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!
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