Like most of our plans written in sand at low tide, our Westy Rescue underwent major revisions last week, when our good friend Earl decided to help us out. "I just want to go somewhere," he said in his endearing Texas twang.
We've got a towbar, he's got a big diesel truck. Put them together and voila! We can tow the ailing VW home instead of trying to fix it in Mazatlan. We'd been thinking of driving down, limping the VW to an RV park, setting up a tent and trying to repair it there. If it didn't rain or blow 40 knots. If we could stand the elevated heat and humidity (reports said it feels like 122 degrees right now). If the problem is head gaskets. If it's something else, or if the gasket replacement doesn't solve the whole problem, there was no backup plan. So towing it is a much better option.
This morning Capt and Earl loaded the stuff that our friend Nancy had stored for us in her guestroom back into the van. By now they're on their way back home to San Carlos with the Westy behind them. They might even be home before dark, since Earl's big truck makes very good time on the road.
Good friends...definitely at the top of my Gratitude List today.
7 comments:
I agree. Friends top my list everywhere I have lived.
We used to have a Westy as well. We had to sell her when we moved from Alaska. She was going to be our Mexico Vacation rig. We miss her all the time. We should have never given her up.
Estefán - ¡Claro que sí, amigo!
Chrissy y Keith - There are better vehicles out there, for less money. We have a friend who describes the Westy as "Hitler's Revenge." We've had nothing but problems with this one, and know countless other people who say the same. I don't understand why they have such good resale value, but I'm counting on selling it for a good price to make up for all the dinero we've wasted on it--TWO engine replacements, just for starters (no pun intended).
We had such good fortune with ours and considering we only paid $10K for her, we felt we had a pretty good rig. She was really underpowered for the high speeds needed in Arizona and we could not justify paying 5K to ship her down from Alaska. So, we pine away looking at some of the new B class units.
It was a comedy (or tragedy) of errors this morning when a movie being filmed in Centro closed a bunch of streets...I was worried that the narrow streets would be too narrow for Earl's truck once people got to doing business and parking on both sides...but all was well and off they went. Hopefully are having a good trip home.
C&K - It just goes to show there are lemons and peaches in this particular vehicle. We got a lemon, you got a peach. I did like the interior design of the Westy, with all its storage, the sink/stove arrangement, the comfortable bed. That's what made the engine troubles so exasperating.
Nancy - The Capt says it took them two hours to get out of Mazatlan. They made it home late last night. Thanks for the tip on the hotel! For the two of them it was less than $20US and it was a very comfortable room.
Wow, two hours to get out of town. When they close the malecon, all the other streets get very backed up, that's probably what happened. They were still filming this morning when we went by, too!
I'm glad the hotel worked out, Earl really wanted his truck in a garage to keep his tool box safe.
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