Well, friends, the time has come.  I can't cope any more with a vehicle
that seems to break down every time I drive her, and Matilda is being
retired.  Going to the happy hunting grounds for old and infirm vanagons.
I was about to (finally) register her in Canada, when she broke down yet
again, and very sadly I'm giving up.  (You know it's bad, when the tow
truck operator shows up and regales you with his recollections of all the
previous times he has towed your van.  Of course you also know that means
you live in a really small town...)

I would love for her parts to go to a vanagonaut who can make good use of
them, though being in St. John's, Newfoundland, that's a bit hard.

But if there's anyone on the list who is out here and might be interested
in taking some easily removable parts - please do send me an email.  She
actually runs reasonably well when she's running - she has a Boston Bob
engine with around 60,000 miles since Bob sold it to me.  She's got a
wonderful Dometic refrigerator - and I HAVE THE ICE CUBE TRAYS!  She's got
a newly remastered and installed air flow meter (after a year of many
mechanics trying to figure out that that's what she needed).  A fine set of
vintage grey curtains (even I can remove them if someone wants them!).
Gray front seats in good condition.  Spare battery and the hardware for
hooking it up.  Plus probably other usable parts that I'm not thinking of
or don't even know about.

The hitch, of course, is that I'm in Newfoundland, and she's not in any
shape to drive any distance.  (The brakes freezing up was the last straw,
and although they are no longer frozen and I did drive her back home, I
didn't get them repaired.  Exhaust system is rusty.  Driver side panel has
rusted right through at the seam, though that might not make her
undriveable.)  And shipping parts probably isn't worth what it would cost.

But if you're heading here this summer and are interested, or you're local
and interested, please do let me know.  I haven't yet called the few
mechanics in town who might want to take her off my hands for parts, but
I'll be doing that soon, I guess.  And if not them, then I'll have to get
her towed to the crusher and that will be the end of Matilda.  ;-(((

I have friends whose five- and six-year old children adore her, and I was
really hoping that they'd like to take her as a playhouse / violin practice
room / spare bedroom / spot for sleepovers in the driveway.  They were
tempted, but common sense prevailed, and they decided they couldn't plant
an unregistered, undriveable van in their driveway even if it would thrill
their children.  Alas, that would have been a lovely old-age-home for
Matilda's retirement, with two very nice kids who love her.

For the moment I'll be car free.  I'm kind of scouting for something that's
small and gets great gas mileage - a Pruis maybe.  But on the other hand,
if another vanagon a lot more reliable than Matilda came along...

Meanwhile, I'm in mourning.

And I hope I can still consider myself part of the vanagon community even
if I no longer have one.

Joy
and Matilda, who will miss all of you