It was at a bluegrass festival on Labor Day weekend 1999 that an old
friend showed us his new "camper" -- a 1985 Westy. After several years of
tent camping at festivals, my wife said, "We've got to have one of those!"

  Warp forward to the following November. Same friend with the Westy calls
me looking to buy a new mandolin. It seems that it had rained all night at
that festival and he didn't see the water in the instrument case when he
put his mandolin in it... Well, it was in pieces when he opened the case a
few weeks later, so he's looking for a new one and heard I had one for
sale. During the conversation, he said he was going to sell the Westy so he
could afford to buy a mandolin. It took maybe two seconds to strike a deal
-- he had a nice '95 Flatiron mandolin and $4,000 and we were the proud
owners of a very nice 1985 Westy with 57,000 original miles on it!

  We occasionally camp together at festivals. He used the cash to buy a
pop-up camper and enjoys playing my old mandolin. We have him to thank for
exposing us to the wonderful world of VW bus camping. BTW, BUST'R just
turned 61,000 miles.

John
'85 Westy  BUST'R