3 A Beetle Crawls Across America

Well, today, Thursday, started off quite well. I showed up at Donsco VW at 11 a.m. and Joe was just lowering the bug on the lift. He had just finished installing the steering box. Apparently the part arrived early as promised, and Joe was a man of his word, and had also arrived early to install it. Every one was happy, and I bought some extra tune up parts for the road. Joe even threw in a free can of oil. I was finally starting my journey a day late just before noon. Joe remarked that it probably wasn't my destiny to have left the previous day. Whatever. I cruised over the Bay Bridge, then past Sacramento, up through Donner Pass, where the infamous Donner Party became stranded in 1846 on their way to California (before the gold rush), and were forced to resort to cannibalism to survive. Read the book "Ordeal by Hunger" for more. I cruised past Reno, NV, then onward on Highway 80 through desert valleys surrounded by a few snow capped peaks, occasional rain and a two rainbows. The bug's comfortable speed, after a few hours of experimenting, is 70 miles an hour ( unless, of course, it's going up a hill), and I was pretty impressed with the bug's performance in the climbs up the Sierra Nevadas to Reno. I even passed a car or two. So, as I was saying, all was going fine cruising through the Nevada desert valleys. The engine was running cool in light rain, and I was listening to Claudine Longet on the Ipod when all of a sudden, the engine stopped. I had passed the city of Winnimucca about 20 miles earlier and there was nothing but desolation and about an hour of daylight left as I coasted to the side of the road. My cell phone's constant search for service was not reassuring. I thought the fact that the engine just plain stopped all of a sudden was a good thing. (Unless, of course, it just seized. Then that's a bad thing.) I turned the key after I stopped, and the engine at least turned over; but wouldn't start, of course. I got out, and opened the back (where the engine is, if you're not familiar with old bugs), as trucks blew wind and light rain onto me. It was actually refreshing since it had been hot most of the day. Basic troubleshooting says that the problem can only be fuel or electricity. I saw that the clear fuel filter still had fuel in it, so that was good. I then pulled the distributor cap and verified that the points were sparking. I looked at the inside of the distributor cap, and the contacts were pretty black and corroded, so I replaced it with the cap I had bought that morning, replaced the plug and coil wires, and voila, the engine started up and purred like a kitten. (Better than before, I must say.) I don't know if it was the cap for sure because I didn't make verify the coil and plug wires were snug before I pulled it off, but, in any event, I was soon on my way and listening to Claudine singing "Love is Blue." In the back of my mind, while I was troubleshooting the engine, I had a blurry vision of spending a night in the car, then trying to get help the next morning with no sleep. I thought about Joe telling me it wasn't my destiny to have left the previous day, and I wondered if maybe I would have been in too much of a rush to have bought that distributor cap. Oh, well. Whatever. But now , here I am, at a Motel 8, with wifi, the weather channel and David Letterman.