Das Volks 2013

I got talked into it.  Really I did.  I decided this year that I am going to do more with the VW community here in Calgary.  This past wekend I went to Das Volks and met up with some great people from the Calgary Club Vee-Dub.  Met up with them on Friday night at Big Rock Brewery for a couple of beers and they convinced me to come to the Show and Shine that was bing held on Saturday. 

My initial thought was that I was just going to park the bus and walk around and look at all the nice VW's, chat with a few of the owners and move on but that wasn't going to happen.  Tracy talked me into forking over my cash and entering the Green Monster.  Having never been at one of these events before I had no idea what to expect. I backed the bus into a shady spot by a tree, opened it up, had a coffee and waited. 

I was amazed by the number of people that were there but about 12:00.  Not just VW's but also all kinds of Euro cars from Alphas to Ferarris.  People would just stop in, say hi and poke their head in your vehicle.  I had a great time chatting with people especially the kids.  They would be amazed that you can climb up on the top bunk and go camping in the little old bus.  It reminded me that a lot of these kids had never seen anything but their family's 5th wheel or Grandpa's big RV.

Awards went out for each category from Air cooled car, Type 1, Type 2, Mark 1 - 4 and so on.  As I was chit-chatting with one guy who stopped by I hear my name on the PA system.  I made my way up to the front and much to my shock, I had won for my category.  I'll post pictures of the award later as it's still sitting in the bus. 

As they day wore on people came and went and it seems that everyone had a story about their time in a VW bus.  Some were stories of how they uesed to go camping in them as kids and others were cross country treks that they did as they just were heading into adulthood.  I feel priviledged that these strangers shared a little slice of their life with me. 

Overall a great day.  A big THANK YOU to everyone who stopped by. 

 

http://youtu.be/J4HRGMZKmLM

 

 

Camper Jam 2013 - I'm in!

Just forked over my $75 to reserve my spot at this years Camper Jam.  I have no idea what I am getting myself into (again) but what the hell right?   Don't get me wrong I fully expect to have a great time but have no idea what goes on at these events.  I suppose I should have gotten off my ass earlier and gone in 2012 or even 2011 for that matter. 

Are we all going to sit around the campfire, holding hands and singing Kumbya?

You know in a way I kinda hope we do.  I remember as a kid sitting around a fire singing.  I was never lucky enough though to have that cute girl sit beside me and hold my hand but maybe this is the year!

It's weird, I don't have expectations, but I kinda do.  Bottom line is that I think it'll be fun and I'll come away from the weekend with some new friends and I'll smell like wood smoke. 

I'll have to do some digging but maybe I'll see if i can find my old "Jarts", or Lawn Darts.  What a great game, we'll just have to keep the kiddies away.  I have to laugh because I remember as a kid watching my parents play this with their friends in the back yard at a Sunday afternoon BBQ.  What a great idea having your friend throw weighted metal darts your way while teetering back and forth trying not to spill their beer...  Ah, the good times that were had. 

Here...hold my beer and watch this....

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. 

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.

500 hits and counting

Well, I had assumed that no one was really reading this but I took a look at the stats and found that sometime last week I topped 500 page views.  Overall not too bad.  I had originally started this as a way to keep track of what I am doing with my Westy so years from now I can look back and admire all of my many accomplishments.  Some interesting things from the stats…

USA – 254 page views

Canada 207 page views

Malaysia – 10 page views

Germany – 7 page views

Austria 5 page views

Then there’s a handful of other places that have 4 or less views… the strangest place Russia.  I didn’t think that there were that many VW fans in Russia.

This weekend coming up I am going to head to Two Jack Lake for camping.  I’ll drag out the camera and telescope too and hopefully I have clear skies and good weather.  I’ll keep you posted.

Vent Windows

I need to add latches to my front vent windows.  You know those little triangular ones.  I know there are a few threads on thesamba.com about this so I’ll do the research and see if I can get them in sometime next week.  I got the latches yesterday from an online supplier for about $10 so I am happy and ready to tackle this small repair. 

I was looking online at classifieds on thesamba.com and had some guy respond.  Wow, he needs to take a chill pill.  He had both windows (complete) and they were in decent shape.  His asking price for them however was $125 for the pair plus $50 shipping.  Let me rewind a little bit here.  He send me a message on 08/03 saying that I was “2nd in line and the other guy didn't pay yet. If you want them send your address for shipping costs. I accept PayPal. If you Pay right away I will delete the ad and send the first guy an email telling him they are sold. If you want to call me my # is 909-396-XXXX.  Let me know.” 

It seemed a little fishy to me that he already had a buyer but if I paid him first he’d let me have them and tell the other guy to bugger off.  I asked how much shipping would be to me in Canada…” I'm sure its $50 to ship so the total is $175 box will be big and a little heavy PayPal is barimanXXXX@aol.com sorry I sent the wrong phone # it 909-496-XXXX Let me know I just checked the the other guy didn't pay”.

This is all in the span of a couple of hours.  Talk about impatient. 

So yesterday I was busy and believe it or not, I didn’t check my email and he sends me this…”So now  you won't answer my emails. Don't bother replying to any of my ads. I won't ship any of my parts to you”   

Seriously?  24 Hours and this guy loses his marbles and tells me that he won’t ship to me, ever.  Seems a little harsh doesn’t it?  Well I sent him a cheery email this morning thanking him for the information and that I’ll pass on these parts but it seems to me that this guy is just on the site to make some cash.  He really didn’t have the helpful, friendly attitude that I have encountered in other forums or when asking questions on the site.  Oh, well I guess a guy like this will reap what he sows. 

On a completely unrelated note I drove the Westy to work yesterday and as I was waiting at the lights at Southland and 14^th street a beautiful older beige bug pulls up beside me.  The guy rolls down his window and says “nice bus”.  I give him a smile and a thanks and compliment him on his bug.  It was in amazing condition.  I’d love to take a close look at it so he gave me the street that he’s on in the neighbourhood so I’ll take a cruise by later in the week and see if I can get a couple of pictures to post up here.  It was kinda cool having a couple of vintage VWs sitting side by side at the same stop light.  We were getting a lot of looks from other motorists.  I had to laugh at myself as the light turned green.  He gave me a wave and rather than wave back I flashed him the ‘peace sign’. Duuude.