I thought I'd forward this to the Vanagon list also....Stuart

>
>Getting Andy's emailing about the Goldendale trip made me think about
>sharing something I've been doing with my Vanagons and Amtrak for several
>years.
>
>How often have you thought, 'It'd be great to go there but that's too far to
>drive in a weekend.'?
>
>I love to cruise around the PNW and Canada with the comforts of the Westy
>and Weekender I've owned. I'll take my futon and downy comforter over a
>rental and motel bed anyday. I also really enjoy traveling by train
>perticularly on the new Talgo trains although when overnight on a Superliner
>with a roomette only.
>
>There are three areas I gravitate to at different parts of the year; Fall &
>Winter-Oregon central coast from Newport to Reedsport; Spring &
>Summer-Northern Washington and B.C. from Mt. Vernon north. I'm based in
>Vancouver, WA and I find driving I-5 to be so damned boring except from
>Arlington north.
>
>So, what I do is hang in the places I like, but instead of driving all the
>way home each trip, I leave my camper at Amtrak and Greyhound stations in
>smaller towns and ride the train home. Then when I need to get away, usually
>7-10 days later, I drive my econobox Ranger to the Vancouver Amtrak station
>and take the 12:48PM north or the 8:17PM south.
>
>I leave Blue at the Eugene station through much of the winter. During the
>summer I leave Blue in Mt. Vernon, Bellingham, Whitefish, Vancouver, B.C.,
>Wishram (this is what Goldendale reminded me of) etc. Presently, Blue is
>sitting in the Mt. Vernon Greyhound parking lot. I use Greyhound from points
>between Vancouver, B.C. and Seattle because there's only one Talgo that runs
>between those points at inconvenient times.
>
>I'm hoping to drift up to Jasper this spring and take VIA & Amtrak home and
>back again.
>
>Stuart
>
>------------------------------------------------------------------------
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