Barberton Ohio

We did a bunch of moochdocking in Chicago, Layne got around the dinner table with her cousins and I got to have lunch with Webb and we saw Ernie and Graciela, who moved from California, for the first time in years and all that stuff that nomads get to do on the road from time to time. So we took a drive and an overnight stop on the Ohio Turnpike, a splendid toll road with comfortable rest areas on our way to the Promasters Only mechanic’s shop. 

A haul out in the life of a boat is when it gets pulled up in the boatyard to get the normally underwater parts cleaned and maintained, which can be a stressful time in a sailor’s life. So it was in Barberton watching GANNET2 come apart at the seams. 

The crazy thing here is our Sunpass Pro works on toll roads just like it does in Florida - Illinois, Michigan, Ohio- and all points east in something like 18 states we just drive through like we do at home. Fantastic. 

Some of the rest areas on the Ohio Turnpike have special RV areas with electrical hookups, dump stations and water for twenty dollars a night. But all the rest areas have free showers which I find really enjoyable after a day driving. 

Barberton was founded at the end of the 19th century by an industrialist called Barber who as was usual in those days had all sorts of modern and personal ideas about how to run industries, and manage housing and workers lives in a planned city. They manufactured matches of all things and hired migrants from Eastern Europe passing through Ellis Island. Barberton grew so fast they called it Magic City. 

There are 25,000 residents in the city today and I was only slightly surprised all of them weren’t lined up at the bakery. 

I settled for a cherry Danish but there were all sorts of old world foods on offer. 

I feel pretty lucky to get GANNET2 checked out by Kip Amore. He has a reputation as a Promaster guru among van owners and I made my appointment months ago to show up here on Monday. 

With 84,000 miles under her belt the van needed a few worn parts replaced, the front brakes, the spark plugs and the various fluids. 

Kip checked the van with a computer code reader and everything came up green which cheered me up. The transmission fluid showed no wear in the gearbox, the brake rotors were like new and only the front brakes needed new pads. 

An ultra violet light showed no coolant leaks except for one loose clamp, easily fixed. A known weak point is the plastic expansion chamber above the radiator and mine showed signs of cracking do we got a new one! 

Paul, Kips assistant, installed a new starter battery for us. Most people Kip told me, wait for the battery to go bad but ours was almost four years old and I wanted to start our South American journey with no obvious weak points. We might be gone two years and forty thousand miles so I’m hoping to anticipate possible failures.  

We spent the day waiting which is a strangely tiring pastime. Kip offered us the use of his car but there wasn’t really anywhere to go in this Akron suburb. Then we got the test drive and all is well. A few more details to check this Tuesday morning in a return visit and we’ll be done. 

We caught Barberton in a good month, cool bright sunny days and crisp cold nights. There’s lots of greenery and summer feels like it’s in full swing but before long it’ll be winter. 

It’s the industrial part of the country known as the rust belt but for me it has a certain romantic charm. You see movies set in these quiet brick cities, and as I’ve never had any experience of living here so I don’t have bad memories. I don’t have any reality to match to my imaginative view of these places. 

Walking Rusty I looked around.  

And so back to the Turnpike for a shower and a rest. Ohio works me. 

New Beginnings

And just like that I feel out of date. “Her Britannic Majesty’s principal Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, requests and requires in the name of Her Majesty…”

All very well except that now there’s a King. There’s no European Union anymore on the new blue British passport and so it goes. The money will change, postage stamps will change and the national anthem has changed of course. Done and dusted. A reminder that nothing lasts, not even a 96 year old Queen. The Elizabethan era into which I was born is gone. 

I’m hoping two year old GANNET2 lasts a bit longer.  We dropped the van off at the suitably named “Promasters Only” for some upgrades and a general mechanical check.

At first sight I wondered if we would fit inside so as we waited for the shop to open I got the tape measure out. It showed about 9’8” and I was pretty sure we’d have two inches to spare. We need 9’6” (2.90 meters) to clear the top of the air conditioner. 

And so it was. 

Kip Amore has been a voice of mechanical reason online where the Promaster Owners Forum is filled with angry negative voices tearing down the front wheel drive van. 

When he opened a shop earlier this year repairing only Promasters (the hint is in the name),I got in touch and made an appointment for 9am on Thursday. We were there at 7:45 so Rusty and I went for a walk to get acquainted with Barberton. Kip is a funny guy but very sensible when it comes to these vans. 

He used them to make expedited parcel deliveries, a service that has come into existence after I was driving full sized trucks around the San Francisco area in the 1990s. His oldest Promaster has 760,000 miles on it driven hither and yon making deliveries. That gives me a goal! 

Kip has a sense of humor and a philosophy that appeals to me. Talking to him I felt very reassured about my choice of house on wheels. He is a big fan of the durability and simplicity of Promasters which he points out use mechanical parts found in Jeeps and Dodge minivans since 2007. They are easy to work on and I live in hope that if we need help on the road in South America we will find it. Oddly enough Jeep and Dodge dealers are everywhere. An engine hanging out in the shop:

Kip is checking the van out from front to back and is installing a couple of upgrades, a metal oil cooler to replace the plastic factory part that can leak. Apparently he has only one and saved it for me. More are supposed to be delivered soon…

His able assistant Lincoln got to work taking off the wheels to replace the sealed factory universal joints with new after market parts that are tough enough to last forever but only if I grease them regularly and frequently. They will need regular lubrication with a grease gun so I imagine that will be my job groveling under the van every 5,000 miles when we change the oil.

Rusty managed to impress everyone with his laidback outlook. “One chill dog.”  I pointed out if we die in this South American endeavor there are many people lined up to look after Rusty. He’s not going back on the street. 

Prior Proper Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance according to the US military and it’s an adage I have tried to live by. As Kip put it if you’ve done everything you can to prepare and if you’ve kept up with the maintenance and something still goes wrong - and it will!- you can at least reassure yourself you did everything you could. 

The journey from here to Tierra Del Fuego goes through Key West and back to Mexico on our way south. I will travel reassured that GANNET2 with 52,000 miles on the clock will be ready for a fresh start on the road.  

A new beginning indeed.