The Chronicles of Rabfan H2O 2009 by rabfan

27 minute read

The Chronicles of Rabfan H2O 2009

Compliments of rabfan @ www.vwvortex.com

Sorry for the delay this year and thanks to Steve for providing some teasers. I know he’s been chomping at the bit to post pictures of our adventure. I had an awesome time at H2O 2009 but not because of the show. I had an awesome time because I got to spent a week with some fantastic people who share a common interest. My now annual trip to the East coast is something I look forward to each year and it is made special by people like you fellow MK1 enthusiasts. Thank you. Thank you all.
Let me start by saying that this trip almost didn’t happen. I was locked into an exploratory drill job right up till the last minute. Fortunately I managed to get out of Butt **** nowhere Saskatchewan in time to make my flight on Tuesday to Cleveland. Steve offered to pick me up at the airport and let me tag along with him down to H2O. Super awesome guy that Steve. A quick drive to Calgary, a plane to Toronto, another plane to Cleveland and a short ride down the escalator and the trip had begun! A quick call to the Old Guy and his first words were; “I’ll be there in 2 minutes. You wearing the hat?” If any of you met me last year you know which hat that is. It has become my official travelling hat. Some say it was given to me by Robert Redford after he finished filming Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Others say it was weaved from thin bamboo strips grown in the dense Jungles of Mexico by ancient Mayan craftsmen. Either way it’s a cool hat.
It didn’t take long standing on the curb outside Hopkin’s International for me to hear the staccato rumble of what could only be described as a perfectly balanced and in tune 1.8l VW engine. Sure enough Red Wow gracefully rolled around the corner playing an unmatchable techtonics symphony.
Those bumpers! I have a thing for custom made bumpers and let me tell you that Steve has created a masterpiece out of aluminium. They are even more impressive in real life. 
As soon as the car stopped Steve jumps out with a smile on his face supported by that huge Amish beard he insists on keeping. What a cool dude. Hugs were exchanged and the inevitable question “What do you want to do for your one night in Cleveland?” 
What the heck do you think I want to do! The answer is have beer in case you are slow.
With one firm item on our list of Cleveland things to do, Steve did manage to keep me out of the bar long enough to show me a tour of the river front and the really cool architecture in the warehouse district. 

I saw the strip club(from the outside ladies don’t worry) and “the Jake”. The rest I don’t remember except the cool buildings and bridges. Hanging out with Steve is awesome. He has a ton of stories about sailing on the river as well as racing and local activities… If you get the opportunity to hang out with Steve, listen to the man. He’s had a great life and loves to share…...

Finally we made it to the bar which also doubles as a local brewery. A list of home brews mounted on the wall reveals to the weary dock worker a fine selection of magnificent choices. I’m more of a lager guy but that didn’t stop us from starting at the top of the list and working our way to the bottom. 

Several picture messages later we figured everyone was informed of my arrival. Not wanting to sleep in and miss our 6:30 am departure we decided to call it an early night. Besides, Steve and I had agreed upon a two beer an hour limit which we reasoned would keep us lucid for the weeks’ activities. A rule Steve would soon break…..read on fearless subscriber.
RJ swap. Good for many horsepowers.

Morning came much too early. Winter can be such a crappy season, going to bed when it’s dark, waking up in the dark. Johnny Jihad, one of Steve’s racing buddies was in the driveway promptly at 6am with his MK5. You might remember him entering it in a smash up derby on the way home from H2O-08. The drive from Cleveland to OC took about 9 hours. I’m going to admit that I’m not much of a passenger. I love to drive. I’ll drive 72 hours straight if I have a goal and enough Red Bull and Pixie Stix. As a passenger I mostly sleep. The drive was uneventful and Red Wow performed magnificently. I still can’t believe that we paid a toll to drive on some of those roads however. I see the military continues to use them for target practice.
The bridge onto the island from the mainland is beautiful but a cruel deception. Every year we hit the bridge and I think “yay! We’re almost there”. Damn lying brain of mine. We finally arrive into OC in a rather anticlimactic manner having expected to be there 3 hours previous.
Due to my non existent budget this year, Esher graciously allowed me to stay at the DCI chill house. It was definitely a blast and lots of excitement being right in the epicentre of the action. 

The DCI crew really are a great bunch of guys although I am now on a first name basis with the local constabulatory after many frequent visits. I’ve heard people knock them saying they have a “gang” mentality but I’d say they have a family mentality more than anything. They take care of each other well and are weary of outsiders who hang around for the “image”.

After choosing a room and dropping our stuff off we went over to see the mythical unicorn that is “Louise”. 

To say that I was happy for Paul would be an understatement. His project has gone through many ups and downs over the last 6 years and it was surreal to see her finished on the trailer when we showed up. 

After a quick brainstorming session we got the car unloaded using various blocks of wood and good old muscle power. Paul then went to work setting the ride height.

After a short cruise the decision was made to park the car until Tom the magical carb wizard could tune the 45’s properly. 
The 4 of us then went out for shrimp and crab dip at Kirby’s pub. 

Oh and we also might have had some beer. Several hours later the party went back to Paul’s where Steve broke into his bottle of Grande Marnier and proceeded to drink it like a 5 year old with an unlimited supply of juice boxes. So much for our 2 beer an hour agreement, you’re supposed to sip that stuff buddy. 

Did I mention that Steve picked up not one but 2 bottles of my favourite rum? Captain Morgan’s Private Stock. Awesome stuff. The party continued and Mike showed up. Sometime after that Steve started making clam chowder and blew it all over the downstairs patio. 
I don’t have a picture of this so I have created an artistic impression.

Fortunately no one was home but someone did remark the next day that there was some foul smelling shrimp bits scattered about(the shrimp bits can be seen exiting Steve’s mouth in my cartoon). Sometime in the middle of Steve’s meal recycling Z-Germans showed up! 

Otti and his brother Tuki flew all the way from Germany to Seattle on the auspice of joining the C2C2H2O cruise. Sadly everyone including myself had to bail due to various financial and personal reasons. This left the poor guys to travel all by them selves. Sorry guys. 

Sometime in the wee hours of the morning the only sensible one among us (Jihad) ferried our drunken shenanigans back to the DCI chill house where I grabbed my top bunk and passed out. About 3 minutes later Nuno and Co. came crashing in looking for Steve and somehow managed to drag him out of bed for another 5 hours of debauchery. Old Guy’s got some drinking legs people! 
The next morning Mike and I got up nice and early and went for TP and supplies at Wallyword. Not having the gulf this year was kind of a bummer so I went to the bike section and picked up a sweet BMX and a can of blue spray bomb. A few hours later and I had myself a mini Gulf. 

This gave me a bit of mobility around town and let me explore way more than last year. Did you know that there is a boardwalk in OC? 
Germans on the boardwalk;

Mullet pants!

Also I found out that the ocean is two blocks from the house. All things I did not know last year because we were so trashed from the 72 straight hours of driving. One thing I did not take into account when buying a child’s bicycle however was that pedalling 3-4 miles a day would turn my leg muscles into useless rubber bands. Nothing copious amounts of alcohol couldn’t mask however. 
Later that evening I rode the mini Gulf up to Tom’s where much beer was drunk, Z-Germans showed up and Paul brought Louise by for everyone to see. 

Lots of people congregated and I attempted to do burn outs with my bike in the gravel driveway….I was marginally successful and did manage to fill Paul’s shoes with rocks so it wasn’t a total loss.

Friday was spent pretty much drinking and bike riding. Mike also gave me a brief surfing lesson which turned out to be much harder than I thought. I've been riding a snowboard since 91' so I figured I'd have the balance thing down pretty good. Of course I was never even able to stand on the board to test that theory. Surfing is hard and my paddling arms are very weak. Now I had rubber legs and rubber arms making me pretty much useless for anything but drinking. To top it off I lost my cool 70's car chase sun glasses in the Ocean. Apparently I became so distracted by some bikini clad talent that I forgot to take them off before returning to the surf and its' vicious undertow. 
Jodie and Tobi showed up later in the day at DCI. I hoped into Jodi's Jetta and we went over to see Louise at Tom's place. Beers were cracked, an impromptu car show was sprung. Jean was there with her Eos. I smoked cigars! Good times!

Later that night we got on the drunk bus and headed out on the town. Tom and Brady brought their armpit drinking straws and walked up and down the boardwalk providing entertainment with simulated flatulence. You’d be surprised how many people fell for this. Several people were in hysterics while others were thoroughly disgusted. We may have ruined one couple's anniversary dinner but we were having fun so it's all good.
Several bars and at least 500L of Yeungling later we were really starting to loosen up. Even Tuki started talking which surprised us all because he had hardly said a word up to that point. Mike convinced some "women" (and I use the term loosely) at the bar that I was Australian so I had to fake an accent all night when they decided to spend their evening at our table. Having had my fill sometime in the wee hours I left the group, choked down a 7-11 hot dog and stumbled home. 
Saturday! The day all Mk1 enthusiasts look forward to. I was up nice and early at 7am in the hopes that I might have a full day of Mk1 perusing. I got on the bike and pedaled 4 miles up to Paul's place. Alas! no one home. I then pedalled back along the boardwalk which really is a lovely ride unless you happen to be riding into a 20 mile an hour headwind which fortunately I wasn't. The people going the other way however were struggling and exerting everything they had just to keep from falling over on their bikes. I coasted along humming to myself and checking out the local talent. 

A short time later Paul called in distress and a rescue mission was launched. I think it’s safe to reveal that there were some mechanical issues. After pushing the car about a mile I hoped in Jean’s car and we went to check out the venders at the Downs. 

Last year I waited until Sunday to buy t-shirts and was disappointed to learn that all the good stuff had been sold the previous day. I was not about to let that happen again. After dropping an absurd amount of money I had what I came for and we returned just in time to be of no use to Paul whatsoever. Louise was already mounted on the trailer so off we went to Jolly Roger’s for the Mk1 meet.

I was a little surprised to see that there were several non Mk1’s clogging up the parking lot. Come on people! The Jolly Roger’s meet happens every year. Park your NON Mk1’s somewhere else. 

I suppose that was a moot point anyway. After 15 minutes of photographing all the Mk1’s (If I missed yours I’m sorry) I was feeling a bit peckish and went to get a burger. I returned just in time to witness some kind of mass exodus. 

Apparently our friendly neighbourhood peace officers had broken up the meet. What the hell man! 

There had been some kind of incident earlier in the day at the DCI house that also involved the cops and caused a couple of the members to continue the day incognito. I can’t help but think that perhaps the two police interventions were related.

Regardless, the whole shebang was moved up to 46th street where we seemed to be able to continue unmolested….except for Tobi. I performed a ride by butt smacking which clearly took him by surprise. Too bad he wasn’t conducting an interview at the time.

Kelly and Billy made it down for the show and it was great to see them again. Sadly the Maushaus did not make it but maybe next year.

Later that evening after a few drinks at the DCI house, Paul and Z-Germans came and picked me up and we went out for dinner at Kirby’s pub where Drunklestiltskin (Mike) tried to pick up more “women”. Thankfully he did not bring them over. I can’t recall what happened after Kirby’s. I recall something about a guy in a dress(not me). I think Paul slipped me a roofycolada….mmmm salty.

Anyway the next day we went for breakfast at our usual spot where I had scrapple….which I’d never heard of before. Apparently it’s made with floor sweepings. 
After that Mike and I hopped in his Mk5 and slinked into the show through the back door being too embarrassed to show up without a Mk1.
Once there, I began to polish Red Wow’s awesome bumpers. It was then that I decided that unprotected polished aluminium is way too much work…..so I got drunk. 

After several speed beers from the coolest aluminium bottles, I was stumbling around the show feeling pretty good. 

I had the opportunity to meet up with old friends and to make some new ones.

We see you Mike. Nothing escapes the Rabfan.

Nice pants Ivan.

I even got to meet some of my fellow countrymen from the North…..Jim and…uh…..God I am such a tool. In my defence I’d had quite a bit to drink…lets call him Red car guy.

Being the snob that I am, I never left Mk1 row. 
Except to take a picture of this car. It was not parked in the row but somehow I got a picture of it.

You tried to hide but I found you. Cause I am awesome and you suck with the hiding

I was super happy to see the huge turn out of Mk1’s this year. Congratulations Mk1 owners! All the cars looked great…which made me wish I’d brought the Gulf even more. Paul recruited Z-Germans to do all his polishing work. 

I believe I cleaned the Happich pop-outs and then got bored with that and started drinking Margarita’s made by Jeannie! Jean really takes care of us at the show. Every year she makes Brownies and cookies and brings food and makes us Margarita’s. Really just a great woman. Congratulations to Paul for taking First place in the “wild” division. Well deserved after such a long and tumultuous build.
After the show we went out to Outback for our now annual dinner with Ivan, Mark, Jeannie, Kelly, Brian….and basically all the adults. Tom, Brady and Jamie sat at the kids table. 
For some reason this is the only picture I have of Outback.

Our one responsible evening…or 2 hours of one evening anyway.
Later the festivities continued at Paul’s place where a rousing rendition of the German national anthem triggered a noise complaint and you guessed it….a visit from the cops.

Tuki got so drunk he was chasing bugs around with a 2 litre bottle of cola and Paul even convinced Arial(the chromer) to have a few. Apparently he doesn’t enjoy the spirits very often cause we never saw him again the whole night. 

Alas all good things must come to an end and we retired to the chill house for the evening.
On Monday morning we got up bright and early cleaned the house and had breakfast. Apparently I slept most of the way to Cleveland as can be seen here;

Not wanting the party to end, Steve and I finished off a bottle of CM’s Private stock and took part in some Vortex mayhem. 

Up bright and early the next morning to catch a plane and I was home in Red Deer before I knew what happened.
Back to the land of Nicotine laden coffee!

Another great trip spent with good friends. Thanks everyone! I look forward to next year. 
Take care,
Rabfan

Powered by Froala Editor