Vanagons do have quite a bit of room. What genius, putting a bed, table,
removable jumpseats and privacy curtains in a van that can take all of
the kids and their stuff to school during the week. I spent the weekend
with my family and our '87 weekender at the beach. My wife, myself and
our four kids (2,5,8,14). Not only did we manage to pack everything a
family of six would need for the weekend, but we all slept relatively
comfortably in it. There's nothing like pulling right up to the sand and
calling it home for a couple of days. The wife and I contemplated never
returning home again. Damn! Why do the kids have to go to school?

Jason

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On
Behalf Of
> joe trussell
> Sent: Wednesday, June 02, 2004 7:03 PM
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Subject: Family Hauler
>
> 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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