On the Road with Adie

Taking a break (continued)

St. Bob going above and beyond to get us back on the road.

Not only did the drums not show up at Napa, but the cylinders promptly proved to be absolute shit. We put them in place and on the first pump of the brake these cylinders squirted more fluid out than if shot pressurized liquid into a colander. Bob, ever patient and good-natured, took out each cylinder and inspected them. “These really are shit,” he said matter-of-factly. Indeed; once we took the plungers out of the cylinders we found that they had no seat washers, no contour that might stop liquid from passing between the parts and do literally the only thing they are designed to do. It’s as if these Napa parts were manufactured on Opposite Day.

Taking a brake

Somewhere halfway between Memphis and Nashville, the bus began making a grinding noise when I hit the brakes. Ever since the second engine breakdown I have been paranoid about any little thing that goes wrong. There’s only a handful of things that make a dry rubbing sound when you hit the brakes and at the top of the list are the rear drum brakes. (My bus has disc in the front, drums in the back.) We called around Nashville and found one VW shop that was willing to take a look and see what they could do.

“We won’t know until we get the drum off,” the mechanic said.

Podcast: Steve

We caught up with Steve Roberts, who owns the old army surplus store in Jasper, Ontario. It’s an old white cider block building that looks fairly nondescript from the outside. But once you step inside, you realize it is a sprawling, wild place. We followed Steve from room to room—sometimes hidden room to hidden room—in this old surplus store and around each corner there’s another VW-lover surprise.

Playlist: Tennessee (again)

Originally we had planned to go in and out of Tennessee more times than any other state. (It’s wicked wide, that state.) But, the best laid plans and all that jazz. Turns out, it will be only this second pass before we head south. So here’s a song dump of some of the best that our most musical state has to offer.

Memphis

We barreled into Tennessee from the west and decided to make our way toward Nashville. Our latest breakdown episode had us circumventing some interviews and like a reporter tracking down a good story, we just can’t resist. Besides, there’s an awesome wine shop located just south of Nashville we wanted to visit. But first we stopped in Memphis.

Memphis is filled to the brim with history. Blues. Underground crime. But, most importantly, Civil Rights.

Johnny Cash boyhood home

It’s pretty easy to see why Johnny Cash decided to leave this place. Man, it is desolate and depressing. We will return to west Arkansas later this trip if all goes as planned.

Missouri in review

Way back in the early days of our trip, we stayed in Lubec, Maine. We met a mother and son there who were visiting from St. Louis. They invited us to visit them when we passed through Missouri. Well, after our month of detours and alternate plans, we had the chance to pass through The Gateway to the West and visit them. We had an awesome time.

Podcast: Brad and Susie

Happy Valentine’s Day! We were traveling through Canada when we were able to catch up with Susan and her husband, Brad, as well as their dinner guest, Linda, at their cottage on the shores of Lake Pemichangan in Quebec. We spent the day doing a little work on their Eurovan and ended the day sitting around the table eating fish that Brad caught himself and drinking some wonderful red wine. Outside it was cold and rainy, but there in the lakeside home everything was cozy.

Playlist: Missouri

Back on the road and adding to our ever expanding playlist of songs that mention states and the places within states. As we head toward the Gateway to the West, we have a few more songs to add:

On the Road Again

It feels like a lifetime now since we have been on the road doing the thing we love to do. To recap: we broke down in Florida, stayed with Blacky (the patron saint of broke down bus folks), trailered to Minnesota where the engine was rebuilt. I played DJ at Happy Productions and have begun to re-examine what I want to do after I get off the road. We trucked back toward Ohio, so our trusted hometown mechanic, Norm, could do the final break-in process and bless the bus (Norm is patron saint of bus break-ins apparently). Then we had a major (for Ohio anyway) ice storm that shut us in for a few days. All in all, we’ve been not-in-the-bus for three weeks and we feel a bit homesick. Today, we fix that.