I went to the Geelong event in 2009 with my wife and had a good few days down there.

This year I went down on my own just for the Friday and Saturday. My wife had a gig on Saturday night so I came back to Melb for that. Being Easter I got stuck in the traffic getting on to the island. It was bumper to bumper from the round-a-bout to the bridge (15km or so) at about 2pm. Annoying but that's traffic at Easter.

I had a fantastic time and a few drinks on the Friday night with the Diamond Valley Van club guys which I am a member of. Bloody cold though with no fires, but nothing a blanket did not fix.

One thing that frustrated me was the cruise on the Saturday. Instead of heading into town and around the island it was decided to head off the island to an out of the way pub for lunch.

I would really like to take our van out to where the people are. Let them have a look at it and generate interest in vans in general. Heading into Cowes and around the island a bit would have been ideal. A lot of other car clubs have days where their vehicles are on display in public open spaces where there are already people out and about.

Eg. when the van Nats were in Geelong, other car clubs had their cars on display at the Geelong foreshore car park. Plenty of people in the area that could have a look. These are the people that would not go out of their way to see a car show but stumble on it and really enjoy the show.

At the January hot rod show at Phillip island cars take over the foreshore car park in Cowes and cruise up and down the main street all afternoon. It's great to just sit outside at one of the cafes with a cold one and watch all the cars cruising.

I understand that money needs to be made to pay for the event and that is why the public day has an entry fee but I for one would like to see the camping side of things separate from the show day.

Having people have to know the show is on, find it in an out of the way place, make a special trip to get to it and then pay entry as well, really limits the exposure.

Parking in the foreshore car park, cruising up and down the main street of Cowes - now that is my idea of cruising.

I will head down again this year but I am cruising in Cowes, be it the legit cruise or not.