Date:         Thu, 6 Sep 2007 12:52:44 -0400
Reply-To:     Dave Creasy <mkcdc@VERIZON.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Dave Creasy <mkcdc@VERIZON.NET>
Subject:      Remembering our first bus
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Unfortunately our first 68 Westy got wrapped around a telephone pole early one morning in the middle of Dec in 84 after the companies ( thanks to us, last) Christmas party when my husband fell asleep. I was sent out the windshield from the back while asleep to suffer a crushed vertebra.  The passenger seat was thrown out due to the sink assembly tearing through it so by rights it was a better place to come from. Young and stupid... considering 7 fused vertebra and one cage to date.
It was a great bus. Many a happy time from here to California and busted (financial) back again to PA. They still had the great jalousie windows in the sides so you didn't suffocate in the rain. The windows are such a loss I feel. I remember barely getting into a campground in Reno to drop the engine and replace a part in 1980. Our friend from S. Lake Tahoe drove down to bring us a jack (which was the only other thing we needed to get fixed). She came down with her large mixed dog and she ended up staying with the two of us in the camper (over night) with our mostly feral large male cat and mixed German Shepard. It was very harmonious somehow. She took us to the new MGM Grand and won 25 bucks on the slots. 

As much as I still have trouble being concerned about an accident in these vans. I find my life much fuller with them. The little Cub Scouts still think I'm a hippie for driving them and I love having the peace sign given me along the road. I have everything I need in mine (gotta be prepared) and I'm ready to book if our local nuke is spewing. I find myself looking in the van when stuff runs low in the house. Thanks to my husbands mechanical abilities and my help restoring the interior and an extra set of hands and thought, we'll be able to continue with the enjoyment.
Peace, 
78 Westy 
93 Euro
85 Westy (crappy side windows),The Magic Bus, shipped over from Germany from a G.I.