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Sanchius and Tuna ride again...
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BlueTwo
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 22, 2021 4:37 am    Post subject: Re: Sanchius and Tuna ride again... Reply with quote

Whenever I log in and see a new post I cannot click quick enough.

My goodness how I enjoy reading about and seeing the photographs of yours and Tunes adventures.


Last edited by BlueTwo on Fri Nov 26, 2021 10:32 am; edited 1 time in total
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DuncanS
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 22, 2021 6:43 am    Post subject: Re: Sanchius and Tuna ride again... Reply with quote

Blauzwei--Ditto.
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sanchius Premium Member
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PostPosted: Tue Nov 23, 2021 7:48 pm    Post subject: Re: Sanchius and Tuna ride again... Reply with quote

If it's Tuesday, then it's "deliver food, clothes, and hygiene supplies to the needy in the shadow of Reno's glittering casinos" day

With the city totally scrubbing the homeless encampments this year to the point that it takes hours for us to find them anymore, this fall we've shifted our focus to supporting the elderly, families, and needy in Reno's bottommost motels & hotels, who are barely hanging on just one step from being out on the streets.

The van was the real star today, effortlessly accepting everything the food bank had to offer. The church ladies were stunned by its voluminous interior that allowed us to make 2-3x the number of usual runs today, stuffed full with boxes of food, hams, turkeys, and in a number of cases, complete Thanksgiving day dinners for 12 that some of the hotel front staff were preparing for their tenants.

Thank you all of you and your companies who have donated to relief services this year (and past!), without you we simply couldn't do this.

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PostPosted: Tue Nov 23, 2021 8:01 pm    Post subject: Re: Sanchius and Tuna ride again... Reply with quote

I've never given your thread much attention but I see it often make it to the top of the list. This post today is awesome, I can't thank you enough for doing this and being of service to those who are in need!
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sanchius Premium Member
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PostPosted: Fri Nov 26, 2021 7:41 am    Post subject: Re: Sanchius and Tuna ride again... Reply with quote

Thanks for the kind words.

The intent is to show the fun side of living with one of these, balanced with the experience of responding to and anticipating the sometimes significant mechanical needs that come with the choice to attempt to create a reliable Westy from a non-running hulk found in a storage lot.

These are fun to write and I encourage everyone else to do so. Since it has also become a bit of a personal life log of a slice of time living in a unique place I never imagined ourselves, it's worth repeating an old post I made back in 2010 featuring pics from outings in our old Syncro & Landcrusher in the Colorado high country...

Tue Aug 10, 2010 8:28 am, in the Vanagons in the Wilderness Thread, Sanchius wrote:

...I've learned that writing about our trips lets me live three times: having the original experience, reliving it again when I compose the story, and once again when I reread it years later [many times after having forgotten all about the trip].

As far as making it so that we can get away often, some strategies that work for me are:

- Simply make it a priority to get my vanagon mechanically sound to where I trust it for weekend trips. Then drive it regularly to shake out the bugs. Right now I'm using my Syncro Westy as my daily driver and I'm amazed how well it is doing at >250K miles. While it may not be as off-road capable on the extreme places as our old solid-axle Land Cruiser, after flying down one of our favorite forest trails at 40mph, it is _way_ more comfortable and we can sleep in it too. But, the fun I'm having this summer was paid for last winter when I pulled the engine and rebuilt the top-end. No Van = No Fun.

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- Make it easy to make the decision to go camping. Find a couple places within 45 minutes driving that don't require reservations to camp. For us, it is some mountain-top mining property where I bring my own wood to burn, stay off the wildflowers and pack an extra steak & beer for the care taker if he stops by. If I notice that it's been a month or two since our last outing, I set a date soon to go camping and stick to it.

- Have everything needed to simply leave work and go camping already in the van: go-bag with clothes, trail-runners, coats and toiletries, sleeping bag, blankets, camp chairs, battery-powered lantern, etc. You'll find that these will come in handy at other times, as well. Grab a couple of gallon water jugs and some snacks from the grocery store on the day you leave and you are good to go.

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- For some, camp cooking is the essence of camping, for others, not. Sometimes I'm the former, sometimes the latter. If you are the latter, don't let that stop you. Do some easy no-cook overnighters; eat dinner out along the way, bring donuts, juice and coffee in a thermos for the next morning.

- Fortunately I have a spouse who loves to go camping. But, when she has other things going on, the kids and I go anyway. Sometimes she joins us for part of the trip, other times she enjoys some quiet time to herself.

- Don't forget the camera.

- If I was musical and could play an instrument, that would complete the picture. But, since I'm not, I put in a stereo that I'm happy with and wired it with a switch that lets me run it off the spare battery when the ignition is off.

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Above all, just get out and have fun! Then post your amazing pictures & stories here...

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PostPosted: Fri Nov 26, 2021 9:02 am    Post subject: Re: Sanchius and Tuna ride again... Reply with quote

Since Tunes and I were out and about on the west side of town, we went up to the Galena Creek trailhead at the base of the mountains for a morning hike through the big Sugar Pine forest in the lower watershed.

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Afterwards, all tuckered out from the hike, coming back down onto the flats Tunes was planted in her favorite spot, dozing slightly with her face in the wind.

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We headed east to the desert to get the contact number from the sign near the Court of Antiquity petroglyphs to obtain official permission do some site cleanup & trash haul-out again when everyone's out here over the holidays next month (everything leaving the site has to be logged).

Being too nice a day to return home yet, we continued further east into the desert a bit more to an abandoned frontage road where I've learned a herd of wild horses, different from Tuna's usual east Reno mustang buddies, often hangs out.

We found a big group, shut the van down in the middle of the road, and sat quietly to let their natural curiosity take over.

The bold white-faced one was the first of the wild horses to come up to the van...

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..to cautiously sniff and say "Hello" to Tuna.

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Then they worked their way around the front of the van...

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...to come over to my side to sniff around, get ear scritches, and hear me quietly tell them what good, big, horses they are.

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More and more wild horses showed up to check us out.

It became a bit comical as the new ones sniffed around and found out that windshield wipers just aren't very tasty.

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Then, comfortable that we were harmless, the herd just settled in around us, surrounding the van front and back, just patiently standing there, calm and quiet.

We were trapped. But, that was OK. It gave me time to study and appreciate them, to soak up their quietude, to wonder how they got here, did any of them trace back to the Conquistadors?

It was so placid just sitting there in the middle of all the horses, with them moving slowly around, a slight breeze bringing the warm earthy horse smell into the van, and individual horses occasionally coming up to my window for a sniff and a jowl scratch.

As we sat there longer and longer, the quiet, the peace, the stillness, the utter calmness of the setting became simply magical.

I had never experienced anything like this before.

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After about 45 minutes to so, we reluctantly had to leave to get back to prepare for a big Thanksgiving dinner with friends.

As I slowly weaved my way out through the mob, the horses were still very curious about us, sticking their heads in the window, and sniffing my shirt.

It was a wonderful way to spend part of Thanksgiving day.

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PostPosted: Fri Nov 26, 2021 10:02 am    Post subject: Re: Sanchius and Tuna ride again... Reply with quote

^^^^^ This made my day! Very Happy
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PostPosted: Fri Nov 26, 2021 10:13 am    Post subject: Re: Sanchius and Tuna ride again... Reply with quote

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PostPosted: Fri Nov 26, 2021 10:15 am    Post subject: Re: Sanchius and Tuna ride again... Reply with quote

Love it. Thanks for sharing.
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PostPosted: Fri Nov 26, 2021 9:39 pm    Post subject: Re: Sanchius and Tuna ride again... Reply with quote

Very adorable…
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PostPosted: Fri Nov 26, 2021 11:37 pm    Post subject: Re: Sanchius and Tuna ride again... Reply with quote

BlueTwo wrote:
Whenever I log in and see a new post I cannot click quick enough.

My goodness how I enjoy reading about and seeing the photographs of yours and Tunes adventures.


What BlueTwo said. ^^^
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PostPosted: Sat Nov 27, 2021 10:03 am    Post subject: Re: Sanchius and Tuna ride again... Reply with quote

That must have been a beautiful, magical experience: thank you so much for sharing it with us!
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PostPosted: Sun Nov 28, 2021 2:58 pm    Post subject: Re: Sanchius and Tuna ride again... Reply with quote

Mrs S and I went over the hill to Sacramento yesterday to do some holiday shopping and had a great time visiting old-school used/out-of-print book stores, boutique plant and cooking stores, mid-town coffee shops, and strolling through a great farmer's market there where we came across Volkswaffle. It was good to get out of town and see some new places.

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PostPosted: Tue Dec 07, 2021 4:40 pm    Post subject: Re: Sanchius and Tuna ride again... Reply with quote

30 cases of food, plus dozens of coats & blankets, delivered to the area low income hotels/motels today.
Then a second pass hitting the downtown street homeless and another big and quasi-scary last-chance motel.

The sheer interior volume of these vans is ideal for this kind of task.
We're getting this dialed in to where we're now including P-38 openers in the canned goods bags.
With luck, the heat should be restored in this 60-unit complex before the snow and sub-freezing temperatures hit later this week.

For some reason, this was a particularly rough one today that left even the most optimistic among us drained.
So many lost people, so much misery, and such hard luck stories that make us realize just how good we have it.

But, no matter where we went, Tuna was a huge hit who brought smiles and wet husky kisses to everyone's faces, especially to the surprising number of folks that we ran into today who had recently lost their own pets

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PostPosted: Tue Dec 07, 2021 8:40 pm    Post subject: Re: Sanchius and Tuna ride again... Reply with quote

Good on you both for the smiles you given to people when they need it.
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PostPosted: Wed Dec 08, 2021 5:42 am    Post subject: Re: Sanchius and Tuna ride again... Reply with quote

Good for you!

So many of us stand on the sidelines wringing our hands over the growing homeless problem exclaiming how something should be done…….. yet we do nothing.
The generous few of us will write a check or donate their old pantry food that no one really wants.

Few get in and get dirty!

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PostPosted: Wed Dec 08, 2021 7:07 am    Post subject: Re: Sanchius and Tuna ride again... Reply with quote

Those horse pictures are really wonderful. Can't wait to show them to my equestrian daughter. Thanks for all the work you are doing.
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 20, 2021 7:49 pm    Post subject: Re: Sanchius and Tuna ride again... Reply with quote

With the first of the family members arriving for the holidays, we went up into the mountains to snowshoe for a bit. No, it's not a Syncro, that rear gate was salvaged from my old Syncro wreck and I left the badge on to honor the stout vehicle that gave its life to save mine.

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Although Tuna thought we were up there so she could romp in the snow playing snow porpoise and then walk on the tails of our snowshoes when she got tired...

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...our actual goal was to scout for possible xmas trees before more family arrive tomorrow and we go up in earnest to cut a tree on Wednesday. The snow here was wind packed and easy to walk on top of, but in one place our six foot son plunged up to his waist in powder snow that had settled in a wind shadow.

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After an hour or so with several good candidates picked out, we headed back to the van and drove up the road a bit to take in the spectacular vista. Tunes was too busy yapping, complaining, and Ra-ra'ing in the back of the van how she was too tired to get up front for a pic, so I took the picture without her.

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Finally, realizing she wasn't the center of attention anymore, Tuna rousted her tired butt up off the back seat and got up front for a picture.

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PostPosted: Fri Dec 24, 2021 4:45 pm    Post subject: Re: Sanchius and Tuna ride again... Reply with quote

It's that time of year again and this year I discovered that with family and friends, one can do things that one could never do alone.

After finishing our usual charity food/clothing/hygiene deliveries run, we geared up to head up the mountain to get the Christmas tree we'd spotted earlier.

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Tunes was OK with the backpack, because that always means water & treats, but she was definitely unhappy modeling my trusty backcountry hat (aka "The Beast").

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Driving up the mountain from the valley floor, we hit multiple seasons, starting with sunshine...

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...and then rain that transitioned to wet, heavy snow.

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Team Sanchius snowshoe'd deep into the forest and located the tree we had spotted earlier in the week. The day before, I had composited google maps imagery with the USFS tree cutting permit map to ensure we were in a legal tree cutting zone.

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The tree was big, really big. It was also growing near a power line and clearly marked with a big spray-painted X on the bottom for removal, so I had no qualms about taking it. The parallax of the picture is deceiving, only the very topmost sprig of the tree was at the same level as the power line.

We ratchet strapped it to a nearby tree and applied tension to ensure it would fall away from the power line, notching it carefully on the side away from the power line, and slowly and safely dropped it, perfectly aligned with our notch.

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Then with plastic sleds and tarps and Tuna pulling on the long line, together Team Sanchius hauled the monster out of the forest and back to the road.

We're almost there!

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Victory!

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Next, we hoisted the tree up on top of the van and secured it fore and aft.

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With the sun setting and the temperatures now dropping rapidly, we were ready to go and get back down the mountain. A thing of beauty...

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Back home, this tree is far bigger than any we've gotten in the past. So tall that we ran out of lights and the new LEDs we picked up for the bottom don't quite match our usual old-school incandescents on top. They look OK to the eye, but show up as very different in a digital photograph. C'est la vie. In any case, I would never have attempted this without the stout lads and lasses of Team Sanchius. And I feel extra good about getting an additional use from a soon to be culled tree.

As in previous years, let me wish everyone here happy and safe holidays, with hopes of a better year to come, filled with good health, many great adventures and, of course, cool upgrades to your buses.

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PostPosted: Sat Dec 25, 2021 1:21 am    Post subject: Re: Sanchius and Tuna ride again... Reply with quote

Best to you and yours, Sanchius, of both skinned and furred variety.
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