Mot's blog

Long Trip Home

We grabbed bagels this morning and headed out out around 10. I wanted to get as close to home as possible before the sunset. So we jumped on the beltway headed for 95 North to Baltimore. We put chapter 102[?] of the DaVinci Code on the stereo to listen to as we drove. We have been listening to it for the whole trip. The books on CD can really make the time fly! Which this one did precisely... once we passed a sign for a drawbridge ahead - I knew we COMPLETELY missed the 95 exit and were now almost ALL the way around the eastside of the beltway. Ooops! We put the DaVinci code on pause and did a U turn and kept a sharp look out for the 95 exit this time. A short time after we found 95 - i got the first sign of trouble with the van. While driving - it seemed to momentarily lose power. It was the kind of blip that only a Vanagon owner would notice and start to worry. I thought it may just be a fluke so i did not mention it to Eric. Meanwhile i started doing the mental arithmetic of how far we would get using both our AAA Gold cards with thier towing allowance. Once we passed York - the van hiccupped again. Talk about ruining your mood. We were still 350 miles from home and it was really cold out. i did not relish the idea of sitting on the side of the road today. At least the weather was OK. Well - to make it short - the problem started increasing in frequency and in a couple of spots - the van literally started choking / stalling at 65mph. Twice I literally shut the engine off at full speed and restarted it while rolling. [ Which would temporarily fix the problem. I was figuring that the fuel pump must be flaking out because the engine was not backfiring at all...so I figured fuel starvation. But later I noticed that the problem would happen regardless of where I had the gas pedal....So I hit the gas figuring better to get closer to home before the van completely quit. I got Eric home to Syracuse and then promptly headed to Rochester with the van hiccupping several times along the way. I finally made it home around 8 - very relieved to be in my own bed for the night.