4th Annual Deschutes River RendezVW, Maupin Oregon

[Oregon72]

All you guys and gals were just so cool to hang with - what a great group of people.

Mark - you really know how to make it all come together. First class!!! =D>

Let's get a roll call to make sure everyone got home safe.

Hal, Paige, and Troy, you gave us the most concern.

-John

Thank you John - weellll-- thank the dub gods for a well-under-the-speed-limit hobbling on home. Best 3 and a half cylinder camping trip I've ever had. Just minutes before, we left Maupin, Colin helped me by leaning out my carbs in all the right spots to compensate for my bad cylinder - worked great and it seems like it may have stopped the hesitation/stalling at speed that I've been having -no doubt I'm looking forward to my IAC visit on Wednesday. BIG Thanks to bookwus, hambone, zblair & jeffery for hanging back with me on the way there - I know it was painfully slow up past Mt. Hood. Took the Gorge route back home cuz it was flatter but dang that gusting headwind felt like it was gonna pick us up and throw us in the Columbia. Dtrumbo, the best non-camping camper dad I've ever seen, blew past as if he had a couple more hours to drive than us - and he did.

We all felt really bad for Tristessa - not the ideal situation for a weekend set aside for rest and relaxation.

I left the 2 big beers I was going to bring for the Annual Tasting in my closet at home (put 'em there so nobody would drink 'em on accident - guess it worked a little too well). Fortunately, I now know that they weren't missed and Holy cow that was vast expanse of beers. Wayne did a great job as Head Beer Wench - I'd like to suggest some traditional german lederhosen for him next year:cheers:

Gypsie made a special vw factory trained technician exam for those daring enough to take the challenge - I think he graded on a curve no doubt and had fabulous parting gifts even for the more feeble minded vw wrench(me).

I didn't take enough pictures, but I did take a few and I'll post them soon.

Thanks to all of you who made the sacrafice and drove from far away lands - Covelo, Bleysing, Glasseye, JLT, ZBlair and Jeffery, Colin, and any others I failed to note.

I wish there were a few more days to get to know more people, but there's always next time. I didn't get to say good-bye to everybody, but thanks for the memories and looking forward to the next time.

[Bleyseng]

OOkayy, we had a great time!!! Jezzzus I wish I had known about the Beer tasting event as I would have brought some homebrew.....Lots of great people I gots to meet just too many names to list.
Who was the yellowish bus broke down or stopped along the Gorge past Hood river or near there??? I was fighting the wind trying to stay in my lane at 65mph when Monique says "Isn't that one of the buses from Maupin" just as we go past a exit so too late to stop...
We drove along the Gorge to Portland to get some more Cupcake Jones supplies and then to shop at Bridgeport Mall for Monique said "a few minutes"... FOUR HOURS later we left to meet up with Wayne and Michelle at there house to finish off all the leftover camping food we both had...Mitch and Melissa pulled in a bit later too to campout at their house. We left kinda late but the drive up I-5 late in the evening is just trucks so we passed em like sitting ducks...got in 'bout 1:30AM...
Monique has been showing off her bruises from non stop hulu hooping with Paige this morning..wow, I didn't realize its a contact sport!

Here are some pics..
Monique driving

Yakima on the way down

MrBean








Our little camper

[misszora]

Great pics! And watch out! as soon as I pick up more supplies I'm making and shipping collapsible hoops to my new recruits.

[natep73]

Wow, what a trip, we had a great time as well. it took me a while to post, I hadn't heard of this site, until mark mentioned it as we were picking up next years registration, we have just been on the Samba, so I had to wait a while to get the logged into this site.

LiveonJG, that was us tailing you, like I said we were going to follow you all the way, but we already ate in Salem, so we didn't want to pull into Lake Oswego, maybe we will caravan next year, just let me know what time you are coming through Salem

my wife and I didn't get to meet as many of you as we would have liked, most of our time was spent keeping our twin 3 year olds occupied,
but we really enjoyed the atmosphere and company.

here are a couple shots of our sink contraption that many of you commented on, we love it, it gets everything out of the bus, doesn't take up much room, and has lots of space for cooking and all. It also has semi-running water, with a foot pump, and a couple of 5 gallon containers.
[albumimg]2595[/albumimg][albumimg]2596[/albumimg][albumimg]2597[/albumimg]
We got it at GI Joes, before they disappeared, I am sure similar ones exist elsewhere

It was nice to see so all the the other blue riviera's. the best was when my son Wesley, got lost leaving the meadow, and went over to Papa Smurf's that looks just like ours. My other son Brayden loved your Tuba playing spiffy, it was nice to hear something besides guitar, and singing..... or Harmonica ;)
here are some more shots of our boys, we also want to thank the clan next to ours, with the two splits&the rivi, and maybe more, I couldn't keep track, my boys loved the face painting.
[albumimg]2598[/albumimg] I used to be a rafting & Kayaking guide on this river so it was nice to be back in town, here they are getting ready to go swimming
[albumimg]2599[/albumimg]
on the way home we drove up to White River falls, and hiked around a bit, here are some more shots of the kids playing at the falls
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[albumimg]2600[/albumimg]
Next year maybe we could take a small group up there and go swimming, it is really a nice spot, and the water is a bit warmer then the Deschutes. it is just a pain to break down the campsite to drive the bus anywhere

Next year my wife is talking about having some and singing and dancing for all the little ones, she is a general music teacher and has lots of little sing along song and dances that can keep the kids occupied

Anyway, thanks again for all the great memories, my family and I loved it, see you next year.


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[zblair]

Great pics! And watch out! as soon as I pick up more supplies I'm making and shipping collapsible hoops to my new recruits.

I'm gonna hold you too it Paige! (of course I will defray your cost too...)and you ROCK IT too girlfriend!!!!

WOW WOW WOW WOW...Best.Event.Ever.

Mark, thank you for all of your hard work and energy in getting this together. Much good karma to you, brother! Oh! I have your Cabin 12 fish key. I'll mail it to you asap.

We had such a great weekend I'm not sure where to begin, but what a fabulous weekend RendezVW! So many beautiful volks and all that dub love

We are staying with Bookwus and Co. today and will be at the Lucky Lab this evening to say hello and goodbye. Once our feet are on the ground in Austin, we'll be posting our photos and stuff.

OH! pm me a snail mail addy (and a real name!) so that we can send you a copy of the music CD once Jeffrey is done with that.

Peace

ZnJ

[Bleyseng]

That was Spiffy playing the tuba! sounded pretty good too..

[LiveonJG]

LiveonJG, that was us tailing you, like I said we were going to follow you all the way, but we already ate in Salem, so we didn't want to pull into Lake Oswego, maybe we will caravan next year, just let me know what time you are coming through Salem

Sounds like a plan, and welcome to the forum!

-John

[LiveonJG]

Glad to hear you made it home Troy!

-John

[Westy78]

Yep, what everyone else has said. It was great meeting a lot of the IAC members from other areas in person that I haven't before. This is a pretty damn great "clique".

Uploading my pics and vids. I'll post 'em up later.

[hambone]

What the heck happened to Barb? Hope all is OK.

[werksberg]

Yeah, I was wondering if she made it up there or not.

I might will give her a call....

[hambone]

Oh hey a big thank you to Kirk, Flyaway Designs team, and Jasan for putting in a new back window into my bus! What an exciting time. It was really nice of all of you.

[deschutestrout]

Well....finally time to post. I'm still pretty wiped out...especially after following up this weekend with a 1/2 day + session with Colin. Did manage 8 hours of sleep last night though...1st time I was able to pull that off in a couple of weeks. What an AWESOME weekend! Great reuniting and meeting many, many new people! The fellowship was great, music was fun as always. No crowd or noise control problems except...eh hem, eh hem....no names will be mentioned Thank you all for providing me with one of my favorite weekends of the year. This event has surpassed what I'd ever expected. Where else will you find 70 VW's, 200 some odd (yeah, some are odd ) people who all respect each other, get along, and develop friendships. And to think...this is 100% internet generated...who'da thunk! Neat buses, a couple new camping ideas, JLT's shelter he provided was excellent (may just be investing in one of those for river trips). Didn't take many photos myself...figgered there would be a wealth of great photos provided by ya'all. Thanks again for helping make this annual gathering a success. Mark aka Deschutestrout.

[covelo]

Thanks Mark! You are a wonderful master of ceremonies! What I love about this event compared to others I have been too is that things do not look or feel overly orchestrated and regulated but are clearly very well planned and put together. I think that a lot of the control problems at other events are brought about by too much micromanagement in the first place.

BTW, I lost my little cup of tie dye miracle juice. Can you let me know what stuff to buy to replace it with? My shirt came out very nice and authentic and I want it to stay that way. Thanks!

[deschutestrout]

BTW, I lost my little cup of tie dye miracle juice. Can you let me know what stuff to buy to replace it with? My shirt came out very nice and authentic and I want it to stay that way. Thanks!

Try a craft or fabric store...you're looking for fibre reactive dye detergent for the initial wash. Often called setraphol??? Dharma Trading Company is where I get mine online. It's a detergent used to "lock in" the dyes. If you find this a challenge, let me know and I'll figure out a way to get a leak proof bottle to you. Go ahead and rinse the heck out of it for now...and maybe air dry it? I wouldn't wear it until it goes thru the wash. I think JoAnn's Fabric sells a similar product. Let me know. GREAT to meet you Hans!!!!