Date:         Sat, 11 Jan 1997 00:02:40 -0600 (CST)
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Sami Dakhlia <dakhlia@wuecona.wustl.edu>
Subject:      CA trip report (Martha's, MSDS)

We just returned from a 2-week vacation at my in-laws in California
and I thought I'd share anything VW-related with the two lists. Up
front, I'll have to admit that we *flew* from St. Louis, hence were
bus-less during that time. 

Martha, the lists' Great Organizer of Social Activities, had the
wonderful idea to hold her semi-annual bash while we were in the area,
hence made it possible for us to meet and re-meet many Bay Area
listmembers, some of whom we already had the pleasure to meet 2 years
ago, at the first-ever "Vanagon Pizza Night." In no particular order,
listmembers were Bradley, the Huguenards (w/ very cute baby Jill),
Steve & Linda Johnson, Bill Abbott, and then there were a lot of FOMs
(friends of Martha) plus Bradley's extended family :)  Unfortunately,
Maria was in the early stages of a bad cold and we had to leave early,
thereby missing a few more people. My understanding was that many
actually stayed at Martha's overnight and the party only officially
ended around 3pm the next day... 

Vehicles: Steve showed me his newly installed Propex heater and it's
*tiny*, with a total volume of maybe 2 gallons. Fits almost anywhere; 
nice!  We also checked out Bill's "Little Martha", the lovely 1970
single cab, talking VW and bus/single cab trivia. Had a great time!


The second week was spent in Southern California. My brother is in
"the industry" and we went to see him in L.A. (actually Venice). While
there, I decided to check out MSDS (Martin Schneider Designed Systems,
who manufactures a Porsche 911 to vanagon conversion kit and other
performance stuff for vanagons, Porsches, Nissan 300Z, and more) and
my bro' took me there in his Beemer (what is it about BMdoubleUs that
changes the most laid-back and gentle people into autostrada
jerks?!?). Mr. Schneider was polite but not the least bit interested
into allocating any of his time to me once he learned that I "only" 
own a breadloaf ("I have nothing for breadloafs; I only work where
there is a market"). Instead he suggested that on my way out I take a
look at his Range Panzer, a converted vanagon Syncro. I took a few
pictures, which you'll find at
http://econwpa.wustl.edu/~samid/bus-stuff/MSch with a few comments. 

Happy New Year everyone!

-Sami ('75 Westfalia)