From: Rian Mullins <rian.mullins@MAIL.COM>
> I, for one, am very grateful to have the slowest car on the road.

i'm not exactly "grateful", but i'm used to it. i am grateful, however, for
the comfort and cargo space in my buses ... i get into my sister's chrysler
mini-van and all i can think about is how cramped it is. same in the SUV's
out there: nothing comes close to the elbow-room, hip-room, shoulder-room,
and headroom of my vanagons. and nothing else is as easy to walk back
between the front seats (while someone else is driving, of course! :)
driving vw buses for the last 30 years seems to have settled them into my
personality and i don't get in much of a hurry any more about anything.
driving beetles and squarebacks prior to the buses didn't hurt much in that
regard, either. ;)

> I am the only person i know who doesn't have to check their speedometer
> when they spot a cop. (Maybe if I had a speedometer it would be
> different . . . )

i still check, cause the buses are VERY good radar reflectors and that bozo
will pick ME up before he'll pick up the corvette that just passed me doing
80 in a 55 zone. so i usually try to stay at or slightly below the speed
limit, just to keep from getting clocked at 57 mph in a 55 mph zone by some
overzealous deputy who's trying to make his quota this week.

> I am considered a very safe driver.

yes, me, too. the screams of my passengers will attest to that. :)

> Little do they know that when I had my 16v GTI 10 years ago,  my
> insurance was $3500 a year.

uhhh ... you sound like my nephew with his honda crx ... who is NOT
considered a safe driver!! ;)

> I love  maxing out at 35 going up mountain passes; I feel like the
> little engine that could.

ah, so you also chant "I think I can, I think I can, ..." as you go up
mountains?? :)  i just kinda like watching the scenery and listening to the
engine so i don't overrev it ... did that once, coming down a mountain from
Raton, NM toward Amarillo, TX ... got the speedo needle on the 71 bus down
between the turn signal lights. figured it had to be over 100 mph, or right
near it. downhill, foot to the floor, with a tailwind. didn't realize it til
i turned my head to look at something in the back and heard the engine more
clearly. slowed WAAAY down kinda quickly. didn't seem to bother the engine
at all ... sold the bus about 50,000 miles later. :(  good ol' bus.

when you have a vw bus, you can appreciate a lot. if you keep it running
right. :)

unca joel