bURNING vAN 2011 - 1-22-11

Okay - the contents of the Checker Motor Company's VW files was interesting, but was taking too long. I have some more stuff I'll post from it, but I thought I'd take a break from that and share some photos from some recent events this week.

First up are the photos from bURNING vAN 2011. This is the infamous gathering on mainly Syncro Vanagons on Ocean Beach in San Francisco. It take place every January and I've gone the last 2 years. This year, the weather was absolutely awesome. Hey East Coast, take note, this is why California is awesome...

Peter and I were the 2nd and 3rd to arrive, and we parked next to this nice Vanagon, who promptly fired up the engine and left. Turned out we were the 1st and 2nd to arrive. Later, this guy actually came back and was shocked to see all the Vanagons at the beach so he turned in and asked why we were all there.

This beast rolled up early but had to leave. I'm hoping they come to more events.

Another random VW bus that happened to be at the beach already. These guys ended up hanging out with us a little while as well.

Then, the vans came!

An impressive showing. I think we ended up with over 35 vans/buses (and 1 Thing).

Yeah, yeah - hubcap shot!

As noted, the weather was fantastic. There were people playing volleyball in bathing suits. There's something about California light in winter that I love.

Another really nice Bay showed up later.

At the end of the night, they did (as is the custom) burn a Type 1 engine block on the campfire. The idea is that when it gets hot enough, the Magnesium ignites which sends a blast of light into the sky. It's supposedly a super bright light. I can tell you now that bright doesn't do it justice. The entire beach lights up. The only saving grace is that it lasts about 15 minutes. But it drew a crowd of people curious about what could burn that bright. "An engine block, of course", we told them.