Date:         Sun, 8 Jan 1995 17:58:30 -0800
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         nrubin@s1.csuhayward.edu (martha rubin)
Subject:      W pretour trip report


Ok, I'll start the ball rolling.  The rest of you geeks, please add
on, correct, etc.  

The following were in attendance at the Big Sur orgy, Jan 6-8:

David Schwarze           schwarze@nosc.mil          
Steve Johnson            sjohnson@pcocd2.intel.com     
Tobin Copley             tobin@unixg.ubc.ca                      
Bill Abbott              wabbott@townshend.corp.megatest.com        
Jeff Schneiter           jeffs@almaden.ibm.com                           
Steve Wall               wall@mcm.com            
Dave Garth               dgarth@cymbal.calpoly.edu                
Martha Rubin             nrubin@s1.csuhayward.edu  
John Huguenard           hugie@lindy.stanford.edu    


The Copley's drove from Canada, making this the first part of their
forthcoming 3 month vacation around the US.  David Schwarze drove
from San Diego.  Dave Garth is from San Luis Obispo, the Johnson's
from Sacramento, and I believe the rest from the Bay Area (or at least
sort of).  We expected up to 10-12 more cars, but the weather conditions
were horrible, and my server was down for most of the week prior to
the event, so some communications was lost.

The drive from Carmel south to Big Sur (about 26 miles) was the worst
many of us had ever encountered.  There were reports of wind gusts
up to 55 mph, it was very cold, and depending on the time, torrents
of rain.  And of course dark, to boot, plus in a remote area, so
all rather high-thrill mode!

People arrived in stages.  Unfortunately some of the ones we really
needed for complete gourmet cuisine couldn't make it, or make it on
time, and so we had to make do, but that in itself was a great deal
of fun.  Linda Johnson saved the culinary day at least once per meal.
She and Steve carry absolutely EVERYTHING in their van.

Some people had to leave on Saturday, but not before a super neato
tour of people's mods.  My prize goes to Dave Garth, for a built-in
installed ducted and vented catalyic propane heater, and the killer:
his onboard entine-heated hot water system, complete with
exterior shower.  This is WAY better than a Winnebago.

Dave Schwarze carried thru on the ingenious plan of inverting
a clay flower pot over his propane stove, extruding wonderful
heat.  We were all muddy, wet, freezing cold, etc., and many an
hour was spent in his warm bubbletop playing pictionary, card
games, and ingesting various sub..(oops, never mind).

The Copley's have a non-original gas heater installed on their
'76 to keep warm, but it was not working unfortunately.  They took
Jeff Schneiter back to near Santa Cruz, to stay overnite there, and to
be able to work on the heater in the morning.

John Hugenard installed a power inverter - hardwired behind his
electric socket in his '81 westy, so that he could for example
run his electric coffee grinder, even though Pfeiffer Big Sur
had no electric hookups.  I'm VERY envious of this, John!

Jeff Schneiter didn't have a car yet, so rode to the event
with Bradley M, in his cool split window.  Bradley kept us warm
chopping wood and making great campfires.  Thanks, all the guys,
for all that woodsplitting!  Thanks, too, Jeff for the wonderful
24 egg omlet, even though by the time I got back from the showers
you'd eaten it all...

Bill Abbott just purchased his bus, and is I believe having
an engine made/reubilt for it, so came and slept in his corrado.
He said it was comfortable enough to dream in, so maybe some of
you bus wannabes should reconsider!  Bill seemed to be taking a lot
of snapshots, so maybe he can get together with one of you web/scanner
types, and post the video portions of our trip, that non-westerners
may enjoy, too.

The Hugenards and the Walls brought two of the smartest dogs my
daughter Sarah has ever encountered; she was sorry they both had to
leave early.  And David S, Bradley M, and Jeff S, (not to mention
everybody else) - thanks for entertaining Sarah, who can't wait to go
on the next event.

There was a group concensus to do this sort of thing 4-6 times per
hear, perhaps next time in the desert.  Any takers?  Dates?  Places?
Will do what I can to help organize.

The greatest image of all was on Saturday and Sunday, with 5 cars
remaining, we parked them all as close together as possible,
tarped over as much as we could, and had our own little VW
row house city.  Personally, this used up most of the film in
my camera.

Bradley M brought his cellular, which, being new for him, had
unlimited free local calls and airtime on the first month, so this
was quite helpful for communication, fun, etc.

The food was good, although we ate fish chower for two nites
in a row, and pancakes for two breakfasts in a row.  We had some
fun interludes of hot mulled wine, irish whiskey, a LOT of beer
(god, I still can't believe how much you guys drink, and that you
drink COLD beer in freezing weather!).  There was a wild popcorn
throwing party one evening in my van, but I think this was pretty
tame compared to some of the other stuff going on....  ;)

Ok, attendees, what have I left out?

/martha