awaiting a TDI engine swap with a 96 Passat 1Z  
engine.
And many, many, many VWs; from a 1946 Beetle (11 Beetles total), to  
Vans (5 - 3 splitties, 2 bay window), Rabbits (3), Karmen Ghia (1),  
Jettas (5), Passat (1), Dasher (1), New Beetle (1), and Rabbit  
Pickups (3) most now gone but not forgotten.
1982 Suzuki GS 650GL - resurected from a farm, now back on the road,  
Old school bike for an old school guy!