Thanksgiving Guests

We hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving! We are still recovering from our food comas.

We made it through Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana on our way to the  first of the family celebrations and our third Thanksgiving of the trip  ( #1 Canadian Thanksgiving ; #2 Thanksgiving Misgivings). We have plenty to be thankful for.

Since we’ll be visiting family, sleeping late, and eating too much for the next few weeks, we’ll fill in the rest of trip through The South next week and will get caught up with the present right now – sort of a stream of consciousness thing.

We met Frank and Iris (www.amerikando.com) online a few weeks ago. They are driving from Argentina to New York in a 1982 VW bus. Yep, they still made the vans in Argentina in ’82.

They are 9 months into their trip and we found we’d be crossing paths in Texas, so Jason invited them to celebrate Thanksgiving with us.  They learned a little about the American holiday – gluttony and college football.

DSC_6605 DSC_6664

DSC_6622 DSC_6618

If you are a bus person, the late-model Argentinian kombi is an interesting beast.  It’s a bastardized bus, with a mix of parts from the previous year models.  It’s a bay window, but doesn’t have the sliding side door – it’s the dual door from the splittie. It has the updated dash and big taillights from the older bay window models, but has a 1600DP engine. The front seats are a bench, so no walk-through. Good fun for VW geeks.

DSC_6661 DSC_6607

Jason’s dad and step-mom hosted 47 people for a delicious sit-down dinner with assigned seating and everything. There were three turkeys (roasted, fried and smoked) and the largest ham I’ve ever seen.

We ate and then ate some more. We watched football. We ate some more. There were lot’s of folks from out of town, so all beds, couches and air mattresses were put to good use.

DSC_6634 DSC_6655

DSC_6638 DSC_6646

Frank and Iris shared some travel tips and contacts for us in Central and South America, and I’m hoping we can reciprocate. We’ll be putting them in contact with our friends along their way.

If you want to meet some really nice people, practice your French or Spanish, or help out on a great VW adventure you can contact them through their blog. Tell them Jason, Angela, and Bode sent you…

Two extremes always meet.

-Chinese proverb

7 thoughts on “Thanksgiving Guests

  • November 30, 2009 at 9:34 AM
    Permalink

    jason – tell your dad hello for me! hope he’s doing well. glad thanksgiving was fun and hope you have some fun back in the old stomping grounds.

  • November 30, 2009 at 10:25 AM
    Permalink

    Glad to read that you made to Texas. That Argentine Bus is kinda cool. Did you ever make it to the Naval Aviation Museum before you left P’cola? If you didn’t here is a short U-Tbe Vid.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKRPpDvnHHk&feature=fvw

    Take care,
    Wild Bill

  • November 30, 2009 at 7:40 PM
    Permalink

    Am I crazy, or was that Argentinian bus also at BusFest 5 this past summer?

    *goes to look at pix*

    No, it wasn’t but another 1982 bus from Argentina was. How strange!

  • November 30, 2009 at 8:45 PM
    Permalink

    I heard it was quite a feast! Sorry we didn’t make it down, I know mom didn’t want to stress them out with any more people. And I can see it was packed

  • November 30, 2009 at 10:43 PM
    Permalink

    Dear friends!
    Very nice memories, we copied all the pictures!
    It was very nice to meet you and live Thanksgiving with your great families!
    Wish you the best on the road!!!
    Iris and Franck

  • December 1, 2009 at 4:27 PM
    Permalink

    Bill -we made it and it was very cool! more to come…

  • December 1, 2009 at 4:29 PM
    Permalink

    I think I met that guy too. I think he was French and was going to store the car in the US while he went home to make more money for the trip. Seems to be a recurring idea.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *