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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


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