Date: Sat, 27 Jul 1996 09:23:41 -0800
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: Glen & Caron <gbuhlman@direct.ca>
Subject: Bottom of the Top of the World Tour Returns (kinda long)
Well Caron and I got back Thursday night. Originally we had only planned on
accompanying the tour to Shannon Falls for breakfast and then heading back and
working like responsible folk.
We went to the party on Sunday night at Tobin and Christa's and had a really good
time. The VW reps left before we got there so I didn't have a chance to ball them
out for wanting $150 for the 4" piece of fuel hose I had been looking for earlier
in the month. But they did leave a mountain of these cool little VW keychains
with red LED's in them, so all was temporarily forgiven.
Somehow our plans changed to driving with the tour on Monday to Quesnel (or
wherever they stopped) and then coming back to Vancouver to work (you know that
responsible thing). So we drove up north with everyone on Monday morning. It was
getting late as we pulled into the Tim Horton's (best doughnuts and coffee in all
of NA) in William's Lake and spotted a splittie in the parking lot (sorry I'm not
good at guessing the year of these things). Turns out it belonged to Wilbur who
suggested we bus it over to this bush lot he owns a few km's out of town. The
road in looked a little treacherous so we sent Coyote in with the EV to check it
out ;-) He had no problem so we knew all the real VW's would make it. (donning
fire retardant suit)
So we spent the night there and woke up to a nice sunny day on Tuesday morning.
Dennis was kind enough to show me how to do a valve adjustment while everyone was
eating breakfast and then we were on our way.
Caron and I decided to continue on to Prince George (did someone say free oil
change and air filter?) and THEN we would turn around and head back.
We get to Prince George and wait around in the 35C heat waiting for the busses to
be ready. Somewhere in that time span, someone twisted our arms and we decided to
head up to Chetwynd and camp with the group for another night.
Mobely Lake provincial park was quite nice and there were even quite a few
non-tour VW's there (this is usually how we guage the 'goodness' of any area).
We were up early the next morning and after coffee Caron and I really did head
back home. It was really sad driving alone with nobody to talk to on the CB.
We drove over to Alberta via Dawson Creek and Grand Prairie. Then we headed south
and spent the night in Jasper National Park. We arrived at the campground just as
they were closing up for the night so the ranger told us to take a site and pay in
the morning. In the morning there was nobody in the booth so we waited the
obligatory 2.34 seconds and then drove away with big grins on our faces.
We made good time back to Vancouver and even picked up 2 sunburnt and heat
exhausted hitchikers in Kamloops. Turns out they had gotten a ride from some
maniac in a VW bus the night before. He was showing them how not to drive on
mountain roads and telling them stories of how many people die because they don't
drive carefully.
About an hour before Vancouver in Chilliwack Lief's odometer rolled over to zero
and we all cracked open juices and pops and toasted to his rebirth.
We wished we could have gone all the way to Inuvik but hopefully we'll be able to
drive for a day or so with the California contingent when they leave Vancouver on
the 13th or 14th. Anyone up for some surf in WA or OR?
It's been a good week!
--
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| Glen Buhlmann | "Saw it on the tube. Bought it on the phone. |
| GB Computer Consulting | Now I'm home alone with a piece of crap." |
| Vancouver, BC | --Neil Young |
| '77 VW Westfalia | |
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| http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/5288/ |
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