The Trip: Whale-INGS: traveling in a vintage VW
Whale-INGS
After a couple cooler nights, we finally figured out how to use the green-knobbed “sliders” on the dash. Knew they were for ventilation but thought they were off; not so. Slid them up and the major air flow stopped. We find that all the all flow can be noisy when trying to talk on the cell phone. So we have a routine of putting all windows up, turning off vents, and putting the “sliders” in the up position when someone needs to talk. The longer the person talks, the stuffier the inside of the Whale. Once the conversation stops, the reverse operations are quickly implemented. The Whale’s air flow is great; you can have or you can stop it.
Wish we had an indoor-outdoor thermometer to know how good we should feel about all the ventilations we have even without AC.
Every rattle, shimmy, or noise makes me sit up and take notice. I have to find the source and stop the noise. This drives the kids crazy – especially John who notes that vintage vehicles just have noise and rattles. Undaunted, I pursue the rattle and find the tin rack in the microwave is rattling around. The kids use my Australian bush hat as a buffer.
The foam bed is as hard as a rock, and while I like a hard bed, even this is too much for my current state of affairs. Folks mentioned a memory foam pad. After searching several stores I finally find one the right size – double/full bed. Even though it takes up a bit of space – we leave it fan-folded behind the seat and it is ready to go at night – it is worth every penny.
Every so often the front vent cap (trim cover for the front washer fluid resevoir… as a tribute to earlier VW washer systems which were powered by air from the spare tire, this one still requires that you pressurize it with an air pump instead of using an electric pump for the fluid.) falls off. No big deal except the first time is concerned John as thought the Whale was falling apart piece by piece.
Lift up the back seat and there is a huge storage area; and it is full. Every thing from our “food supply” to tools and emergency equipment. As John Moody suggested, Bill secured a nice big washer around the hole that the “hold ‘er up” peg fits into under the seat bottom to protect the surrounding area.
The space behind and under the front seats also is useful and we store a mixture of odd things there: the handles to the floor jack, books, flip flops, to-go mugs, octane booster (not yet needed), paper towels (for all those oil checks etc.), and Katherine’s miscellaneous goodies.
Between my “failing vision” and the diminished dash light available at night, reading instruments – the odometer in particular – requires a flashlight. Perhaps this can be improved.
The hidden “front” battery with the inverter and the multiple plug-thing that Bill installed has been invaluable. We have used it for the small fans, charging cell phones, and some computer work while driving.
There is a small table that pops up from the side of the cabinet. We have found its flat surface most useful for folks to sign our quilt.
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