Hi List,

I hate to add more fluff to the list, but I'm happy to be back and am
sharing...

I've had my second '85 GL for about four years now, and when my wife got
pregnant eighteen months ago, we decided that the Vanagon was not going to
cut it as our primary family hauler.  It went into the garage and we bought
a '94 4Runner (with part of the downpayment courtesy of selling my '66 Westy
project--never even got to drive it.)  The 4Runner was a great truck, but we
found out once we had our daughter that there was NO ROOM in it.  My wife
was driving it, I was driving a '93 Corolla, and the Vanagon sat.  Then
about six weeks ago we decided to sell the 4Runner--I can't believe the
thing sold after being posted online for two days.

To make a long story short, after the sale of the 4Runner we tried to
justify to ourselves the expense of a Eurovan.  It just didn't make sense to
me to shell out a gigantic car payment and only get 18 MPG.

So, much like the USS Missouri in the '80's, my '85 GL has been taken out of
mothballs and is now back in fulltime service as the primary family hauler.
A Vanagon that once was used primarily for following bands, camping, and
tailgating now has two strollers, a pack-n-play, and a carseat in it.  Our
daughter loves riding in it; she loves the view.

Nothing technically valuable here, just letting folks know that our Vanagon
is once again worth its weight in gold, and in my opinion, all Vanagons are
worth their weight in gold.  Of course, after driving it for a few weeks I
realize that it needs brakes, shocks, eventually a new engine, and a
thousand other things, but I find myself a much happier person turning it
into our family machine, and I also am refamliarizing myself with this list
after re-signing up from an 18 month absence and thoroughly enjoying the
posts, even if there are a thousand today.

Here's a photo of my Vanagon in the parking lot at Arapahoe Basin after
making it over 12000 ft. Loveland Pass a couple of weekends ago fully
loaded!  My daughter is checking things out, making sure I'm not leaking
anything:

http://photos.yahoo.com/joetrussell.

Oh--Sidewinder Salvage in Commerce City has an '80 Sunroof van in their
U-pull-it yard...Picked pretty clean, but somebody might find something
useful on it.  Also, there's an aircooled sunroof van (same color,
coincidentally) at Colorado Salvage out on Ratcliff.

It's great to be back on the list.

Joe T.
Denver, CO
'85 GL

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