Date: Wed, 9 Feb 2000 18:33:48 -0700
Reply-To: "Blake C. Thornton" <thornton@MATH.UTAH.EDU>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: "Blake C. Thornton" <thornton@MATH.UTAH.EDU>
Subject: rear ended - insurance - stealth camping / follow up(LONG)
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
So, mostly this is a follow up on getting rear ended a couple days ago.
Here is what happened.
For various reasons (mostly because of preference) I have been sleeping
in my van's bed for almost 6 months. I told the insurance adjuster (of
the company of the guy who hit me) that I expected a rental car. That
was absolutely no problem. He was all ready to give me a car before I
even asked. We then worked out some details and I told him:
"well, I'm not sure how to bring this up, but not only did I lose my car,
but I also lost my bedroom. I sleep in my van and now I dont have
anywhere to sleep" (which was not entirely true).
He was left pretty speechles and finally offered to give me a rental van
and I could "lay my matress out in back". This seemed like a reasonable
offer and I of course accepted.
I took my van to the shop and picked up my rental van (chevy astro - I
had to remove one of the back seats).
The shop and the insurance people fought over repair bills and finally
came to the price of $2000 (or thereabouts) and that is what they will
fix it for unless they find some hidden problems (which the shop didn't
think would happen). The shop was recommended to me by the local shop
here in salt lake that I really like, so I think they are probably ok.
So, things are looking fairly good.
On a side note, I slept in the astro last night, and will probably sleep
there tonight too. It was not very comfortable, at least not as comfy as
the westy, but nothing is. I slept in a parking lot and the windows were
tinted, but no curtains. By the time I woke up and got going this
morning, the parking lot was full. So, my comment on stealth camping is
that I am quite sure that my westy with curtains pulled is much more
suspicious looking then this astro with tint. If you look at the astro,
you can see inside if you look, but who's going to look -- its an
innocent looking van.
So, I had this thought. I remember we had a full size ford van as a kid
and my dad built some sort of bed in the back you could sleep ON and
store stuff UNDER. What I was thinking was that if you slept underneath,
no one would ever know you were inside. I'm not sure who this appeals
to, but if you've been woken by the police a few times, you could surely
appreciate this idea.
Anyhow, that was my thought. I will never emply it because I like my
vanagon and dont think that I will ever own a different van (but hey, who
knows?).
Thanks to all the suggestions that I recieved on my first post.
Blake
84 westy,
SLC UT