the party pickle: Maupin

So we loaded up the Pick and headed to the town of Maupin along the Deschutes River for the 3rd annual RendezVW...hosted by my friend Mark... (whom we hope to go camping with later this summer.)

It's a place in the sun (usually) where 50 or so buses and their drivers and families can get together, talk about Volkswagens, make some little repairs, share some beers, and listen to nice folk music at night.

It's also a place where my wife likes to go whitewater rafting!!

This year's event, once again lived up to the hype. The drive was uneventful.. which is always good when driving a VW Bus.

The weather was very warm this year and some of our good friends good a little burned.

Our set up was a little too close to the Port a Potties and Tristessa's barking dogs for my likin' but it was our home for two glorious days.

The highlight of the trip was a Vanagon that arrived at the campout on the hook of a tow truck. My VW Coach, Amskeptic, took it as a personal challenge to get it up and running.

Needless to say, it wasn't easy, but by the end of the weekend, thanks to some goop and a cut up diet coke can, he got them up and running without so much as a drop of coolant leaking. Wow. Tristessa did a great job too!

You can read more about the amazing story here.

It was also nice reconnecting with some folks I hadn't seen since last year's San Juan Island trip. Spiffy and Co-Pilot brought their new splittie to show up all us bay window folk.

And I got to finally meet John from Eugene.. who I can tell will quickly turn out to be one of my favorite co-horts. Is that a word?

Since it seems impossible to get through a post these days without mentioning beer, I'll mention the little beer tasting I organized. Everyone was supposed to bring two of their favorite beers and then we all gathered in a corner of the campground, not too far from the Deschutes River, to taste each others best offerings.