[tcb] Indy 500 in a '79 Westy
- From: "Gary P. Alexander" <meanmachine41@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: tcb@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 28 May 2008 20:13:22 -0700 (PDT)
Well, I know some of you had a grand ol time at Buses
at the Springs, and certainly we would have been there
had our 3rd annual Road Trip to the Indianapolis 500,
not been on the same weekend. But, life is about
choices, right? So Jake, my 12 year old son and I
headed north Thursday evening after his 6th grade 60's
music choir performance, which was very cool by the
way.
Our mode for this 2200 mile journey, our '79 Westy.
This was our 3rd time to go in Westy, and so I pretty
much knew what we were getting into. Nonetheless, it's
a long journey in a soon to be 30 year old vw bus.
Of course gas prices are horribley outrageous, but we
all know that already. But it was/is a concern,
especially on an extended trip. We made good times to
my Uncle's house in Texarkana, about 6 hours,
traveling at night, it's cooler and very little wind,
a key to mileage in a Bus for sure and of course,
passenger comfort too. But when you're moving down the
highway in the slow lane, temps don't really matter
anyhow.
OK, so things were very dark around Uncle Jim's
neighborhood, like really dark. like no power. Well,
it seems about 4 hours earlier, they had 125mph winds
come thru and wipe out trees and everything in its
path. He had an oak tree, at least 12' in
circumference blown over, fortunately, it only hit the
road.
So, we slept in Westy that nite, which was fine by us.
Friday morning we got an early start for the remaining
750 miles to Indy. Actually, it went pretty well, we
even had a tailwind thru parts of Arkansas and
Missouri. Nice. One thing though, all the gas north of
MO. contains at least 10% ethanol. I think it was a
good idea on paper,this ethanol thing, but it sucks in
the real world. We lost almost 3mpg avg with that
junk, not to mention what kind of corrosion it's
causing in Westy's fuel injection system. I guess it
wasn't in there long enough to do too much damage, I
hope.
We arrived in Indy around 8 or 9pm Fri nite, I get
confused because they're now eastern time. Our camp
site is about 400 yards from the Speedway, if you ever
see TV shots of the track, they sometimes show this
huge water tower, "Racing Capital of the World" ,
well, we were camped right under it, along this little
creek, it was actually quite nice. Heck, our old buddy
"stubby" was there from last year!
The race and weekend were fantastic. We even made it
down into Gasoline Alley on Saturday and saw Danica
too! Jake got the autographs of the front row drivers
including the winning driver, Scott Dixon!
Race day was quite incredible, 350,000 people, 33 Indy
cars and Jim Nabors singing, "Back home again in
Indiana"!
After the race, we headed south, and arrived back in
Round Rock late Monday nite. Westy ran absolutely
flawlessly, no issues at all, maybe used about 8 ozs
of oil, incredible little machine. Sleeping, eating,
riding, playing cards, Westy is the best!
Here are a few particulars, I amuse myself, which is
rather easy to do I must say, figuring mileage and avg
speed and such.
Total Miles: 2153
total fuel used, 140 gallons
total fuel stops: 14
fuel costs: $541
avg mpg: 15.4
All in all, it was a great great time, I will say,
that there is absolutely no better feeling in this
world for me, than to be out on the road in my Bus,
add in the fact my son is cruising along with me and
we're heading to the greatest sporting event on the
planet, well, it's the best.
Thanks,
Gary
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