Date:         Wed, 20 Jul 94 12:47:13 PDT
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         ahleatst@dataflux.bc.ca (Michael J. Rensing)
Subject:      Re: misc. ramblings about locations

>Me thinks you have something there Joel.  Looking at the distribution
>of the list makes it pretty obvious where the trek (I like the idea
>of the 'Boisterous Busing Bufoons' here) should start:  California 
>since it has the largest number of rabid owners...  But then what?
>Look at Canada folks.  We've (speak up fellow Canadians!) got the
>next highest number up there (admittedly I think there's a big gap
>in the middle of the country as I suspect that most of us are 
>in either B.C. or Ontario) and your dollar goes farther up here
>than it would in your own country: 1$us == 1.38$can  We don't have
>intransigent speed limits (law states that one goes as fast as everyone 
>else--and everybody is going at a decent clip)  Gorgeous scenery.
>Blah, nationalistic blah...  You guys could load up on spare parts
>and sell them to us for gas money...  And if you get questioned at
>the border you can claim that you *always* carry a spare engine with
>you...  Heh.
>Anyway, I envision something like this:  Start in Cal, go north
>to B.C. then across Canada to Ontario.  NY, then south south (highway
>61?), Texas then California...  Ooh, this could be good.  --Ralf
>
Well, speaking for the two of us in B.C. (Hi Alistair), we're on Vancouver
Island; a place of great beauty.  Also surfing (not that I do any).  If the
tour can make it here, we're both within less than an hour's drive of each
other.  Not that we've ever met in person.

The problem with driving across Canada and the cheap Canadian dollar, is
that even with the extremely favourable exchange rate (for American $$$),
gas is significantly cheaper on the American side.  Also, fast food and
hotel accomodations (can you say breakdown?) are significantly less in the
States.  I drove across from Ontario to B.C. in December halfway through the
States, and found that for food and accomodation, we were the same in either
country, and gas was cheaper in the States. :-(

Now, about bringing up parts...

Michael
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Michael J. Rensing, Ph.D.                   michael@uvphys.phys.uvic.ca
Ahlea Systems Corp.                             ahleatst@dataflux.bc.ca