Date:         Fri, 27 Sep 96 15:08:43 CDT
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Joel Walker <JWALKER@ua1vm.ua.edu>
Subject:      Unca Joel goes West: Part 2

Part 2: the Fuzzy Weekend.

The Day Dawns. it is the Crack of Noon. someone is inconsiderately
breathing and talking outside. people are moving around. there is
this light blue sky poking and prodding my eyeballs. groan.

so here it is Friday, and i'm in Mammoth Lakes, California, in some
dusty little place called Pumice Flats Group Campground, or, at signs
would later describe it, CCC Central. there are other buses here, and
a Honda (gasp!) and a filthy dusty little black Passat station wagon.
hmmmm. how'd THAT get in here. :)

i don't recall much of that first day. seems like a lot of folks showed
up or were already here. food and sustenance must have surely been
brought or sought out ... i.e., i didn't starve. :) but it's all kinda
hazy in my mind. at sometime or other, someone mentioned hot showers
and off we went in Martha's little Passat. hot them showers were, too,
i tell you! bubbling up somewhere from under the ground and piped into
some really prison-looking "showers". ;)  well, hell ... i've used
some that were LOTS worse looking than this! and besides, anybody that
that is preverted enuff to look in MY shower window deserves what they
get! :)  but they were hot. hot water. yessireebob. hot hot hot. which
kinda makes me think: ya know, we wuz kinda like maybe sitting on top
of some like volcano-stuff??? hmmmmm. how about Florida for the next
trip?? :) all we have to worry about there is sand fleas and hurricanes.

since i can't remember what, if anything, we "did" that day, i'll just
put the folks that i think i recall showing up:

Me. of course. otherwise, how would i remember being there?? :)
Dave Schwarze. he slept upstairs. where it was warm. had to be. cause
   it was cold downstairs. he doesn't snore. but the clock in his bus
   makes this incessant clicking!!! :)
Martha "wanna drive my new car" Rubin. over in the newly-painted
   Westfalia condo parked next door. lots of screaming and giggling
   from over there. she looks like Beverly Sills, the opera singer.
Sarah. Martha's daughter. the only one with any real legal claims of
   "adolescence". the rest of us just acted that way.
Bradley "burn, baby, burn" Magnesium. severely hampered by an injured
   wrist, he could manage only mildly abuse and torture Sarah and
   Martha. Dave had to help at times. looks like a skinny Peter Ustinov.
Scott Harvey and Alice. he looks like somebody in Top Gun (val kilmer's
   backseater). everybody looks like someone else.
Brett (?). scott's cousin? well, that's what someone told me and i was
   punchy enough to write it down. i think that's my writing.
Jeff Schneiter. camping in the tent down by the Honda. primitive.
   some people. :)  something scribbled here about dogs?
Eric and wife? no bus. Jetta?? looks like Robert DeNiro. works in
   Mojave, with/on/near airplanes. i like airplanes. :)
Bren, kid Kyle, dog Sallie. Sallie is outweighed by the golden
   retrievers Bianca and Calvin, but she seems to be having fun.
   i think they showed up in a Honda Civic. hmmmmmmmmmmm.
Ron Lussier, Ely, and Den all crammed into a pristine white 91 camper.
   a bunch of mountain bikes on the back. some people are just gluttons
   for punishment! he reminds me of Neamiah Persov (a dramatic actor
   back in the 50's and 60's). Ely and Den are kids. Beavis and Butthead
   but with manners. they keep calling me "Sir". irritating. ;)
Steve Johnson and wife Linda. he looks like Teddy Roosevelt. must be
   the hat. ;)
Scott Allred and Maggie showed up in their 71 camperized bus. 8 hours
   from Las Vegas. they came the "civilized route" further north of
   the torture trail we took over the mountain. he looks like the
   hubby on "Unhappily Ever After" or something like that. where the
   character talks to a stuffed bunny with the voice of Bobcat
   Goldthwaite. she looks like Ellen of the Ellen show. with red hair.
Jack Stafford (who looks like Richard Attenborough) in his orange 73
   camper. had lots of neat pictures of the Inuvik trip.
Al Hubbard. camping out of a Jetta. more primitive gluttons for
   punishment. ;)
Dennis Gentry and Shelia in an 81 camper. Grizzly Adams. he has to
   sleep with his feet on the dashboard. :) <he's a little taller
   that the rest of humanity>
Beth and Lisa, from Los Angeles. Wannabusers. came to see just what
   sort of idiots they'd been talking to. ;) Beth reminds me of someone
   on a tv show, but i can't recall who ... sort of like Barbie, but
   not that close. more primitive tent campers. they were smarter,
   however, and got closer to the toilets.
Jim Davis and family. the only Syncro to show up. didn't help much
   cause there wasn't any mud for him to play in. :)
Monty and Hallie with kids Jackson and Charlie, in their Country Homes
   camper. charlie was just scoping everything out. quiet kid. gonna
   be governor some day. ;)
Kayty Myers and Mark Blanchard in Her Majesty (i thought that was the
   dog's name!), a bright shiney purple 68 bus with the interior of a
   fancy living room. no kidding. plush upscale interior. the dog's
   name was Bianca (i think). oh, yeah. i think they had a blue
   Subaru wagon, too. four-wheel-drive skateboard. ;) they were from
   Mammoth Lakes, a whole twenty minutes away. :)
John Huguenard and Carol and Jill (the kid). another quiet kid. don't
   you Californians every have screaming kids?? sheesh! he reminds me
   of Frank Oz (the Muppets).
Malcolm Holser, Mollie, and kids Dylan, Colin, and Ian. another 81
   camper.
Kevin (visits) (looks like Charlton Heston) and his blue/white 63
   split window bus with gauges all over the dash and a huge oil cooler
   on the roof.
Beth, Mary, and somebody else with some dogs. in a brown 80 camper.
   we ran into them at Devil's Postpile and they camped Saturday night.
   they'd only had the bus for about a week.

if i've left anyone out, i'm sorry. my scribbling isn't very legible
right now and my memory is still fuzzy.

somewhere along the way, Friday turned into Saturday, and in the
process, a lot of firewood got consumed in the fire pit. and a half
of an engine. brightly shines the Magnesium, especially when someone
pours beer on it! :) bright, like a welding torch.

other scattered, rambling notes and thoughts:
Carl's Jr. Great Western Bacon Cheeseburger. bacon and onion rings
  AND barbecure sauce on a burger?? but they have a really good
  "ordinary" burger. ;)
mountains. big steep hills made out of rocks. BIG hills. steep roads.
  and people LIVE up here!!! and the people who drew the maps ought to
  be shot. they lie!!! them roads are not nearly as straight as they
  are drawn.
gasoline. $1.589 a gallon. and no shame when they take the money! that's
  for R87 unleaded, by the way. i'd hate to have a car that required
  Premium.
cold. quite warm in the daytime with the sun shining on you. but cold
  cold cold at night and in the "morning" before the sun crept over
  the top of the mountain. shadows are cold out here. i didn't bring
  enough blankets. :(