Date: Thu, 1 May 2014 11:16:03 -0500
Reply-To: JRodgers <jrodgers113@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: JRodgers <jrodgers113@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Small Trip Report - the weekend Van-about
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Took my Vanagon and went off this weekend past for a Van-about. Could
easily have been a walk-about as wonderfully slow as these old VW buses
go. Went down to South Alabama and North Florida where I got some of my
raising. Of particular interest to me was Andalusia, Ala. named after a
place in Spain - given that the Spanish came through this region first.
Spent first through sixth grades there., - 1944 through first half of
1950. My two old schools still stand. first grade School - Three Notch
School is now town hall, an 6th grade school - Church Street School is
the city art center.
Out of Andalusia a few miles is the Carolina Community. Went to the
church there and visited the cemetery where a number of kinsmen are
interred. It is my family tradition that periodically we go to
cemeteries and commune with our ancestors. Helps us stay connected and
know who we are and where we came from. Of note this trip was Thomas
Lowell Rodgers - aka Big Rodgers - to the men in his platoon as they
battled across Sicily and Italy in WW II. He was a Pathfinder - a
paratrooper with a very dangerous job. After surviving Italy, he
volunteered for the behind the lines jump into Germany in preparation
for the invasion of Germany. He was killed instantly by a German
sniper's bullet to the head. He was twenty-three. If anyone would like
to read a fascinating story about him and his platoon - look up a book
titled "Those Devils in Baggy Pants" by Ross Carter - who was with Big
Rodgers in Italy. the Germans called them that because Our Boys tucked
their trouser legs into their boot tops and they bagged over. And they
were such bad-asses the Germans were terrified of them. They were boys
off the farms of America and knew how to fight and give their all for
country. and they did! We would be under a Nazi Flag today had they not
done so.
Did try to stay at a campground by a lake. Learned real quick that
wouldn't work. Got a motel instead. Mosquito nets now on order.
Ol' Red ran like a champ the whole journey. There was one place he
hiccuped once but that was it. A single hiccup out of 600 miles.
Developed a very small leak in the coolant tank. A crack. A new tank
goes in today. 26 tear old plastic with a crack is always suspect no
matter how well it's patched.
It was a grand Van-about - got to do it again soon!
John