From Marge, with Gratitude

Marge turned out to be a community affair! Friends and family, many of whom have had their own vanning adventures and otherwise have vast expertise on how to build things, helped create Marge into the (functioning) Beauty she now is.

Foremost, Jordan — you actually deserve a page all of your own! Needless to say, this whole endeavor would have been impossible without your genius design work and handy skills!! Thanks for teaching us, as they say, how to fish:)

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Audio man Jeff couldn’t stand the sound of our old system so he insisted;) on putting in a new stereo system for us, among other shared expertise, skills, and a shared work station, including the electrical work that prevented us from electricuting ourselves! Thank you, Jeff!!

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(Cousin) Steve actually drove down from Big Bear to Oceanside, with his kids, to spend his entire weekend getting the whole operation off the ground. We got great service, advice, and an essential car jack from Steve who has had several van excursions of his own. Uncle Jimmy, too, contributed his van-living experiences and electrical expertise. Thanks, boys!

Mystery Machine

(Steve’s Mystery Machine)

Mom (Mary) took Marge on one of her first road trips down to Oceanside to basque in the sun, dry out some of the mold, and prepare for her makeover. Fred drove Marge around town till we found a family friend to give her a professional cleaning.

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Dad (Andrew) pulled out his skills from the old surfing days for this fiber glass patch up work; and Uncle Moe, aka THE Handy Man, jumped in for some electrical and metal cutting work. Tom even skipped out on his run to install speakers and play recklessly with the jigsaw:)

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Robert, who, as the world’s nicest and most generous guy, bought us a sweet two burner Coleman stove and helped us build the fold out cooking table. You’re the man!

Andy spent the good part of an afternoon and evening helping to finish up the last touches on the wood work and keep me and the beers some company:)

Kelly and Austin helped us pick out, sew and rock out our paisley curtains.

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Dave was key in lending us his boating expertise and tools to properly wire up our secondary battery – that pesky solenoid.

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Thank you Dad (Stephen) and Mom (Janet) for rides to and fro and sending us off on our adventure!

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And then a special Thanks to Stanford Carpets for our free carpet and pretty much the friendliest service one could imagine.

And Redwood City Tire for very generously fixing up this rusty engine!

 

 

 

4 thoughts on “From Marge, with Gratitude”

  1. Yeah! Homer is famous (again)! This isn’t going to make sense right now, but if you get a flat you will probably need to drive the van over a low spot on the road to get the jack underneath. Think of a small ditch. With a flat, the van will be sitting almost on the ground. Or you gotta put the jack underneath where you can, jack it up, put something underneath, move the jack, jack it up again, etc… I know it doesn’t make sense… Yet… Your van is stylin’ though! Happy travels!

  2. K & J,

    Miss you. Hope you got a good deal on brakes. If Karina rubs Marge 3 times money will pour into the sink. Therefore no worries. The fish are biting (and so are the mosquitoes)…show me a picture of your best catch.

    Dad

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