| Frank Condelli's report on
"Buses by the Bridge -X" held in Lake Havasu City January 13, 2006 - January 15, 2006 |
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| Coming to you
from Quartzsite, AZ, check that out on your map. More about Quartzsite
later. First back to BBB. What a great VW event. There as a WiFi set up
for us all but no time to write. We did manage to pick up mail though.
Total entries were over 300 buses. More split window vans than you could
imagine. And, split single cabs were everywhere, hard to believe but wait
till you see the pics. When we arrived on site at the Lake Havasu State
Park Beach we found Peter with his red Eurovan from Toronto already there,
another fellow from Cambellford, ON and Phil from Cambell River, BC. Along
with Larry, Loren, Barb, Joy and others from the Vanagon List, we all had
quite the reunion party. Later on the Friday evening Cory and Ted
travelling together in Cory's new to him Vanagon Westy from Cornwall
arrive after all of have been wondering what happened to them. Story goes
that they were delayed in Albuquerque, NM with and overheating problem,
The Rad in Cory' Westy needed replacing. They soon got one through help
sent out by Phil and Catherine. Corry's new diesel conversion had been
overheating since they left but the warmer temps and mountains made them
give it up. After the new rad install they got under way and made their
way to the Grand Canon where they took a nine hour burro ride to the
bottom. When they arrived complaining of sore butts we presumed it was
from the Vanagon, NOT ! Saturday morning we made are way around and met many folk known to us only by name on the Internet and met many new ones, saw Buses that made our eyes bulge. Descriptions defy words so I will let the pictures I will post tell the story. We bought tickets on the Quilt raffle and yes, Cathy, we got tickets for you and Gerry got the privilege of holding them. Door prizes were abundant but you had to buy tickets. There were tickets on the Quilt, Parts and a VW camp fire place (see the pics). Probably $20,000 with of stuff was raffled off. Engines, transmissions and all sorts of parts but all for splits or bays. No Vanagon stuff so we did not purchase any tickets. We were putting all our money on the Quilt. Later on our daughter April arrived with her friend Chris who had flown into San Francisco from Thunder Bay, rented a car and drove down from Aptos to meet up with us. A great reunion after her departure from home back in November. Later on Rita and I started fixin' our entry for the chili cook off from provisions previously acquired. With help from all our friend we whipped up what we thought as a bitchen' chili. I had the honours to bring it up for judging. Along with five other contestants. $1 Tickets were sold to the crowd and each got to try all the chilies and vote for their favourite by placing their ticket in a cup in front of the chili. I got three votes, Erin to my left had a gazillion, after tasting hers I admitted defeat and gave her my three votes. She won of course but only by one vote as the woman with the white chicken chili on my right came second. Rita liked hers the best but I did not. All of us chili cookers got hand made apron for our participation, a great memento at least ! The day wore on and partying at campsites moved into high gear. Raffling of the goodies began around 7pm so we all headed over to the stage area with chairs, drinks and visions of Quilts in our eyes. Well, the short of it is we nor Cathy or anyone else we knew won that Quilt nor the surprise one made by Catherine and announced only after the first one was won. During the commotion of the Quilt raffel,100 T-shirts from someone in Hawaii were flung out into the crowd, we were not lucky, anyways, we have way more T's than we know what to do with. So after all that excitement we went back to party with the rest of the Vanagon community that did not get involved in the parts raffle. Partying went way into the we hours. Larry made a call to Karl Mulendore in Maryland to bug him for not being with us and we all got our chance to say hello. |
Sunday morning, Boy Scout pancake breakfast, wandering around, organizing
our day and judging of the buses was the agenda. Our new friends Rus &
Rita won some kind of award as he came over waving this nice plaque with a
picute of his bus on it. Someone took pics of the winners got them printed
and got them on wooden plaques with clocks to give out, pretty cool !
Other new friends from Bakerfield with a Subie six powered Adventurewagen
related their horrifing experience of the nite. He left our party circle
late and went to his van, when he closes the glass roof vent it explodes
into a million pieces. The loud explosing awaken most of his neighbors and
he's left standing in a pile of glass chips. Quite the surprise late at
night. No injurys incurred so all's well. Time for a new PLASTIC skylight
!April and Chris pack up all the stuff we brought out for her into the
rented PT Cruiser and head off to Las Vegas before getting back to Aptos.
We will head on up there later today or tomorrow. Peter, Cory Ted, Rita
& I decode to head off to Quartzsite for the largest flea market in
the world e're told. Usually around 250,000 people. Started off as a rock
and gem show but has somehow got out of hand. We get under way after
packing, saying goodbys, showers, and getting provisions. Quartzsite is
about two hours south. Free dry camping on BLM land is availble so wwe all
plan on meeting up and getting together there. Coming into Quartzstie we
pass the campsites where we find hundreds of RV's parkede willy nilly over
the landscape. Trying to find anyone out there would be impossible.
Luckily we had made arrangement to meet ourselves at thr McDonalds in
town. Town, yes, normally a population of a few thousand but during the
winter the inflx of RV's turns this place into a metropolos of RV's. We
meet up and co off camping and kapitizing. Monday morning we all go off to
explore what looks like the Stittsville Flea Market times a thousand. It
would take a week of walling around to see it all. Mostly rocks from all
over the world, Moroco, Austrauila, Brazil, Mexico and the US seem to be
the prevalant ones. After a few hours looking at spectaculat rock
formations in all sizes and colous we make our ay through some RV and tool
vendors. We fiinally find a spice rack for our Westy that we'd been
searching for for a long time. Buy some other trinckets and all head back
to find a camp and make ourselves a spagetti diner. Cory & Ted need to
do some errands so do not go with Peter and us. We find ourselves a
secluded spot then realize it's getting dark and how will Cory and Ted
find us. We eventullay spot a Vanagon crusing by ont he road not stopping
Peter and I give chase in his Eirovan. We evwentualyy find time in the
darkening maze of RV's and we have a great diner and picture show of our
picss of out travels. Tuesday morning now and I'm busily typing away so I can get this off at the free Internet connection in Quartzsite. Checking Hunters water bowl left outside over night we find it frozen, yes FROZEN, ice in Arizona in January. That's why we were cold last night. After breakfast and warm rising sunshine, Peter and Cory & Ted will head off to Mexico where we will meet up with them around Conception Bay on the southern east coast of Baja some time next week after our trip up to Aptos to see what April's digs look like. Sun's up now and getting hot ! Pics will get posted later from Bakersfield as time here is running out. |
| Photos of Buses by the Bridge '06 | |
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