Date:         Mon, 13 Jul 2015 23:01:58 -0400
Reply-To:     Jeffrey Lee <jeffrey_lee_aqua@YAHOO.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Jeffrey Lee <jeffrey_lee_aqua@YAHOO.COM>
Subject:      A Westy Reunion

I can't top Jim Felder's "Awesome Vanagon Close Encounter" of a few weeks
ago, but I recently had a similar experience and wanted to share. I've also
posted this to the Samba with a photo, for those may be interested.
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=7748649#7748649

I was assistant-instructing at a sea-kayak symposium this past weekend in
Wisconsin's Door County peninsula, and I got lots of admiring glances and
peace signs every time I puttered through the parking lot with my Westy.
Once, when I'd parked and was rummaging through some gear bags, an older
woman approached and asked, "What year is your diesel Vanagon?"

"It's a 1983," I answered, and she replied that she used to own one the same
color. She went on to explain that she and her husband had gone to Germany
and picked theirs up in Hannover, then spent five weeks touring northern
Europe before shipping their new van home to the States. I chuckled because
that was the same story I'd heard about the original owners of my van, but I
suppose lots of Americans did that.

She went on to offhandedly mention increasingly unique descriptions of
various accessories they'd added to their Westy: the matching Westfalia
toilet-in-a-box, a foot switch for the sink pump, the RV levelers on the
closet wall; all of which our van also has. And she mentioned their
cross-country roadtrips to the western American national parks, and points
beyond.

I finally asked whatever happened to her Vanagon, and she explained that
once their children were born they had camped less and less, so they finally
sold it to a pair of German foreign-exchange engineering students. My ears
perked up and I asked, "What university?"

"Oh, that was down in Platteville ..."

I felt a shiver run down my spine. "That's where we bought OUR Westy," I
said, "from two university students who were returning to Germany."

She stared blankly at me, and I stepped over to the passenger door and
opened the glovebox. Inside, there has always been a small faded mailing
label with a name and address, presumably of the original owners. I had long
planned to look them up, but had never gotten around to it.

"Who is Kevin and Grace Halmouth?" I asked (names have been changed).

"Well, that was my married name!" she replied. We both burst into laughter
and exchanged a friendly embrace at this reunion of long-lost Westy 'parents'.

We spent the next half hour swapping stories and tales of our travels and
roadtrips, and exchanged email addresses. She plans to visit my wife and I
with a small photo album documenting their time in Europe and the US, and I
can't wait to see the 'baby pictures' and first steps of our beloved Westy.