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Date:         Sat, 3 Nov 2007 22:58:09 -0400
Reply-To:     Poppie Jagersand <poppie.jagersand@YAHOO.CA>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Poppie Jagersand <poppie.jagersand@YAHOO.CA>
Subject:      Re: Most Outrageous Vanagon Stealth Camping Spots?
In-Reply-To:  <f06240801c34ce49d0f8b@[192.168.1.101]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1

Keep those camping stories coming! Best reading I've had on the list for a long time. Makes it easier to remember that fixing the buses is not all that we do...

During my school days in upstate NY, I used to take my birthday off for some skiing in the Adirondacks. One birthday I was particularly determined to get away from it all. Approaching the Adirondacks from the west it started snowing in the Tug hill area. First mishap happened on a particularly steep downhill where (due to crappy tires) I lost control. Thankfully the tall snow walls kept the westy on the road as I spun downhill pointing in various directions but forward. Thankfully these areas are almost deserted and there were no other cars. Only casualty were the bumper endcaps and cracked plastic on one flasher.

Stubborn and still determined I pushed on. Not long after I had to put on chains to keep going at all. With near zero visibility I drove for another hour or so, and the going only got slower. Finally around 9pm or so, still snowing heavily, I had to give up driving and bedded in my down sleeping bag. (No such luxuries as propane furnaces...)

At about 1am I was awakened by almost constant buzzing of high revving engines around me. Still half dozed off I peek out the window and see one snowmobile after another zip by just outside the bus. This keeps going on for another 30 min, then everything is completely quiet and I finally get to sleep in peace.

I next wake up to a cold, but crisp and sunny winter morning. Outside the van I realize I'm on a narrow trail, and the snowmobile tracks just narrowly averting the bus. Walking a bit further I realize I'm off the regular road and on a snowmobile track going between the bar in one village and another village. The 1am rush hour last night must have been all the villagers leaving when the bar closed.

Having a battery as bad as my tires of course the Diesel wouldn't start in the -20C morning temp. Thankfully XC skiing was pretty nice from just where I was camped. Later in the afternoon things warmed up a bit, and I got the bus started and was off to the high peaks region. (That is high by east coast standards...)

Martin (still with "Poppie" the same '82 Diesel westy)

David Etter <detter@MAIL.AURACOM.COM> wrote: Raymond: That's pretty funny. Another episode one evening in Guatamala when we heard the sound of gravel moving then felt someone outside shaking the van. I got out to see who would be bothering us on this lonely mountain gravel pull-off overlooking a gorge 250 feet straight down with no guardrails. There was not a soul to be found....... it was another aftershock and plus here we were stuck on a pull-off with a just discovered flat tire (from a trip over a bulldozed landslide earlier that evening). Hope was with us though as we saw the lights of cars moving slowly down the hillside on the other side of the gorge. We decided to stay put as it was dark and we couldn't see diddly. The next morning we discovered that the car lights we saw had been lava flowing down through the woods on the other side of the gorge. COOL!

David (dsl82westy) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Karin Baker & Raymond Paquette (wrote) >I parked my '64 in a cornfield in Mexico. Woke up early to these very >creepy loud scraping sounds, and felt the van being bumped around. > >Scared. Did the only reasonable thing I could think of. Hid under the >covers. More scraping. Chewing sounds. Waiting. Sound of something like >a creaky door swinging back and forth. > >Finally got up my courage to peek out. Surrounded by thirsty cows, licking >the heavy morning dew off of my van. Ever seen the thirsty cows in Baja, >with the cactus hanging from thier faces? One had licked my fiberglass air >scoop too vigorously, it had broken loose and was swinging back and forth. > >Things sound different at night. > >Raymond

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