Hi all,

I am back home (SF Bay Area) after a month-long visit up in Oregon. Up I-5 to Shasta for the night and then up to the central Oregon coast. Several trips to the Willamette valley to visit family and also tested the capabilities of the Syncro on the soft, dry sand dunes south of Florence. There is a big dune where the quads zip up at high speed, but no other vehicles were attempting the climb. I lowered the tire pressure to 18psi and aimed the van straight up the dune in granny gear at high revs. She climbed 3/4 up the dune before bogging. Not bad! Sure got a lot of stares from the quad guys and gals! Then it was time to launch the ski boat. Never down that before with a Vanagon, but gave it a try. No problem other than the 0-60 was non existent! At the end of our stay, it was time to take the boat out of the water and my brother in law had to leave with his SUV, so I had to either leave the boat in the water or attempt at pulling it out of the lake with the van. Yikes! We are talking about a heavy 18.5ft. fiberglass boat with a big V6 out-drive! Forgot how much it weighs, but it must be close to the weight of the westy. I was nervous about this because if I couldn't pull the boat out, neither the van or boat is going to get off the boat ramp without the help of another 4x4 or tow truck. And this was a remote place without cell service. Tight sphincter time! :-O So I pulled the diff lock and engaged the decoupler, put it in granny and off we went without incident! I was amazed and very relieved! Here's a pic: <http://home.comcast.net/~kovregaard/images/168_6847.jpg>

On the trip back home, we headed down Hwy 101 along the coast for night of camping at Big Lagoon. The sea was so flat and calm (very rare for west coast) and never rained for almost a month until that night. No problem with a westy, but the tent and under-the-stars campers were not happy! Never seen that place so crowded, though. And noisy! Generators running al over the place, stereo's cranked up and screaming tots made for little sleep that night. Makes one appreciate remote primitive camping away from people like that. Sheesh!

Anyway, it was a great trip. We waved at lots of other westies along the way including this one in Port Orford with a poodle at the wheel: <http://home.comcast.net/~kovregaard/images/168_6860.jpg> And also saw John Wessle's Unimog/mobile shop rig heading north just south of Florence heading towards the Mogfest, no doubt. Would have liked to go, but had to get back home. Next year perhaps...

The VikingWagen ran flawlessly for the 1605 miles and got around 18mpg average.

Keith O. 90 Westy Syncro "VikingWagen" Past VeeDubs in the family 1984 Westy "Brownie" 1980 PU diesel 1978 Rabbit diesel 1979 Rabbit gasser 1963? 23 window Splitty 1965 Bus 1969 Bus 1959 Bug