Date:         Mon, 17 Jun 1996 15:34:00 -0700 (PDT)
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         "Maher, Steve (SD-MS)" <SMAHER@gi.com>
Subject:      Lost VWs (was: SOTO/Classic Weekend)


>Great story. But all those folks were locals, but also listmembers. They
>knew you were fair game, you were driving a bus and it was Friday.
>
>PS. If you were driving a Ford, it would have been woodie station wagons
>they remembered out there in the hills.


Sometimes such stories *do* have happy endings. When driving my '69
bus in Summit County, Colorado, I was told of an old bug parked in a
yard of a house long abandonded, just over the Continental Divide past
the town of Alma, and up a canyon called Mosquito Gulch.

Sure enough, there was a turnoff called Mosquito Gulch, and after several
searches up blind, empty canyons, I found a yellow '64 convert with no
engine and a ratted-out top, beside a boarded-up house. It was in the
condition you'd expect after being parked there for years-- floorboards
gone, seats trashed, four flat tires, but little rust except for the
floorboards where rainwater and snow had obviously accumulated. It also
had four bullet holes of various calibers-- common in those parts. One
might almost call it a Grendelette... but I won't.

No plates or registration papers, no mailbox on or near the old house,
no way to tell who owned the bug. Finally went down to the county seat
and dug through all the land-platte files. Found the official map of the
plot of land the house stood on-- a REAL old one that didn't show the
house itself. Then dug through property-tax files (yes, these are public
information in Colorado), and found that they contained 3x5 glossies of
each major building on each plot. They were listed in order of the owner's
name, which didn't help my search... until I finally found a picture
attached to a plot card, which not only showed the house clearly enough
to recognize it as the one I had seen, and the correct land-platte number...
but also showed a shiny new yellow 1964 VW Bug Convertible parked in front!

Got the homeowner's name, went to the post office. Owner had left a
forwarding address-- in Belgium. Wrote there on a hope, offering him
$100 for the car, as is, where is, I would remove, etc. Three weeks
later, got a letter back, accepting! The bug was owned by the homeowner's
son, who had literally forgotten its existence, and was happy to get
rid of the unexpected nuisance. I shot him an American Express money order,
and back came the title, signed off as neatly as you please.

Hustled back with a lot of chain, a bug bar, a shovel, pump, and a ton
of grease and WD-40. Found out that Mosquito Gulch was aptly named. After
a lot of digging, pumping, chopping of weeds, more pumping, prying, more
digging, and a lot more pumping, that all four tires held air-- astonishing.
Didn't find any snakes, scorpions, etc.-- this was above 10,000 feet 
altitude,
where I guess snakes were smart enough not to go.

By nightfall, the poor bug was trundling along more or less contentedly
behind my bus. When we pulled onto the main road, it started leaving a huge
rooster tail of leaves, dirt, and who knows what else all over the road.
But it made it over the Divide and back home, where it was eventually
returned to some semblence of its former glory. Meaning, I eventually got
it running with a used engine, new brakes, drums, and bearings; new top,
used seats, JCW floorboards, and a host of lesser items.

So, maybe you used up all your bad luck on your Bus Search. Next time's
the charm?
    _______
   /\ o o o\         Steve Maher   smaher@gi.com   75461,1717
  /o \ o o o\_______   San Diego, California
 <    >------>   o /|
  \ o/  o   /_____/o|      '80 VW V6anagon
   \/______/     |oo|        '66 Mustang Coupevertible
         |   o   |o/       '89 Son Sherwin
         |_______|/
                       http://www.wp.com/IrishMafia