Date: Sun, 19 Aug 2007 15:43:32 -0700
Reply-To: Jake de Villiers <crescentbeachguitar@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Jake de Villiers <crescentbeachguitar@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Van Meet 2007 at White Rock Beach
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Thanks to all who showed up at the beach yesterday to share a common love of
Vanagons. It was great to finally put voices to people I've only known as
text.
Appearing were Harold Kiesewetter in his freshly painted Orly Blue TDI
powered Westy , Neil Nicholson in his Assuan Brown AC '81 Westy, Paul Guzyk
and Dot in their Bordeaux Red Carat, Bill MacLachlan in his 1.8 Golf powered
'82 GL, Tabe Johnson and his sweet son Trevor in their Pastel White '85
Westy, Bernie J in his very clean '85 GL Westy and John Woo in his Silver
'86 Westy. Dave and Helene Marshall with their lively kids Richard and
Loraine drove their killer Hightop Syncro Westy with the R-TDI motor and VW
LT 4 x 4 with 2.4 litre AUDI 6 cylinder diesel. Official Photographer Milo
de Villiers drove my Wolfram Grey '84 GL work van and I got there plenty
early in Dixie, our Pastel White '86 Westy Weekender.
John Woo from California won the Long Distance Award, Neil's '81 edged out
my '84 by a single dent for Most Beat Up and David Marshall took both the
Tallest Van and Biggest Truck categories. Paul Guzyk won the Best Tool
Award for his aluminium floor jack and Bernie's van took the Most Original
Award.
For those of you whose lips are already getting tired, skip to the pix at
http://subyjake.googlepages.com/
Click for larger versions and if anybody wants more just email me direct;
Milo took hundreds!
By liberal use of folding chairs and traffic cones I managed to claim 11
consecutive parking spots at the extreme western end of White Rock Beach.
After a couple hours of queries from pedestrians ('Is there going to be a
race?' and 'Will there be music?' ) Vanagons started to show up.
Bernie brewed up green tea for folks in a French press, Tabe created a
community kitchen and his son Trevor passed out potato chips, I showed the
beer-drinking members how to use the passenger side door jamb latch as a
bottle opener and Dave wowed us with his Big Truck.
Young Richard pumped up their inflatable and Loraine collected shells in
the shallows while the rest of us hung out, ate and drank and talked
Vanagon. With the Syncro, the LT, an air-cooled van (ABX?), a Golf
transplant and two TDIs plus my impending 2.5 Subie swap there was plenty to
talk about. You know, motors, trombones, wheels & tires, baseball, gear
ratios.........
We managed to attract the attention of a couple of passing Westies, one of
whom had been corresponding with David about a diesel conversion, the other
of which was the long lost Pat Jackman in his beautiful Flash Silver '90
Westy, fleeing from the 2 hour border lineup.
We also had a visit from a photographer from the Peace Arch News who took a
bunch of pix and wanted to interview me, as erstwhile 'organizer' of the
event! I told him that organizing Vanagonites was like herding cats.
:)
There was much talk of a repeat of the event next year around the same time,
maybe in a different spot, maybe with camping. Stay in touch.
Thanks again everybody, Jake
--
Jake
1984 Vanagon GL
1986 Westy Weekender "Dixie"
www.crescentbeachguitar.com