Date:         Sun, 26 May 2002 10:31:47 -0700
Reply-To:     pensioner <al_knoll@PACBELL.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         pensioner <al_knoll@PACBELL.NET>
Subject:      Re: Vanagon Carma
In-Reply-To:  <0GWP00CJVAAAIA@mta2.snfc21.pbi.net>
Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1

Like a miniature tour bus?  It is, or at least mine is, a miniature tour bus
with accommodations for 2 in virtually any locale.  Calfunia plate "4WD
BNB", Bessie the charolais camper, mountain cabin, beach resort, forest
hideaway, desert refuge, ski chalet, urban pad.

Also doubles as daily conveyance, grocery schlepper, mobile office, birding
blind, fishing camp and...on and on.

With a vanagon each day can be a new adventure...

more ...

Vanagon thinking.  They do think you know.  Try not to outwit them, they win
in the end.  Treat them kindly.  Accept their inconsistencies and help them
through the difficult times.  You could be driving a greenbrier.

Enjoy the tour.  You see more from the right lane anyway.  The other folks
worry about getting there sooner or having a more impressive conveyance than
a lowly 10 year old Vanagon.  We don't.  We start a little earlier and don't
need to stop at the bank to make the car payment on time.  We don't need to
get the cat a day job to pay for the _real cost_ of the drive.  Not counting
the "vanagon projekt" expenses, with 200Kmi+ on two syncros, they have been
very economical seven league boots.   The rough accounting is 18cUS per
mile, and what lovely miles some of them have been...

Ruby-the-red-brick was found used and saw 150Kmi before a tragic end.  She
carried us on adventures throughout the great west.  From British Columbia
to Baja California Norte, from the green flash over the Farallons to picnics
in the Gore range to dawn at White Crack in Canyonlands,   from desert
wildflowers to magnificient trout waters in Idaho to deep powder in the
Wasatch to glorious Arizona sunsets, Ruby was the consummate adventure ark.
With just a little urging there didn't seem to be any terrain she couldn't
handle gracefully.  Admittedly a little balky above ten thousand feet in the
White Mountains, she loved the blue highways and hotsprings and out of the
way campsites.   She would wait patiently while we birdwatched, fished,
collected aspen leaves or just dallied about and then with a turn of the key
and Carlos Nakai in the background, scurry away for the next adventure.

Bessie-the-Charolais-camper carries on the tradition, sporting the well
travelled "4WD BNB" plate from adventures memorable to adventures yet
unknown.  In her winter camoflage, she's graced more than one "Sno-Park" on
a moonlit winter night when the surface hoar twinkled like a cloud of
diamonds as we skied towards her candle in the window.  She's shared
Thanksgiving dinner with Chili Bob, Bird Bob, and Just Bob at Saline Warm
Springs and carried bikes, beers, bricks, boards, barbeque, and bales as
just part of the job.   She's visited "Methusalah" and the Fairmont, Death
Valley, Canyonlands, Zion, Bryce Canyon, Escalante, Kodachrome Basin, the
Sky Islands and the Island in the Sky, Joshua Tree, Organ pipe, Sahuaro,
Rocky Mountain,Yosemite, Yellowstone, Waterton Glacier, and a host of other
crown jewels with plans for more.

Now and then they have grumbled a bit about various things, a headlight
switch here, a new clutch there but overall as the original Sport Utility
Vehicle they've been exceptionally easy to travel in.  I've received more
than one "peace sign" from kids in other cars and more waves from other VW
folks than I can count.   They always seem welcome at enroute camping spots
from Wal-Mart to a turnout overlooking a raging surf on US 1.  I don't
recall a Ford Exploder mailing list or a Suburban Owners Group.

I prefer to "Embrace the Machine" with it's idiosyncracies and character
than trade for a more "impressive" ride.

pensioner