Date: Sun, 17 Dec 1995 12:39:56 -0600
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: drphibes@siu.edu (Peter DePaoli)
Subject: Re: More Neighbors
> " Adrift in a Junkyard"
In response to "adrift in a junkyard, I thought I'd share my own...."Four
Vehicle Shuffle."
First off We Kim and I have always had more than several vehicles
seems as though we like variety. We moved to Carbondale<Il and into R.
Buckminster Fuller's "Own Dome" in May of '95. It needed some restoration
and that is another whole story in itself. But anyway, we moved in with an
'81 Honda Prelude( w/200,000 miles), Natasha (our '71 westy), and the chevy
that Kim's dad gave to us because he thought we needed a reliable vehicle?!?
So that is only three you say? well right it is ,but then comes the sweet
deal on the '73 Super Beetle from the nicest Business professeor at SIU.
Seems she was the second owner on this Bug and had an IL tag of "MS BUG"
Well we picked that one up for $400 yes that's it and no more, Jerry as we
now call him ('73 Super Harvest Gold or Orange if you must). So now the
collection is at four. Now comes the Bad news, I go to extract Natasha's
engine to replace some shoddy pushrod tubes and do a front seal job on her,
and low and behold there is terminal frame rot damage on her to the sum of a
soft ball sized piece of frame being missing :~0 (seems as thought to many
Chicago winters had done her in) Well now but of course we need a new bus,
but having just spent most of our savings on fixing up Bucky's Dome, and
purchasing the Bug, and returning to school to broaden our horizons, well
lets just say we eat alot of beans. So I post on the Vanagon List and to
our sweet surprise we hook up through a mutual, The Captain of Indy, Jim
Kirk (who some of you undoubtedly know) Seems as thought he has a '69 Panel
Camper Sportsmobile? Riviera? I just call her a Panle Camper. He says we
can have her if we just come out and pick her up, months go by and now its
November couple of days before turkey and we've sold the Honda did I say
that already? well we finally got use of truck and trailer for no cost
except gas and off we go to Indy. We get there trailer up the '69 (without
a hitch) Ha! and we meander inside of Jim's abode for some of the tastiest
Home brew I've ever tasted No Joke he's got it down. OK. we still have
Natasha, Jerry the chevy and wait yeah we've just brought home the '69 so
the driveway is maxed... and what happens next? Kim's brother in nearby
town, says he wants to knock out a wall in his kitchen and clean out his
garage, and for services rendered he wants to pay us with an'82 Suzuki GS750
along with a complete parts bike too. I say cool and so now I have three
projects, Bug (needs driver side floor pan), the two-Bus cobble exchange,
and the Suzuki (needs carb synchronization and brakes), am going to school
full time, working part time, a practicing artist, a Vw crazed lunatic, and
part time carpenter /remodeler, not neccesarily in that order. Everythinng
is going fine, but I do get these lets just say frustrated looks from the
neighbors who seem not to care all that much undoubtedly due to us being
sort of local and perhaps national celebs for rehabbing Bucky's Own Dome
into something other than a target for the bulldozer. A story which I am
now writing for Dome Magazine, ( ican post it upon completion if anyone is
interested). Thats it but mind you this all took place in >3 months so we
call it the vehicle shuffle/jump.
Hope I didnt bore you too much...
Peter DePaoli
Carbondale,IL
'69 Panel Camper
'71 Westy
'73 Super Beetle
(2) '82 Suzuki Gs 750's
and a chevy, 2 cats 2 dogs and 2 birds all sybiotically living together with
the 2 sapien sapiens in the Dome
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