LONG WRITE-UP ....
 
Thank you to all who participated and made the 9th annual Westies at Watkins 
campout a great success!  This was a record breaking event with 100 VW 
enthusiast coming to this camping event.

Where does the time go? It has been two weeks already since we had a fabulous 
camping event once again at Watkins Glen NY.  It was one of the most perfect 
weekends that I can recall for this campout.  No rain, no wind, no hurricane 
blow-by just warm sunny days and comfortable nights. The event officially kicks 
off on Friday but by Thursday night there were already 25 vans settled in at our 
camping loop.  The campground loop is reserved for our bunch and we quickly 
filled all available spots with sometimes as many as 3 and 4 vans loosely 
camping somewhere near a picnic bench.  The rangers were pretty cool and so was 
our group. 

 
By Saturday night I counted 100 VW Vehicles participating in this premier 
campout. Numerous Vanagons, EuroVans, Bays and Splitties, a few Bugs and even 
two Rialtas and one Vista. Some tear-drop trailers were also in tow.  We even 
had 7 Vanagon Syncro models this year and many Subaru and Ford Zetec-powered 
vans participating in the event.

Saturday morning the entire group was treated to the Empire VW Camping Club’s 
version of “breakfast burritos”.  Thanks to Dave & Mary for initiating and 
coordinating the cooking efforts. Thanks to all others who volunteered and 
pitched in with the cooking or donated something to share. We all had a fabulous 
meal that couldn’t be beat.  

 
With all of the activities and options offered in the area with museums, 
antiquing, wine tasting, car racing etc. it is always difficult to determine 
which activity to do because you want to do them all.  Saturday was also a 
beautiful sunny day making all activities enjoyable.  Three activity groups got 
quickly established:  1) stick around the campground and hike the Glen 2) 
caravan to the Curtis Museum (www.glennhcurtissmuseum.org) in nearby 
Hammondsport on Keuka Lake. 3) caravan visit the MacKenzie-Childs 
(www.mackenzie-childs.com) factory and artisan’s studio in Aurora NY around 
Cayuga Lake.
 
Some decided to hike the glen to view the water falls and enjoy the beauty of 
the Watkins Glen.  Others weary campers, kicked back at camp and enjoyed the 
warm autumn day.  Thanks Frank, for leading the group to the Curtis Museum in 
search of antique motorcycles and wineries. Thank you Rita, for leading the 
ladies auxiliary to visit MacKenzie-Childs show room. The afternoon also allowed 
the remaining campers to visit to local town while others relaxed at camp. 

 
Before the pot-luck dinner events at the pavilion, Rick the Juggler once again 
entertained the children and pleasing the crowd with his juggling acts, tricks 
and playing with fire. Thanks again Rick for a fine display of your talents. 

 The crowd was at capacity in the pavilion to enjoy the pot-luck meal. Everyone 
had plenty to eat with some pretty decent camping food to bat. We concluded the 
evening with some excellent door prizes to give away as raffle gifts.  A huge 
thanks to all door prizes contributors including the following: 

 
·         The Bus Depot 
·         GoWesty
·         Van-Café
·         Condelli and Associates
·         Wolfsbürg-West,
·         Wolfgang International
·         The Samba 
·         Mid-America Motorworks
·         Sewfine
·         Griots Garage
·         Bostig
·         LiMBO 
·         VW Club of Central NY
·         Empire VW Camping Club
 
Special note and thanks goes out the original art work commemorating the 9th 
event done by Mark Lund and the T-shirt design.  I still have a few T shirts 
available if anyone is interested and can print additional ones upon request.
 
On Sunday about 50 vans caravanned to go onto the racetrack on the 
Thunder Road Tours (www.theglen.com).  We were led onto the track behind the 
pace vehicle.  The strategy for the Zetec and Suby powered vans was to hang at 
the end of the line and be able to zoom at any desired speed.  Well that was an 
open invitation to go full throttle and race the new Bostig 2010 version. There 
was nothing better than three Zetec-powered Vanagons screeching around the turns 
while passing the slow pokes.  One of the Zetec-powered van even had a video cam 
at ground level filming the road so be on the lookout on YouTube for that.
 
Some of the pictures are available for viewing at the following link:
 
http://www.limbobus.org/phpBB4/album_cat.php?cat_id=140
 
It was really nice to see old friends again and to make new friends at this 
event. Some were missed and remembered. Recently, Andrew Grebneff passed away.  
Andrew was an enthusiast and strong supporter of SVX-powered Vanagon, active on 
the Subaru conversion forum. I have decided to donate the 50/50 money raised at 
this event to the Andrew Grebneff Memorial fund to help his widow.  Thank you 
Doug Alcock for also donating your half of the 50/50 winnings for the cause.
 
A big thank you for Phil the web master, who relentlessly maintains the web site 
content and gets the photographers to post their pictures.  Without Phil we 
would not have such a great LiMBO site www.limbobus.org/ and our own 
www.westies-at-watkins.org websites.
 
In closing this long report, I want to personally thank all of the members of 
the Empire VW Camping Club (www.empirevwcamping.org) who contributed and donated 
their time, effort and planning to keep making this event a success. The success 
is represented by the 100 VW campers present for the campout.
 
Everyone was accommodated, no engine fires, no speeding tickets, no breakdowns 
getting there,… Wait, wait.  There were several issues that I know of for some 
folks heading home.  Gord got towed to Rochester and waited for a new oil pump 
to get installed in his Vanagon.  Sue and Andy also had a minor roadside issue 
heading back to Syracuse. Karl also had fan belt issues heading back to Ottawa. 
Luckily Markus was not too far behind to come to the rescue.  Overall a perfect 
campout for the 9th year of the Westies at Watkins event. 

 
Joel Cort – jcort@rochester.rr.com 
Camp counselor
Rochester NY.

89 Syncro Westy 
87 Syncro Transporter (Stella)
73 Westy Campmobile (agent orange)

Founding Member of the Empire VW Camping Club & Westies at Watkins 
Western New York LiMBO Respresentative www.limbobus.org