Thanks to great weather and a grassroots efforts by people who didn't even know who was organizing the event, we had a terrific turn-out. There was something like 40 vans, Westies, Dokas and other campers (CountryHomes & Bay Windows). There was even a Thing, Jetta, & a 914 with a 3.0 Subie motor (Marco from BusLab).

Weather was great! We met people new to the event so that was very cool. The usual suspects were there. Stephan drove in from Sacto with his 1.8T Syncro Westy. Detlev Hanschke came with some special friends visiting from Germany. One of them is a legend in the T3 world as far as I am concerned. Ever hear of HA Projekt? The man himself was there admiring the lack of rust on our West Coast Vanagons. We had representatives from the upcoming Syncrofest and also Syncro de Mayo. This promises to be a fantastic year for Vanagon and Syncro enthusiasts. Better start polishing up notes for Van-O-Rama in September.
;-)

Did I mention Mr. Mike Miller brought a magnesium engine case? No, neither he nor I had anything to do the bright lights at the beach. Mike had left the case outside his Syncro. Somehow, it managed to get on a bonfire at the beach. Let me make it crystal clear that neither of us had a hand in that foolishness. The neighboring bonfire with two Christmas trees might have looked bright for a while. But eventually, bURNINGVAN cast a shadow on their efforts.

Thanks to everyone who attended and for those who posted the event on various forums. Let's do it again next year.

Anybody who has photos of the event to contribute, please pmail them to me for posting. We hope to give credit where it is due. Captions will help us identify all the participants.

Cheers,

BenT
(Mike Miller's Co-Conspirator)