Date: Tue, 11 Jun 2019 17:57:18 -0400
Reply-To: Stephen Grisanti <bike2vcu@YAHOO.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Stephen Grisanti <bike2vcu@YAHOO.COM>
Subject: Re: For Ben T - Where has everyone gone?
In-Reply-To: <CAFdLW6=anmxJayMo79EjpyCnbhiR=FkKT8fe4gkiE6iXdGU16w@mail.gmail.com>
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Even when the humans leave some stories continue. When Don in the PNW recent sold his tintop "Westie," as he called it, the son of a Vanagon family did a fly-and-drive back to GA and posted his intro trip in a Samba thread.
Stephen
Mobile
> On Jun 11, 2019, at 5:16 PM, Dan N <dn92610@GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>
> *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
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