Date: Fri, 31 Dec 2010 19:00:04 -0800
Reply-To: Rob <becida@COMCAST.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Rob <becida@COMCAST.NET>
Subject: Re: The Looks.....(vanagon envy?)
In-Reply-To: <C1B407E98DA146D8AF07B3E9259C2519@Mikelaptop1>
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On the way home from a flea market I saw a road heading off towards
the south, I'd seen it before and wanted to take a look. Went down
that back road, down a dirt road for a few miles, down another dirt
road on you are in the 'beach area' of the lake. We find a spot
still on solid ground with the sliding door facing the water and
nothing between us and the far side of the lake 5 or 6 miles away but
some gravel beach and water.
We take stock of the supplies and we have enough food & water for a
night so we decide to spend the night. Put the poptop up, close the
curtains and leave the sliding door open.
There is a guy fishing from a kayak, he is from the big RV behind us
up towards the road. 50 yds in front of the bus a young couple has a
fire going and are cooking hotdogs and doing what not. Almost 1/2
miles down the beach (we'd have to open the hatch to see them) is a
fair sized encampment of people in tents and 150 yards behind and
away from the lake is a gathering of large RV's with a good sized
fire and gen sets running. They are circled like you'd see wagons do
in the movies.
Further behind them is a line of large RV's parked like they are in a
formal camp.
With the curtains closed and the sliding door open we have the lake
to ourselves.
We set up the grill and cook some dinner, I don't recall what it was
but there are times when nothing will taste poorly, this is one of them.
The sun slowly goes down over the mountains past the lake, the fog
starts to creep our way from across the lake. We sit in the bus a
watch it come, just talking and enjoying the night. The noises from
the surrounding camps is not bad, the light from their fires is not
in our way. We can hear the folks having a good time and talk of
camps we were on like that.
It's almost dark and the fog is almost on shore... it was a GREAT
night. We went to bed.
Around 2am I'm woken up by someone giving out a giant YAHOOOOOOOOOOO
followed by 5 or 6 quick shots. Sounded like a large caliber handgun
followed by another loud-happy shout. I smiled, there is nothing like
popping a few rounds off in the middle of the night when you know you
have a safe direction to do it, it's loud, it's bright and the flame
from the barrel seems to reach forever. If feels good.
I listened to see if there were any 'bad' noises, there was none. I
smiled and went back to sleep. Been there done that, good fun.. My
wife never even heard the shots.
I forget that this type of camping is not for everyone....
Rob
becida@comcast.net
Western WA state
At 12/31/2010 04:34 PM, Mike wrote:
>Drunks shooting guns?.............wouldn't want to be within 20 miles of
>them!
>YMMV,
>Mike B.
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Don Hanson
>Sent: Friday, December 31, 2010 2:30 PM
>To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
>Subject: The Looks.....(vanagon envy?)
>
> I am spending some time in the Desert southwest in my 84 vanagon. I am
>using the WiFi at the county library of a small town where lots of
>Weekenders end up as well as the off-road crowd and RVers galore. The time
>between Xmas and New Years is probably one of the busiest times all
>year..lots and lots of people coming out and "camping" or having a
>Wilderness experience in their Jeep Laredos, their Range Rovers, their
>Prevost motor coaches, etc etc.
>
> My vanagon is a low roof with a westie interior, the windows are dark
>tinted. I have some KC driving lights on the bumper and a roof mounted
>spotlight..2wd, but at a decent height from the road and on stout tires.
>Anyhow, I get so many looks as people saunter past and I am inside, unseen
>because of my window tint..People nudge each other and point or nod, usually
>with an approving grin...like.."Say, Harriet, maybe we should get us one-a
>dem, rather than this Lexus SUV, this Dodge dually pickup with the topheavy
>cab over camper..."
>
> Pretty interesting.
>
> And going in and out of parking spaces or negotiating a steep gully to
>get to a more isolated parking space in the "Wilderness" Or pulling in to
>fill up with some $3.50 gas and knowing I'll be burning it at about 23miles
>per gallon rather than 2 or 3miles per gallon...that is pretty handy and
>satisfying.
>
> It's gonna be really noisy tonight, as all the city folks party down out
>in the wilderness and blow off fire works, shoot their guns in the air and
>stuff...Most will leave early Sunday morning..to "beat the traffic" back
>into the city..
>
> Interesting....camping around Southern California.
>
> Don Hanson
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