Cool! (no pun intended)  Thanks for sharing.

-Dick-
87 Vanagon Syncro 2.5 I5

On Thu, May 23, 2013 at 7:32 AM, mark drillock <mdrillock@cox.net> wrote:

> A couple weeks ago we celebrated our 25th anniversary by taking off on a
> 9 day camping trip. We had spent part of our honeymoon in Sequoia NP and
> decided to head there again for several days and then into Kings Canyon
> too. We knew it was a little early in the year for those places but we
> didn't quite grasp how early it would later seem.
>
> After a Thur night at a rest area half way we arrived on a Fri morning
> and were disappointed to learn that our desired foothills campground
> Buckeye Flat was not open yet for this season. We pulled into nearby
> Potwisha instead, resigned to make the best of it for 2 nights after
> which we would head up to the the big trees when the weekend crowds were
> gone. It was surprisingly hot even at 2500 feet and the campground
> filled both nights, about half with Europeans most of whom appeared to
> be German. Late Fri afternoon an odd looking car with a loud exhaust
> pulled in near us. I recognized the plate as from Argentina so I went
> over. It was a young couple who had started out 2 years ago for Alaska.
> Not the same couple from Argentina I wrote about here recently, this new
> couple was in a Renault car and the earlier couple at least had a Westy
> weekender. Both couples are on the same quest by coincidence. I spoke to
> them briefly and they knew the first couple, having crossed paths with
> them earlier in their trip while still in South America but already many
> thousands of miles after they had left home. The first couple had been
> at my house a week earlier. Small world, or something.
>
> Sun morn we got up early and headed up the mountain to the giant
> Sequoias. It was a spectacular drive and we stopped at various points of
> interest to walk among the big trees. The only high country campground
> open was LodgePole so we picked a spot and got settled. Our nearest
> neighbor was a young couple from Holland in a tiny rental RV. Next to
> them was a solo bicyclist, with a lot of gear on his bike but no tent.
> As night came it started to rain so he tied a cord between his table and
> a tree and folded a tarp over it, staking out the corners. Then he threw
> a sleeping bag on the bare ground under it. His feet stuck out from
> under the tarp so he threw his jacket over them. It must have been a
> long night.
>
> On Mon another Westy cruised into the campground and took a space far
> from us. The plate was from Vermont and they had a couple of kayaks on
> the roof. This was the first Vanagon we had seen since the Los Angeles
> area. Get out there people! I went for a hike to a nearby falls and on
> my return leg it lightly hailed on me for a good half hour. Sitting in
> the van enjoying a hot cup of tea the hail really let loose. It built up
> a couple inches deep in spots and stayed on the ground into the next
> day. In the morning it was snowing, adding a layer to the remaining
> hail. We packed up to head for Kings Canyon and it was really dumping so
> we were glad to go. This was the actual date of our wedding, a planned
> outdoor wedding that had to be moved inside when it snowed all night.
> Here is a photo of our 87 Syncro, May 7th 2013, Sequoia NP.
>
> http://images.thesamba.com/vw/**gallery/pix/1064580.jpg<http://images.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/1064580.jpg>
>
> Mark and Anne
>