Date: Mon, 5 Apr 1999 18:20:36 -0400
Reply-To: Frank Goodrick <video.image@IBM.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Frank Goodrick <video.image@IBM.NET>
Subject: I've gone as far as I can - Now I'm Backing Up
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Hi All-
Well I just sold my 91 Westy.
Some of you may remember that it is a Canadian-registered vehicle that I
shipped to Europe & kept there for touring purposes. I called it
"L'Escargot", stealing the name from novelist Lawrence Durrell, who lived in
Sommieres, France & had a VW camper of the same name.
It was the second Westy I owned & both live on in our memories as
shuttlecraft that transported us into a world of freedom & adventure.
Between the 2 vans, my wife & I have gone scuba diving in the Keys; listened
to Don Walser & Jimmy Lafave in Austin, Hot Tuna in Ohio, camped on Bayous,
driven up the Natchez Trace. We've freecamped on a pier in NYC; travelled
through a Vermont autumn.
We've taken our Caniche Royale (Thor the wonder-poodle) to Quebec City and
have travelled through psychedelic cacti in Mexico to a ghost town where
Caruso sang , eaten Whitefish in Patzcuaro, chicken mole in Puebla, relaxed
on a beach in Acapulco.
We gradually made the vans more "deluxe", adding a feather bed, a passenger
door pocket, a porta-potti, a porta-table, a TV, a remote control CD
player...
We've spent over a year (in total) touring Europe, usually a month at a
time. I remember fondly the little campground in Beersel, just outside
Brussels: we would stay there once every trip, drinking lambic & eating
lapin a la Kriek . I remember driving through a remote section of Provence
one foggy morning, when, after picking up some wild honey & mead from a
local farmer, I noticed some "silos" high on a mountain; after pulling over
& digging out the binoculars, I was amazed to see coming into focus, not the
expected silos, but a huge set of religious statues- a buddha, a king david,
a guru - surrounded by a bizarre assemblage of symbolic buildings. Only a
Westy could have taken us up the one-lane mountain road to visit the 'Holy
City of Mandarom". Similarly, exploring the "white roads" on the Michelin
maps to find abandoned towns & long-since destroyed castles in the Cathar
region of Southern France; standing on derelict towers up impossibly winding
& narrow mountain roads, penetrating narrow-laned medieval towns, passing
easily under low archways.
My wife often called my tours "go as far as you can until you have to back
up" tours. But only a Westy could give me the freedom to even think of going
to such places.
Small, compact, a wonder of space maximized , self-contained, fundamentally
reliable...
We would drive right into Paris, even taking a turn or two around the Arc de
Triomphe; we freecamped behind the Russian Embassy in East Berlin on the day
of German reunification in Oct. 1990, standing on the lawn of the Reichstag
at midnight, along with a million dazed deutsch volk. No worries about
parking, manoeuvering, or finding a place to sleep, whether in country or
city.
We camped right in Valencia as 300 statues, some 4 stories high, were burned
in the annual Fallas Festival.
We pulled into a Tuscan morning outdoor market, bought fresh cooked meats,
vegetables & bread, went a few miles out, purchased some Chianti right from
the domaine, opened up our porta-table, spread a tablecloth, and wined &
dined to the cheers of passing Italian workers, right by the road, the
towers of Siena in the distance.
We set our camper sideways, with the sliding door facing the Rhine at the
medieval walled town of Bacharach, barges sliding by, a castle hovering in
the sky above. Never thought twice about stopping in Bamberg at a favorite
restaurant ( Schlenkerla) for Frankische Bierhaxe & Rauchbier , en route
from Dokumenta in Kassel to Oktoberfest in Munchen.
Our Westies have taken us to Auschwitz, to Ouradour sur Glane. To the
wonders of the Alhambra, St. Peter's, Notre Dame, Sagrada Familia & the
Kolnischer Dom. To the avant-garde of Dokumenta; to Vasarely & Dali ego
monuments, to the Louvre & the Pompidou, to the Palais Ideal ( built over a
lifetime by a French postman in his backyard), to castles and cathedrals &
museums & villages both famous & forgotten.
Even more, they have transported us to the small moments , the freedom to
enter those little pockets of magic time enabled by this wonderful vehicle .
I could go on forever, but I count myself lucky if many of you have read
this far.
To me these vehicles represent a spirit, a doorway into a world of wonder.
That's why we love them beyond the mundane perception of them as a piece of
machinery. I never had any mechanical problems to speak of with either of
them, but even if I had, the price of admission to this wonder would be
worth it.
I still have a 95 EV Camper here in Toronto (the "Jefferson Campervan") ;
I'll be hanging out on the EV list from here on in, always happy to dispense
what info I can on travelling, especially in Europe, to anyone who asks.
Above all, thanks to all those who take their time to contribute so much
useful info on the Vanagon on this list.
May the new owner enjoy as many wondeful memories as we have.
Arriverderci,
Frank.
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