Mapuin Day three

Friday nights pot luck put me to bed, I woke up early the next day. Occasionally I sleep better in my bus than I do in my bed.

Most people were still asleep, so I made my coffee silently. It was my intention to take pictures of buses, but somehow, the dogs got my attention. Maupin is a family campout, people bring their families. For some, that means their dogs.

I haven't seen cats or birds on these trips yet, but I suspect that I'm only counting down the days.

It was too overcast on Saturday to go white water rafting, so most of us settled with drinking beer. I spent time adjusting Joes exhaust, most of his connections had rattled loose, and he lost an exhaust header stud.
I had the help of the lovely Patricia, while her patient husband looked on with both amusement and horror.

Later that afternoon we did the annual beer tasting

Oregonians take their beer seriously, the only other state that I have seen with the same level of dedication is Colorado. One of the campers is a brewer, and brought his own keg of "something special'. (If any of the attendees could tell me his name and brewery, I'd like to give him full credit, that stuff was awesome)

And like any good campout, the sun set,

the lights came on

and the people got weird. :)

Up next. Just how big is that tent?

Maupin day two

It's about 8:00 am and I'm out the door after my "continental breakfast". There are groundhogs all along the side of the road near Klamath lake, they seem to be smart enough to know that cars are deadly.

Oregon was described to me as a "curious mix of hick and hippy" once. I think that is accurate. I see faded bumper stickers on old Fords that say "I'm the NRA" getting passed by Toyota Priuses with the required Obama 08 sticker. (Question: if you remove the Obama sticker from a Prius, does it void the warranty?)

Odd roadside sculptures dot the road to Bend. I'm there a little early, so no stopping at Deschutes brewery, it's just a cup of coffee, and I'm continuing on.

I'm there a little early, so no stopping at Deschutes brewery, it's just a cup of coffee, and I'm continuing on.

But I take a picture of Mirror Pond just the same.

The last 30 miles to Maupin are the longest 100 miles I've driven. It's pretty, but after close to 14 hours of driving, you just want to get there and see happy faces.

I do. There are.

There were only a few buses when I pulled in, I was earlier than most.

I put up the tent next to Johns. This is the big tents inaugural trip, it did well.

And then I set my bus and tent up next to Melissa

But as the evening poured on, more and more showed up.

Next up: Dogs. Lots of dogs.

Maupin Day one

I've missed the Maupin River RendezVW for the past two years, and decided I really needed to head up this year. So, off I went.

Thursday, around 2:00pm, and I'm out the door. I've adjusted the valves, changed the oil, and I'm bringing the tent of awesome for the first time. The tent of awesome is the only name I can come up with, if anyone has a better name, I'm interested. Tent of Doom is taken (along with annex of despair, and my favorite - house of falling water).

I'm on the bridge a little after 2:00pm

at the Vallejo interchange a little after 3:00pm

and up almost at the 505-5 interchange around 4:00

Around 4:30 the freeway is a parking lot near Arbuckle

And the exploded semi that caused the back up is both tragic and an amazing thing to see. I'd suggest checking your fuel lines for those of you who know what I mean.

The rest of the ride up was uneventful. I stopped in Redding for food and to visit my grandparents resting place. This blog is partially named for them. Ellen, Clement, Elizabeth, and Louis. Clement and Elizabeth were my moms parents, they spent a big chunk of their lives in Redding. I'm not there very long, but the smell of the hot manzanita, and the fresh cut grass at the cemetery turns me into a 16 year old boy spending a summer with his grandmother. I wish I had my grandfathers Studebaker Hawk, it was such a cool car.

I'm back on the road around 6:30 and heading up to Weed.

The Summer solstice is a few days away and the long sunsets give me a painted mountain to admire all the way into Oregon. I zig-zag through Dorris, and find out the both my horn and highlights are not working. My intention to camp just north of Klamath Falls gets reexamined as deer and other wildlife are common on those roads. So I pull into the cheap motel off the freeway at Klamath and sleep in "not-a-bus".

I'll get up early tomorrow.

Classic Vendors of Irvine

One of the reasons you go to a car show is for the "stuff". Not the cars, but the extra junk. Parts, art, crafts, things, baubles, doo-dads, rare things, toys, shirts, whatever. They are all just as much a part of the show as the vehicle.

The Irvine classic had it's own special brand of vendors. These guys were making brand new engine blocks out of their own special aluminium.

And these guys have been improving baja bugs with over engineered suspension systems.

Here is a complete SO 22 camper interior for sale.

and if you need a canvas bag to hold all your junk, here are a couple for sale.

There is always some guy with dash plaques, key chains, and some rarities. This particular one has some items that would be illegal in Germany.

Here's a lady who was making purses and wallets out of seat cover material.

Perhaps you don't like your friends, then I suggest that you put them in an uncomfortable seat like this one.

And in case you don't have enough toys:

There a plenty more on my flickr site. Coming up next, my Maupin trip.

VW Classic - Irvine

I'm in L.A., I have been here for two weeks both moving my wife into her apartment for her internship, and attending E3. I was planning on being back in the bay area last week, but I was told that the VW Classic was last weekend, so I extended my stay.

The Classic is the "big" event on the west coast, it's been going on for years and the VW magazines used to cover it on 8 pages. Now that the VW scene is a little smaller, it's only likely to cover 2 pages, but it is still worth going to.

If you just want to skip my talk, go here and click through the pictures.

The Bay Window group is normally the red headed step child of the VW community - not so much any more. I kept over hearing conversation about "how I gave one away" or "sold on 5 years ago for 300$" and now everyone seems amused that they command $4K and up for something running, and over $10K for a good one.

Regardless of their ignorance (says the guy who loves his bus and puts no price on it) they are right, bay window buses are worth about double what they were five years ago.

Some people really love putting their all into them. This work of art was cleaner than mine, and probably cleaner than Gary Marr's bus. (Seriously Gary - it was spit polish clean)

The owners are about to do a road trip - I'm inviting them to join the camper family if they are going through town.

Then there was this cute little thing.

 

 My cats won't go into my bus, I wish they were as mellow as this one.

This guy just didn't have enough crap on his dashboard. ;)

There was an ambulance.

The Kona brewing company had a keg and tap in the back that they were serving from:

I predict that half these lowered buses will be back to stock height in 5 years:

This 63 multiwindow came towing a camper. Gorgeous. and classic.

And since I'm a fan of the car bar, this picture was taken for my amusement.

I'll post more later. Sorry I missed he trainspotting campout, but I still got my vw fix.