I will post the chapters here as I write them for your enjoyment and comments. I will write the story, not in chronological order, but in the best style that suits me and my writing - so be prepared to bounce a bit along our journey as I reflect from time to time.
Enjoy.
One
95 days on the road
I looked over at my
wife, (Tracey) admittedly a bit of panic in my eyes, as I yelled over the noise, “Do you
know what you gotta do?”
“No” she shot back,
equaling panicked with just a hint of whimsy in her forced smile.
We were heading for
Cape Breton Island, the enchanted land of long-forgotten Gallic and mystical
fiddlers. We had stopped along the way because the forty-year-old carburetors
on our VW Bus were inching along their last legs and needed some tweaking from,
what the locals called, “the bus
whisperer”.
We had followed one
of these locals out into the pretty countryside of Canada’s eastern shores.
Nova Scotia was one of the friendliest areas we had the privilege of
discovering on our odyssey.
We pulled off the
highway and up a short dirt driveway, and quickly noticed no room in the inn,
for the bus whisperers garage door was open and another VW bus was being tended
to. That was always a good sign. If there were other vehicles present odds are
the mechanic in residence knew his stuff. It’s like driving up to a restaurant
and seeing a parking lot full. Quite likely the bellies inside were full and
happy too.
The elderly mechanic
took the time out to retune our dual carburetors, carefully inserting his head
over the engine and turning his little screwdriver a bit at a time. Ever
listening. Totally concentrating.
But our local tour guide (a young man who befriended us in an instant due to our bus he spotted in a parking lot a few days earlier) was a chatty fellow and had an endless barrage
of comments, questions and stories to share, a regular machine gun of dialogue,
until the screwdriver popped out of the engine compartment to give a loud
“Shhh”.
Finishing up the
mechanic clipped the lids back on top of our carburetors and smiled. A job well
done. He informed us that he was hosting a VW show on Cape Breton Island in the
historic town of Iona. We thanked him for his services, and offered to pay, but
were sternly refused. We had heard about the show on the island and were going
to take part, as a central focus of our trip to Cape Breton.
So it was, as we
were driving the isolated highway through northern Nova Scotia, on our way from
the bus whisperer that we came upon a truck and horse trailer going
particularly slowly. We both were coming up to a hill and I realized that for
the first time in the four months that we have been on our road trip, that we
could possibly pass someone. Imagine the thrill of being able to pass another
vehicle when you’re driving a forty-year-old VW bus. This does not happen every
day, I assure you. And so it was, as I pressed down on the accelerator that the
pedal fell to the floor. Yes, it fell to the floor of the bus and the engine
began running at full throttle. I didn’t know what happened! All I knew is that
the gas pedal was stuck on the floor of the bus and the engine was revved wide
open as we raced uphill. My mind raced almost as fast as my pulse, as I
envisioned the accelerator cable running under our bus to the engine
compartment and then to linkages between our two carburetors. Something back
there was stuck!
Now as you calmly
read this you’ll of course know exactly what to do. But believe me, when your
racing up a hill in full acceleration in a vehicle never meant to be in full
acceleration you stop thinking clearly. Your thinking that going uphill is fine, but there is a
downside to the other side of this mountain and you need to stop this run away
train. Brother, I was panicked. I hollered over the noise of the screaming
engine to my wife, “I am going to have to slam the brakes on at the top of this
mountain, your going to have to jump out, run to the back of the bus, lift the
engine door, reach in there and lift the connecting bar between the
carburetors…” (I could see it in my mind that this bar had something to do with
it)… “Do you know what you have to do?”
“No” she screamed.
Reaching the top of
the hill, I swing the bus off the road and pressing down with all my might I
hold the brake pedal to the floor. The engine whining for all she is worth as
my wife jets out of her side, running to the back of the bus, lifting the
engine lid, just as I recall the simplest thing to do.
Turn the key.
I reach up and turned off the motor. We went from full RPM to a dead stop in a milli-second. The two
massive backfires were like shotgun blasts in this serene countryside. My wife
jumped back ten feet, the look of shock and terror on her face.
Now there was
silence on this isolated stretch of road. Silence, except for the sound of a
truck and horse trailer that passing us by, victoriously moving on.
I walk to the back
of the bus where my wife is pointing out the splattering of oil on the inside
walls of the tires. I look around inside the engine compartment, blind to why
my pedal behaved so rudely. So here we are, stuck on a mountaintop on Canada’s
east coast, probably a hundred miles or more from the nearest garage. My wife is
standing on her seat now, stretching her arm as high as it will go to try and
get at least one bar to show up on the cell phone. No service. No way to call
CAA. Extended coverage and free towing won’t help if we can’t make the call.
Perhaps it was only two or three minutes on the side of the road, in the middle of nowhere, I
don’t think it was more than that, when a VW Jetta pulls over just in front of
us. A man jumps out of his car and hollers over to us, “I’m a VW mechanic, what
do you need?”
Seriously?!
He quickly saw the obstruction and had us running with no harm to the motor in just a couple of minutes!
He quickly saw the obstruction and had us running with no harm to the motor in just a couple of minutes!
My friend and
reader, that is just how it has been for us as we have now been over two years
living in a VW bus and following our hearts and the voice of God from town to
town all over North America.
This book will make
an account of our travels and highlight many of our adventures as we have
journeyed from “Fear to Faith”.
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