Cranking, cranking, cranking then starting eventually

I fired up the bus yesterday and had some issues.  New starter from last year so it's cranking just fine but it's just not firing.  I don't know if its the fuel injector or the points or what.  I'm loathe to drag it in to a mechanic to take a look at but I really dont have the time to do it myself.

Especially since Im planning a bit of a road trip with a buddy for the Canadain May long weekend.  We are planning to head South from Calgary through the Crowsnest Pass and take the southern route to Vernon, BC via Nelson and return to Calgary via Golden on the #1.  Should be interesting, I just hope the weather holds this week so I can get the plates on the bus and take a run at fixing the problem. 

Camper Jam 2013

Well the location and dates have been set for this years VW Camper Jam.  I missed last year AND the year before.  Not going to miss this year.  I'll probably hit it on my way back from Seattle.  Wow thats a lot of miles on the old bus.  Hopefully she'll hold up.  If you are at all interested and want to check out the page, here is the link to the Facebook page that was created for it. 

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=tn_tnmn#!/events/531626200201491/

Other than looking forward to the road tirp this year, I'm jsut stitting here looking out the window wishing the snow would melt ;so I can take out the Bus.  I did manage to finally get my copy of The Bus movie but haven't had time to watch yet.  Hopefully I'll get to it next weekend. 

I did pick up one of these for my camping adventures this year

http://www.gizmag.com/mr-quicksplit-kindling-maker/25385/

I tended to get frustrated last year as I would use up all the small bits of wood for the initial fire, then be left with nothing to light subsequent fires.  Not this year though.  This little device will help me split all the kindling I need.  Fun times ahead. 

That's it for this update.  In the meantime, think warm thoughts so the snow will melt and i can get out in the bus.

Look out Seattle here I come

Well not next week, but I'm thinking over the summer sometime.  I took a look at Google Earth and its about 1100 km (700 miles for you non Metric people).  I figure I can do Calgary to Spokane in one day and then have a relaxing 2nd day drive. 

I'll be honest with you I'm more than a little nervous about the trip.  I've had the old girl out 2 or 3 hours on the open road but never so far from home.  I guess you have to kick them out of the nest at some point right?  I just worry about having a break down in the backwoods of Idaho and having to depend on Cletus to get me back on the road.  Friends are telling me not to worry because everyone loves a VW bus.  I'll remember that when i am creeping up a hill at 60 kph (40mph) and i have a line of traffic behind me a mile long.  I'll just flash them a smile and a peace sign as they go whizzing by me honking their horns in appreciation of the Green Monster. 

The tentative route so far is South out of Calgary (duh) through the Crowsnest and down through Coutts/Kingsgate on to US95 to Spokane.  Over night somewhere in or around Spokane and hope I don't get killed in my sleep (thank for the mental images Kel!) then onward on Seattle.  The other option is to stay in Canada and head West on the #1 right to Abbotsford and cross at Sumas.  Either way I have to make it from one side of the rockies and back again... maybe out one way and back the other?

Any comments?  Suggestions?  Things to do and or see along the way?

Snow, snow and more snow.

Well it's January 14th and it's snowing in Calgary.  Again.  I think it was about this time last year that my thoughts started to turn to camping and heading out in the Westy.  I keep thinking that mid-march / early April I'll b able to fire up the old bus and take her out for another season.  I'm actually thinking of making a couple reservations for the May, July and September long weekends. 

I think the reason I'm excited to head out is one of the problems I had camping last year was that I never seemed to have enough kindling to start a fire.  Problem solved this year.  I was in Naton, AB and stumbled into a blacksmith shop.  they had this cool device for splitting wood and making kindling for your fire.  You can bolt it to a permanant structure (for your fire pit in the back yard) or you can strap it to a tree for when you go camping.  The guy actually appeared on Dragon's Den... I won't ruin it for you but here is his pitch. 

http://www.cbc.ca/dragonsden/2012/11/mr-quick-split.html

I'm also keen to try a new method of building a fire.  I got tired of having to constantly add logs to my fire and found myself  burning though a lot of wood (pun intended).  So this year my ifres are going to be build "upside-down".   Check out the handy link.... I'll let you know how the trials go. 

http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2009/02/02/how-to-build-an-upside-down-fire/


Well that's about it for now.  I'll let you know if I make reservations so soon.  Right now however I'm dreaming of my Cuban vacation in a couple a weeks then another trip to Bonaire for some scuba diving shortly after. 


PS  Just a quick note... apparently you cant make camsite reservations more than 4 months in advance. I'll have to set a reminder in my calendar.  

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.