Ready to roll!

Thank the Lord! (or Allah, or Gnesha, or whoever's up there...) The campervan is finally ready for the rigours of the road (knock on wood).  I guess you could say that is VAN-tastic news! No? Ok, maybe not...but what a frustrating week of mechanical mishaps! Firstly, last Monday (May 14), it wouldn't start when we were trying to bring it into the shop for an inspection. We had to call ADAC (the BCAA of Germany - if you remember our Italy story from last year perhaps you are familiar with them already) and they came and tightened up some loose cables on the battery and told us that the battery needed changing (after scaring us first by saying the alternator was bad...which he quickly took back after a test). Once at the shop and after talking to the machanic, we decided to bring it back the next morning, after buying some things the van needed (like a new battery and new tires). Tuesday morning we brought it back with the new battery, tires and seven litres of oil (this diesel is an oil pig apparently). They were to do the inspection, oil change, oil/air/fuel filter change and swap the tires out (I did the battery myself - I'm such a do-it-yourselfer...ha. right).

01. "Downtown" Landshut

We left the van for the day and picked it up Wednesday morning. He told us the rear brakes needed new pads (I had suspected the brakes would need some work), but other than that it was fine, so we were pretty happy about that. So, off we went. We drove about 5 minutes to drop off Yvonne's sister's car, which we borrowed to pick up our van, and when Yvonne got back in the van, wouldn't you know it...it wouldn't start! We just picked it up from being inspected and worked on and now this. Beautiful. We called up the mechanic and he came out within ten minutes. It took a while to get it started, but he eventually did it and we drove it back to the shop. He found a loose screw or part or something on the fuel filter, which they just changed, and that was the problem. The van seemed to start fine after that so we drove off once again. As we were driving around town, we heard a loud clicking sound that seemed to emanate from the front left wheel area every time we pressed the brake pedal. Back to the shop we went. One of the guys there took it for a drive and heard the same sounds so they lifted it up, took off the wheel and took a closer look at the brakes. Seemed that the last brake job was a touch shoddy and one of the pads was off by a fraction of an inch, so that when you braked, it moved a bit and made the clicking sound. He sprayed some stuff on the pads, put it all back together again, and it hasn't made the sounds since...so we are leaving it (he said it was safe...if anything, might be a little annoying). But we did plan to come back and get the rear brakes done.

02. Pimping our ride

OK, so...where are we here. Right...Wednesday, after we got all that out of the way, we planned on bringing the van back Friday to get the rear brakes done, as Thursday was a national holiday and everything was closed. So we spent Thursday pimping our ride (we are thinking of applying at MTV after this trip...Xibit's new sidekicks?). We modified some of the set-up to our liking and "tinted" all the back windows for extra privacy and to keep things a little cooler back there (sorry, we didn't install any LCD screens, remote-control shoe racks, or neon aquariums). So Friday morning comes and we're set to bring 'er back to the shop when what do you think doesn't start again? At this point we're getting pretty frustrated, not to mention very nervous that something major was wrong and that we'd have to spend our year's savings just to fix this thing. Once again Yvonne got ADAC on the phone and they came out and gave us a jump start. We drove straight to the shop and left it there. All day we worried and tried to think of what could be wrong...at this point we were pretty sure we would need a new alternator (not a cheap fix) if nothing worse. When we went back in the evening they still hadn't gotten it going and hadn't figured out what was wrong. One thing they did discover was that it would only start when jumpered to another battery (he'd already fully charged our battery). After more tinkering around he found that the connector into the alternator was badly damaged and the plastic plug was either corroded or melted, so we cut it off and planned to find a replacement the next morning. Also, he suspected that the battery we got was bad so we took that with us with thoughts to bring it back to the store the next morning.

03. Great tint job!

Saturday...and thankfully the shop was open for a full day today. This is the only one in town not closing at noon. We thought we might have some trouble returning the battery (customer service here ain't what it is at home) and were scared we wouldn't be able to find that part. But, after they tested the battery and found it to be a dud (what luck! what are the odds we'd get a bad battery), they promptly replaced it...also, the first place we went to had the spare part we needed (and it only cost us 6.50 Euro) we drove both items back to the shop and left it with them. Oh yeah...not only did we have great luck on these two things, we found a bike for me at a used bike sale for only 45 euros! Funny how things happen in threes...turns out third time at the shop was a charm too, since when we returned later on the van was starting perfectly and everything finally seems to be back on track (once again, knock on wood!) and the mechanic gave Yvonne a great deal for all the work he did.

04. Eye eye cap'n

Sunday was spent outfitting the van with all the necessities of our trip - we filled every last square inch of cupboard, drawer and storage space (well Yvonne did since she is the organizing queen). Between that and getting some last minute things done we took pretty much the whole day. Our goal was to leave Monday morning, but since we haven't had a real chance to just relax, we figured why rush (we got nowhere to be) so we now have a departure date of Tuesday May 22. Which brings us to today, Monday...we took the bikes for a test ride and went strawberry picking up the road. With baskets full of berries, we made our way to pick up some groceries to re-stock Babette's fridge (since we've been doing some damage to it since we've been here). We made a last Bavarian meal of pretzels, breads, cold-cuts, cheese and pickles (and a hefeweissen of course). Tonight is our last night in a real bed *sigh* for quite some time, so we will make sure we relish every minute of it!

05. Yvonne repairing the sunroof

Oh yeah, and we finally decided on a name for the van. Drumroll please...its Freda! A good, solid German female name (plus it has 'red' in it). The name Freda conjures up images of a hefty, reliable German woman (possibly with a monobrow) who gets the job done...and well! So, Freda it is. Finally, the next update won't be from Landshut!

06. Yvonne taking some curtain measurements

07. The ride

08. Our mascots

09. Finishing touches

10. Bikes

11. Kitty in a glass

12. Testing the waters

13. How low can you go

14. That was yummy