My version of Vanfest
The weather forecast for much
of eastern Canada was pretty grim for the weekend. It rained
pretty much all the way to the run, but somehow all that bad
weather seemed to funnel around Vanfest. Once again Kevin's horse
shoe was firmly in place :)
I rolled in with the whole family early Friday evening and we
proceeded to the Van Clan + 1 site where Doc had set up Chateau
Doc for us.
Once we were settled in I took a walk around to see who was there.
Much to my surprise Joe and Bonnie were in from Florida and had
setup a table with some van collectibles, I was expecting them
to have the new Jada Astros, but even they are having a hard
time finding them. But I did pick up a panel for the collection
and Joe assured me he would have a bunch of the Jada vans for
the Nats. Then I ran into Howard and he told me he had a pair
of the new Jadas for me if I wanted, it seems they are in some
of the U.S Walmarts now.
He managed to bring a few up for us diecast deprived Canucks
:)
I then came across a van that I had seen some 25 years ago at
the run I met the Van Clan + 1 crew at. Ivan rolled into Van
Canada 1977 with the Cosmic Cruiser on a trailer, they did not
want to let him in, even though the trailer was being towed by
another van, but they came to their senses and eventually let
him in. At that time the Cruiser was only only a four wheeler
but had much of the body moulding done , many vanners gathered
around listening to Ivan talk about his wild ideas, like having
waterfalls coming out of the rear wheelwells. The next time I
saw it, sure enough the waterfalls were happening. 25 years later
Ivan still has some pretty wild ideas for the Cruiser and you
can bet that he will follow through with them.
The show & shine again was
huge, the pickups out numbered the vans this year. There were
many great looking slammed minis and full size pickups and I
am sure that many of the vanners got some good ideas from them.
There were a few pickup clubs in attendance as in the past and
they reminded me of the youthful enthusiasm that surrounded vanning
in the 70's and early 80's when the average vanner was 20 years
old. Everyone got along great together as usual.
When I was walking around the
show trucks I talked to one of the judges, not realizing right
away that it was Tim Ebright formerly from Reno who I had met
down in California, he's up in the Midwest now and this was his
first trip to Vanfest.
The awards came along and there were plaques given to two clubs
who are celebrating their 25th vanniversaries, Van Clan + 1 and
the Mountaineers. Al Brown was also given a lifetime achievement
award for his work with the OFT newsletter (now the OFV) on the
25th anniversary of it's firsdt appearance but unfortunately
he was not feeling well and had left that morning, I really missed
seeing him this time.
This was followed by the bikini
contest, this is another benifit of having the pickup bunch as
all but one of the girls were with them Unfortunately it was
rather chilly for this and the girls kept their pants on to keep
warm, but we weren't too dissapointed.
The band Hogwild was excellent,
playing a good variety vanner favorites that kept the crowd on
their feet dancing.
Sunday morning came along and
all of a sudden we were being evicted from Chateau Doc by Sarge
and Tammy. It seems that Doc had traded our accomodations for
a few cases of beer and our accomodations were now to be called
Chateau Sarge :) Oh well, we hastely packed our stuff, pilled
it into the van and said our goodbyes and were on our way, the
rain caught with us once for a good part of the way back.
