Date: Sun, 13 Dec 2009 08:45:17 -0800
Reply-To: Roger Whittaker <rogerwhitt1@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Roger Whittaker <rogerwhitt1@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: How not to explore the back roads of Death Valley
In-Reply-To: <013401ca7bb8$acafed10$060fc730$@com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
dear wise travelers
it does not surprise me that travelers would adventure somewhere verbotten
after all our list is full of stories of people who found out that triple a
doesnt do off road rescue...
we bought our rigs to wander in and wander we will ...
having said that ...
suitably attired ... suitably ready for nearly any challenge is the bottom
line ...
so ... as we test the limits of our vans and selfs ...
always bare in mind that someone will have to rescue or recover ...
bones ... bodies... vehicular or human ...
i wonder how many of our list carry flat repair kits ... extra bottle jacks
and at least a 12 v compressor ...
we also have red flashlite extension to wave traffic on ...
and a large roof mounted cannon ...
love the adventure ...
yours
On Sat, Dec 12, 2009 at 9:54 PM, Robert Fisher <refisher@mchsi.com> wrote:
> --snip--
> Personally, I know quite a few "rare modern, educated Germans (not
> university though), wealthy enough to travel" who do not read English, and
> do not speak it fluently.
> --snip--
>
> I dunno that reading the language has anything to do with it. Some years
> ago I was supervising a crew of developmentally disabled adults at the Coso
> Junction rest area south of Lone Pine; it was one of those summer days where
> the breeze felt like somebody was holding a hair dryer up to your face, and
> here comes this blue-under-beige dust-armored rental car, wheezing in with
> heat waves coming off of it. This English couple in their sixties (I'd
> guess) stumbled out, flushed and angry, and looking for all the world like
> somebody that'd just narrowly escaped with their lives from some disaster. I
> asked what had happened and the lady went into a tirade (the gent just went
> into the bathroom) about how they'd gone to Death Valley because some friend
> of theirs had told them how beautiful the flowers had been when they'd
> visited there. Of course the flowers there bloom in the very early spring;
> this was August.
> She went on and on about the heat, the price of everything, the lack of
> flowers, the lack of everything else except the dirt and the heat. I let her
> wind down for a bit and then I asked her if they'd ever stopped to wonder
> why they called it 'Death' valley. She was not amused. I wasn't particularly
> either; apparently they'd gotten out somewhere to walk around, and like most
> folks that have never been exposed to those temps they wound up turning back
> to the car just about the same time they figured out that they were
> suffering- and then of course the car was hot as hell from sitting in that
> sun.
> You'd have thought from her attitude that she thought it was a gross lack
> of judgment on somebody else's part to leave a death trap like that laying
> out there in the desert for people to stumble into. She was really pissed,
> but not at herself, as if she had been tricked. I got the vibe from the old
> guy that he was just beginning to absorb how lucky they were to not have
> seriously hurt themselves.
>
> Cya,
> Robert
>
--
roger w
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servant who becomes king ...
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