Date: Sun, 29 Sep 2013 03:50:42 -0500
Reply-To: Julianna Thoennes <mumbrue@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Julianna Thoennes <mumbrue@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Our long and awesome journey!
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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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