Date:         Tue, 13 Sep 1994 18:07:26 -0400 (EDT)
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         GELATO@vax88a.pica.army.mil
Subject:      RE: female stuff on trips

This is for Martha and other females on the net (and
for any males who might be interested): 

I stated earlier that we just got back from a 13-day,
1553-mile adventure in our 67 Westy camper. That's the
engineer in me, quoting numbers.

>From a feminine perspective, please let me address:

Cooking: We used up an entire container of propane
fuel while cooking at our various campsites. I cooked
some of the usual campground fare at various times:
hamburgers, hot dogs, steaks, pancakes, eggs, bacon,
soup, and macaroni and cheese. When the weather was
rainy (we cook outside), it was easier to have cold 
cuts, milk, OJ, etc. stored in the ice box for cold 
cereal, sandwiches, etc. With about 1 day left, we 
needed another container of propane fuel. The best part 
was that when we are camping, I cook, and Anthony does 
KP. I can't figure out why it doesn't work this way at 
home! Does anyone else have this problem when camping
with their husbands or significant others? Must be that 
he is usually talking VW's on the phone or doing VW 
stuff on the computer (we have about 1350 in our old bus 
registry now), when we are at home.

We ate out about half of the time - which was especially 
fun when we were at an Italian restaurant in the burbs 
of Montreal. The waitress there knew about as much
English as I knew of French. The Italian restaurant was 
a good choice, as half of the menu was in Italian (p.s.
"parmigiana" in French is "parmigiana").  

Sewing/interior decor of our bus: Well, when we bought
our 67 last year from the original owner, it was in
pretty good shape. One partial exception involves the
privacy curtains. The original curtains were replaced
previously on the right side and rear windows. And one
of the original ones on the left side is torn slightly.  
Well, my loving husband found an original front curtain 
(white/yellow/brown) that he wants me to make new 
curtains for the right and rear. Isn't that nice of
him??? (Add it to my list of things to do.) They are
*not* weathered/faded to match the other ones. Oh, well!

Crocheting: My goal, as we set out on the trip was to
finish one blue baby sweater (that only needs finishing
touches) and to make a pink one. P.S. 2 friends of mine
are pregnant, and with any luck, one will have a girl 
and the other one, a boy! I'm working on the second 
sleeve of the pink one, but I did not finish it. The 
bus/bug show on Sunday, in Woodstock, NY was interesting 
enough that I didn't do a lot of crocheting that day. 
That nite we were finally home.  

I am back at work now - camping is only a memory (till 
the next trip) - back to software, numbers and 
equations. 

All comments are welcome!

Lori Gelato