lucy's big adventure

[rubbachicken]

the water here is nice, 10:30 last night was a good time for a swim {i like the winter, when you can swim at night}

monday morning we set off for the keys
Pic from Key West......

Lucy is the one on the right

 

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on our way down the keys we found these guys, low light made picture taking difficult

at the airport in marathon, these were resting, between taking passengers up for 30 minute flights, $425 per person for 30 minutes in the air

B-24 liberator bomber

B-17 flying fortress

both are out doing air shows 300 days of the year, the rest they are at home in new smymer south of daytona

 

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we saw the sun rise every day

and watched it set

we were the key westys

 

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the skys were incredible, i wish we were still there

on the way north we stopped in at napels

we saw fish being caught

we ate some fish

and we saw something magical

we are in st petersburg florida headin north on monday

 

[rubbachicken]

it's been a while since i did an update, we came up the gulf coast.
we swam with manatees in crystal river

we found our selves being drawn back to daytona {i love it there}
we went and did some of the bike week stuff, met some very cool bikers
and saw some orsum bikes

 

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i watched some art in the making

we then went on the the 2012 lakeland show

saw some very nice VW's

 

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from there, back to the coast to clear water

next was to st pete's we found home by the beach

 

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we heard the indycar race there, too expensive to go and watch, but we did see a ferrari if i don't ever see another ferrari it'll be too soon

we watched t he locals eating

i never get tired of watching the sunrise

then there was a VW's on the pier at st petes, the last one on that pier
this square back was our favorite at the show

 

[rubbachicken]

this westy i think was the cheapest i've heard someone paying for a westy

i give you the $100 westy

it was a good show, not too big, and some very friendly people

lucy was getting very noisy in the wheel bearing dept so they were ALL replaced, 7k miles and they were done
we headed north again, hoping to finally make the long drive west, we managed as far as gainseville before it got too noisy again, no more than 500 miles and another set of shot wheel bearings, i thought i'd found a vanagon in deland fl, so we drove 100 miles to find that they'd not got one
so we limped back to daytona to replace new wheel bearings
at which point i gave up, we bought replacement hubs with bearings in them
we are now $400 in, on the rear wheel bearings
there's a noise now i hope it doesn't get worse, so the next time i see a vanagon in a u pick, and it has hubs on the rear, i'm going to get another set




now we are near pesacola, we met up with some nice folk from the "rare air" VW club at pensacola last saturday, and will meet them again this weekend, for and camp out and a caravan to a small show in mobile, alabama

 

[rubbachicken]

we finally left florida today, it was fun, and i am very sad to have left.
we first got there in the middle of december, we saw the blue angles in pensacola yesterday

and watching the C-130 throwing it's self at the runway :shock:

now to look forward to what fun we can find in alabama, we are meeting people from rare air emerald coast vw club for a camp out tomorrow.

then a cruise on to trip to the ship

 

[rubbachicken]

we made it out of florida

now we are on the long drive west

 

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we went wild in alabama, on a small camp out with new friends

we ate with the locals

new orleans was our next stop, it was overcast and rainy
we had fun though

 

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then we high tailed it to texas, to the texas classic show, that was FUN FUN FUN

we met some amazing people, had a fantastic fun, helped out a baja in distress

went on the cruise, over 160 VW's in a 30 mile cruise

i desperately had a want for an oval

 

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from the Texas classic show, we headed to carlsebad caverns NM, they were orsum

there were some weird looking guides there

from there we headed up to roswel NM, what a town that was

we found some other ailiens

 

[rubbachicken]

then we headed north to santa fe, lucy did not like the altitude, and the heat, so we trundled slowly :roll:
we made it to santa fe, after a bit of useful advice i adjusted lucy's timing, now she has a bit more go, and can climb the mountains

it was beautiful there, it didn't feel like a town, let alone a city of 200,000 +

we stayed there for a few days, then lucy decided she wanted to see if she could make it up into the rocky's
we're happy to report that she did very well
i added a sign on the back window to let people know lucy's a speed machine

then we set off on the climb to denver CO

even pushing hard up the interstate into the mountains she managed 23.44 mpg :shock: :shock:

this is where we have been so far

 

[rubbachicken]

so, we made the climb up from santa fe, NM to denver, what a climb that was, we were still having troubles with altitude, so only traveling when the air was cool, as soon as it got warm we struggled, we managed a trip best of 23.44 mpg though, denver was fantastic
we found ourselves stuck between a rock and a hard place

we made it up to red rocks, where they have gigs, luckily no one was playing, or we couldn't have gone up there

on our way out we met an amazing family, they gave us a camp spot for the night and let us handle some of their pets

 

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from there we went over the vale pass

then down into aspen, where we met tom, "fairweather" and his lovely wife, anne,, who spoiled us
they lent us the use of their workshop space to do a little tinkering to lucy in preparation for the heat
so i made a roof rack 1" square tubing and 3" x 1/" flat stock, we ended up with this

then for harbor freight's solar kit, seen here at the syncro solstice meet

i am happy with how it turned out, although it now takes both of us to lift the top, my next visit to a junk yard will find us the rams needed to lift it easily again

 

[rubbachicken]

since leaving syncro solstice, we stopped in on the arches, the colors of the rocks, the holes worn though rock was breath taking

from the arches national park we headed to bryce canyon 8 very different, equally stunning

we saw the solar eclipse, the ring of fire

 

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and we saw my first ever wolf

from there we went to see how a rubbachicken measured up to a californian condor, they're huge