[RWebb]

re Lifted Van:
A friend has one of those Adventure Wagon things - I slept in it once and it was real nice as a camper. But it's a monster. Way too big for me -- he uses it for capturing snakes in the Idaho desert (he's a Snakeologist...).

I just think I'm gonna rule out anything made by a US company -- my experience with the Exploder was an attempt to "Buy 'Murican" but it taught me not to.

Ironically, if I do get a VW for the summer camper thing, I will have come full circle after 30 years. I used a VW pancqke motor bus almost all the way thru grad. school as a field vehicle - and I beat it unmercifully. I rebuilt and hotrodded the motor, put in a suped shock kit and all sorts of stuff.

I was admiring a nice looking Westie in a store parking lot this am. No sale sign on it and the guy gave me a look like "stay away from my machine" -- it looked just great... until he started it up. Then I heard that signature VW motor sound. The sound that says "I need 200 more hp -- PLEASE!"