Wow, what an adventure! I'm sorry we didn't meet at Watkins' ( or did we? ), there were so many people there!

Anybody so fond of exclamation points is a friend of mine!

Sent from my iPhone

On Sep 29, 2013, at 4:50 AM, Julianna Thoennes <mumbrue@GMAIL.COM> wrote:

> Hi all!  Please excuse the double posting!  I wanted to share with both the
> WetWesties, and the Vanagon lists!!! I don't post much anymore, but I am
> out here lurking, loving all your techy posts, journeys, and thoroughly
> enjoying Fryedays to the upmost!!!  I thought you all might enjoy an update
> of my journey!  Ok, a little about me for those curious!  I am driving my
> 1990 VW Vanagon Westfalia named the Rastafalia!  I have had him since 1997,
> and he is as much a part of me as an appendage!  :D  I am traveling with my
> sweety, Colin Elligsen, and our Great Dane mix puppy Charlotte!  Our
> journey begins back in early September, when we left Corvallis, OR during a
> particularly ferocious lightning storm!  Very unusual, as it stuck around
> for HOURS, and dumped a ton if rain on us as we were packing the last of
> our essentials into the van!  Could I get the wipers to work?!!!!  Of
> course not!  Thankfully, it was just a fuse, and we were safely on our way.
> We travelled thru much of the night. At the time, feeling sad, as I was
> going to miss the ReUnion at Catherine Creek!  AGAIN!  Oh dear!   Next year
> will hopefully be easier!  We were on a very short timeline to get to our
> conference on the East Coast, and we left 3 days later than planned, cause
> we have had massive awesome stuff happening in our team!  Happiness!  We
> first traveled to Moab, UT, cause I just can't pass thru the country
> without stopping to see and experience the red cliffs and slickrock!  Just
> fills me up!  The canyons there feed my soul!  We stayed up in the LaSal
> Mountains this time around, as my friend Meg just bought property up there!
> They are building their dream house!  Then we beat feet across the
> country, and visited Mammoth Caves in Kentucky!  We did the River Styx Tour
> and the New Entrance Tour!  I had just finished a fictionalized novel about
> the true life slave guide Stephen Bishop, so it was fun to walk thru the
> cave and see areas that he guided folks thru a hundred years ago!  Wanted
> to do the Historic Tour too, but ran out of time!  We needed to be in
> Charlotte, NC for a business conference!  Made it only 16 minutes late!
> LOL!  Whew!  Afterwards we went and visited VW friends from Oregon, Brent
> and Laura Brooks!!!  Got to squeeze their baby daughter in person!  So nice
> after seeing her grow in pictures over the last year!  Ah!  They get big
> too fast!  So happy I got to see them again!  I got to see my ole Baywindow
> Pea Pod again after all these years too!!  Brent replaced the pop top with
> a high top, and I almost didn't recognize it!  We stayed one night, then
> moved on Northward to visit Karl Mullendore at his shop.  :D  I tell you,
> this man has done some seriously nice mods to his Syncro Westy!!!!  If he
> really does sell it, someone is going to be lucky to get to own it!!!!  I
> need to make some serious money!  Drooling!  LOL!
> Karl told us about Westies at Watkins Glen!  We were heading North to visit
> Family in NY, and he so kindly invited me to the event!  So glad!!!!   I
> got to meet, in person, a few of you famous people at while we were there!
> Stupendous!!!!  Thank you Joel Cort for hosting!!!  You put a lot of effort
> in to make it a great event!  The posters are an awesome souvenir!  Hope
> there are shirts left that I can order later!  It was a well attended camp
> out!  We arrived on Friday, and met Bob and Susan checking in with their
> beautiful 76 Bay window Westy!!!!  their little dog Chewy was adorable too!
> They so kindly let us double up with them for the event!  We could only
> stay part of the time, cause we really should have already been on the road
> back to Oregon already!  I really enjoyed the hike thru Watkins Glen with
> Steve Van Pelt and Nancy Hart!!!  Seeing Chris Torlesco after all these
> years, and Karl Mullendore was good for my heart!  Love you guys!!!  Afterwards
> I went to see my Uncle Jim, who I haven't seen in about 30 years. Crazy!
> He looks the same, except less hair!  ;)  Also got to see my cousin Aaron,
> and met his wife Sara and the family.  They just had a new baby!  We
> stopped in at Lehman's Non Electric in Ohio along the way.  That was
> fun!!!!  40,000+ square feet of nostalgia!  Got myself a Breathing Hand
> Washer to do laundry with!  Here is a link, so you can see what I speak of!
> 
> https://www.lehmans.com/p-4444-breathing-hand-washer.aspx
> It works awesome!  I used to use my Wonder Washer, but it broke before we
> left!  I had resorted to a cheap plunger till I got to Lehman's.  It may
> sound goofy, but I love doing my laundry by hand!  I can do it faster, and
> it gets cleaner!  I just use a 3 gallon bucket!  Ok, onward ho!  We then
> drove on to visit my brother in Kansas City, MO!  Stayed for a few days,
> and now we are heading South thru Kansas on our way to LA!  We may need
> some help with what I think may be a CV joint issue. I have clickage, and
> knockage on the right side.  We are just past Wichita, KS now.  We will be
> heading West on US 54, mostly tomorrow, I presume, as it is almost 4am now!
> Need to find a safe place to pull over to sleep.  Gotta love our Westies
> for that!!!  Anywhere is cozy in our Westfalia's!  Stay Tuned, more saga to
> follow!
> 
> Julianna
> 1990 VW Vanagon Westfalia with Tiico Conversion.  (The Rastafalia)
> 1988 VW Vanagon (James)