Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Letchworth State Park '08

Mid-October brought the last Empire VW campout of the year, a return to Letchworth State Park, south of Rochester, one of the few NY state parks open that late for camping. This was actually their last camping weekend.




We lucked out again with perfect weather, as you can see in these shots of the countryside on the way down.













































Campsite shots, including the now-obligatory Cowbell!



More Cowbell!!!!



More Cowbell!!!




Hey, where's Mark?






Hamster Power got us to another campout, and we deployed the "Taj Mahal".




More site shots:




Mark's Tikibus.














Dan's Vanagon & Joel's Synchro.















Mary Jo's Vanagon.















Aaron & Kim's '73 Bus.

















Robert's blue Vanagon, on the left.










October camping means a Halloween theme for the campsite!

























Hamsters cruisin' the park, enjoying the foliage.













Letchworth is full of great foliage & canyon shots, and so many irresistible photo-ops for our "baby":

































































































































































































































































































































We had a large site, so we got to host the Saturday night campfire! Wooo-Hoooo!!!

(Joel pic, from Limbo)








Eventually, we had to pack up, but we got a few shots of the Mt.Morris dam Sunday afternoon, from the Visitor's Center, on the other side of the canyon:























Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Westies at Watkins 2008

October brought with it Westies at Watkins, the PREMIER annual Volkswagen event in NY state, excepting, of course (Hi, Dan!) the Salt City VW Show.




Once again, the amazing Joel Cort used his array of super powers to pull this thing together in his "spare " time (when he's not busy levitating dogs).




We were blessed with good weather, fine early foliage, & sweet, open roads down to Watkins Glen & back.














Our back window, appropriately adorned for the trip down (Mark pic, from LIMBO).




Campsite pics...


































Pics from our Saturday adventures:















Lower end of the gorge...



















Fulkerson & Cascata wineries.

Can't recommend these highly enough.

Mmmmm...Wiiiine...




These pics from Saturday night's campfire will prove, once and for all, that Empire VW Camping events are conducted in an atmosphere of strict decorum and good taste...











































Enough of that; it's a family blog...










VW jack-'o-lantern, and one of Mary Jo's luminaria...












































Sunday morning, the day the hamsters had been waiting for finally arrived...

!!!!!!!!!!!! RACE DAY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(Mark pic)




























(Joel's pics of the track here)























It may look like we're in the lead, but all those cars in the rear are about to pass us in the next 30 seconds, while we're struggling up the hill.

I THINK I can! I THINK I can!

I KNOW I can! I KNOW I can!









































































The road home, to our day jobs (sigh).


YouTube links:


Video from Westies at Watkins--- Part 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ydjv225USyg

Video from Westies at Watkins--- Part 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXQtMsnjWqk

Video from Sue, Putt Putt whizzing by (ahead of the pack??) on the track.....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtcSqgwbneM


And then also from Sue, the rest of the VW pack, complete with honks and waves.....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgqlUZ4Rg7M



Video from Westies at Watkins---Part 3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mc_XwWYWPZE