Date: Fri, 9 Aug 2002 12:08:17 -0700
Reply-To: Leon Korkin <korkwood@WSHOST.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Leon Korkin <korkwood@WSHOST.NET>
Subject: Re: Trip Report (longish)
In-Reply-To: <001301c2402a$7cd78b60$44f72dce@Pangea.ca>
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Roy,
Thanks for trip report. Good trip!
Looks as gas is much more expensive in Canada!
I've never been in Canada but wanted to for a long time. Some day.
Love camping and traveling in Westy.
But we avoid any public campground due to same reasons described in your rants.
Fortunately there are some "hidden oasis" kind of places along major roads few people know
that we stop to camp and usualy have place to ourselves. Those are our favorite
camping spots. Primitive, no water or toilets, no tables or garbage containers.
But freedom to yell and scream or just sit and listen to wind. Sometimes we
find those places thrashed too, thanks to those idiots you mentioned.
This Memorial we camped near Kern river in Sequoyia NF, very nice wild primitive
campsite. One night, ar. 2AM me and my wife were awaken by 3 cars full of drunk teenagers
from Bakersfield barging in on our campsite trying to camp in our campsite!.
I couldn't believe my eyes. Was i dreaming?
After this extremely rude awakening i asked idiots what they were trying to do.
They muttered something about no place to park. Gathering all patience i could muster
i told suckers that we are camping here. One asked me if this was a "resort"
I said yes, this is resort. Our own resort!. To our huge relief they started backing off and i later heared their
SUVs circling around for a while untill i fell asliep again. Makes me want to carry a gun inside.
Last year on a trip to Colorado we tried to camp close to river but didn't find any wild camping.
So we went to sleep in campground. But sleep we couldn't. All night long there were drunk
idiots running racing jetboats back and forth making noise of jumbo jet on take off on top of blasting stereos. No sleep!
Next night we found what i thought was nice wild campsite by river. After barbeque and nice evening walk
we wnet to sleep. Ar. 1AM a was awaken by my wife talking to some guy standing outside. He was
very drunk holding bottle of wiskey in hand and muttering something about camping in "their place",
threatening with retaliation. Then i noticed car parked next to our Westy with 3 more drunks there.
I wasn't afraid, more very annoyed by this, but my wife was scared and panicked. I didn't talk to that drunk,
just tried assessing cituation. After more mumbling and waving bottle he disappeared in the car
and they took off. My wife just couldn't take it anymore and wanted to leave. We packed and went all the way
home.
Before these 2 incidents we had only one case in 15 years when drunks started shooting in the middle of the night
They apologized in the morning but we had sleepless night.
Looks as it's getting worse. X generation is thrashing world. Where can we run away?
Leon
Los Angeles, CA
8/9/02 9:56:42 PM, Roy Olynick <rrh@AUTOBAHN.MB.CA> wrote:
>Boys and girls,
>
>My family and I just returned from a three week trip from Manitoba to eastern
>Canada (New Brunswick, P.E.I. and Nova Scotia) in our Westy. This was our third
>trip "out east" to the Maritimes since 1987.
>
>Total Driving Distance: 9980 kms. (6201 miles)
>Total Fuel Consumed: 1208.173 litres (265.766 imperial gallons)
>Fuel Consumption: 12.08 litres/100 kms. (23.33 mpg)
>Highest Gas Prices: Marathon, Ontario (84.9 cents per litre)
>Lowest Gas Prices: Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island (67.9 cents per litre)
>Average Gas Price: 73.9 cents per litre
>
>Miscellaneous ramblings:
>
>Our Westy ran like a champ...first trouble free trip in years! We had two
>"bonus"
>vacation days this time because we usually factor in two days for Westy
>breakdowns, of which there weren't any this trip (miracles do happen!). My cell
>phone and motor league card went unused.
>
>"Touring Highlights": Prince Edward Island (all of it, from tip to tip); whale
>watching (from shore) at Pleasant Bay, Nova Scotia; whale watching (at sea on a
>sailboat) at Ingonish Ferry, Nova Scotia; Parliament Buildings, Ottawa; coal
>mine tour in Springhill, Nova Scotia; practising my limited French at various
>stops in Quebec (Je parle pas beaucoup Francais); buying a Persian in Thunder
>Bay, Ontario (a Persian is a local delicacy...cinnamon bun with pink, strawberry
>flavoured icing).
>
>"Heart stopping Highlights": Turning a corner and having the porta-potty flip
>over because it was top heavy with damp towels stacked on it; turning a corner
>on another occasion and having a thermos of unattended coffee fall over,
>spilling coffee all over the galley floor; following a blue-haired Toyota
>driving grandmother who slammed on her brakes unexpectedly to make a turn while
>I was gathering speed to pass her; sailing on a whale watching cruise in choppy
>waters that would have sunk the Titanic.
>
>"Driving highlight" of the trip...passing a Corvette on Quebec highway #20. The
>'Vette was doing 105 kph...I blew past him at 115 kph...I just HAD to do it!
>Cruising at 110 kph or 115 kph, even with the A/C going, was no problem. Most
>amusing "driving highlight"...me and the truckers trying to pass each other
>going uphill in New Brunswick, Cape Breton and NW Ontario.
>
>The fridge ran on propane virtually the entire trip without the flame blowing
>out while driving. The instances where the flame did go out was probably due to
>the steep grade of some of the roads in New Brunswick and Cape Breton.
>
>Nice to see more self-serve gas stations in the Maritimes than the last time we
>were there. "Full serve" translates as "slow serve" for me. Nobody, I mean,
>Nobody can fill my Westy's tank faster than I.
>
>The Westy capital of eastern Canada, maybe the entire country, has got to be
>Quebec. Driving through the Gaspe region, you can't spit without hitting a
>Westy.
>
>Going east from Manitoba, we took the U.S. route (#2 and #28) through northern
>Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan and back into Canada through Sault Ste. Marie,
>Ontario. Coming
>back west, we travelled all the way through Canada. Although the death defying
>northern route
>through NW Ontario (#17) is more scenic, the frequency and length of the
>no-passing
>zones are very frustrating. The next time I go east, I'll take the U.S. route
>again, despite all the "one horse" towns with reduced speed zones, along the
>route. The terrain is flatter with infinitely more opportunities to pass the
>slow pokes on the road.
>
>Rant Alert, Rant Alert!!!
>
>#1. Too many bozos, jerks and otherwise inconsiderate campers out there these
>days. It seems that every other campground we'd pull in to, there'd be those
>campers who associate camping with loud stereos and all the beer you can drink.
>The evidence of their presence is obvious at times --empty beer bottles from the
>night before, sometimes stacked in imaginative geometric patterns, on a picnic
>table. Of course, these idiots usually come out from under their rock at about
>11:30 PM (quiet hour be damned) when the rest of us road weary travellers are
>just going into REM sleep. We found the quietest camping was to be had
>at...sorry, but this has to be said...at the "Kampground that must not be named"
>(KOA). Maybe it's their locations (usually along major roads) that attract
>travellers who've been driving all day, are tired and just want to get some
>sleep. We've been to some KOAs that were jam packed to over capacity, brimming
>with the potential for an all night party, but by 10 or 10:30 PM, half the
>campground is sleeping, with the other half nodding off.
>
>#2. Drivers who pass in no passing zones. If I had a nickel for all the idiots
>I saw who are toying with people's lives...
>
>#3. Some low-life, pond scum ripped off our ratty and torn, $1.49 vinyl table
>cloth from our campsite's picnic table while we were gone for the day.
>
>There, I'm done.
>
>Roy Olynick
>'87 VW Westfalia GL
>(till death do us part)
>'91 Honda Civic SE
>'01 Honda Civic LX
>www.autobahn.mb.ca/~rrh/Westy_Home.htm
>
>
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