Hi all.  I'm Patrick Hatcher hailing from Radford, Virginia.  That's in
the Southwest part of the state, if you are wondering.  I've always
lived in the mountains and love the scenery.

My association with VWs started in the '70s.  My dad had two bugs that
he drove around in the summer.  In the summer of '79 mom and dad bought
a Type II Westy (yes, the green one) and we camped around the country
for a couple of months (West Virginia to Florida to TX/Mex to Calif to
Washington to Canada to N. Dakota to Mich. to New England states and
back to West Virginia).  There were five of us: my mom and dad, me, and
my older brother and sister.  Being the young one (9 years old), I was
the only one that would fit in the roll-up cot over the front two seats.
I secretly envied the other members of my family that slept in the
pop-top or the fold out bed.  It was a two-month adventure I'll never
forget.

In high school I drove a bright yellow Ghia.  I loved that car!  It had
speed and corner hugging qualities that I'd never experienced before.
During this time, my sister had a baby blue bug, and my brother had a
tan bug (met with a tree after break line failure).

Then came college and grad school and along with it a dry spell when I
drove whatever I could afford.

Finally, four months ago I bought an '85 Westy GL with 61,000 original
miles.  I've been terribly happy tinkering with it since then.

I basically have two jobs.  I've got a regular job as a Web
Developer/Technical Writer for an Intellectual Property holding company.
My other job is a little different:  I'm the youth director at our
church.  I'm still not quite sure which of the two take more energy, but
I definitely know the second it much more rewarding.

I have a beautiful brown-eyed wife that is my best friend in this world.
We have also been blessed with our 5 month old girl, Lauren Grace.  The
other member of our family, an Old English Sheep Dog named Pepper, is a
big goofy hairball, but we love her.

If anyone on the list ever needs a place to park their van overnight and
get a cup of coffee, I've got a whole church parking lot as my back yard
(we live in the parsonage).

I've already received a wealth of information from respective list
members, and I hope I'll be a little more on the giving end in the
future.

-Patrick Hatcher

Radford, Virginia
'85 Westy GL Vicki
'86 Toyota Van LE (For Sale)