Date: Sun, 29 Sep 2013 11:01:40 -0400
Reply-To: Stephen Engel <sengel543@YAHOO.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Stephen Engel <sengel543@YAHOO.COM>
Subject: Re: Our long and awesome journey!
In-Reply-To: <-2346454434250305726@unknownmsgid>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Wow, what an adventure! I'm sorry we didn't meet at Watkins' ( or did we? ), there were so many people there!
Anybody so fond of exclamation points is a friend of mine!
Sent from my iPhone
On Sep 29, 2013, at 4:50 AM, Julianna Thoennes <mumbrue@GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> Hi all! Please excuse the double posting! I wanted to share with both the
> WetWesties, and the Vanagon lists!!! I don't post much anymore, but I am
> out here lurking, loving all your techy posts, journeys, and thoroughly
> enjoying Fryedays to the upmost!!! I thought you all might enjoy an update
> of my journey! Ok, a little about me for those curious! I am driving my
> 1990 VW Vanagon Westfalia named the Rastafalia! I have had him since 1997,
> and he is as much a part of me as an appendage! :D I am traveling with my
> sweety, Colin Elligsen, and our Great Dane mix puppy Charlotte! Our
> journey begins back in early September, when we left Corvallis, OR during a
> particularly ferocious lightning storm! Very unusual, as it stuck around
> for HOURS, and dumped a ton if rain on us as we were packing the last of
> our essentials into the van! Could I get the wipers to work?!!!! Of
> course not! Thankfully, it was just a fuse, and we were safely on our way.
> We travelled thru much of the night. At the time, feeling sad, as I was
> going to miss the ReUnion at Catherine Creek! AGAIN! Oh dear! Next year
> will hopefully be easier! We were on a very short timeline to get to our
> conference on the East Coast, and we left 3 days later than planned, cause
> we have had massive awesome stuff happening in our team! Happiness! We
> first traveled to Moab, UT, cause I just can't pass thru the country
> without stopping to see and experience the red cliffs and slickrock! Just
> fills me up! The canyons there feed my soul! We stayed up in the LaSal
> Mountains this time around, as my friend Meg just bought property up there!
> They are building their dream house! Then we beat feet across the
> country, and visited Mammoth Caves in Kentucky! We did the River Styx Tour
> and the New Entrance Tour! I had just finished a fictionalized novel about
> the true life slave guide Stephen Bishop, so it was fun to walk thru the
> cave and see areas that he guided folks thru a hundred years ago! Wanted
> to do the Historic Tour too, but ran out of time! We needed to be in
> Charlotte, NC for a business conference! Made it only 16 minutes late!
> LOL! Whew! Afterwards we went and visited VW friends from Oregon, Brent
> and Laura Brooks!!! Got to squeeze their baby daughter in person! So nice
> after seeing her grow in pictures over the last year! Ah! They get big
> too fast! So happy I got to see them again! I got to see my ole Baywindow
> Pea Pod again after all these years too!! Brent replaced the pop top with
> a high top, and I almost didn't recognize it! We stayed one night, then
> moved on Northward to visit Karl Mullendore at his shop. :D I tell you,
> this man has done some seriously nice mods to his Syncro Westy!!!! If he
> really does sell it, someone is going to be lucky to get to own it!!!! I
> need to make some serious money! Drooling! LOL!
> Karl told us about Westies at Watkins Glen! We were heading North to visit
> Family in NY, and he so kindly invited me to the event! So glad!!!! I
> got to meet, in person, a few of you famous people at while we were there!
> Stupendous!!!! Thank you Joel Cort for hosting!!! You put a lot of effort
> in to make it a great event! The posters are an awesome souvenir! Hope
> there are shirts left that I can order later! It was a well attended camp
> out! We arrived on Friday, and met Bob and Susan checking in with their
> beautiful 76 Bay window Westy!!!! their little dog Chewy was adorable too!
> They so kindly let us double up with them for the event! We could only
> stay part of the time, cause we really should have already been on the road
> back to Oregon already! I really enjoyed the hike thru Watkins Glen with
> Steve Van Pelt and Nancy Hart!!! Seeing Chris Torlesco after all these
> years, and Karl Mullendore was good for my heart! Love you guys!!! Afterwards
> I went to see my Uncle Jim, who I haven't seen in about 30 years. Crazy!
> He looks the same, except less hair! ;) Also got to see my cousin Aaron,
> and met his wife Sara and the family. They just had a new baby! We
> stopped in at Lehman's Non Electric in Ohio along the way. That was
> fun!!!! 40,000+ square feet of nostalgia! Got myself a Breathing Hand
> Washer to do laundry with! Here is a link, so you can see what I speak of!
>
> https://www.lehmans.com/p-4444-breathing-hand-washer.aspx
> It works awesome! I used to use my Wonder Washer, but it broke before we
> left! I had resorted to a cheap plunger till I got to Lehman's. It may
> sound goofy, but I love doing my laundry by hand! I can do it faster, and
> it gets cleaner! I just use a 3 gallon bucket! Ok, onward ho! We then
> drove on to visit my brother in Kansas City, MO! Stayed for a few days,
> and now we are heading South thru Kansas on our way to LA! We may need
> some help with what I think may be a CV joint issue. I have clickage, and
> knockage on the right side. We are just past Wichita, KS now. We will be
> heading West on US 54, mostly tomorrow, I presume, as it is almost 4am now!
> Need to find a safe place to pull over to sleep. Gotta love our Westies
> for that!!! Anywhere is cozy in our Westfalia's! Stay Tuned, more saga to
> follow!
>
> Julianna
> 1990 VW Vanagon Westfalia with Tiico Conversion. (The Rastafalia)
> 1988 VW Vanagon (James)
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