Wednesday, 4 September 2013

Arrival in Seattle / Tacoma and a side trip to Kent

Well I made it to Washington and the bus performed great. I managed to power up most of the hills but going through from Merrit, BC to Hope, BC there are some long freaking hills.  So I geared down and chugged along.  Cruising along the open road with a nonfunctioning radio you have a lot of time to think. 

One of the things that floated through my mindas the hills and mountains whipped by was something someone asked me at the Camper-Jam this year.  "What's your Bus' name?".  No I had always refered to my bus as the Green Monster.  Not really nice but up until now strangely appropriate.  I think the old bus and I have turned a corner in our relationship.  It's not quite a loving realationship yet, but it's getting there.  I think I'm at the point where the bus deserves a proper name.  I was thinking in honour of her original colour I'd call her "Marigold".  Thoughts? 

I'm not going to change the name of the blog, but that's what I'm thinking anyway. 

So I rolled into Seattle on Wednesday afternoon without any issues then I hit the wall of traffic on I5 heading South.  Holy cow.  It took me a little over an hour to go 24 miles.  This is when 2 issues cropped up.  First the window crank came off in my hand, which is no big deal.  One screw and it's easily replaced.  The second however caused me a little concern.  My oil light kept coming on.  Flickering on, then off, then on again.  Damn it!

I didn't panic.  I figured if it came on and stayed on I'd be in trouble.  I made it to my friend's place down in Tacoma, relaxed for the night and looked online for the nearest VW aircooled guy.  The next morning I headed out for http://www.franklinsvwwerks.com .  As it turns out one of my wires was grounding and casusing the light to flicker on and off.  5 minutes later it was secure and with a new window crank in my hand I headed out to explore. 






As I headed back towards Tacoma I was thinking how lucky I was to travel all this way and the only thing that went wrong was a $5 window crank and a loose wire (now secured).  If only I knew,,,

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