Hostel Detroit. Detroit, MI. January 17 2017.
Zach and I had planned to start gearing up to go on Sunday, but we were forced to write it off after having had a long last hurrah with friends in Toronto on Saturday night. "Monday we pack the van", we thought, "no big deal". And so Monday came around. The solar panel fell off. No big deal, Nat's dad has it covered. No big deal, tomorrow calls for freezing rain. We'll leave anyway! No. Big. Fucking. Deal.
And so, alas, we awoke this morning to dismal skies and the promise of relentless freezing rain. The weatherperson doesn't lie (mostly).
We decided to go anyway, and what a decision it was. Gigi was running smoothly for the first half hour, everything but the sky was peachy, and then we hit a bump in the road. But it wasn't a bump. It was what we have since found out is referred to as 'bucking'. Apparently a lot of vanagon owners experience this at least once in their parentship of these somewhat archaic but surprisingly efficient vehicles.
All in all, what should have been a four-hour drive took a whopping EIGHT hours. We stalled, we stopped, we started, we revved the engine and took off down skinny county highways just to run (away from) the risk of rain.
I would have loved to get this show on the road (so to speak - with photographs especially) but sometimes a startling start to a trip doesn't breed the greatest of take-home messages. We'll listen to our voicemail, and hope tomorrow will be different.
N