In a message dated 10/24/98 1:20:58 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
martywallace@ROCKETMAIL.COM writes:

<<
 What do you think?  Would you trade the comfort and relative speediness
 of your Vanagon for the simplicity of a late model bus?  Anyone feel like
 you would NEVER go back after owning a Vanagon?  How about anyone with a
 bus who wouldn't own a Vanagon? >>

It would be very difficult to go back to a pre-1980 transporter/Type
2/Breadloaf/Splitty/whatever. Years of heatless winters have taken their toll.
I started with a 1960 bus and stayed with air-cooled through my 1981 Vanagon
(with '64, '66, and '75 buses). I still shiver at the recollection of moving
from Madison, Wisconsin to Cambridge, Massachusetts in the dead of winter in a
1960 bus. My girlfriend could only wrap herself in blankets and have the dog
sleep in her lap. This is sort of bearable when you are 21 or 22. When I woke
up one morning and discovered I had turned 45, I began to ponder all of life's
mysteries (in preparation for a mid-life crisis breakdown). Mystery number one
(and number 2 and 3): Why the hell are we freezing our butts off driving from
the Berkshires to Boston? People in Hyundai's are sitting in comfort, with
defrosted windows, while we are hunched over in contorted mammalian attempts
to maintain body core temperatures. So it was time for a waterboxer and the
mysteries of coolant and hoses and all those things I never worried about. But
now, winters are again a wonderful time. 4 studded 185x14 Continental
snowtires and I can go anywhere in comfort and security. Heat poring out the
vents, Coltrane on the cassette deck. Forget simplicity, life is too short.
Then again...if I lived in a warm-all-the-time climate and stayed there, I
suppose air-cooled transportation would be an option. But I still smile and
cringe when I hear the word (words?) Heaterbox.

Michael
87 GL (Vernon)