#cactus trail

[vagabondvivant]

The Road So Far

Rosie's bum cylinder made her unregisterable in California, so back in December I bought a new van, a 1996 Ford Econoline E-150. Your basic "classic van." I loved it.

I proceeded to fully gut her of the mediocre build the previous owner had been living with. I could've kept the walls, but there was so much wasted space in there I knew it all had to go. I spent about a month fixing up her mechanicals (new brake system, thorough coolant system cleaning, gutted much of the wiring, the works) and then spent about six months building her out.

It was a long, laborious process, made even moreso by the fact that I was doing it solo. Certain tasks that would've taken barely an hour with a second set of hands wound up taking me entire days to get done. It also took a lot longer than it might've otherwise because I was determined to make the most of every square inch of space. So, for example, where most van builds would just put in flat walls to save time, I painstakingly fit the interior to the contours, saving space but costing time.

But I got it done in the end, and while it took a good four months longer than I had expected, the end result was something I'm incredibly happy with.

Spiro and I set out last Sunday (a week ago tomorrow) and slowly made our way down to SoCal, where we are currently. I'll have a bit more detail on our trip thus far (and more recent shots of the van) in future posts, but for now that's the basic summary of everything so far.

[chromet]

Nike X Travis Scott “Cactus Trail” campaign

[vagabondvivant]

An old, dear friend lives in Strasburg, Virginia, a tiny (pop 7000+) and absolutely quaint little town with an amazing river walk along the north fork of the Shenandoah. Of all the places Spiro and I stayed on our road trips, Strasburg offered the best walks by far.

[vagabondvivant]

Slowly digging my way out of my massive photo backlog. Here's one from Brantley Lake in New Mexico.

[vagabondvivant]

Currently somewhere in West Virginia, camped out across the road from the mechanic who will hopefully cure Rocinante's ails in the morning. In the meantime, here are some pics from White Sands National Park that I had completely forgotten to share.

We didn't get to explore much, as it was unbearably hot and Spiro, a cold weather dog, was not happy. That said, there isn't all that much variety to be had at White Sands. It's all, well, white sand.

It would've been nice to check out the salt flats, but they're really at their best if you manage to catch them after a recent rainfall, which I don't think they'd had for a while.

[vagabondvivant]

It has been A Day.

I'm too drained to talk about any of it anymore, so I hope you'll excuse me if I just recount the story through TikTok videos.

So as I mentioned previously, my day started off with the van breaking down on the side of the highway.

Then, while walking around and waiting for them to fix the van, a lost dog followed us home.

What followed was a day of harriedly trying to find the dog a shelter (except all were closed) or someone to look after him (also a bust). But thankfully we were able to eventually reunite him with his human.

Then I got my van back (at 6pm, just as they were closing), told it was basically fine and the pesky little scraping noise I was hearing wasn't that big a deal. So I drove it, and after fifteen minutes the scraping heated everything up so much that the tire blew. Thankfully, I'd pulled into a rest area by then, or it could've been really bad.

And. Yeah. That was just part of my day. There was so much more but I'm too beat to even think straight.

[vagabondvivant]

The hits keep coming

Sitting on the side of the highway in The Middle of Nowhere, Kentucky, waiting for the tow truck to arrive.

I'm not sure what happened, exactly. One minute it's driving fine, the next it feels weird and when I pull off onto the shoulder, I see smoke billowing out from the rear right wheel. There was so much that at first I thought it was the exhaust, until I remembered that the exhaust pipe was a good foot behind the wheel.

It's not the tire, as the tire wasn't particularly hot, so I have to assume the brake seized or something. Not the world's most complicated issue to diagnose and repair, though it being Saturday in the The Middle of Nowhere, Kentucky, what few mechanic shops are actually open will be closing soon, not to reopen until Monday. I was able to find a Firestone that can take me, though, so now it's just a matter of waiting for the tow to arrive.

And here I thought the radiator and water pump replacement would be the last of my major issues. Silly me.

[vagabondvivant]

I suppose it was a matter of time before I got hit with my first major on-the-road repair. 

Though things considered, $800 is a fair amount less than some of the horror stories I've heard from other van folk, especially those also traveling in older vans. That $800 was also a lot better than the $2200 Midas quoted me. It pays to buy your parts directly and just find someone to install them.

Though, (relatively) cheap as that $800 was, it still stings to know it was the pound of cure that could've been avoided with a $100 ounce of prevention by getting the coolant flushed when the guy at Firestone pointed out how much rust was in there.

But I'd planned to do it myself. And had everything I needed to do the job at home -- everything except time. I was in a million places at once, focused on everything and nothing at the same time, and it just got away from me. So I told myself it would keep for the time being.

It didn't. And by the time I did get it somewhere to be flushed, they told me I had to replace the radiator and water pump.

So now I'm $800 lighter and four days behind on my timetable (the first two thanks to some asshole that strung me along and then ghosted me), which pretty much torpedoed my plans to hang out with an old, good friend whose schedule couldn't accommodate my changes.

But at least I have a new radiator and pump (as well as thermostat and serpentine belt), I suppose. And if this is the only unexpected major repair I encounter, I'll consider it a win. God knows there are a lot of worse, more expensive fixes that can't be handled in your driveway by a mobile mechanic.