Date: Tue, 11 Jun 2019 14:16:31 -0700
Reply-To: Dan N <dn92610@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Dan N <dn92610@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: For Ben T - Where has everyone gone?
In-Reply-To: <70288FE2-BBAD-4F2B-8386-BCE1E3741FA8@gmail.com>
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*looks like this is a good time to share my story regarding VW bus and
vanagon...*
1977… I lived and work in Belgium, me and my then girl friend (later wife)
went on vacations in Southern of France and Corsica on a motorcycle, a BMW
R100RT. We camped a lot and at a campsite we met a couple with an air
cooled Westfalia… and met a some more other tintops. We think about it and
1978 we bought an apple green barn door bus 1900cc air-cooled tintop. We
used it for vacation till 1985, the year we emigrate to Southern
California… we went thru a set of CV joints, one engine and many other
parts but we enjoy the bus a lot.
1985 to 1988.. we use the motorcycle to camp and travel across the USA,
riding and camping from So Cal. to New York and back…
1988… first house and 1st child, a daughter. We bough a sidecar for our
motorcycle and keep traveling/camping on it with the baby and our Fox
Terrier till 1990.
1990… 2nd child, a son… now a family of 4 and a Fox Terrier on a motorcycle
w. side car !!!! errr … we bought a 1985 vanagon 1.9WBX weekender (pop
top/no kitchen).. it was a very sweet weekender, 5 years old, 20K miles
almost like new to us. We travel/camp many places with it, Baja California
3 times, up and down the West coast too many times to count. We keep the
van till 2005, went thru one engine.
2005… a some freaky teenagers stole our van… we recovered it with dings,
destroyed interior and poops/vomit/drugs/liquor everywhere in the van.
Since the interior is destroyed, the engine/trans. were not fresh anymore,
we sold it and buy a 1988 Orly Blue Carat from Greg (our VW mechanic). *Greg
introduced me to the Samba.com.*
2010… our daughter graduated from college and wants to see the country… We
gave her the Blue Snail (the Carat).. and presto she went on a cross
country trip with no problem… the Carat still has a rebuilt engine from
Greg. We feel miserable without a van for 6 months so we looked around to
get one for us… we looked… we looked.. we wanted a weekender but found
none, we don’t like full camper westfalia.. and then we found a white
tintop syncro, very good condition for the price of a weekender 2WD. Again
many, many trips with it and we still have it, we called it the Burro
Blanco.
2014… my wife wants a vanagon on her own… We bought a 1989 Tornado Red
Carat from our friend James, *he’s the one who introduced to Vanagon **@
gerry.vanagon.com <http://gerry.vanagon.com>*… my wife enjoys and loves her
Red Carat a lot. We still have it, we call it the TRed (mimicking TRex)
2015… my son wants a vanagon on his own… We bought a 1985 1.9 WBX with
sunroof… but the project to refresh it take too long… so we looked around
and bought a 1988 Dove Blue tiptop for him… he uses it extensively, went
thru one engine (engine fire) a trans, a set of shocks and springs. He
still has it and enjoy it a lot… and we still have the 1985 sunroof waiting
for the project to be finished…
2017… we moved to Oregon, near Eugene and put up our house in So Cal. for
rent. We need a truck for the property in Oregon… the previous owner of the
property offered his Toyota Tundra for $22/24K.. we looked around and
compare… a Toyota Tacoma private party sale for $18K… nope… then a Belgian
friend of us from Belgium suggest us to look at Busman.be… We found a 1991
Red Syncro Doka 16 1.9Tdi, dual lockers … and we bought it. My son uses it
on the farm.
winter 2017… snow, rain in winter months in Oregon… we think that we need
another syncro to move around… we found a 1991 Bronzit Syncro with locker
and decoupler for sale in Washington, near Columbia River… and we bought it…
*and I am still on gerry.vanagon.com <http://gerry.vanagon.com>… posting
here and there, reading your email… :-) - no FaceBook, no Tweeter...*
that’s it folks….
thank you for reading my longish story…
dan
