Date: Wed, 29 Jul 2009 16:24:50 -0700
Reply-To: Rocket J Squirrel <camping.elliott@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Rocket J Squirrel <camping.elliott@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: Trip report: Pilgrimage to Pulaski (vanagon intensive with
pix...longish)
In-Reply-To: <704396.42563.qm@web110612.mail.gq1.yahoo.com>
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What be this "extended-stalk rearview mirror" of which you speak?
--
Mike "Rocket J Squirrel" Elliott
84 Westfalia: Mellow Yellow ("The Electrical Banana")
74 Utility Trailer. Ladybug Trailer, Inc., San Juan Capistrano
Bend, OR
KG6RCR
On 7/29/2009 2:35 PM Stephen Grisanti wrote:
> I'm embarrassed to admit that this is the first camping trip of the year, the first since Buses By The Trax last fall. We've spent every nice (and some not-so-nice) weekend day working on this room addition and that has kept us from making the time to camp, so when Karen needed to go out of town on family business I decided that Hank the dog and I should have ourselves a bacheling overnight.
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> I decided to combine the camping with the delivery of an alley find to a friend who could appreciate it and then drive a little farther south to visit a notorious Vanagon hotspot in Pulaski, Virginia known as Vanagon Heaven. My friend Dick Howard, who owned two bay vans for a total of 30 years, is just the type of guy to enjoy a jaunt like this. Sadly, he now owns two Toyota pickups.
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> I'll let the pix speak for themselves. While we were poking around we were approached by one of Pulaski's Finest and once he determined we were harmless (something Dick and I hate to admit to ourselves) he was glad to regale us with stories of the place ("You never see one drive in or out; they come in on a rollback or leave the same way. I don't think he fixes them here; he just parks them here."). There's a Samba thread about this place for the interested among you. Your dream Vanagon may be here someplace but you'll need a skyhook to get it out.
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> http://picasaweb.google.com/bike2vcu/PulaskiPost?authkey=Gv1sRgCOaBvdWm4YGrnQE#
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> After delivering Dickie safely home Hank and I headed for the North Creek campground in the Jefferson National Forest near Arcadia. It was raining when we arrived and that helped cool things down but it was still muggy and buggy and I snagged the last available spot. Whew! Over the months things had migrated into the house from the camper so not everything that I assumed was in there turned out to be, like the hatch screen and the new slider screen. A colossal thunderstorm hit during the night so I had to close up the van, making it even more uncomfortable. Oh well, this was my shakedown run for the season.
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> Next morning we headed uphill on several miles of gravel to the Blue Ridge Parkway for the trip home and things improved immensely. The elevation provided cooler temps, a stiff breeze and gorgeous views. Off the Parkway at I-64 we stopped by second VW place near Stuarts Draft, actually more of a VW-based place. This Nethken guy is big on expression instead of repair/restoration, and after viewing some of his projects and leaving there the temps got hot again. Thankfully the recharged A/C in the van worked wonderfully both days. We did about 550 miles total with fuel mileage at about 19 MPG. Saw two EVs on the road, but the place in Pulaski made up for any lack of vanage in motion. It was kind of sad, though. As with dogs at the pound, you'd like to think every one of them will find a home but you just know that is not how it will be.
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> Observations on mods: the Eurovan seats I installed are very comfortable on the road but I really need to get an inch or two more of rearward travel so seat rail surgery comes before the next road trip. The extended-stalk rearview mirror really improves rearward vision. The van ran like a dollar watch, as my Dad used to say. One more thing about Pulaski; it made me realize how lucky I was to find our Westy. Despite the number of vans we saw, there's nothing on that lot I'd have traded for.
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> Stephen
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