Date: Tue, 8 Feb 2011 15:12:23 -0800
Reply-To: Don Hanson <dhanson928@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Don Hanson <dhanson928@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Vanagons in the desert SW...and a short rant off topic.
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We've been near the Salton Sea now since around Xmas...I have my Vanagon
and we also have a travel trailer..we are dry camping on some public lands.
This past week in the small town I have seen two syncros and about 4
normal westies, some with hippie paintjobs (artwork on the outside). Both
the syncros sounded pretty sick...that "WBX-out of tune-maybe on
3-cylinders" sound.. I met the one couple, cyclists from Big Sur...quite
wealthy and a bit stand-offish, very proud of their 'collector' Syncro..but
not real Vanagon Nuts..One guy, with a 'nekid lady' and other stuff
airbrushed on the side of his 90's 2wd westie...he is a full-timer from
N.M. near Taos or somewhere...
The real 'trendy' small rigs of choice seem to be long and low
Sprinter-based...Airstream, and other brands...Dozens of these around...many
of them camp right in the parking lots in town...guess they don't want em
dusty or something...Much more reasonable to drive around than some of the
Mega-Motorcoaches the blue-hair set seems to favor...but pretty low to the
ground and they look suited to RV parks more than to camping as in actually
camping, without cords, pavement and hook-ups.
Being in Snow-bird Land for High Season....I have seen some pretty
sketchy driving in the larger Mega RVs....the ones with half a dozen pop-out
rooms. When you see the drivers emerge sometimes, down the power
stairs...could be a 100lb little old lady, but more likely it will be a
knobby-kneed fellow with a straw Stetson and gabardine plaid Bermuda shorts
from Calgary or somewhere in the frozen north...you wonder if that person
really has a clue as to how to safely maneuver that large of a vehicle
around....Riding my bicycle up Montezuma Grade nearby, a 4000' vertical pass
with tight switchbacks and a constant 8% average grade...The smell of
burning brakes is pervasive...though the big ones all seem to make it down
safely..most of the time.
Now a bit of rant...I f hate generators! Why do people simply ignore
the fact that their generator WILL make noise that others may not want to
listen to?
Early on this snowbird season, when there were few 'campers' in the desert,
you could hear owls, coyotes, wind in the desert, etc etc....But way too
often, some jerk will come and park his motorcoach or camper very very
close...even when there are hundreds of square miles of empty and identical
desert with unlimited empty camping spots, all around...and the first thing
they do is fire up a noisy cheap Briggs and Stratton generator...and leave
it running all day and all night....Clue-less!
For the ability to avoid terrain that allows others to come camp way too
close and run the generators they bring....it would be worth owning a Syncro
Westie....Winch yourself up onto a rock somewhere where the Generator People
could not get near....
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