Date: Tue, 8 Feb 2011 19:13:21 -0600
Reply-To: mcneely4@COX.NET
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Dave Mcneely <mcneely4@COX.NET>
Subject: Re: Vanagons in the desert SW...and a short rant off topic.
In-Reply-To: <AANLkTikJR+QUBS1v8cN0V4w37i+JAKzC1DvDAeUEXHZ1@mail.gmail.com>
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wow, Don, you sure got off on this. but .............. didn't know you and I thought so much alike. lol. DMc
---- Don Hanson <dhanson928@GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 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....
--
David McNeely
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