Date: Thu, 11 Apr 2013 22:24:30 -0500
Reply-To: ddbjorkman@VERIZON.NET
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: David Bjorkman <ddbjorkman@VERIZON.NET>
Subject: Re: Vanagon "truisms"
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<div style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma; COLOR: rgb(0,0,0); FONT-SIZE: 16px"><DIV> I am very much around Boston and the surrounding roads and highways, and in my experience I must agree with <SPAN class=misspelled>Stuart</SPAN>.</DIV><DIV>But now I have a hot little I4 engine from FAS and I surprise some of them. I hope I'm not subconsciously trying to make up for all those slow busses I owned over the years. </DIV><DIV>John <SPAN class=misspelled>Muir</SPAN> note. For those <SPAN class=misspelled>who've</SPAN> read and understand. Not just in my dreams :-)</DIV><DIV></DIV><DIV> </DIV><DIV><SPAN class=misspelled>Dave</SPAN> B.</DIV><DIV> </DIV><DIV> </DIV><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12px; FONT-FAMILY: arial; COLOR: #000000">On 04/11/13, <SPAN><SPAN class=misspelled>David</SPAN> <SPAN class=misspelled>Beierl</SPAN><<SPAN class=misspelled>dbeierl</SPAN>@ATTGLOBAL.NET></SPAN> wrote:</SPAN><DIV> </DIV><DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 12px; FONT-FAMILY: arial; COLOR: #000000">At 10:05 PM 4/11/2013, <SPAN class=misspelled>Stuart</SPAN> <SPAN class=misspelled>MacMillan</SPAN> wrote:<BR>>. Everyone wants to pass a <SPAN class=misspelled>Vanagon</SPAN>, no matter how fast it is going.<BR>><BR>>. Corollary to above: No one will let a <SPAN class=misspelled>Vanagon</SPAN> pass them.<BR><BR>These must be West coast things. Nobody on the East coast seems to<BR>care one way or the other. Some people seem to speed up a bit if you<BR>overtake slowly, but that happens in any car I drive -- I think it's<BR>a sort of automatic reaction to having something slowly appear from<BR>behind. Doesn't seem to happen if you overtake briskly.<BR><BR>Around Boston it has seemed to be a fairly common phenomenon that if<BR>you signal that you're going to pull out to pass, the guy next back<BR>in the passing lane will speed up so you don't have room to pull<BR>out. But again it's not <SPAN class=misspelled>Vanagon</SPAN>-specific.<BR><BR>I did once in my life experience someone who really didn't want me to<BR>pass, and could make it stick, Thanksgiving 1971. I was in a <SPAN class=misspelled>Fiat</SPAN><BR>128 and he was in an MGB, it was the middle of the night and snowing<BR>hard. He finally couldn't go any more (halfway up a long hill on<BR><SPAN class=misspelled>Pennslyvania</SPAN> 81) because all the cars ahead were stuck, and so<BR>perforce neither could we. By morning the snow was halfway up the<BR>doors (all the way up his). I bet he was colder than we were by the<BR>next afternoon. And that's the story of my 18 hours stuck in the<BR>snow with the future <SPAN class=misspelled>fantasist</SPAN> Robin <SPAN class=misspelled>McKinley</SPAN> and her future former<BR>husband, and not a pot to <SPAN class=misspelled>pee</SPAN> in. She seemed a mite preoccupied<BR>toward the end, and was glad to stop in at my aunt's in Washington NJ<BR>after we <SPAN class=misspelled>mushed</SPAN> the car down the hill to meet the <SPAN class=misspelled>Payloaders</SPAN> digging<BR>cars out and sending them away one by one.<BR><BR>A lot of the people stuck were locals and not prepared at all. The<BR>state came around in <SPAN class=misspelled>snowmobiles</SPAN> and a big 4x4 around noon, passing<BR>out quarts of milk and <SPAN class=misspelled>medevac</SPAN>-<SPAN class=misspelled>ing</SPAN> a baby. We used their broken<BR>trail, plastic chains, a couple shovels and that lovely light<BR>smooth-bottomed car and made it out three hours later, the only ones<BR>who tried. I don't know how long it took to get everyone out, we<BR>didn't follow up. But Robin was grateful and it gave us something to<BR>do other than wait. A <SPAN class=misspelled>Syncro</SPAN> <SPAN class=misspelled>Westy</SPAN> and a time machine would have<BR>been nice. Or a 'Bus with a working heater.<BR><BR><SPAN class=misspelled>Yrs</SPAN>,<BR><SPAN class=misspelled>d</SPAN><BR></DIV></div>
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