Folks-
     
     I've had a few early replies on my suggestion that interested 
     "listies" might want to go together and order a shipment of tents from 
     Reimo in Germany.  There have been some questions on the part of the 
     respondents, and it turns out that if there's any hope of doing this 
     properly, I have a few questions of my own that need to be answered.
     
     First some information.  For those with web access, the tents in 
     question are on the "Westfalia Tent Page" at:
     
        http://www.supernet.net/~jclark/vw/tents.html
     
     For the rest of you, I don't know for sure if I can help, but if 
     there's enough interest among the e-mail only crowd, maybe there's a 
     way.
     
     BTW, "Inner sleep cabin" is an option which divides the inside into a 
     sleeping area and a "hallway" which leads to the van.
     
     Prices are listed in German Marks, and be advised that the shipping 
     cost information given is for in-Germany shipment only.  Today's 
     published exchange rate is $1.00 US = 1.75 Deutchmarks.  As a basic 
     rule of thumb, I'd suggest you use 1.5 marks to the dollar which will 
     give some padding if the prices have gone up.  Of course, all this 
     information is just for planning purposes - the real reckoning will 
     come later (if at all).
     
     In theory, we should be able to avoid approximately 15% of the cost 
     which is the rough amount of the "value added" tax; export sales are 
     usually exempted from this, however there may be a US Customs duty to 
     pay which might eat up some or most of this possible savings.  There's 
     also the unknown cost of shipping - most of the tents weigh around 50 
     lbs each; shipment would likely be by surface, eliminating any 
     reasonable chance that the tents would arrive in time for this 
     summer's festivities.
     
     Oh, by the way, if I and the guy in Germany understood each other 
     correctly, the tents pretty much DON'T have floors, but they could be 
     custom made with them; I guess that's the difference between here and 
     Europe - we seem to have a lot more pesky critters.
     
     Finally, the person I spoke to indicated that they were aware of the 
     second hand Internet exposure they were getting, probably as a result 
     of J. Clark's page.  They indicated that they were hoping to get a US 
     distributor lined up, perhaps by the end of July (any of you Bus 
     suppliers interested/involved).  'Course with my experience as a 
     "consumer" of European model trains, I'm sure another middleman will 
     contribute to the cost.
     
     Now, for the sake of discussion, anyone who's interested (and can get 
     at the web page):
     
        Which tent are you interested in?  (I'm partial to the "Mistral")
     
     And to estimate the logistics required to distribute any eventual 
     order to the lucky recipients:
     
        What state do you live in?  (I'm in New Mexico)
     
     Finally, my internet/e-mail access is at work, so I will not be 
     answering much more e-mail between now and next Monday.
     
     -Blaine
     (my i-mail address is:  blaineoftrains@earthling.net)