Wetwesties Puyallup Springmeet

April 2001

At April 29 the Northwest VW club Springmeeting took place at the Puyallup fairgrounds. A local Wetwesty member (Dan) came up with the idea of organizing a Wetwesties gathering for that weekend. The idea was greeted with a lot of enthusiasme and pretty soon the participants started signing up. Within no time there were more then 10 and the group kept growing till  over 40 participants.They came from California, Oregon, Washington and Canada.Kerstin and I decided to sign up as well to finally get the chance to meet all those people who are part of the Wetwesty group.

There was a small caravan organized from Portland to Puyallup and the meeting place was at the Safeway next to the i5 exit Jantzen Beach (see picture above). The drive up to Puyallup went very well (apart from some rain - but he... we're the Wetwesties  aren't we).

Upon arrival in Puyallup we found already a big group there which was busy setting up the tents and canopies for the potluck. The campsite was very basic (understatement - no facilities at all) so some people had organized  a portapotty. That was a great idea but they placed it a long way from where we were camping (not very convinient if you're "in a hurry"). So, it had to be moved and on the left picture you can see how. Probably the weirdest "5th wheel" that Suburban had ever towed.

Above you can see the preparations for the potluck  and on the left you can see Bev being very busy with the hotdogs. She kicked off the potluck with;"THE HOTDOGS ARE READY, WHERE IS EVERYONE...". The food was really good. Thanks to all the people who did all the preparation work and bring it to the meeting... on an empty stomic it's difficult to tell bus stories.

The next morning we made a lineup of all the buses and drove together to the main parking lot of the fairground. that was a        real sight... 16 buses behind eachother. On the right you can see the first few driving off. Below you can see the whole group parked next to eachother in the parking lot.

We left around 12:00. The 1st part on the i5 was pretty scary. Gee, what a wind. I definitely needed 2 hands to keep it between the lines (with some major side steps). I already heard that a bus is somewhat catchy with side winds, but wow.. this was major. I know now   what they have improved on cars over the last 22 years. We decided to take the scenic tour from Chehalis to Portland and not the i5. Less wind and more to see. We took the Lewis and Clark bridge across the Columbia river. Luckily the wind was a lot less by then. Oh yeah... I wasn't really using my head. After filling it up just outside Puyallup I forgot to put the tank cover back on (and didn't notice till Chehalis). Because it was raining so much I decided to cover it with some tape. That worked for now. Need to buy a new one this week. Anyway, Meneer Bus did a perfect job and returned us safely back home, where it's resting in the garage. This weekend woke up the camping itch again. We'll be taking the bus out again soon. It's just to much fun. A thanks to all Wetwesties members; we had a great weekend.

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