Higher Learning

We moved to Santa Barbara (Goleta, actually) in the late Summer of 2004 so I could attend graduate classes in philosophy at UCSB. While I usually biked the three miles to campus, once in awhile there was cause to drive Ludwig. My office (such that it was) was in that building at left.

A beat but solid '70 or older parked in Lot 21, the same lot pictured above.

UCSB abuts the Pacific Ocean on two sides, making it (for what it's worth) one of our great surfing campuses. Accordingly, campus attire was often beyond casual. By that I mean the occasional co-ed would show up for class in a bikini top and a towel wrapped around her waist. It's entirely possible that such a Betty parked this splitty at Goleta Beach to hit the waves or the books.

Yet another Lot 21 denizen.

I never got used to palm trees.

One last shot of Ludwig at UCSB. In the distant distance are the Santa Ynez Mountains.

Still Life with Blue Beetle

I was still getting used to the camera we got awhile back when I happened across this Beetle in Livingston.

We have several shorts like this, the result of forgetting to switch the dial off of "video" before taking a picture.

New Year's Resolution

My own resolution, such that it is, is to follow a certain other blogger's example and post more often.

While the one-two punch of some truly brutal weather and our beaming one year-old (rounded up to the nearest year, anyway) has kept Ludwig in the stable and us out of the outdoors most of the Winter, there's still really no shortage of things we can write about. To wit:

Below are photos I have unabashedly cribbed from the Omaha VW Club's archives, specifically from the 2004 Show-n-Shine at the outlet mall in Gretna. We take no responsibility for the quality of the pictures.

There's a crew like this at every ACVW gathering, I swear.

Poor Beetles have to put up with being painted such godawful colors.

That's me at far right sporting my Specter Off-Road tshirt.

Melissa and I drove and entered 02McDonald's 1960 Double Door (above; name unknown), as McDonald was trying to sell it, plus Ludwig wasn't quite up-and-running.

Double Doors (the term refers to the fact that it has cargo doors on both sides which can be opened up such that a well-trained child on a minibike could jump it right on through the bus) being somewhat rare and desirable, we had several interested parties and fielded a lot of questions, but nothing came of it. The bus was sold some months later to a buyer in the U.K.

Attention to anyone considering the case of splitty (1949-1967) v. bay window (1968-1979): splitties are no doubt more charming in an ugly duckling sort of way, but both of us having driven the DD and Noel, we unhesitatingly report that bays are waaaaaay better to drive in virtually all respects.

This was the raffle bus. The paint job was kind of sloppy, but the engine was brand new. If we'd won it, I imagine this you'd be reading "Ludwig & Mr. Mustard's Adventures" right now.

San Francisco

These are the ones we were quick enough to get shots of, during two visits to San Francisco in 2005 and 2006.

Making our way toward (or from?) what is allegedly the most crooked street in the world.

Taken at a parking lot by Buena Vista Park, my Westernmost point until October of last year.

Somewhere on the 101 between Sans Francisco and Jose, actually.

Maps and Legends

When I got my first car in 1990, I bought the current Rand McNally Road Atlas. The promotional literature in its opening pages told me that there had been ca. 15,000 changes since the 1989 edition and that this was roughly how many changes there were annually. I've bought one every year since, just in case. Later I discovered DeLorme Atlas & Gazeteers and a whole nother level of addiction was revealed to me.

The attrition of my road maps can mostly be attributed to donation and theft. The one above guided 02McDonald and myself during Hell-Ride '01. It was largely destroyed by rainwater entering the cab while driving through an Indiana thunderstorm.


Curiously, except for that little white one I'd never owned a world atlas until I started working at the Missoula Public Library. Now I have so many that I can afford to be picky. These were either donated and not added to the collection (after which I bought them), or weeded to make way for newer editions.

Apparently I got the little white atlas sometime in late September 1981, if my 2nd-grade scrawl can be trusted.

I say 37 atlases constitutes an atlas collection, but Mitch denies he collects atlases. Hmmm.
It'd be a good bet that Ludwig will never have a GPS in him.