Van Problems

I think I have an idea of how I want to run this blog, that I will use it to post small updates here and there of what were are doing and what we have seen. I know I will have to create a schedule for myself, what days I post about what etc. hopefully I can stick with it...

Anyway we are in Salt Lake city right now. Ever since the cold Colorado our lovely Vandy has been making some ear bleeding noises every time we start her. Kinda makes it challenging to sneak out of a campsite at 6 in the morning. Vandy needs some extra time to warm up, so about 3 minutes after this horrendous sound has been squealing nonstop she starts to purr again. We decided enough was enough this afternoon after we hung out in a little cafe down town. We headed to a little auto shop here in Salt Lake to see if they can help us hush Vandy.

Going into it, I assumed it was an issue with the belts, although this made no sense to me seeing how we just got them replaced before we left. A silly error with wrong belt size in Fairfield caused these little issues. With a 1989 Vanagon you kinda have to go into every mechanic shop knowing they will list 7-10 things you should get fixed in the near future. Otherwise you will be stuck on the side of the road, or burst into the flames. When they say these things like that, yea it can be scary but I tend to brush it over the shoulder and be an optimist. Maybe one day that will blow up in my face, fingers crossed am I right!!!

Anyway, now we have to chill in Salt Lake for another day and hope they can fix the problems in just one day so we can be off to Seattle by Sunday. That is about 840 miles and about a 3 day travel for us. I was told I need to eat potatoes in Idaho so I am looking forward to that!!! Although our local five guys gets their potatoes from Idaho (ya know when you walk in and their is that sign posted up stating where the potatoes are from that day), so honestly, might not be that amuses while I am their. Who knows though? I don’t! It’s funny because I have talked about wanting to move to Idaho for years now, well I tell my Dad this a lot. He asks why every time and I say “For the potatoes of course” or something along these lines… I honestly don’t remember. Hopefully this image I have of the glorious Idaho matches up to the real deal. Otherwise I think I will be heart broken.

Wow I just realized how easy it is for me to get on tangents of random nonsense. I was about to write that I would love to be back in the hot springs we chilled in but I guess I started to talk about my random love for Idaho instead…

Soooo about this hot springs!!! We finally went to one! We have looked several up and planned to go but always chicken out. In Colorado we started a hike to one but we soon realized that this would be a very long hike. Spoiler Alert: we turned back around and never saw the hot springs. Anyway we drive out to this one and it is literally in the middle of a field. I figured it would take a hike to get to but boy was I wrong. The little dirt road goes straight up to it. It was a chilly day so the walk there was rough but walking back all wet to the car was even worse. We spent at least an hour in the hot springs and a man started talking to us, he’s from San Diego, not that anyone asked, that’s just the first thing I could remember about him. He was a very funny guy and said to call our dad everyday. That his daughter is also a traveler and he gets so nervous about her. We had a great conversation with him and he gave us a lot of recommendations, he even gave us his card (he builds longboards), saying if anything goes wrong we will always have a friends in California. I know you shouldn’t trust strangers and we haven’t really. But we are smart kids we know what information not to give out to people and how to stay safe.

​I think you have to see the best in people at times, that if we went this whole trip not talking to anyone, we would learn very little and we wouldn’t grow as much as an individual. Both my sister and I want to see more and meet new people. That every now and then you have to step outside of your comfort zone and just say hey to someone. Like in Trader Joes here in Utah (we were on the hunt for stocking up on dried mango), a guy with his wife and 2 kids (under age 5 a assumes) asked us if we were the ones living in the van. Asking if we were living in it long term/ where we were going. He said they were fellow van livers and go for a few months at a time. I could honestly list dozens of times that people have come up to us talking about a Westfalia they used to have or just living on the road in general. That each person that comes up to us shares the same love and passion for traveling as we do. That it is the new American dream. So maybe this is the new dream, no more white picket fences, and more of homes on wheels, never being stuck in one place forever.

Anyway to loop back to the beginning of this post, the van is hopefully getting fixed tomorrow, nothing major just a few belts and hoses that are being replaced. A big thanks to my Dad for picking up the phone every time we call and saying "What's wrong, you break down?" I am sorry father, I will call you soon with no problems, just me wanting to say hey to my old man.