[You're welcome. ;) --KH]

Went to the auction in Sedalia this weekend. Some deals were had, some deals were lost, but mostly I was overjoyed to meet a number of listees there. I haven't seen this many listees in one place since Buses on the Blue Ridge.

Charlie Ford, Bryan Shaeffer, and a couple others of us were talking about putting together a list gathering for next year. The idea originally was for a long week or something where we'd try to draw in as many listees as possible to some location in the middle of the country.

Seeing as my favorite hobby is thinking...and seeing as how I've lived many years in the Ozarks (though I'm now in the Delta), I thought of Marion County Arkansas as a possible site. What I'm thinking is July 4th weekend. We would have access to a river, a lake, and a nice (small-town, but still very nice) fireworks display. Float trips, swimming, hiking, boating, water-skiing, jet-skiing, and world-class fishing would all be strong possibile diversions. I'm trying to work a deal to get some private land to camp on, but the owner wants to check with a couple neighbors before committing. If we camped there, we'd be able to walk about 1/4 mile to the White River. We would have to drive to other locations for other stuff. We would have a community setting. We'd bring in some porta-potties, but we would not have showers on site.

I'm thinking that west-coast listees could arrange to meet at points west (like popular overnight campgrounds) and travel en-mass, gaining strength of numbers at each stop along the way. East, South, and North-coast listees could do the same. Our sister list, Vanagon-L, would of course be invited.

July 4 is on a Saturday next year, so we're probably talking mainly about the 4th and 5th, but we'll be sure to get a camping location for at least the 3rd through 6th and I'm certain that individuals could come earlier or later. No plan to have a formal swap meet. Certainly would not want to invite commercial vendors. I was thinking about having an auction where everyone who came would bring at least one thing to the auction for sale and the proceeds would either go to fund part of the gathering or go to charity...probably a medical charity...like something to help burn victims--don't forget to check your fuel lines!

My question to you is simple: would you come? If you did, how many people would you bring? I need estimates to determine feasability and needed facilities.

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE P-mail (for you novices, that's personal mail) to ME (jfournier@mindspring.com) and NOT THE LIST! I'll summarize your responses in a couple days. If you strongly want to suggest other locations, please do so in p-mail; I'll summarize those to the list(s) too and we can set up a time and location for chatting live on this topic later in the week.

Ken Hooper, would you please forward this note to VANAGON-L? I don't have the address anymore.

Thanks! Joe

--Ken 68 Westy, Admin -- type2 -- The VW Bus Mailing List