ECVW - East Coast Visiting West 2014

[FarmerJohn]

Great Trip !
Happy Birthday to Joe .
Love the Chinese food story
Congratulations to all of you
Hope Tom can get his clutch issues sorted out
_________________
Now I Drive A Hard Top Buggy !

[sbussard]

Chinese food story is classic! Love it. Wish I was there with you all. Have a great time!
_________________
Manxter #122
First time, garage built, and living out the childhood dream of owning a life-size Hotwheel!

Check out my build thread-->My Manxter 2+2

[vincent9993]

Sorry for the delay, the evening was really fun and we decided we needed a few hours of sleeps.

The day started under cloudy skies. We left the hotel around 7:10 and drove to Winnie and Bruce. The closer we got to Valley Center, the sky cleared. A few miles before arriving at Bruce’s house, we crossed a red buggy… After a few seconds, we all realized that it was not just any red buggy but it was Bruce in New Red. When we pulled in to the Meyers, there were already lots of people. Everyone was admiring their future buggy (the one being raffled off Sunday). It shined under a hot sun. We toured the facility and everyone felt like they were at Toy-R-Us. We did not have enough eyes to see all we wanted. Winnie gave a guided tour. We also saw our wheels that we bought last year; we just need to find a way to have them shipped.

To return to Big Bear, Winnie (who was driving the pickup trailer) headed up a diffeerent route than the one we would be taking. We would follow Bruce driving New-Red. There were 7 buggies trying to keep up with Bruce. OMG, for an 88 year old man, he moves on the road, he was hard to follow. We can picture how he drove in his youth. All ECVW buggies were driving up with Bruce but Kathleen and Tom were towed behind their van.

The climb to Big Bear was really fast! Wow, Vincent and I were wondering if he had a brake pedal. He knows the road well and knows how to take every corner. Vincent said that this was the quickest he climbed Big Bear!

A few miles from the host hotel, we crossed quite a few Dune Buggies . They wanted to greet us with a yellow welcome sign but they forgot that Bruce was leading and we arrived much sooner than planned.

Wow to see so many dune buggies in the parking of the hotel, that’s too cool. Everyone seems happy to see us. They offered us a glass of champagne. Thanks to our West coast friends for the nice welcome.

Later we were free to wonder around. We went to eat at a pizza place wuth Sue, Bud and Paul. Later the Boston-Mabin, Sue and Bud and Vincent and I went for a ride around the lake. We stopped to fuel up and a guy in a pickup truck wanted to exchange his sister for a buggy. We asked him how his sister was and he replied that she was really pretty. We told him we wanted a big one! He left…

For diner we had Chineese at the condo with the Boston-Mabin, Sue, Bud, Chris and Vincent and I. We had a lot of fun.
Today we’re meeting in the hotel parking lot for another exciting day.
Distance to Big Bear: 251KM (156 milles)
States: CA
Temps: 25C (77F)
Beers : What’s consumed at Big Bear stays at Big Bear.

[vincent9993]

Wow, we could not ask for a nicer day. The weather was PERFECT, not too hot, not too cold, the sky was so blue and no cloud, short we would take that kind of weather all year long. We were meeting people at 9:00am into the parking lot of the hotel for our first group meeting.

We did not go off road but I can tell you that we had a great day. Bard Thompson prepared a poker run/ralley in the region. We formed the team RPMZ (Rousseau, Parisien, Mabin, Zeller) Sue, Bud, Evan, Mackenzie, Alexandra, Brittany, Stephanie and Paul. To identify ourselves, we had team T-Shirts.

The ralley had 20 questions and the answers were on both sides of the lake. We saw areas we had never seen before even if we’ve been her 4 times now.
For dinner, we went to an Italian place with avec Sue, Bud, Scott, Mark, Mike, Lori-Ann, Mackenzie, Alexandra, Evan and Paul. We had a great time.
Stephanie was not back from dropping Brittany who is taking the plane home.
Tomorrow we meet at 8:00 in the parking to parade around the lake. Then a few cars will head out for an off road cruise while others will stay for the show-n-shine.

Good night.

[Tom_Kathleen]

Our problem was not the clutch (we had a spare for that), but the splines had stripped in the pass side rear rotor. After a few calls by Dave Barret, we had 2 new rotors delivered by Jay (Old Towd) next morning. Car is fixed and we are running again. Great help from the Manx Club!

Also, many thanks to Vincent & France for setting this trip up. It was comforting travelling in a group, and great fun along the way. My return trip by myself from San Jose will be lonely. Tom & Kathleen
_________________
Manxter #16, 1968 Meyers Manx & Kick-Out SS #16 (WIP)
Manx Club & CVA

[vincent9993]

I’m out of words to describe our day. We started around 8:00 in the parking of the hotel with a planned ride around the lake. Wow, we were 270 and most participated to the parade. Winnie and Bruce were in “Old-Red” buggy. Unfortunately, their buggy started to fail. We had to go to Plan B. Chris Lewis at the wheel of the Monocoq #7. Bruce had to be in the 1st dune buggy as Hot VW magazine was out taking pictures. It was really cool to see all those buggies. Oh yes, the weather was perfect.

After the parade, we staged for the show-n-shine. We had to vote for the nicest buggies in different classes. We had a great time with everyone. Bruce was busy signing autographs so we decided to get him a sandwich and drinks. We then went to the Big Bear Brewery with Chris Lewis for lunch. We had a great time with Chris.

After lunch we had the opportunity to chat with other members and then I went to continue the conversation in the hotel pool.

The dinner was at 5:00pm. We were in the lager room where most of the ECVW people were, the Byrnes came to join us for desert. We then left the room to let the hotel staff reset the room for the main event.

An award was presented to Winnie and Bruce to celebrate the 20th anniversary. Many other tributes were highlighted including the people that worked with Bruce; a video in Bruce’s honor produced by Bud Zeller was presented. Vincent and I presented the famous Long Haul League award to the people that travelled more than 1,000 miles to an event. The recipients were:
Australians (who were present this week-end) who were on Sea to Sea last year but had left before the end.
Andrew Westwood (and co-pilot)
Paul Brandt (and co-pilot)

The Baja Tour people:
John and Charli Paola
Phil and Becky Moore
Mark and Donna Landon
Doran and Tibor Dobranzsky
Justin Akers
Jon Steinhilber

Two Canadians who drove from Calgary to Big Bear:
Dan and Doug James

Finally, the ECVW group:
Paul, Evan and Brittany Mabin
Joseph Wheeler and David Cash
Kathleen and Tom Iacoboni
Barb and Tim Byrnes
Chris Lewis

We are really proud of every one who drove their buggies to the Manx event.

Oh yes, we need to highlite the the great work of Donna Landon for the awesome cake.

Afterwards, the DJ was playing music for people to dance. Vincent and I left early to complete the recap and pack for tomorrow.

Have a good evening and talk to you soon.


Vincent et France xxx

[sbussard]

Thanks for all the pics! It looks like you're all having a blast. Kathleen is taking a page out of Paul's book, no shoes. Please let me know when my name is drawn for the raffle, I'll fly out tonight. Enjoy the rest of your time there and have a safe trip home!
_________________
Manxter #122
First time, garage built, and living out the childhood dream of owning a life-size Hotwheel!

Check out my build thread-->My Manxter 2+2

[Tom_Kathleen]

Someone named Howard, from Anchorage, AK was the winner of the KickOut SS. However, there are 4 other tickets if the winner backs out. Great event, great ride to the event and many thanks for those who made it happen. Tom & Kathleen
_________________
Manxter #16, 1968 Meyers Manx & Kick-Out SS #16 (WIP)
Manx Club & CVA

[vincent9993]

The day was split in two. First, we returned to the parking lot of the hotel for the last event of the Big Bear Bash 2014 at Big Bear. Bob Hunter didn’t have the final number, but it seems that we were between 270 and 300 dune buggies….WOW!!!. This morning it was the awards ceremony. We will not mention all the winners (for the member of the Manx Club, the names will be in the next Manx Mania), however, we would like to recognize the great performances of our ECVW 2014 friends. The second place at the rallye of Barb, Kimberly, Emily and Tim Byrnes, the second place in his category for our friends Joseph Wheeler, the first place is in category for Chris Lewis and also his Monocoque was the best choice of the show (everybody seems to be in agreement with that choice). Vincent and I won the award for the “came the farthest in a buggy”.
We left our western friends around noon. We always have fun with them and hope they will come to MOTB in October. As we left Big Bear, we saw Joseph Spittler towing his buggy. He got away from us and drove faster than us. After the mountain decent, who do we see on the side of the road?! Joe was stopped with a broken tow bar. The ECVW rescue team was there to help and Joseph Wheeler drove Joe’s buggy to the next city, Barstow. Joe is spending the night while he waits for a dolly from U-Haul tomorrow. Once we knew our friend Joe was ok, we continued on our way. I can tell you that it was very hot. We saw 133.1F (65.2C). It was like having you face in front of the oven at 450… Really hot.

We decided as a group to drive on and not stop for lunch. Don’t worry, we drank plenty. We went through more than 12 bottles of Gatorade and water in less than 6 hours. We arrived at the hotel around 6:00pm… It was time we arrived as a storm system was rolling in.
For dinner, we went across the sreet to a seafood Mexican restaurant. We has a lot of fun.
Tomorrow we leave early and head to Albuquerque.
Distance : 430KM (267 milles)
States : CA, AZ
Max Temp : 56.17C (133.1F)
Beers : Pacifico

Good evening

[nightmanx11]

France: Thank you. Now I know what my buggy looks like when it is on the road.

I had to wait til 9:00 for the U-Haul to open for business, and was on the road by 10:00 AM.
I am stopping for the night in Cedar City, UT, and will get an early start on Tuesday.

Thank you all again for the great, fast, and efficient service & concern for me. This is one of
the things that this is so great.

Joe

[vincent9993]

We left the hotel around 7:15. We were very pleased with the breakfast at the hotel, this was our first time at a Best Western and we had a complete breakfast… We’ll consider them in the future. The sky was cloudy but we still left without the roof. The temperature was really nice. I must admit that I missed some parts as this morning was great for sleeping (just like many other mornings). As we stopped for our 1st gas stop, a man from the station came to talk to us. He told us about a friend of his that had a dune buggy that could be a missing Monocoq. It was built in 1965 and had an opening hood and folding windshield. We pleaded with the man to contact his friend and see if he would be interested in selling it. As we left the gas station, the man came to see Vincent to tell him that he was not interested. Vincent told him that we would still like to meet him to document that he indeed had a monocoq but he told us that he was not interested in meeting anyone.

A few miles later, we stopped at the Walnut Canyon. A nice place to visit with lots of stairs. The sky was partialy cloudy and it helped. By then end of the visit, it was getting hot.
We still had quite a bit of driving to do. We decided to push out our lunch to get more driving done. We had a great time with great friends. We had a few drops of rain but we could see the storms on both sides of the highway in the distance. We arrived just in time at the hotel as it rained for the majority of the evening. For dinner we went to the Elephant Bar. Joe asked us a question: What do all ECVW people have in common. The person to guess correctly would get a free ice-cream tomorrow. Guess who got the correct answer? Yes, I did! I assume you want to know the answer: None of us are smokers. Ice cream will be good tomorrow.

Tomorrow we head for Lawton, OK.

Distance : 757KM (470 Milles)
States : AZ, NM
Temp. Min : 22C (72F)
Temp. Max : 35C (95F)
Beer : Laguinitas IPA

Good night

[sbussard]

What an adventure. Thanks for documenting for tose of us who couldn't make it. I'm liking the daily summaries and pics.

Scott
_________________
Manxter #122
First time, garage built, and living out the childhood dream of owning a life-size Hotwheel!

Check out my build thread-->My Manxter 2+2

[FarmerJohn]

[vincent9993]

This morning it was the first time that we left the hotel under the rain. We removed the top about two hours later. The general observation (or almost) today; Texas (via Interstate 40) is not really exciting. After lunch, Chris offered to Evan to eat BBQ bugs. I understand perfectly Evan not having tasted, it looked really disgusting. Listening only his courage, Joe decided to taste it and as per the pictures, you will see that he seems to have liked. Vincent also tried the bugs, but didn’t really like it.

After lunch, we stopped at Cadillac Ranch to leave our mark. Because it rained the night before, we could not really go closer unless we put both feet in the mud. Listening again to his courage, Joe climbed on one Cadillac to put the wonderful four letters: ECVW. Really cool this place, but sad to see that people do not pick up their can of paint to bring it to the trash. We all took a couple of cans of paint and have brought in the trash….ECVW has done its part to keep this place clean.

Thereafter, to wake up a bit, we decided to stop at the sign of Oklahoma and take pictures.



We arrived at the hotel around 7:10pm. Joe and David already had reservations with friends. From our side, we went to Mike’s Sports Grille for dinner. We took the opportunity to present the pins to Mackenzie and Alexandra for being in a dune buggy over 1000 miles. Congratulations girls.

When we came back, guys took the opportunity to do few adjustments to the dune. From my side, I finished the recap. Tomorrow we are going to Louisiana.



Distance: 499 miles (803KM)

Min Temp. : 66F (19C)

Max Temp. : 95F (35C)

States: NM, TX, OK

Beers: Bud, Rogue Dead Guy

Good evening.

P.S. Happy Birthday to our niece Augustine, hope you will have a wonderful day xxx.

Vincent and France xxx

[FarmerJohn]

Actually it was a good thing that some of those cans of paint that were left behind by others still had paint in them . When me & Keith went there , on the C2C Safari , We arrived with no paint for the buggy stencil , but we also did our part and carried some empties out .

_________________
Now I Drive A Hard Top Buggy !

[manxvair]

Looking good! great pictures! incentive's for "Shuffle off to Buffalo 2015!"

[vincent9993]

Day 16 : Left Lawton in Oklahoma around 7:40am. It was harder for all of us to wake up this morning. The lady here has even extended her sleep a good part of the day (in the dune buggy), from which the fact that I have less pictures today. At the request of Stephanie, we went back to the state of Texas…she liked it so much yesterday that we wanted to make her happy. I need to admit that the route today into Texas was less bpring (for the time that I didn’t sleep). Vincent stopped to buy a wheel bearing that he replaced yesterday.
Having had quite a long time on the road the last few days, we decided to not really stop for lunch but to buy a snack when stopping to put gas. On one of the picture, you will find that we killed a few mosquitoes in Texas and Arkansas.
No rain today and no excessive heat, so a beautiful weather that we enjoyed. We were not sorry to arrive early at the hotel (5:00pm). This will allow us to go to bed earlier.
For dinner we went to a Cajun Restaurant (Ponchatoulas) and again we got a lot of fun.
Distance: 459 miles (739KM)
Min Temp.: 77F (25C)
Max Temp.: 99F (37C)
States: OK, TX, AR, LA
Beers: Red River Hay Ryed, Great Raft

Tomorrow we are going to Greenville Alabama.

Good evening.

Vincent and France.

[vincent9993]

Day 17: This morning we left Lawton in Louisiana around 7:30am. Again this morning it was hard for all of us. Each morning we take a group picture and the one this morning is funny (see picture Image 1-2 ). It will be hard for me to tell you if the road was nice or not because I slept a lot in the buggy today. Nothing really special on the road today. Paul got few problems with his dune. We thought that it was the spark plug and then the wire of the spark plug and finally it is not that. It might be a cylinder but nothing confirmed yet.

We did a small detour by Florida today to be sure that my buggy can say that it went in that state. However, do not think that we will not go back my buggy and I, we are looking to organize something at Disney and I really want to be there. The day was long but we enjoyed every moment because tomorrow night, Chris will be home and we will only be three buggies….snif snif snif.

For dinner, we went to Ruby Tuesday (walking distance). Paul was not with us because his back was hurting. With three other big days (four for us), to drive the dune buggy, he needed to rest.

Tomorrow we deviate a little bit the road that we had planned. Instead of stopping at Tennessee, we will stop in Anderson, South Carolina for a dinner at Chris’s house.

Distance: 489 miles (787KM)
Min Temp: 77F (25C)
Max Temp: 95F (35C)
States: LA, AL, MS, FL
Beer s : Fat Tire, Black & Sam
Good evening everyone and talk to you tomorrow.

[vincent9993]

Day 18: Nothing really to say of the day. As per the radars, we knew that we would drive in the rain so we kept the top. Finally, we were good for almost all day without the top (that would be less hot) because the rain started only after our last gas stop. You will see that when we arrived in South Carolina, the weather was not really good.
For dinner we were very lucky because Chris and his family welcomed us home. It was our last night with Chris (sniff, sniff, sniff). It is always difficult to say goodbye to people we love and Chris is really a good person, with whom we really had fun and hope that one day we will have the opportunity to re-travel with him. Thank you to his wife for dinner. Chris, the rest of the trip will not be the same without you.
Distance: 322 miles (518KM)
Min Temp: 72F (22C)
Max Temp: 81F (27C)
States: AL, GA, SC
Beers: White Thai, Quest

Tomorrow we will be going to West Virginia (Morgantown). It will be our last day with David and Joe (sniff, sniff, sniff). The group is smaller every day, really sad.

Good night.

P.S. Happy holidays to our friends and family who are starting their own.

[nightmanx11]

How strange & sad to see the Gray Dune just sitting in a motel parking lot all by itself.