My new van, and learning to ID raptors

In april, I bought a 1986 VW Vanagon (4 speed manual).  I'd been looking for a small camper, so it was perfect.  Alex helped me drive it home (I couldn't drive stick yet), and of course an April snow storm hit.  We drove it over the mountain to Johnstown from Everett on 56, and we could barely see the road.  Going past Altoona was not an option, because Cresson Mountain was closed.  Near the overpass by the Johnstown airport, I looked in the rearview mirror of my sunfire to check on Alex and the van, only to see it do a 360 spin under the bridge.  Amazingly Alex didn't hit the bridge or any other cars. At that point we turned around and dropped the van off at a friends in Johsntown.  In the next few days, I learned to drive my van, but had to leave it behind when I drove to Nebraska to start my summer job.

In august, I got back to PA and was able to start working on my van.  The previous owner gave it a nice lime green and white paint job (nice colors but draws too much attention!), and fixed up the inside.  He also lowered it (by cutting the springs, apparently), which I am trying to reverse by finding replacement springs.  He also changed the tires and rims (to 16"), which made it kind of hard to drive in snow or rain.  This also caused the tires to "rub" on the van, making sharp turns hard.  So I "borrowed" some rims from Alex, and we got new light truck tires to fit on them, after we painted them black.  We got the front tires on fine, which stopped the rubbing during a turn.  The back tires don't fit, because the previous owner changed the lug studs...so we are looking for stock lug studs.  We also took out the small seat in the van to make room for shelves and a small fridge.  I also "borrowed" the side mirrors from Alex's Westy, because mine were useless (They are the reason I *may* have sideswiped a guard rail).  Next we got a small carpet remnant to cover the veneer floor that was put in, which makes the van quite homey.  I am in the process of finding a larger power converter for the auxillary battery, so I can run higher wattage appliances in the van (small fridge, toaster oven), in addition to the small tv that the previous owner added to the van...pretty nice to have on rainy days!  Right now, we are using the van to travel to the Tuscarora Summit Hawk watch, known as "The Pulpit," and camp there a few nights a week.  I am learning how to ID raptors at a distance.  This is what we have seen so far in September. Tuscarora September Count  We do not get as many raptors as nearby Waggoner's Gap or Hawk Mountain, but thousands of raptors will still pass over this ridge this fall.