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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

------------------------------------------------------------------------ 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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