Post by joesvan on Feb 13, 2007 21:38:36 GMT -5
Man, it was cold!
Had a great road trip in JoesVan on Saturday morning with my 14 year old daughter, Katharine. Got a wild reaction from a lady in a white Jetta on 80/90 who smiled and waved and thumb-upped us for a mile or two.
We hit Pokagon about 12:30 PM and were met by Ken, Sue and Ed and Elaine from Michigan. They got the oak logs (a nice load of wood purchased in advance for Pokagon State Park was the hit of the weekend!) roaring while I shoveled out campsites and we were off!
Buses came in, the food and drink and tunes (Merl Saunders/Garcia/Grisman) came out and we hung out around the fire most of the day and into the evening. We had some awesome Crock Pot creations: Lynn's Potato and Ham soup (yum!) Charlie's Bordeaux Pot Roast (wow!) and Tom and Allen's Turkey Sausage Chili (excellent!) Prolly the most interesting food was Ed's Pheasant Jerky. Some brave souls did hit the toboggan run, but the cold temps kept most Volk around the fire.
The low for the night was -3! All campers reported no problems sleeping due to electric heaters and mylar/foam insulation. The problems came in the morning with the buses. Joesvan puked out all its oil (oil cooler O ring, I'm almost sure) and had to be flatbedded back to it's pole barn. (thanks, AAA!) Brien's Brown Betty was a hard wake up and had to be push started (3X was a charm!) and she made it back to Rockford. Mark's Suite '78 would not start but a short trip in Kenny Diesel Jetta to a FLAPS in Angola for some starter fluid coaxed it to life. All other buses made it home on their own steam.
A great time was had by all and the most quoted line of the night was "...you know it's really not bad near the fire..." Get away from the fire, though, and it was quickly apparent how frosty it was. We all hand Charlie's hand warmer packets tucked away in our clothes. The crystal clear stars were almost worth it, though!
We will be posting our "cool" pics shortly on the Buses by the Beach website along with a nifty Syncro snow covered hill climb that is really neat! Hey, we don't have palm trees, but we do have fun!
See everybody at Bus Benefit, May 18-20th at Grand Rogue. We will once again defeat the Mustang Club for most vehicles at the Burn Survivor car Show!
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