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Date:         Mon, 15 Oct 2012 10:12:19 -0700
Reply-To:     Stuart MacMillan <stuartmacm@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Stuart MacMillan <stuartmacm@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Re: I'm Back!
Comments: To: Ken Wilford <kenwilfy@COMCAST.NET>
In-Reply-To:  <507C2A0B.8010005@comcast.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

What a great trip! That surfing competition was actually at Cape Kiwanda in Pacific City on the Oregon coast. One of my favorite stops, including the Pelican Brew Pub there! There is a nice campground nearby at Cape Lookout SP. Highway 1 is an old-school winding road with some interesting views, campgrounds, and stops, but in summer the heat in the interior valley sucks coastal fog in pretty much every day, all the way down to San Francisco. Usually it's better by now though.

Stuart

-----Original Message----- From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of Ken Wilford Sent: Monday, October 15, 2012 8:22 AM To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM Subject: I'm Back!

Dear List,

So some of you are probably wondering why I haven't been on the list for a while. Part of the reason was that my family and I have been on an epic road trip for the past month, going across the US from NJ all the way to Seattle Washington, then driving down 101 and 1 into the San Francisco area, then back across via Las Vegas, Grand Canyon, etc. to NJ again. My sister Carolyn has been manning the phones here at Van-Again and then I was calling customers or email them from the road but I haven't had any extra time to email the list lately so I thought I would take some time to do that now.

We had a great time and met a few Vanagon owners along the way, here and there. One was Robert Keezer (warmerwagon) who I have known and spoken with for years and years but never met face to face. It was great to finally meet him after all of these years! We didn't do a lot of Vanagon meeting and greeting just because I had my family with me and didn't want to spare 2 hours per visit every time I met up with someone.

We saw some great sights along the way and if anyone is planning a trip feel free to pmail me for advice since I have just Been There and Done That. The most fun things the kids liked: Niagara Falls on the weather deck and the Maid of the Mist. The most unexpected thing that I liked: Wall Drugs near the badlands in South Dakota. You will see the signs long before you get there but this is one case where the place exceeds the hype probably times 10!

Our trip took us up through Pennsylvania Dutch Country, to Niagara Falls, then across Canada to Michigan. Then we stopped at a fake German village called Frakenmuth, just when they were having an annual car show of over 2500 cars! After that we went up through Michigan to the Upper Pennisula. Out of the way, but very beautiful. Then across Wisconsin to Minnesota and the Mall of America. The kids loved this almost as much as Niagara Falls as they have an indoor amusement park in the center of the mall. Then we went to Sioux Falls, SD and across South Dakota to Mt. Rushmore. I loved seeing this in person and also getting to go into the workshop where the guy designed the figures. Next on to Wyoming to a place called Thermopolis. Here there is a natural hot springs and the kids loved playing at a water park there called the Star Plunge. You just have to get used to the smell!

We were going to go to Yellowstone but it started getting really cold there at night (low 20s) and I knew my rig couldn't deal with that so we bypassed that for now. We went up through Montana where we ran into smoke from wildfires that lasted all the way across Montana, through Idaho and on to Washington State all the way to Seattle! That is where we met up with Robert. Then we went down 101 through Washington, and Oregon. Oregon coast was my favorite. At a small town called Liwanda we came to the bottom of a hill and saw that a surfing competition was going on. Right across the street was an RV park so we pulled in a stayed for the night. I met a few more Vanagon owners here as they were there for the surfing!

Then on down to the Redwood trees in Northern California. They were great! Then I got the bright idea to drive down 1 all the way to San Francisco. If I had to do this again I would have taken 101 or 5 instead. It was very foggy on the coast and chilly and the driving was very painstaking, curvy and hilly. My wife was on the side facing all of the cliffs, etc. and she was not loving it. After driving down to San Francisco area and not really having any fun, we decided it was time to head back to the East Coast.

We drove through Bakersfield, CA and things started to look a little greener. California right now is brown and kind of shriveled from the drought. It tells you how bad it is when Arizona actually looks greener than Cali! Anyway we went to Hoover Dam, then up to the Grand Canyon. Through the Petrified Forest, and the Painted Desert, Canyon de Chelley, up to Monument Valley in UT. Stopped at a nice RV park in Bluff, UT where we got to go out to dinner at a nice steak house there. Best ribs I ever had. Then we went to the four corners (don't waste your time on this one), then to Mesa Verde. I loved visiting the ruins there! Then on through Colorado where I got my one and only speeding ticket in a speed trap there. Be very careful in small towns especially when they drop the speed limit from 65 to 40 to 30 in less than half a mile! We zoomed across Kansas, and on the St. Louis Arch. From there we were ready to come home so I drove pretty much non-stop through Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, West Virgnia, Maryland, to Delaware, and then back to NJ.

It was a great trip. Total of almost 10k miles! It let up know how big our country is but also how small. I was surprised by how nice most people you will meet in the RV parks will be and just people in general. The Pacific North West was kinda ruined for us because of the smoke from the wildfires. You just didn't feel like you could stop and enjoy things because you were breathing in this smoke the whole time and everything looked smokey. California was also wrecked for us because of how brown it was, the high price of everything (especially gas), and the foggy, chilliness of the coast. Northern Arizona was my favorite place since there were so many interesting things to do and see in the Grand Canyon area. I could have stayed there another month!

Hope you enjoyed my tale. If you are planning a similar trip please pmail me and I will share any advice I can with you.

-- Sincerely, Ken Wilford John 3:16 www.vanagain.com Phone: 856-327-4936 Fax: 856-327-2242


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