BOTW - Added Information

[mbulriss]

Part of the fun for me about the Bird of the Week feature is just not seeing all the Birds, but also seeing neat places to go or stop off at. On last week's picture, I was interested in learning more and Bob was kind enough to post added info on the site and the picture.

Likewise on this week's picture, I was interested in learning more and Lucas was kind enough to respond with more information which I hope he won't mind if I will share part of it here for those interested in learning more. Not knowing about this section of the left coast, I was interested in learning more about the site where the picture was taken. Lucas' response:

The place we are parked in the picture is the old highway 1 next to the
101 just north of Ventura. It is a county camp area but is has no
facilities other than garbage and some barrel toilets. They charge $25
per night for this, but the view of the Santa Barbara Channel is hard to beat.

I was also fascinated by the use of the Citroen 2CV (aka: Deux Chevaux) as a toad. We don't see many of those here in the south. The last one I saw belonged to a Belgian fellow I worked with and it had the hydraulic feature that allowed it to lift a wheel for replacement without use of an external jack. Always reminded me of a puppy with a hurt paw! I also wondered if they got 'grief' from old car enthusiasts worried about such a classic car getting dinged up from being towed behind the Bird. Lucas was kind enough to answer my many questions on the toad:

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The Deux Chevaux is a 66, it is in very good
condition and we use it as a

daily driver when we are on the road. It is the perfect "toad" as the
car

only weighs 1200 pounds. It gets almost 50 miles per gallon. The coach

does not even know it is back there. We carry it in on extension like a

tow truck with
the front wheels of the ground. I have attached a picture

of when the carrier was first mounted before the rear bumper went back

on. The way I carry it actually allows me to back up as it is the same as

a trailer. I lower the carrier attach the bars to hold the wheels, jack

the carrier up and pin it. The whole procedure takes 5 minutes. I have

plans to add a hydraulic system but for now this works.



The color is not original but we do like it. The car has been completely repainted
and all the body work
redone, we started just redoing the front end and ended up
repainting the whole car. We probably should have repainted it in the same color scheme
as the coach. The coach has one of those "Whisker" screens below the bumper
and
other than dirt we have not had a problem with rocks.

We have recently replaced the seat covers, top, exhaust system, etc. but


this is normal for an older car. Luckily parts are off the shelf, I can

get almost anything for the car overnight. I just purchased a set of

stainless steel bumpers that came from the far east. The cars were

popular all over the world except the US.


This is the simple basic Citroen it does not have the hydraulic


suspension that allows you to raise one corner of the car. Matter of fact

there are only 2 springs, one on each side and the front and rear

suspension hook to each end. The same with the engine there is no

distributor, it fires both spark plugs every revolution, one fires
on the

compression the other on the exhaust stroke of the 2nd cylinder. Same

with the windows, they hinge in the middle and fold up.

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I hope you enjoyed this added info as much as I did. Many thanks to Lucas and Linda for the additional information.

If you would like to share a picture of your Bird and/or an interesting place you found to park a Bird, please send in your photos, with description, for an upcoming Bird of the Week

Thanks,

Mike Bulriss
1991 WB40 "Texas Minivan"
San Antonio, TX