Day 23 - Wot's Up Doc?
Trip Start
May 19, 2008
1
25
161
Trip End
Nov 08, 2008
Venice,
California,
United States
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
While they found out what the problem was we went for a wander around Venice. As the name suggests there are some canals. Well sort of stylized canals as they are only about 6 inches deep and don't actually go anywhere. The whole canal area is only a few blocks in either direction, so not exactly like the original place, but very nice all the same. There were only about twelve of the houses on the canal that we would turn down if offered
Bigger Isn't Better
! From the canals we cut across to Venice Beach, home to all walks of life. From the body builders of Muscle Beach to the vagrants with signs advertising that they will work for Marijuana! It doesn't look like much under a grey sky, but once the sun came out it was completely different, especially the beach which was stunning with its wide expanse of powder soft golden sand.Kent, the owner of Wabbit had recommended that we check out Jody Maroni's Sausage Kingdom for lunch. So as the hunger pangs took hold and it was in a prime beachfront location we took his advice and stopped for a sausage sarni. Now this is not just any old sausage sarni. There are a variety of different sausages, all hand made on the premises, and served up in an onion roll with grilled onions and peppers. Mmm mmm!
Back at the workshop we were told that the problem was a leaking brake cylinder. They also pointed out that although the brake hoses that had been fitted were new, and yes the clips were missing, that one of the front ones wasn't the correct one and was too short! What was that we said about nothing else surprising us?!
Kent's garage is a really interesting place, especially if you're a dub head
Venice Canals
. The back lot is full of old buses in various states of repair, some of them just being used to store hundreds of old bus parts. He also owns two Karmann Ghias. His reception area has a variety of old comfy chairs and a large bookcase which houses all manner of eclectic things, from a Rubik's Cube to Medicine journals. The thing that took Mel's interest for the couple of hours that we were there was a book about Beetles. And a very pleasant couple of hours we spent there at Wabbit, listening to a CD recorded by Kent's daughter who is a jazz vocalist, reading about veedubs and other interesting things and having discussions with Kent, Wayne, Frank and Rene (not to mention a few of the customers) about places of interest for us to visit on our journey.If you're wondering why the name Wabbit Wepairs, a VW Golf is a VW Rabbit over here. Don't ask!!!
Brakes all fixed and thoroughly checked over we decided to book Chip in for the following morning for a tune-up as on our first tank of fuel we only got 14 mpg! That sorted, we went in search of fuel for Chip and for us (beer)! Then we headed down to the southern end of Santa Monica beach where we parked up and had our dinner. As there is no overnight camping allowed here either we had to be out of the car park for sunset, so we headed back to Wabbit where Kent had assured us that we would have no problem staying overnight
More Canals
. The garage is on a quiet residential street in a nice area, so not wanting to offend the residents we pulled up right outside the garage gate and got tucked in for an early night.Distance travelled: 36 miles
Total distance travelled: 214 miles
Days on road: 3
States visited: 1
