Those pesky inaccurate gas gauges

I've ran out of gas before with lil blue. But with out much issue, as either I was close to home or was near a gas station and able to get off the road. I know enough to put gas in the tank before the needle hits 1/4 tank, because there is no 1/4 tank - she be dry. The first time we discovered how inaccurate the gauge was, we were in construction on the Red Deer River Bridge. Lead car on a single lane, down from 4 lanes so you can picture the bottleneck. Just as we were half way across the bridge, lil blue stalled... No warning gasp, no shake or shudder, just full of EMPTY. Now with all the luck in the world, there was enough momentum to get us across the bridge and over to a parking lot. Gas station just a block away, could this have worked out any better?? I think no.
So, note to self, 1/4 really means empty. That's cool, easy to remember, just keep your eye on the gauge and fill it up right? Wrong.

Groat Road - Edmonton Alberta. One of the coolest, windiest, narrowest roads in all of the city. This little trail of nightmare winds through the river valley and connects to St Albert Trail, so a very busy piece of infrastructure. If there is one road you don't want to break down on, its the Groat.

There's not much for shoulders, a few emergency pull outs if you can get to them, and for most people, there is no resisting the urge to speed as you wind your way through the river valley.
To my defense, I am not the driver, insert my significant other to this comedy of errors.
"Jode, there's something wrong with your van!" he exclaims as we instantly stall on the first curve. Panic sets in, we are about to die. Let the expletives fly, because we are dead in the middle of the road with no hope of getting out of the way. Cars are screeching, buses are careening to the edge of the guard rail and we are freaking out! No one is going to stop, how the hell are we going to get out of this mess? Hubbie limps the van over to the side, using the starter to advance the engine and literally hop forward up onto the curb. For what it was worth, it worked, getting us out of the way mostly, and giving us a chance to bail out of the van and call for help.
Now to get gas... 50 minutes 5 litres and $50 bucks later. We are back on the road, well sort of. All that hopping using the starter has knocked the timing right out. Van won't stay running, barely fires at best, burping and farting all the way out of the river valley. I am ballistic at this point. Get me the hell home!!!
We make the 2 hour journey home in silence, stressed to the max and wondering how much its going to cost to get this thing running tip top again. My blessing is my very mechanically inclined husband, who within not time had it purring like a kitten again. Did we fix the gauge? Nope. Did we learn our lesson? I sure hope so? I've got the hunt on for a spanky metal Jerry can this season. So this year, when you see me out of gas on the side of the road, stop in and say hi!

Taking "girls weekend" to a whole new level. Maybe the basement level...

In retrospect, there should have been more photos... But for what it's worth, there were some polariods passed around that more than made up for the lack of digital photos.
Here it is, August and time to celebrate Nini's birthday. Of course I offer to take all of us to the city in the van. And why not, the weather is gorgeous, it seats 6 plus all our crap, and we are set to go. It's like watching Romey and Michelle's highschool reunion, when they are just setting out.. lots of "woo hoo" and high fives. Tunes are cranking and we are having a blast. Nini is killing herself laughing at how many people are passing us and taking pics with the camera phones, or throwing out the peace sign. I take it all in stride, but she is just killing me, cause she's so damn funny, her laugh is infectious.
First stop - West Edmonton Mall. We split up, maximizing our purchasing power. When we finally get back together, and Nini tells me about some friends she ran into, who said they saw us on the highway (oblivious it was actually us) but remembered seeing the van. Too funny.

Armed with new shoes the girls head out. To the Union - We are dancing... until I have a "wardrobe malfunction" nothing serious, but it puts an end to me jumping around on the dance floor. Just as well, it's amateur wet T shirt night. Woo Hoo!!! It was pretty bad, but gave us a laugh. The poor bastard that was dressed up as an old woman for his stag looked like he was pretty happy to those girls that night, or at least something taking the focus off his polyester dress.
Janelle and I have blistered feet, fucking new shoes anyway.... so we head back early, just as well, the meat market wasn't exactly working for us, and I felt like the oldest person there (maybe I was).

The rest of the story is best left untold, but as with most girl nights... liquor + new shoes +estrogen = catfight. We look back and laugh now, but trust me, no one was too amused at 5:00 a.m that night....
Denny's for breakfast just hours later, people are pretty quiet around the table, idle chit chat at best. Everyone is exhausted, but we are looking forward to a cool quiet ride home, which is exactly what we had. The van made it all better, in the end, we were all talking to each other and it still went down as one of the most memorable times we all had together.

Where are we going this weekend Mom?

As beautiful and lush as northern Alberta is, there is one major drawback, winter.... Its long and depressing and the kind of cold that just gets into your bones and won't go away. It makes us tough and stupid at the same time, running around in light shoes and hoodies when it gets minus 2!!! But the one silver lining above all others is how much the winters make us appreciate our summers - especially the weekends....

I can't think of a single weekend, rain or shine last year that we didn't go off somewhere with the van. It might not have been overly long trips, but they mattered just the same. Garage sales in St Albert were a frequent target. The game was called "deal maker of the day" - whoever made the best deal or got the best bargain was crowned king (or queen) deal maker of the day. Katie usually won, due to her cuteness, people would end up just giving her stuff for free. But Keenan took the crown one sunny day, with a next to new full sized air hockey table for 5 bucks. Now that was a deal, one problem tho' - how the hell do you get an air hockey table AND the kids (I think there might have been a dog in there too) all in the back of the van. Now the roof rack I had scored (see last blog) had not been installed at this point in time... so our options were limited, but after much repositioning and the borrowing of some power tools, we made it work, with the toothy smile of a 8 year old conquistador grinning from ear to ear. Awesome...
Whether it was trips to the city, friends, the lake, even just uptown for ice cream, everyone factored it into their weekend plans. Saturday mornings were greeted with Katie asking "where we goin in the hippie van today mom?" And I almost always had an answer.
This summer will undoubtedly bring more of the same. Subtle spontaneous adventures, never planned, never elaborate and always attracting a ton of attention as we get to our destinations... (I've lost count at how many folks are snapping shots with their camera phones while they pass us on the highway)

See you on the road kids!!!

The stories you hear from random folks.

Outside the Canadian Tire, hunting for a new gas cap, an older gentleman approached me. He was holding his key ring out as he walked towards me, with the round end of an old VW key still attached to the ring. Like some kind of secret society, we nodded to one another, acknowledging the kinship that only VW owners could understand. He went on his way, inside the store as I waited to see the spoils of my husbands parts hunt. Soon after the man returned, this time stopping to chat.
"You know, I once drove one of these things through Iran and Kuwait" he exclaimed! Shocked, I had to ask the details of the adventure, knowing in my generation this would never be a trip I would experience. As he went into detail of how the van came from the UK and was delivered to the coast of Kuwait at the Shuwaikh port. From there he traveled in desert heat through the Arabian Gulf through the edge of Iraq and into Iran. The whole trip took several weeks, and I can only imagine what could have been chronicled had social media existed at such a time.
"Never part with this van" were his words as he left me in sheer astonishment and wonder after hearing of this marvelous adventure.
I say he gave me some good advice!  

Hylo's Amazing Race, Hippie van style

Every spring our local community league gets together to host an event. Over the last two years they have organized an "amazing race" of sorts. Challenges mixed in with a scavenger hunt has players travelling well over 100 km racing around in search of elusive items. (the thigh master was funny)
So this year me and my crew decided we wanted to play, but we were going in STYLE. Hippie van style that is. So bright and early, decked out in our 1960's - 70's finest, we hit the road running. OK admittedly this isn't the fastest machine on the road, but you can be damn sure we were the funniest. Random peace signs were flying as we raced around town from challenge to challenge.

Tequila shots at 10:00 am after celebrating a record win at the bowling challenge set the pace for the rest of our day. As classic rock blasted from the speakers, we sang and chair danced our way back to the last checkpoint (as we had no heat and it was a dreary cold day, this was the only way to really stay warm).
Upon arrival, we discovered we had not completed the key task, printing off our pictures to prove we had actually completed the tasks!!! With less than 40 minutes to get the job done, and the nearest town over 20 minutes away, we were racing... White knuckles and nicotine made it all happen and we returned in time to complete our final task, scrap booking the very photos we had taken of our day, as a memento of our adventure.
We didn't win, not even close, but we had such a blast, you can bet your ass we're strategizing for next year!

Peace!!

Wishing and Waiting

In the throws of yet another snowy winter day, I look at my sad little van, hiding from the snow, and I pray for spring weather. I can't wait to be back on the road, doing what we do best, cruising the countryside. Last year was the year of the garage sale. Our bus was the ultimate garage sale weapon! We even found a roof rack for our van at a yard sale in St Albert! The couple were so ecstatic that we had pulled up in the van, they gave us the rack for free. But not before hauling out the photo album, to show us their 1970 campervan, which they had bought in Cold Lake Alberta. 4 kids, a dog and both parents drove from Edmonton south through BC and all the way down the coast to San Fransisco in 1971 as their summer vacation. You could tell by the emotion, the memories were as fresh and fond as ever!

Hurry up winter! Be over already!!!