Kate:

Welcome!  Hopefully you'll have your bus running in time for the Spring
gathering of Buses by the Beach in Grand Rapids.  It's a great event with
great people!  My wife is from Saginaw where our bus lived with her mother
until she gave it to us 3 years ago. It was originally her grandfather's
(Joe.)  You will realize in time getting a Vanagon Westy for free (Even one
that has been sitting a while.) is a great gift from the Westy gods!

Check out WWW.busesbythebeach.com

Pete and Nancy
'87 Westy
"Joe's Van"

> Hello fellow Vanagon owners!
>
> My name is Kate and I live in Okemos, MI - just outside of Lansing.  I
> thought I'd post an introduction and the story of how we aquired our
> Westy....   It's a 1985 Gold/Beige Westfalia Camper with about 124,000
> miles on it.    It's in need of some repair and that's why I joined
> this list.  Hopefully, with a little help from listmembers, we'll have
> this baby on the road soon!
>
> Here's the story:   Three years ago, my husband Rob, daughter Kayleigh
> and I were vacationing in Michigan's Upper Penninsula (UP) and saw
> this VW Westphalia camper with a "For Sale" sign in the window on a
> side street in Grand Marais, MI right off of Lake Superior. We took it
> for a test drive and talked at length with the gentleman selling it.
> It was a cool van, with the fridge, sink, stove in the back and
> sleeping space for 4 using the pop-up top camper feature.
>
> Alas, we couldn't afford it at the time although we really wanted a
> van of some kind for camping trips, etc. Last fall, we ended up buying
> a Honda Odyssey minivan so that we would have the space we needed when
> camping and for hauling larger groups of people around town, etc. The
> Honda is a great van and has proved itself to be a good investment
> already, but there was a part of us that still wished we had a hippie
> VW camper...
>
> Fast forward to this year's summer vacation. On our way up to camp
> again in the UP we wondered aloud if that Westphalia might still be
> for sale. Considering what a tiny little town Grand Marais is, it
> wouldn't be surprising for no one to have come through town to see it
> and/or buy it in three years. We laughed that it would probably be
> sitting there in the same spot, faded "For Sale" sign still in the
> window. Of course, we drove through Grand Marais with our eyes peeled,
> but the van wasn't there.
>
> On one of our trips back into town to get ice, firewood or whatever, I
> was looking down all the side streets hoping to catch a glimpse of the
> VW... Bam! There is was, in a grassy alley behind a row of homes,
> parked behind a shed with foot-and-a-half tall grass growing up along
> side of it! We pulled down the next street and decided to take the
> chance that the owner may have just parked it when it didn't sell, so
> Rob walked up to the house and knocked on the door.
>
> A nice older woman responded and Rob asked her if the VW van was still
> for sale. She said that it was her daughter's van and called to her to
> come talk to us. Becky, the daughter, was the most adorable thing!
> She's probably about 20-22 years old, a cute little hippie chick in a
> homemade patchwork dress and about 8.5 months pregnant!
>
> She told us she was interested in getting rid of the van because she
> and her husband couldn't really afford to keep it. It was parked here
> at her mom's house because they didn't have anywhere to store it and
> if we wanted it we could just have it! Rob told her we would be happy
> to buy it off of her if she wanted to give us a price, but she
> insisted that just taking it away would be fine because her mom has
> been bugging her to get it out of the backyard for a long time.
>
> Turns out, the guy selling the van three years ago was her stepdad and
> he ended up giving it to her. She drove it for a bit and did a little
> camping but then one time it overheated as they drove out in the
> backcountry on a slow winding dirt road. She had it towed home and
> hasn't really done anything with it since. She does go out and start
> it up every few months and it always runs for her, but she hasn't
> driven since it overheated because she didn't want to cause anymore
> damage if there was something seriously wrong with the engine. Now
> that she and her husband are expecting a child, she just doesn't think
> they can afford to keep the VW as a recreational vehicle and handle
> the maintenance and upkeep.
>
> We got her contact info and told her we would be back in touch with
> her if we were interested in taking the van. After we left, we hemmed
> and hawed about whether it would be wise idea - the concept was
> awesome: free hippie VW camper, but would it end up being a similar
> burden for us as well? After considering our budget and the fact that
> we already bought the Honda, (at great expense), and have Rob's high
> maintenance 1988 Audi to keep running we realized it just didn't make
> sense to take on another vehicle right now.
>
> When we got home from vacation, the Westy was still on our minds.   We
> talked about it for a few days and decided to go ahead with it and get
> in touch with Becky.
>
> So, a couple of weekends ago, Rob and I drove up to the UP yet again
> and towed the Westy home.  There's more to the story that I will fill
> in another time, including one trip up with hopes of driving the Westy
> home, but that story deserves an email of it's own!
>
> I'll be writing more later with some links to pictures, some questions
> and more stories of our Vanagon adventure!
>
> -=kt=-