Westy owners are a special breed of people. They tend to be mostly mechanically-inclined men and their supportive female counterparts. They like to go places. And not only do they not mind driving slow–they enjoy it and sort of feel sorry for anyone who needs to get any place in a hurry.
Last year Juan took me to my first Westfalia meet-up in San Francisco. People showed off the tweaks they had made on everything from their heating systems to their wiper blades. I was both shocked and relieved to see that there is a whole community of people as obsessive about Westies as Juan. Before I met Juan, I had never heard of a Volkswagen Westfalia. That would be unusual on the West Coast, but I grew up in Illinois, and you don’t see many of them around these parts.
We spent a nice afternoon in the Bay Area with a free-wheeling couple, Donna and Mark, who decided to take to the American roadways to explore the country in search of a place to settle down. I love the feeling of their journey, like a pioneer couple looking for the perfect homestead.
And here, when we got to Illinois, a nice pair of Westy owners, hearing we were in the area, invited us over for a Westy playdate as well. It’s always weird to me to see two of them together.
Beth and Skip are about as welcoming and sweet as they come. We hung out with them all day in their beautiful home, had a great dinner, and talked about a million things Westy and non-Westy-related. We even got to talking about other couples on camper adventures who we don’t know, but read about in blogs, like Bumfuzzle and Drive Nacho Drive. It’s fun to be in such a small interest group that you have your own heroes and celebrities.
It’s amazing what connects us to other people. We hope these guys can make it out to California some day to meet up with their fellow Westy brethren.
jbuhler