Date:         Tue, 20 Aug 96 21:23:33 EDT
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         snuggles@VNET.IBM.COM
Subject:      

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hey now,

ah, the mountains of north carolina. i've been across the united states and
have seen many a pretty area. but the north carolina mountains are the most
pristine in the US, imho. my trek picks up with us leaving the restaurant
where amanda is currently working. we head back up the mountain and head
towards her house. the turn onto her road passes a country store where the
good ole boys hang out on weekend nights. vws aren't real plentiful in this
area and i'm always a bit nervous when i visit because of the potential
hassling. my fears almost became real saturday night. i turn onto Cooper's
Gap Road and notice several good ole boys hopping into there 4wd truck.
they follow us down this windy road and get real close. i turn into the drive
way of amanda's house and they sit there watching. amanda pokes her head out
says "how ya'll doing?" they recognize her and drive off. i wipe the sweat off
me and try to breath. whoa. yeeehawww.

we eat a delicious dinner of home grown tomatoes, corn and fried okra. yummm.
then it's to bed.on sunday rumba serves a variety of useful purposes. the
first is cargo hauler. we go off roading to where amanda has a bus...a big
school bus. this is her get away place. it's set up with furniture and stuff.
like a house on wheels. rumba looked like its baby. amazing how small a vw
appears next to a school bus. we load a bunch of her stuff in the van. one
thing that tickles me is a wooden ammunition crate. it's labled: "Ammunition
for Projectile Firing Cannon". pictures of me getting pulled over and cops
going crazy fill my head. after all, there are militias active in the area....
after all that work i give amanda her first lesson driving the van. actually,
she didn't need a lesson. i explained the position of the gears and she says,
just watch okay. i climbed into the passenger seat...first time i've ever let
anyone else besides the mechanic drive the bus. felt weird. anyway, she gets
it gears and takes off. didn't even need my help. she laffed at me and i just
kinda grinned sheepishly. so we take off down this rutted dirt road, down to
the creek where we splash each other and look for crystals while a hot tuna
bootleg plays on the stereo.

then it's back to grandma's house....all the stuff comes out and rumba assumes
her role of delivery van. amanda's mom has a upholstery buisiness and our
mission was to deliver some furniture and then pickup some more furniture and
fabric and head to asheville where we had a dinner date with amanda's mom.
amanda said the boat furniture we were going to pickup would fit in the van,
no problem.

we had down the mountain to lake lure and lurch into the marina, where well
to do folks keep their boats and i back right up to the dock. the older man
whose boat furniture we were picking up was struggling to get the seats
unscrewed with a pocket knife. i told him to hold up a second and went and
got my tool box and ratchet set and i basically disassembled his pontoon boat
rear seat myself. he was really frustrated when we arrived and was going to
just rip the wood up....i said if you are going to do a job, might as well
do it right...it'll save you time and money in the future. Bob Hoovers voice
was echoing in my head at that moment.

well, in case you haven't tried this before, i'll save you some time and
frustration. the rear sofa seat of a pontoon boat does not fit in a '74
volkswagen van. we tried everyway possible. even tried to angle it in the
side door. no luck. i smirked at amanda. so we head back up to grandmas, get
the trusty (yuck) chevy truck, go back down the mountain, get the sofa and
other stuff and head back up to get the van. we leave the sofa and head to
asheville, amanda will get the sofa to her mom's at a later date.

once you leave the lake of lure itself, passed the bikers bar (more yeeehaws)
you get into what looks like a rustic mountain town. don't be fooled. it's
really a tourist trap. i don't see why people drive to the mountains to shop
in a 'souveniar' shop where they just pay top dollar for some piece of &*it.
but hey, whatever gets you van up the mountain. and that was my worry once i
finally fought my way through the hordes of eager-to-get-ripped-off folks.
remember the scene in Apocalypse Now where they say..."don't ever get off the
boat! never get off the boat?" amanda was saying...don't get out of the van...
don't get out of the van...in the same sorta voice. scary.

anyways, the mountains loomed in front of us...it's only 25 miles to asheville
but it takes about 40 minutes or more depending on whether the tourist in front
of you is from florida or new york. if they are floridians, plan on an hour,
if new yorkers, about 35 minutes since they will have flown around a curve
going to fast and will have created a new road down the mountain for you.
we headed uphill at a respectful 45-50 and soon i downshifted to third where i
stayed for most of the trip up and down. never got to second. too slow for
fourth. nice curves. i like driving the van in the mountains. some of these
curves are quick 180 degree turns...uphill and downhill. i rarely used the
brake because i would let up on the gas when i needed to slow down.

now i won't mention the road we took or where i saw my second love. for obvious
reasons...one of you vw freaks will get her before i do. but i fell in love
all over again. she's a beauty. a white '67 westy. i think it's a '67. has
12volt which i believe is stock and the 12volt sticker on the left hand of
the dash. very little rust that i could see. someone has thrown a rock through
her front right window. another on the side window. :-( ouch, that hurts me.
no muffler. no carb on the engine. no rear bumper. interior looks good. slight
rocker panel rust. good tires. 2/96 inspection sticker. it was love at first
side. she's a beauty. i wanted to go hug her and tell her i loved her. but
amanda was also drooling so i literally squeeled the brakes of Rumba and
we pulled over to look with awe up close. i want this bus. well, let me clarify
that...i want to give this bus to amanda after i get it road worthy as an
engagement ring/wedding present. of course, i'll get to drive her (the bus)
when i want....i hope! :-)

i'm going back up to talk to the owner this weekend. i hope he will sell. i
hope this bus is in as good of shape as i think. i dreamed of splitties last
night. oh my.

so we head up to asheville where amanda's mom restuffs the passengers seat in
my van. soooo much better. did you know the original seat has horse hair in it?
kinda funky feeling. if anyone in the nc area needs interior seats
reupholstered let me know. amanda's mom does great work.

we eat dinner then head back to lake lure...but i suggest we go up on the
blue ridge parkway. i fill up again...i got 17.4 mpg this time. not suprising
for mountain driving. if you haven't been on the parkway you must go sometime.
we went up at about 11:30pm and basically had the whole drive to ourselves.
from asheville we went north to craigey (msp) mountain. this was STEEP! at one
point i had to go into second in the middle of a 180 degree curve and the
engine stalled...bad clutch work but i got it into second and we kept on going.
then we were on top of the mountain. higher then the crickets went. it was
cold. i suggested we test my new shocks in the back...:-) but later on we fell
asleep waking up about 3am and headed back to lake lure.

got up the next morning and headed back to raleigh. nothing really exciting
to report. gas milage 21mpg. caravanned from greensboro to raleigh with a
fella in a nice forest green '70? bus. didn't speak to him but the vw family
feeling was there.

i'm headed back to asheville friday after work...12:00am. i'm prolly going
to crash somewhere and get up early in the morning. pick up amanda and go
talk to the splittie guy. maybe wave some $$$ infront of his face. anyone
have some suggestions on how to get this bus from him legally?

wave stats:

1 wasserboxer wave
1 splittie wave
many japanese and american car waves.

take care,

jonathan '74 Retrowestie (Rum/\/\ba)

ps. funny how there's not much to tell when a trip goes smoothly without any
mechanical problems whatsoever.