Date: Thu, 14 Mar 1996 15:59:10 -0600
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: mbates@s3.sonnet.com (Marlin Bates, IV)
Subject: Hail & Well Met! (/f early)
I know it is not friday yet but this is not exactly joke material either
(although it is hopefully humorous).
Background:
About 2 months or so ago when I first joined the list Matt J. and Susie
(his girlfriend from New Zealand by way of London) sent a message out that
they would be doing a cross-country trip and could they stop over and meet
some people along the way. Well, I was new and eager so I gave him my name
and number and told him to look me up when he got to Stockton, CA. Many
moons went by and I just kinda forgot about it.....
Present:
Matty called the night before last as I was trying to wrest the steering
wheel out of Lazarus (who IS appropriately named) and said he was in town.
He wanted to get together with us and some of the Sacramento folks if he
could. I said great and we just seemed to hit it off so we talked for
awhile and chatted and we agreed to get together for lunch the next day.
So the next day I came home and got my wife (she substitute teaches so is
on call. thankfully she did not get a call yesterday) and daughter and we
all went out to lunch.
We met at their hotel and, of course, I checked out their '70 Westy before
I actually saw them! Fun folks. We all just seemed to hit it right off.
We managed to get through lunch with a blast and agreed to meet later that
evening. Perhaps get up to Sacramento.
Welllllll :-) We never quite made it. We spent the whole evening just
having LOADS of fun. We spent a great deal of time in the bus. This was a
little weird considering that we had a cozy, warm house not more than 6
feet away but we all agreed that it just felt right. We ordered Chinese
food and ate it right there on lawn chairs and by the light of his dome
light and a candle and chatted for hours.
It started to get cold so we moved it inside and we watched a little bit of
Ren & Stimpy, we blew Barney to bits on my Mac and continued to drink.
They found this intriguing little drink called Bullwinkle Soda. It is a
ELECTRIC BLUE color and is called a "Vitamin Soda Pop". Matt and Suz also
demonstrated its unique ability as a Vodka mixer. Oh, I think we accepted
that ability a LITTLE too much. I am *STILL* reeling from that!
So, about 4:45 AM *I* trudged off to bed as I was dying for sleep. A few
hours later as I was trying to get ready for work. I was oh so painfully
reminded of the nights activities. Matt and Suz had slept on our sofa bed
(we really did not want to find our new friends frozen in the morning!
They are out right now getting a boom box for the Bus. I am going to wire
up a cigareete lighter for them in the Bus so they can run an adaptor to
power the Boom Box when they are driving. We have both taught each other a
lot about our Westys and have had a lot of fun.
I guess this is sort of a "See you too can do this" message. If you also
responded as a person for them to see write back! They are loads of fun
and a welcome addition to your lives!
-Marlin
P.S. there are lots of little side stories that arose in the last two days
that I would love to tell but the noise from the keyboard is giving me a
headache! :-}