Down and Out in Bakersfield

Hi friends,



We've had to make an unplanned visit to see the great sights of...Bakersfield, CA. We left yesterday from Los Angeles to drive up to San Francisco and stopped in a rest area along the way, when the clutch gave out on the Beetle. It was feeling a little weak for the last several days (I was hoping it was just my imagination) but it was done. We had it towed to Bakersfield, as we weren't too far away from there, to the VW dealership. The dealership was closed already so we left the car there and got a hotel room for the night (at least they have a pool!). I called the VW dealership this morning for the bad news and it was bad indeed - new clutch and flywheel have to be overnighted and they will have the car done by the end of tomorrow. We're looking at a repair bill of $2,100, making a grand total of $3,000 we've spent on car repair bills in the last 2 weeks. Needless to say we are frustrated and disappointed.

Still, there are things to be grateful for. When the clutch went we weren't far from Bakersfield, the VW dealership, and a decent hotel. We could have been in the desert, and we have certainly seen plenty of desert. I took the kids to a family fun place this afternoon that had minigolf and arcade games, all you can play for $10, so they had a blast there. I was able to reschedule most of our San Francisco video appointments for Thursday so our video schedule shouldn't be too badly affected. Jen and I are just disappointed because we had 3 full days planned in San Francisco and we were really looking forward to spending time in what so many people have described as a truly amazing city. To extend the stay there would be to completely torpedo everything for the next week and we have too many hard-earned appointments to move everything.



Here's a pic of the Beetle getting great mileage - 30 miles and we didn't burn a drop of fuel! he he he at least I can laugh about it...

Tomorrow's my birthday and hey, I get a new clutch for my birthday!!! Well, hopefully the car will be ready to roll tomorrow afternoon and we can be on our way to San Francisco.

Be well,
Colin
www.OurRenewableNation.org