Wednesday, October 14, 2020

Worlds Colliding

My friend Lew is one interesting cat. He grew up in Northern Virginia, attended Mary Washington College (now the U of MW), and landed here in Norfolk after marrying one of the best friends of one of my wives. (Still not one of my favorite expressions.) The dude's occupation, if you had to nail it down... inventor.

He's worked for tech companies and done lots of jobs. He's got patents on various devices, including a cool man-overboard device from a decade or so ago. In his spare time he distills whiskey, enjoys papal ballots and the Ip Man film series, goes to shows of various kinds (he loves GWAR and Phish), and generally is one of the more interesting people with whom I can hang out around this town.

I used to hang out with Lew more, but busy schedules and divorces often get in the way. His in-laws are super-Greek and own one of the best sports bars/Athenian restaurants in town, and I used to spend Greek Easter at their place enjoying lamb, Ouzo, lamb, Mythos, and lamb. Seriously... out back of the house they have an attached brick rotisserie where the lamb was on a spit, and for an appetizer we had lamb chops. Opa!

We do still get to hang out on occasion and get after it... it's been long enough since D2 that his wife and I are friendly again and he and I can be idiots shotgunning beers on the beach or enjoying gelatinous party favors whilst manning the fire pit in out buddy's back yard.

I used to go to concerts with Lew a bunch as well. Back when people did such things. We would see Pink Talking Fish, Umphrey's McGee, The Cult, or whoever was playing at either the Norva or the Portsmouth amphitheater. 

What was most fun was when he would drive his spare vehicle to the shows. I remember a Phish show and a few others where he would dust off his baby: a 1965 Land Rover 109 Series IIA Dormobile. Awesome, bumpy, open air fun.

I titled this post what I did because I just saw a social media post of his that says: "I'm going to miss having a vehicle with a hand crank, but hopefully another family can have just as much fun as we did with the Dormobile." 

And now it's up at Bring a Trailer.

No Reserve: 1965 Land Rover 109 Series IIA Dormobile

I can drive it to you if you buy it! (I think.)

14 comments:

Squeaky said...

This is awesome, but holy tunnel vision with that headlight set up.

zman said...

Predictably, the BaT cognoscenti are all over this including one guy who comments "I have owned two 109 Dormobiles." I've never even heard of a Dormobile, who the hell owned two?

TR said...

Somebody who liked rooftop sex, that’s who.

rootsminer said...

That thing is cool. I might even endure the lot scene of a phish show to hang out in it. A slight cut above TR's plymouth voyager (or was it a caravan?) with the wood paneling.

T.J. said...

rootsy, just sent you an email about nature and shit

TR said...

IT WAS A DODGE CARAVAN

rootsminer said...

Pardon me sir, I'm sorry to accuse you of driving a humble plymouth.

Myself, I've moved on up to a Chrysler Town and Country model. Sliding doors on both sides. AM/FM /Cassette/CD/DVD. A real baller mini from 2006.

Teej- I sent a feeble reply and will hunt more suggestions.

zman said...

Lew put some videos up and they are all worth your time. The dash controls video is stunning, Rube Goldberg engineered the whole thing. "Keep your buddy's feet warm" made me laugh out out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmEX1wVgMic&list=PL0wL9HkQGGUzv9WJdC-0fZFrhEeHZAqBs&index=4

TR said...

what would have to happen for Bama-UGA to get moved/canceled? I feel like if Saban died, they'd say a prayer before kickoff and move on.

Marls said...

Half the crowd would assume that he was going to rise again on Sunday so there is really no reason to cancel.

Whitney said...

I think this link works better for the videos. One or two of you may recognize the Norfolk Yacht and County Club as the backdrop for several of them — venue for the yacht rock wedding 7 years ago.

https://www.youtube.com/user/F5Twista

Mark said...

Louisiana-Coastal Carolina has the potential to be a really fun game. No, really. Both teams are strong to quite strong.

Mark said...

And coastal Carolina was just playing “No Easy Way Out” from Rocky 4 on the stadium PA. Love it.

rob said...

i don't know who decided that it was cool in my neighborhood to erect elaborate web-based halloween constructions featuring monstrous spiders, but i'm here to voice my disapproval