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

[jdbubb at verizon.net (Dan Bubb)]

That wasn't hardly long at all!
I want more!
Dan
curious if I missed anything at all by not going

>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "C Boyko" <roccit_53@scirocco.cs.uoguelph.ca>
> To: <scirocco-l@scirocco.org>
> Sent: Tuesday, July 19, 2005 12:41 AM
> Subject: My Waterfest Story - long, even for me.....
>
>
> 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