Hi Volks,

First off, Valley of Fire ROCKS!!!� Yes, do it in your Vanagon.� Entrance fee is $10, camping with hot showers is another $10; ranger campfire talk with SMores is free.� I'm ranking the afternoon ramble especially through the Petrograph Region very high on my list; but it's a spring/fall kind of thing, so plan accordingly.� Yesterday was a delight.

Vegas...oof..what a crazy place.� I hightailed it out of there today after lunch (Saturday);� well, the I-15 to Los Angeles was bumper to bumper for about 40 miles....and still is as I write this from McDonalds,� Primm Nevada, used to be called Stateline, which it is.� Lots of cussing heard at the gas station....� A normal 90 minute drive will take 4.5 hours (Primm to Baker)...ugly out there if you have a normal car.

So here is the Vanagon part.� Even though I had hoped to make it back to San Diego tonight, I don't care! I'm clean and safe and will be well fed soon, and I will enjoy a pleasant night in my Vanagon.� I'm in the McDonalds lot close enough to get wi-fi, so I guess that's the entertainment for tonight.� 

Key point I guess is the versatility of this vehicle.� On this trip, got me safely from San Diego to great stealth camping at the Trop...cana in Vegas.� Then a cool drive and hiking and Camping in the Valley of Fire.� Next, it provided the rescue to a bleak, frustrating, and mechanism-wearing situation on the freeway back to Los Angeles and San Diego. Oh yeah, it fits in my garage, is paid for since Day 1 (ok, it was used), chicks dig it, drinks modest gasoline, and can..blend...in..anywhere...the main purpose of this post.� ...as I type this adjacent to McDonalds in Primm, Nevada.� Whou'da figured this 30 years ago?

Hope your Thanksgiving weekend is also going as well.

Rich
San Diego