Date: Thu, 11 Apr 1996 21:28:46 -0800
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: copley@healthcare.ubc.ca (Tobin Copley)
Subject: MattyJ & Suz hit Vancouver!
Hi all,
MattyJ and Suz have made it to Vancouver!
For those who haven't been following the travels of MattyJ and Suz, these
are two young, hip types who left jobs in London, England, bought a 1970
westfalia in California, and have been on the road and meeting Vanagon list
people for a little over a month now. Matt is actually an American from
Washington, D.C., and his partner, Suz, is a New Zealander. They met in
London and have been chasing their dreams ever since.
So I got a call from Matt yesterday morning asking if we'd like to get
together for a bit. As if they had to ask! They came over to our place
around 8:00 pm, which was good since I'd been working late anyway. We'd
initially been thinking that we'd just meet for an hour or two, but we
really clicked, so we ended up chatting and having a great time until well
after 1:00 am. They ended up crashing on the futon bed in our living room,
but not until we'd done the tours of each other's busses, talked and talked
about cool VW travel, and convinced them that they absolutely had to get
back to Vancouver in July so they could join us for the Inuvik trip. In
the morning, we yakked some more over breakfast, until I decided at nearly
noon that I really ought to at least put in an appearance at work.
Their trip so far? They were much impressed with Thom Fitzpatrick's '56
bus, and had confidence Thom could revive the '54 that Steve Johnson likes
to make fun of. They had good things to say about Steve as well. Marlon
in Stockton got good reviews for his choice in beverages, and for his sheer
stamina. I'm sure I'm missing a ton of people out here, but apparently my
stamina is no match for Marlon's, as I'm kinda slow today.
They lost their clutch cable near Olympia, WA, and needed to have it
adjusted again in Vancouver. Time is a bit tight for me these days, so I
recommended they go to my trusted (believe it!) VW mechanic (Alfred Lal at
Vancouver West Motors) and he did them up right. It's been raining
monsoon-style here for a few days, and will for probably nearly a week
more, so I'm not sure how much longer they can hold out in our rainforest
here.
I pointed them toward some free camping sites near Whistler so they can get
some snow boarding in before heading south again. I also gave them
directions to a few natural hot springs out in the mountains around here,
so we'll see if they decide to try driving 30 miles each way on logging
roads in these conditions--it'll be a sloppy drive in, but I'm sure the
rewards of floating in natural hot spring water will be worth it. They may
also try the southern Vancouver Island Victoria-Port Renfrew-Lake
Cowichan-Victoria loop. I'm sure the next list member they stay with can
report on their adventures in B.C.
It's taken them a month to travel from California to B.C., and they were
planning on being in Arizona by this time--but they keep finding cool
stuff, so they don't get that much mileage in each day. A good way to
travel, if you ask me. I know they're planning to meet with Rusty and
Cherry VanBondo down in Phoenix, and I'm sure there will be story in there
somewhere!
So that's about it. They're happy, healthy, and loving every minute of
their trip. They're driving a medium blue/white 1970 westy proudly
displaying a vanagon list sticker. If you see them around, give them a
honk, and pull over for a chat!
Tobin
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Tobin T. Copley copley@healthcare.ubc.ca
Dept. of Health Care and Epidemiology Voice: (604) 822-6219
University of British Columbia Fax: (604) 822-4994
Vancouver, B.C. Canada V6T 1Z3
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