My Waterfest Story - long, even for me.....

[roccit_53 at scirocco.cs.uoguelph.ca (C Boyko)]

Waterfest and I have a long history of disaster. I'll divide this up, you
can delete the next ones if you like....but you may want to read on...

Friday: My son Adam and his girlfriend Paula rolled out at 5 am after
we?d all had minimal sleep, it had been hot and humid. We were planning
to take four cars, but had decided to leave the Cabby home. Adam?s 87
Jetta turbo diesel (on air bags/ sparkly paint, etc) had sheared a wheel
stud and blown a brake line in the week before the trip, that had been
fixed, so it was good to go. Denny and I rolled out at 7 am with the 87 16V
and the 99 NewBeetle, both of which had seen lots of road time and had been
prepped for the trip (including a last minute replacement of the starter
bolt the 16V decided she no longer needed, she?s into ?self
lightening? this year). 5 minutes out, we got a call from Adam. He was
getting  towed to a Walmart, and needed a battery and a fuel filter. Two
Canadian Tires later, we were "provisioned up" and met him in Batavia. It
had taken Adam 2 hours to get there, it took us four and a half.  He and
Paula had set up a nice encampment in an abandoned corner of the parking
lot, and he quickly installed the parts and tested it out, it had been
stalling on bumps and hard turns.  It seemed fine, but by now the nice
Walmart greeter had notified the local authorities, and no amount of
explaining the situation would change his mind, he was a real jerk. He had
the manager, and a few other Walmartians to help him deal with scary me. I
was in ?pissed off mother? mode, a force to be reckoned with no doubt.
The car seemed fine so we headed out before the cops got there.

About 200 miles down the road (including the obligatory rain), the Jetta
decided to shut itself off, several times. We hit the nearest exit, camped
out in an abandoned parking lot for a while to let it cool down, then
figured we should check out safe havens. Adam was all set to drive it
towards Waterfest till it really died, but I pointed out that an injection
pump (Adam's most likely suspect) was going to be hard to locate and
impossible to install without the tools to time it, so adding miles to the
potentially expensive  tow likely wasn?t best. (I?d also suggested that
it sounded like an electrical issue, but what do I know?)  He wanted it in
an impound, and that would add to the expense, so we headed for the local
VW dealer to see what they had to offer. They were closed, so the car ended
up in the Chev dealership next door for the weekend. We repacked three cars
into two, including the two extra people, and headed for Jersey. We?d
changed hotels at the last minute, so we ?cruised? around a ?really
nice area? where ornamental iron was more than just a fashion statement,
and I saw one nice young man ?going through his purse?, much to the
dismay of it?s PO I?m sure. Yeah, not the best place to be with out of
state/country plates. Denny was leading the way, and we spent 45 minutes
trying to find the motel. The only bright spot was the number of railway
trellises, nice for 6000+ rpm blasts with the window down! At midnight we
finally located the hotel (not one of the ?official? ones), after 18.5
hours for Adam, 16.5 for us, normally an 8 hour trip. 

I heard the call of nature, and as I passed through the self opening lobby
doors, at that exact moment, the fire alarm went off.  Not wanting to die
with a full bladder, I forged on ahead, LMAO, and we hung around in the
parking lot for a while to watch the evacuation, and the pretty lights on
the fire trucks. Yep, I had arrived at Waterfest. 

Not wanting to waste valuable time, we headed out to find burnouts and
general nonsense, but none were to be found. We were assured by many that
such things were going on at ?the Canadian Embassy? (aka Hotel #1), but
since the Waterfest printout was locked safely in the bay of a Chevy
dealership many hours away, we had to wander about the other locked down
parking lots, admiring all the pretty police cars and VWs, and listening to
folklore about twin engined Sciroccos killing asphalt in some other place.
Sigh. 

That was Friday. I love Waterfest.

There will be more, delete if you wish. Please note that my two cars ran
beautifully for the whole trip down.....
Cathy