Hot, Stressful, Interesting, Exciting, Awesome. We brought the bus to its first VW show today! The event has hosted by the Harsh Winters VW Club, and took place down in Joliet (about 45 minutes down the road). I trailered the bus there, and went with a friend from work who has an amazing, fully restored 23 window deluxe.
The fun actually started on Saturday. I spent some time cleaning the bus, and practiced reversing out of the garage, and then pulling back in. By the end of the day I was able to shift easily into first, and keep the bus running by lightly pumping the gas as I came to a stop. I picked up the same U-haul trailer that we used to bring the bus up from Florida – except this time I had to drive it on there myself, and I wouldn’t be able to make the same mess of things when I got to the show!
When we got there, I was a ball of nerves. Keep in mind that I have barely driven this thing around, and the last time it was on the trailer I almost crashed the thing… now I’m pulling the trailer into a parking lot full of pristine bugs, busses, and small children- WTF am I thinking! Thankfully, my practice paid off – nothing untoward happened when backing off the trailer, and I was even able to reverse into the spot designated by one of the staff members. So now we are at the show, lets make a day of it!
We wandered around, met lots of people who were all interesting, genuine, and awesome, saw lots of amazing busses, bugs, ghia’s, things, etc. Noelle bought some sweet little glass magnets that go great attached to the inside of the bus, and I was able to chat with a number of people that might potentially be able to help me get some of the bigger projects done. I even won a tire cleaning kit as a door prize – heck yeah! Overall, a great day – it was very hot, but the people were awesome. Unfortunately I didn’t win “Best Rust Bucket”, but theres always next time. I stalled the engine halfway back up the trailer, and needed a little pushing help, but I’m getting much more confident in my driving abilities, and I’m so excited to get out there on the road!
