ok, so not exactly a pyramid scheme. or ponzi scheme ...
maybe a VPF (Vicarious Pay Forward) scheme?? ;)

or ...

The Fryedaye Vanagon List Tripping the Lite Fantastic Little Lotto!

ok, so here's how it works.

1. we need someone trustworthy. obviously, would have to be someone
off the list. ;)

2. there are 780 folks on the mailing list, as of a few minutes ago.

3. the interest of folks on the list for the fate of the six foo... er
... intrepid traveling young men
is what made me think of this: brought back memories of such trips i
used to (be able to) make.

so ... what's the big deal?

money, of course. ah,  but with a twist.

IF everybody on the list were to kick in $1 ... one lousy stinking
little dollar.
ok, make that $5. it would cost $0.44 cents to send a lousy stinking
little dollar, so it would
almost not be worth it.

IF everybody on the list were to kick in $5 ... ;)
that would be (fumble, click, click, buzz, whirrrrrr) a total of 3900.
whoa. too much.
ok, $2. that might be worth the effort and postage. so it's $1560.00.

that should be enough for a nice little trip. :)  how many days do you
guys figure that would last?
and how many miles? figure maybe $500 for fuel? at 18mpg
(conservative, i hope!), at, say, $3/gallon, that would be 160 gallons
or about 3000 miles. whoa ... big trip.

anyway, the idea is basically a raffle or lotto  ... so we need
somehow to randomly select someone subscribed to the list. by someone
trustworthy. ;) or me ... which means i can't go, but that's ok cause
none of my buses run anyway, and they ain't likely to get fixed any
time soon.

  for $2 each, we could do this every month in the summer?  or some
such as that.

sorry, folks overseas ... unless you plan on showing up on these
shores, it might get kinda complicated to include you guys. :(

so .... what say ye, oh, mumblers of the Vanagon verses? Tattlers of
the T3 Tales?

oh, wait ... i forgot something: The Gotcha. :)

winner MUST send trip reports to the list!! and fixing themselves up
so we could follow their progress, as we are doing with the six kids
in the blue camper, is sort of a requirement. you'll need a cell phone
anyway, right? :)
and the rest of us get "entertainment" for our $2 ... better than most
tv shows, and even most movies. ;)
at least, as long as the winner can write clearly. :)

so whaddaya think, folks?  just another stupid idea? once a summer?
twice a summer?

unca joel