725 miles, 18 gallons of gas, 1 quart of oil and 4 days of go cart racing was what happened this week. I decided a couple months ago that I was going to drive the bug down to St. George for my works Mini Indy charity race. I go every year and volunteer on the tech team. I will post more about the mini indy at another time. This posting is just about the trip down and back in the bug.
I had a buddy bum a ride down there and then his family was going to meet him in St. George a little while later. I didn't really want to drive I-15 all the way there and my buddy lives in Tooele so I decided to go out to Tooele and go the back way. We went through Vernon, Delta, Milford, Minersville, and we came out at Cedar City. I then hopped on to I-15 and went to St. George. I liked this route so much that I went home the same way.
It takes some planning to drive over 700 miles in a 42 year old bug. I packed the trunk with spare seals, gaskets, oil, coil, distributor, gas line, lots of electrical supplies, timing light, dwell meter, hydraulic jack, and lots and lots of tools. The way I looked at it, if I planned for every possible problem, then I wouldn't have any problems. There is logic to my thinking! It also added more weight which in turn lowered the bug even more and just made it look that much cooler.
The bug performed flawlessly. I couldn't of been happier. It ran down the road straight as an arrow, the engine purred like a kitten, It started without any problems and hauled lots of people all over St. George. I don't know why the one person with the oldest and by far the smallest car always ends up driving with the most people in it. It must be because it was the coolest car down there. Ha Ha. The only thing that was hard on the bug was the cattle guards all along the way. The ones I slowed down for, were smooth, and of course the ones that I didn't slow down for, well, lets just say that the dukes of hazzard have nothing on us. Here are some of the photos from this week.
Here is the front trunk. It has all the parts and oil and stuff.
Here is looking in the back window. I have a jack and tools.
And here is a view from the side window. You can see the service manual in the window. (Just in case).
We are in St. George here. It was nice and sunny the first couple of days we were there.
All loaded up and making runs from the Dixie Center up to the old St. George Airport. We had to load and unload 37 go carts so they were ready for race day.
Here are a couple buddies ready to make sure no one cheats on race day.
This picture is going down in history. This is the end of the runway at the old St. George airport. If you look closely you can see the numbers of the runway. They are x'd out for safety reasons. You can see it is raining pretty good and very windy. The race was canceled at this point so I decided to take the bug out for a spin down the runway. I actually am racing my buddy in his Chevy Aveo. I thought I might stand a chance beating an Aveo.
Here we are lined up ready to race. It was so windy you can see my buddy almost taking off for flight.
Well, as you can see, I am losing to the aveo. Sorry to say, it didn't get much better. He pulled away from me the whole time. I guess that's what happens when the guy your racing has 40 horses on you. I personally think that it was just too much wind and the aveo had the aerodynamic advantage on the bug.
Well, It's Saturday and I am headed home. Just Ed and me this time. I did bring lots of music and talk tapes on my MP3 player. I hit all kinds of weather. Cedar City brought snow, I also hit wind, rain and some spots of sun.
Couldn't resist a picture here. I almost got high centered getting back on the road after this picture.
Here is another shot. I checked the road on this one so I didn't drag bottom getting out.
Trains are so cool. There are lots of them around Milford.
Here is the local Lions Club Lodge? I guess. It is an old train car. Very Cool! If I could get one of those home for an office in my yard I probably would.
After a few hours of driving you get bored so I looked for some cool pictures to take. I took this on as I was driving about 70 MPH. The bug is so low you don't have to reach out the window very far to get close to the ground.
If you blow up this picture and look way out you can see a bunch of windmill power generators. There are probably 50 or more of them in this area. They are huge up close and most were spinning pretty fast.
Couldn't resist a picture of the VW emblem and the road going by.
This picture shows the long road ahead and the long road already traveled in the mirror.
This is Old Fort Deseret. At least what remains of it. It was built from mud and straw and was 10 feet tall. It protected the settlers from hostile Indians at the time. This was definitely a fun trip and one I would love to take again. Maybe next year. We will see.
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