PNW Meet and Greet in June

[Railvan]

Great time. Thanks everyone. Nice to meet new folks. Great to see you CJ and meet your wife too.

Yep, a fall meet in the woods would be fine...

Brian

[bitburger]

It was great to see everyone, I think there were 9 vans that showed up.
There was also quite a crowd of kids which made it a little easier for those of us that have them:-)

We took an unofficial and unscientific poll on the way home and there were a couple of clear category winners.

Longest Traveled: Clear winner with CJ. It was great to see you both. Thanks for taking the time from your trip to meet up. Given the fascination with slugs, my kids have volunteered to collect a box full from the garden and we will send them to you in the mail. Note some shrinkage may occur in transport.

Most Impressive Van: Two Lost had to take this one. He had so many cool accessories it was clear that he bought the van before had kids :-)
A remote control spotlight on the roof? Both very nice and somewhat excessive, a beautiful combination.
My wife's suggestion is that the prize should be another kid, maybe twins:-)

Newest PNW Members: Seattle and Roonie are neck and neck. Both with kids, I'm looking forward to the trip reports for some local ideas.

Newest Van: Jimapal isn't letting any moss grow on his 09 van with extensive trips as far south as Texas.

Most Practical Accessory: While some of the younger judges wanted to go for the fold down TV screens, age and wisdom awarded this to Velogeo's back stairs; they were really useful. While I've always liked the 50 layout, having the back isle with a second exit from the van really seemed nice for those of us with kids.

Sadly, my own van also won an award. As we were leaving, my wife looked at all the manly vans with their aluminess bumpers, roof racks, off road lights, winches, and firefighting tools and said that ours was the wimpiest. "Why didn't we get the bumpers like everyone else?" she asks. Where was this thought two years ago? Crazy stuff...

I was generally surprised how great all the vans looked. Regardless of the year, they all looked new on the inside. Other than the mirrors and grill, (and Velogeo's bumper) they looked like they just rolled off the line.

Camping in the fall would be fun.
Have a great summer.

-Mark

[smoothpilot]

It was great to meet you all. I wish that I could have gotten the whole family down to meet the group. Special thanks to Velogeo for letting me know about the event.

- Terry

[bitburger]

Terry,

Both you and Jim had interesting colors, standing out a bit from the rest of us.

Thanks for showing up and we can meet the family next time.

-Mark

More pics from the event

[Roonie]

A few of you were asking me about my dual sport motorcycle rides. I thought I would share this with you as I took the video and made these short movies on my iMac last summer. Both of these were taken in the Olympics on the coast. Most of the rides I have taken are good SMB territory. The motorcycle rides we camped all along the way similar as we would with the SMB.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tn3q1dks390

Another one with some really good vistas!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erQhs0oJQmE

[JIMAPAL]

What a great time we all had meeting one another. And the rain actually held off so we could open-up all the vans. Plus it was nice to be able to put faces, vans, and names together. Up here in the Pacific Northwest there just aren't many Sportsmobiles and it is great to get together and pick each other's brains and pick-up ideas. It was very nice that JC and his wife could join in. I found it amazing the things we all have in common besides owning SMB's. I'm looking forward to an over nighter this fall.
Jim P

[CJ]

It was truly a great MEET-n-GREET! One of a kind for us Thanks to Mark and family for putting it together. Not to mention feeding the CJ van… Thanks guys. Great big thanks to the rest that made it a good fun day of exchanging stories, ideas, hobbies and the openness to share your vans. Thanks!

I could put the pressure on by saying Now that we have come to visit with you PNW’terners you need to visit SoCal, but instead I’ll just extend an open invite to any of you if you’re ever in the area. Just send me a message.

Seems as though I will have a shrunken slug collection to share with you when you visit.

A little side note on the slugs though, I am just a bit confused as to the idea that I might have a fascination with them. If fact my fascination is in you guys, it seems to me that all of you in he PNW raise them, that they were named before I arrived in the PNW, and in more than one art gallery we visited in the PNW I did notice the making and sale of slugs made from glass. Come on admit it, It’s a rainy day hobby isn’t it?

All Joking aside, thanks for a good time and letting us be a part of the Great PNW Meet-n-Greet.

Hope to see you all some day in the future.

Chris N Ginger, AKA CJ