Date: Sat, 11 Oct 1997 22:01:28 -0700
Reply-To: jim ellis <vanbondo@PRIMENET.COM>
Sender: Vanagon mailing list <Vanagon@Gerry.SDSC.EDU>
From: jim ellis <vanbondo@PRIMENET.COM>
Subject: Albuquerque Balloon/VW meet~ Part1
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
OK, OK so I have to beg off on being late with the report. I no longer have
that job where I was an "ALT-TAB" away from the lists. Damn, I just wonder
why I lost that job. ;-) hahahaha...
On Friday, Oct 3, 1997, my wife, Paula, and I were ready to hoof it over to
NM for the "Buses and Balloons" meet that was graciously hosted by the Route
66 Splits <NEATO> chapter in Albuquerque. This was the second of the
"pre-arrainged family obligation" that I included in the negotiations for my
new job. You know that you are hard core when you include VW meets as a
negotiation chip in your career development strategy. =)))
Earlier that morning I had the newly arrived Yokohama Y370-47's mounted on
the '67RFH and tweaked the timing. On the way north from Phoenix to
Flagstaff the bus was running OK but seemed to be revving alittle high and
the sweet spot had moved from 62MPH to 58MPH. I stopped at Joe Floreck's VW
in Flagstaff to see if they could look at it for a second. Stupid me, I
kinda thought that maybe they would strafe the light over it and pat me on
the ass and send me down the road. Instead they did a great job of resetting
the timing and charging full shop time. While we waited we observed the
owner, and no less than three other sales employees giving hand signals to
the secretary while she worked as a lot boy lining up the used car inventory
on to the sales lot. Definitely a laid back day at the dealership. After an
hour and change I opted out on the complimentary car wash and begged off
toward our travels. Joe F and crew truly are friendly folks.
After getting "tuned up" Paula and I headed east on I-40 into New Mexico.
The Yokos were a massive improvement over the POS 2 ply 185's that I
previously had on the bus. It was a good thing as there apparently was a
semitruck convention going on somewhere and they were all late to get there
before the swapmeet started! New Mexico has a ton of wonderful, friendly VW
lovin' people but the State Gubbermint must have decided that adding stripes
to the edge and middle of the roadways was a waste of taxpayer's money.
Pointing the Westfalia down the highway at night was likened to jumping down
a mine shaft. The huge orange water barrels in the middle of the road along
the incessant construction sites kept us in the good.
We finally pulled into Albuquerque after a pleasant 12 hour trip. We had
intentions of parking near the "homies" but were encouraged to park in the
"show area" of the dirt field and crashed. I could here a noise in my head
and finally figured out that it was Shawn Zenor grinding his teeth. ;-)
(Sorry, SWUN dude~blame it on Cletus).In any even I lost no sleep over it.
Saturday AM we awoke to the first morning that was less than 100F that we'd
seen since we could remember. It was beautifully nippy out! Soon after
sunrise our fellow campers were up and enjoying the many, many hot air
balloons that were rising out of a State Fairground kinda facility about a
mile or so away. Our view was nice as it was slightly up hill from the
launch site. Soon many VWs of all types were rolling in. A great presence
from ElPaso was evidenced especially in the Type Juan category. Each was
very respectible. My thoughts rolled around to Kathy Meyer and her main
talent M.Blanchard as I eyeballed a very pretty PURPLE slammed to the ground
beetle. Tons of listees were there including Joy and her husband from
Colorado. If there ever was a person whose personality fit her name it was
her. Pleasant folks. I reintroduced myself to Tom B of NEATO fame after he
failed to recognise me. I reminded him that memory was the second thing to
go preceded only by "a solid night's sleep" after a newborn hits a
household. Tobin and Mr. Heron could second that one I suppose.
Late in the afternoon the show adjurned after the presentation of CNC
machine billet trophies which were created by Mark Chambers
<chambers@bslnet.com>. These are the coolest trophies that I have ever seen.
The design is a large hot air balloon with a Mr.Bubblehead standing next to
it. All in billet Aluminum! Everyone thanked the RT66 Splits and the Arizona
Bus Club for a nice *NEATO* event.
Quite a few of the folks gravitated to a nearby concrete canal embankment
for some skateboard action while others decided to check out the '59 Jerry
Garcia bus at the Balloon Fiesta. A "cluster-fuzz" occurred while attempting
to get the people over to the Garcia bus site. JPHenrikse@aol.com, Paula and
I made vailiant attempts to optimize the commute by getting the appropriate
number of folks into his bus. Somehow no one could get it together so we
split. Of course the nanosecond that we left <as the story goes> Everyone
freaked because they were left behind. Kind hearted "U.K. Mike" ended up
with 15 people in his '50-'51 Barndoor and had to off-load half of them
partially to the Garcia site due to severe rubbing of the tyres/tires. (Who
knew,eh?) Mike made a couple of trips getting everyone to the destination.
Part Two will tell of the Bus and the trip home...
-ellis\
| 
