New Canvas

Well, I have been lax this year in updating the blog.  My apologies, if anyone is still reading of course.  A couple of things to get you up to speed.  I can’t remember if I mentioned this previously but the canvas in the pop top ripped earlier this year.  Not a huge deal but it was big enough that I had to slap some gorilla tape on it to keep it from ripping further. 

 

I ordered a new hemp blend canvas from gowest.com  It was a little pricey but I figured I wanted something that was durable, going to last and that was going to fit.  The canvas arrived a couple of weeks ago.  I called up my friend Matt and asked to see if he was up for some Westy work.  Thankfully he was up for it do I threw some beers in the cooler, grabbed my tools and headed out to Cochrane, AB to replace the canvas. 

Once I got there we got down to business.  We cracked a couple of beers and took a look at how to tackle this job. It seemed easy enough.  There was a gasket at the bottom of the canvas that was easily removed by taking out the Phillips head screws.  Then it was on to the tough part.  Taking off the top.  Let me say this for anyone thinking about replacing a canvas on the Westy pop-top… it can be done with 2 people but really taking that top off and putting it back on it a 4 person job.  Seeing as it was just Matt and me, we kept calm and soldiered on. 

We undid the bolts that held it at the top then went to work on the brackets that held it on at the bottom.  It was a little tricky with the bracket of the bottom due the strange angles and confined space but we managed. 

Once the top was off we took the old canvas off and went to work with our handy dandy staple gun attaching the new one.  Once we got the new canvas attached to the top we went about putting it back on the bus.  That was the hard part where having 4 people would have made a world of difference.  We got the top back on and all the brackets secured and went to work securing the bottom of the canvas to the bus. 

Overall it went fairly well.  Friday, I headed out to Dinosaur Trail Provincial park for a weekend of camping with a shiny new canvas. 

It rained, then rained some more, then rained some more

Last Weekend….

So last week I headed out to Kananaskis Country, (K-country as it’s called around here).  The weather forecast called for a 40% chance of showers so I figured I was good to go.  I headed out Friday after work in a light rain that slowly intensified on the drive out.  By the time I got to the Blue Rock Campground it was a fairly steady rain. 

http://albertaparks.ca/sheep-river.aspx 

It was so wet and cold I couldn’t even start a fire.  I popped the top and settled in for the evening.  After a cold meal and reading I called it a night. 

That night it poured

That morning it poured

Finally around 11:00 or so it let up enough that I could start a fire with my wet fire wood and cook dome food.  After a hastily prepared breakfast I headed out for a walk.  I surveyed the low hanging clouds and decided to chance it.  There was a  nice looking 2.5 km loop that I thought I’d try.  I dressed and headed out.  The path was really nice along the river and easily walk-able.   Due to the recent rain (see above) and the mountain runoff the rivers were swollen and running fast. 

I’ll continue this post and add some pictures  later tonight or tomorrow….

Okay, I’m behind a little bit.  Lets rewind a couple of weeks ago for my first camping outing of the year.  I headed out to Two Jack Lake in Banff National park.  It was great, as always.  It was a fairly quiet weekend and there were loads of choice spots to choose from.  For a little while I was the only person on the entire loop.  I settled in, started a fire, cracked a beer then cracked my book.  The peace and solitude was amazing.    I’m not complaining but the peace soon ended as the RVs started arriving. 

Next to me a big RV pulled in and a really nice German couple were my neighbors for the night.  Christoph, Isabelle and Levi.   I invited them over to share the fire and have a beer.  Other than loving the Westy, it turns out that Christoph and the family are trekking across Western Canada and into the US, Alaska and into the Arctic Circle.   Apparently it’s been a dream of Chris’ to go that far north.  He’s been doing his own blog of sorts.  Check it out here http://trackmytour.com/Xg2sv .  They had a little trouble with the visa for little Levi and had to hang around Calgary for a little bit so I suggested they head out towards Drumheller.  They had a great time and even stopped into my place for some burgers and Smores for dinner one night before hitting the open road again.

That weekend I also had my friends Nicole and Linda show up.  It was really kinda fun.  We had a great meal, drank far too much wine and played Jenga on a picnic table that wasn’t quite level.  The interesting thing about the Jenga game was that it was the “Truth or Dare” version.  The red blocks were the Dares and the black blocks were the Truth.  Dares and Truths ranged from exchange an article of clothing with the person next to you, kiss the person next to you and so on.  It was fairly tame and we didn’t actually play the Truth or Dare version.  Maybe next time we’ll play and after a few more bottles of wine. 

Overall not a bad weekend. 

Busy weekend kinda…

 

Well on Saturday I was supposed to meet up with a friend and help him work on his bus but Mother Nature conspired against us and dropped snow in the Calgary / Cochrane area.  From what I understand Cochrane wasn’t too bad, but I had over 6 inches in my back yard.  Needless to say we put it off for a bit.  He’s in the process of putting in a new engine that will leave me in the dust.  I’ll be struggling to go up a hill without losing speed and he’ll be gearing down and actually ACCELERATING up the hill.  It’s the journey not the destination right?  RIGHT?!? 

He’s  also in the process of selling his other bus.  It’s a 1967 and it’s sweet.  Check it out.  If you’re interested drop him a line. 

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=1292790

On Sunday I participated in Calgary’s 45^th annual pathway and River cleanup.  There was a group of divers that went in the river and braved the current pulling up trash from the river.  We had everything from cans and bottles to knives and a little model of a Hindu temple… seriously.   All in all we pulled about 500KG out of the river.  It’s amazing that in this day and age people still think it’s okay to litter.  Smokers are the worst… there were hundreds if not thousands of butts.

The blurb on the diving starts at about 5:16 on the video.  Check it out. 

http://www.globaltvcalgary.com/video/news+hour+may+6/video.html?v=2231586390

I of course had the Green Monster out for this.  Besides being fun to drive it was a great vehicle for getting geared up in scuba gear.  All in all a great day out on the river, even though it felt like being in a washing machine sometimes and my buddy twisted his ankle.  Hopefully Donnie takes it easy this week and gets some frozen peas on it and he’ll be ready to go when Lake Minnewanka opens up and we can camp and dive.  Good times!!!

Invasion of busses planned May 5th

Wow, what a dump of snow yesterday.  It kinda sets the invasion of the busses and bugs on the streets of Calgary back a little bit.  Probably only a few days though.  Speaking of an invasion, if you are reading this and in the Calgary / Southern Alberta area mark May 5^th @ 2:00pm on your calendar.  Thinking of an informal get together / flash mob of busses at Mckay’s ice cream in Cochrane, AB.   I’m just putting the word out now and I don’t know who or how many will show up but I think it’s be kind of cool to have an army of busses show up at a Southern Alberta landmark for an afternoon.  I’ll keep you posted as to level of interest and how it all works out.   Posted it on the local VeeDub club forum. 

http://www.clubveedub.ca/forums/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=45721

Other than that, not much is going on this week.  I’m heading to Vancouver for a couple of days for work and in a really geeky kind of way I’m hoping to see some busses while I’m there.  I’ll take my camera and post pictures if I happen to see any. 

After some initial spring pains I am back on the road.  I do want to take the old girl out for a bit of a longer run this weekend if I can.  Maybe I’ll trek out to Nanton and check out the antique stores.  It’s about an hour drive down the highway from Calgary.  Not a lot of hills and no snow.  I figure that it’s a better what than heading West into the mountains. 

May long weekend is typically the start of the camping season here in the Great White North but with the unseasonably warm winter we’ve had here maybe it’ll start early.  We’ll see.  Maybe I’ll even get into the water diving this month. 

Other than getting to work on the heat issue it feels like she’s ready to go for the summer.  Just a couple of spring cleaning things to do like get the upholstery cleaned professionally.  It’s original and there are some stains that I am just not comfortable with.  I’ll be a little happier once they are cleaned.

Other than the odd adventure around town there won’t be too much going on.  Maybe I’ll post something on the Vee-dub club of Calgary’s webpage and see if we can all descend on one location in and around the city like Peter’s Drive in or Mckay’s Ice Cream in Cochrane…. Hmmmm   I’ll let you know how that shakes down. 

Pleasure, pain and click…

Who knew something that is so much fun can be so frustrating.    I went down to the registry a couple of days ago and re-newed the plates for the Green Monster.  It was a beautiful spring day, I had just seen the first Robin of the year, it was a balmy 14 degrees.  It was time.  After a long winter in hibernation it was time to get the van rolling.  I put the little sticker in the bottom right hand corner of the license plate  and I was good to go.  I have to admit I was a little excited as I put the key in and turned for the first time.    It took a couple of cranks as the fuel worked its way through the system and the engine started quickly and easily. 

I backed it out of the drive way and hit the road.  Not much of a drive but enough to work out any of the winter stiffness.  It was great cruising down Deerfoot at 100kph watching the world rip past me .   After about a 45 minute drive I headed home. 

The next morning I had a couple of errands to run so I thought I’d take the van out.  Perfect.  The sun was shining, the birds were singing etc, etc, etc.  I decided on the way home that I’d stop at the gym.  Once I was done I headed out to the van with a big grin on my face knowing that cruising the afternoon away would be my reward for working my ass off at the gym.  I put the key in, turned it and “Click”.  Click…. WTF ?!?  It was running great about an hour ago and now “click”?  Not even engine cranking but click…. SIGH.  Tried push starting it, tried a boost but nothing….. click.

So knowing I didn’t have the time or the tools ( yet) to replace the starter I had it towed.  I know I am going to get shit from one of my friends for this.  He’s going to tell me that we could have done this ourselves and he’s  probably right.   So at the very least the a rebuilt starter is going to be about $200 

http://store.concept1.ca/store/product/53345/Bosch-Rebuilt-Starter-T2-72-79/

So, yes it’s in the shop, and yes I’m gonna have to pay for it (again) and yes my friend is going to give me shit for it.   No estimate yet but I’m hopeful that it’s not going to be too bad.  I’ll keep you posted. 

Pictures from summer past...

With spring, and summer for that matter, approaching fast I can't help but think about hitting the open road in the Westy.  I was waxing nostalgic the other day and came across some of the pictures from last summer.  I was dropping a movie off at Blockbuster (remember them?) and there was the Wednesday night Cruising the Dub at the local A&W.  Here I thought they were helping me park the beast but they wanted me to stick around for a bit....  So I backed in, dropped off my movie and hung out for a bit while people checked out the Green Monster.

Had to post this beacuse it's AWESOME!

 A VW Bus bunkbed DIY.  I wish I had kids now so I could build one of these for them. 

http://www.instructables.com/id/The-Micro-Bus-Bunk-Bed-and-Playhouse/

Has anyone ever build something like this?  I'd love to hear about it.

Camper Jam - VWs in the Badlands

I’ve been thinking that this year I need to get a little more involved in the local VW scene.  You know join the clubs, go camping with them and hopefully learn more about my bus.  There is a group called the Travelling Type II’s and they are hosting a Camper Jam in the badlands of Alberta this year.  It actually sounds very cool.  They all descend on one campground and camp out for the weekend.  They also do a cruise.  I can only imagine a convoy of 20 -30 (or more) busses cruising down the street.  Now that’s a sight!

http://web.me.com/ericvw1/Travelling_Type_2s/Camper_Jam_Canada.html

I think the challenge for me this year is going to be trying to balance diving on the weekends out at Lake Minnewanka and going to some of these events. 

Heat... winter driving....mmmmm

It's kind of funny.  The more I think about getting heat in my bus the more I think about winter driving it and how cool it would be to take the Monster to the ski hill.  Sweet. 

Sadly though it's going to have to wait for a few weeks anyway.  I'm heading for the tropics for a week of scuba diving.  When I get back though I am going to be cleaning out the Westy and getting it ready for the camping season which in this end of the country is about 2 months away.  :)   I did just get back from Cozumel Mexico and there are a ton of bugs and bussed down there. It was great but it looks like a lot of them have seen better days.  It was strange too, it loooked like a lot of the busses got converted to liquid cooling, I guess it make sense when you are 80 degrees in the winter and over 100 in the summer.  I can only imagine the issues you'd run into.

Well it’s been a long and not so cold winter here in Calgary and with the days getting longer I am getting more and more impatient to get the Westy out.   If I could get heat in the Green Monster, I’d probably be driving it this week.  I started doing a little research and I found a great site for the heating system on the bus. http://www.ratwell.com/technical/Heating.html   I think this will be my first project once a good Chinook rolls through town

I started accumulating some tools and a decent tool chest this year. I had to promise a friend Matt that I wouldn’t take my Westy to a repair shop anymore and I would at least attempt to do the repairs myself.  So a local Canadian Tire store had a 400+ piece set of tools on for about $150 (regular price about $400) and a really nice tool chest with drawers for about $125 (again regular price around $400).  I’m on my way.  I think this spring I’ll pick up some jack stands and ramps too.  Small steps right?

In a way I am really looking forward to stretching my legs a little more so to speak.  Last year I did some camping trips but they were all within a couple hundred kilometers.  I’d really like to see if I can make the trip to Kelowna and back this year.  Should be interesting as Kelowna is over 500 km away and it’s a great drive through the mountains and along the lakes.  I want to see just how far I can go in it this year.  I’ll have limited vacation time but I think a week should do it.   With Calgary as a home base, I’m thinking I might be able to get out to Coledale / Frank, Alberta for the Thunder in the Valley this year too.  Grand plans I tell you, grand plans. 

I’ll try to update the blog a lot more often from here on out.