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.