First draft of the driving tour....

I hope Lucy can handle it! View Larger Map The trip in numbers (approximations):

• Trip length: 38 days
• Number of KMs travelled: 11 400
• Number of hours on the road: 145
• Average Number of hours on the road each day: 4

There might be changes of plans but that's the whole point of having a reservation-free road trip. We'll deal with issues as they come.

In Which Lucy gets her license plates and sheds many layers

Updates abound. Insurances: A bit off topic but my parents were victim of a house fire last October and still aren't back in the house . Their insurance (The Personal) did a real crappy job and getting information from them was like pulling teeth. I was insured with the same one as them for Trish (my dependable 1998 Dodge Stratus). Avoid like them like the plague. I made a few calls and settled on a local broker who fixed me up with Gore Mutual instead. I'm not sure it will be any better but a lot of companies were kinda iffy about insurance a 1971 Volks Camper appraised at 10 000$ (by Grampa's Garage) and they weren't so I went with them. Funny story...I sent the appraisal report to the broker by mail, which was complete with pictures of the interior/exterior and when she received it she called me on my cel all excited to tell me Lucy was adorable..haha. For those interested, it's costing me 492$ a year to have Lucy insured. This, however, is with full collision coverage for the whole year. I can call and cancel collision when she is sitting in the shop and save some cash. Halloween Frenzy: October 31st was the day everything came into place. We went down to the garage where Lucy had spent the night waiting for her new tires. We had a bit of a hard time finding a decent pair for her in Canada. We could of ordered online or looked more extensively but she needed tires to pass safety so we were a it rushed to decide. Lucy needs 185R14 - 8 ply reinforced tires because of her weight. Not exactly available at your local Canadian Tire. This is what we ended up getting. So Lucy passed safety and I had everything I needed to go to the MTO office. 15 minutes and 450 dollars later (you have to pay tax on the worth of the vehicle - we cheated and said we paid 5000$), I had license plates in hand and Lucy was ready to go. They also gave me a Used Vehicle Information report which lists all her previous owners and it seems that Lucy has been an Ottawa citizen her whole life! One small trip before the work begins: After attending Francis' Grandmother's funeral, we drove to the St-Albert Cheese Factory with Pat and Annie as they had never been in a Bay window before. They liked her I think...especially the nice back firing. Later in the afternoon, we also visited my parents (they had only seen Lucy briefly in the dark) and went to see my sister to show her off to Felix. He had never seen it before and he was very excited to touch and prod everything in there. We took him for a little tour of Vars in it and he was a happy camper. I think he liked the purple fluff though and that won't stay. Oh well. Strip-tease: Lucy's not bad in the nude. We worked all afternoon to remove layers after layers of mothball smelling fabric. The purple fluff and the nice pink shag is 90% gone . We just have a little piece at the front driver side to do. All seats, seat belts, benches, cabinets and storage compartments were also removed so that we can start working on her. A couple of owners ago, Lucy had a V8 engine. To fit it in the engine compartment, a hole had to be done in the rear cargo area. It was repaired well and patched back up when they put in the rebuilt engine she currently has. Francis removed the patch because he plans to make a built-in tool box in that same spot. He's very excited about that little project and started to buy all the tools that we'll need to bring with us on the trip. I don't think he'll be as excited about planning for plates and cutlery. Heh heh. What's next? Well, with Lucy stripped we need to think about soundproofing and insulation layers before putting down the floor and panels in. If anybody has ideas, share! We found a liquid that you can spray on that is supposed to do wonders (like this one) As for floor coverings, we were thinking of putting in cork tiles.

Mechanical update

Once Lucy settled in the shop, Francis and his Dad got to work on the items that were listed as needing attention in the safety estimate: 1 - Windshield washer fluid not coming out: They fixed the ruptured tube without having to buy extra parts (they just shortened u.

2 - Horn not working: Not sure what they did but it’s working now … you just have to press down at a certain angle to get it working. I love cars with quirks!

3 - Rear boots need to be changed: The boys removed both rear axles and brought them to CV Tech in Gatineau to have them replaced with brand new heavy duty boots. (pictures to come..Francis thinks they are really nice)

4 - Rear signal lights out of whack: The wires were apparently put on backwards so that was a quick and cheap fix.

5 - Rear brake cylinders need to be changed: Francis went to get them at AutoExtra in Embrun and installed them without too much difficulty (there’s always a learning curve with new vehicles)

Total cost of repairs for safety so far: approx 200$ Being nerdy, I ordered a bunch of service manuals to help out in any future reparations from Amazon:

1. Haynes VW Transporter 1600 1968-1979 Manual
2. Muir’s How to keep your Volkswagen Alive: A Manual of Step-by-Step procedures for the Complete Idiot
3. Volkswagen of America’s Official Service Manual for Type 2 Vehicles

They are all very good in their own ways but Muir’s book is definitely more fun to read. I’m going through it slowly, like a novel, skipping the detailed parts just like the author suggests. I have also been looking at the possibility of buying Classic plates for Lucy. Ontario’s Ministry of Transportation has a program that allows cars that are at least 30 years old to have Year Of Manufacture (YOM) Plates. That means I could eventually put those cool blue license plates that say Ontario – 1971 on Lucy. The cost is pretty excessive at 235.00$ though. This does not include buying the vintage plate, which would run anywhere from 10$ to 100$. There are a lot of old plates available from collectors online but the problem is that you need TWO, not just one and that it can’t be registered with MTO for another vehicle. When I called with a few license plate numbers I found on the internet, they were all being used, so it will be a bit of a treasure hunt if I want to go ahead with that idea. Next on our list: Bring it in to get the safety certificate!

Paying the Taxman

Ok so for anyone interested in buying a vehicle that's 15 years or older in Ontario, this is what you have to do: 1- Get the signed Ownerships from the seller along with a bill of sale (if you get along well with the seller, ask him to leave the amount blank...see point 5). 2- Before you transfer it officially in your name at one of the Licensing offices, you need to get your new vehicle insured. The insurance is going to be very anal and say you can't do so until you pass safety and get an appraisal. It's a bitch so you will have to decide if you want to pay tons of money and tow the car around until it's appraised and safetied or break the law and just drive it to a garage illegally . We were lucky to find a mobile appraisal guy and get dealer plates to drive it to a shop. 3 - The appraiser will take pictures and fill out forms and send you the 3-4 page report with pictures in the mail. This will probably take a week so you have time to get it safetied in the meantime. There is no "deadline" to get it licensed after purchase so there is no rush. 4 - Insure the car using the appraisal guy's number. They will take your word for the safety check so you don't need to send anything to them. 5 - Once safetied, bring the ownerships, your insurance info, the bill of sale, an appraisal, the safety results and your license to the license bureau. There you have tons of fees for the license, a Used Vehicle Package and the sales tax. Note that they will charge you sales tax based on the higher amount between the bill of sale and the appraisal (see point 1). The appraisal does NOT need to be from the same insurance guy. In fact, if you know a mechanic, it's better to get it done by them so they can put the value to lower and you therefore pay less tax. It took me lots of phone calls to get all the correct info. I haven't actually gone through with it it yet though so if some of my info is wrong I'll correct it as I find out.

We love Lucy!

Well.... we did it! We are, as of today, the proud owners of a 1971 VW camper van called Lucy! We had kept her purchase a surprise from our family which was VERY hard because we were so excited when we learned the seller accepted our offer . Unable to restrain ourselves further, we decided to show up uninvited at everyone's place tonight so they could meet her and go for a small ride. Felix still hasn't seen her though..he was unfortunately sleeping when we stopped by. I get the feeling he'll really like her. Lucy's previous owners were wonderful and dropped her off at our place around noon along with a bunch of spare parts and instructions. I will make sure to keep them updated on our adventures. I don't think I could of asked for a better seller. So anyway, as I write this, Lucy is sleeping in a safe, warm shop. There was no way I was leaving her out in the street for the first night. We still have to finalize insurance and license plate documents and get her safetied so more updates to come. Oh and any ideas for vanity plates? We were thinking RDTRP 71