We're writing from Kyle Wade's computer here in Santa Cruz, having 
completed the first few days
of our cross-country journey from Ca. to Pa.  To recap, I bought an 
83-1/2 Westy in Frisco (sight
unseen), had the owner drop it off with Kyle at Volks Cafe, and had Kyle 
do all neccessary
repairs & store it for several months until just now, when my wife and I 
flew here from Pa. to
begin a 3-1/2 week cross-country journey home.  (The reason for this 
arrangement was that my wife
could only get about 3 weeks off from work, and we felt that this was 
not enough time to travel
both ways cross country without rushing, but if we could fly one way and 
drive one way we'd have
enough time.)

The NAWWAL tag on the header is by suggestion of a list member, and is 
based on the bumper
sticker that now adorns the rear of the camper, "Not All Who Wander Are 
Lost" (a Tolkien quote).

We arrived on Friday, and Kyle met us at the airport in what is to be 
our rolling home for the
next month.  The Vanagon was pretty much what we expected.  It is 
brush-painted, and apparantly
went into a ditch sometime early in its life (several small dents and 
scrapes across the drivers
side), but mechanically is in excellent shape, with only 90k miles, new 
heads, good brakes,
exhaust, front-end, etc.  The only thing wrong with it was a minor grind 
between 2nd and 3rd,
which proved to be a problem, but more on that later.

Then it was back to Volks Cafe for a tour of the very impressive 
facilities, after which we left
for San Francisco.  Spent two days in the city (highly recommend the 
walking tour through S.F.
outlined in the AAA tour book). Then a day in Wine Country, with a stop 
at a very beautiful
Redwoods preserve. It is very humbling to be standing before a tree that 
has been growing in that
spot since the year 800.  Couldn't find a campsite anywhere due to the 
holiday weekend (which we
expected), but nobody hassled us for pulling off on the side of the road 
and spending the night.
(It was quite a relief to find a state campground with showers (!) on 
Monday - after all, a bus
is a very confined space!)

The plan today was to spend the day in Santa Cruz on the way down the 
coast to Los Angeles, but
the Vanagon had other ideas.  Remember the grinding transaxle I 
mentioned above?  Well, it
decided to start sticking in 4th gear and reverse (refusing to leave 
those gears without a
fight).  Fortunately, we were not too far from Santa Cruz, and coaxed 
the van back there, where
Kyle put in a good used transaxle that solved both the sticking and the 
aforementioned grinding.
Now we plan to resume our trip to L.A. tomorrow, and from there to Vegas 
and the Grand Canyon.
Since the transaxle was the only thing that was less than perfect at the 
outset, and it has now
been replaced, we have high hopes for an uneventful (Volkswagen-wise) 
trip the rest of the way.

If we make it to another list member's home later in out trip, I'll post 
a follow up then.

Regards,
Ron Salmon