Posted on January 27, 2010 by jason
If you see some sort of VW camper van on the road, it’s probably a Westfalia. These are not Westfalias.
For some reason, when I started searching for a bus, I had a predisposition towards Westys. Maybe it’s because my dad had Westfalias. The other ones just looked funny to me and were usually ragged out. I guess I thought they were bastards or somehow not ‘official’ VW buses or not good enough or some other ridiculous bias. I was wrong and I’ve changed my mind. If I can find one for sale, my next bus may be a high-top or a Dormobile. The Dutch variant is pretty cool too – and spacious.
I promise – really – that this is the last post from Buses by the Bride at Lake Havasu. Promise.
Posted on January 26, 2010 by jason
A GIANT VW bus… that lights up and has a dance floor on the roof.
I talked to the guy who is responsible for creating this beast and he was quite proud that they made it to Lake Havasu and cleared all the overpasses with mere inches to spare.
He started with some sort of old airport vehicle and stripped it down and reshaped it from the ground up. There’s a small lounge on the bottom and a serious sound system throughout. There’s a deck and dance floor on the top, of course.
He says it’s only rated for 50 mph, but he thinks it can do 70 mph. Not that he would ever try.
Posted on January 22, 2010 by angela
We headed out to Lake Havasu and I saw a VW bus on the side of the road, so I pulled over to see if everything was okay. Boy was it, there were actually about 8 buses stopped that I didn’t originally see. All were Lake Havasu bound.
We joined the caravan and drove Route 66 to our destination: Buses By the Bridge – a gathering of about 300 Volkswagen buses. The campsite was near the London Bridge – yes, the one that was falling down, falling down, falling down.
We pulled in and decided to do a loop around the campground to see if we could find some of the friends we’ve met on this adventure. When I got to the beach, Jason says “oh no! Don’t stop – whatever you do keep going.” Right then I heard someone yell “Angela!” and I slowed down to look. That’s when we got stuck in the sand. But as we’ve learned, there ain’t a bad VW person around, so within seconds 5 or so guys were pushing and pulling the van. A few minutes earlier, the same thing had happened to our new friends the Rambling 3 and they decided it was a perfect place to camp. We did to, and we pulled up next to them for the weekend.
We met Ghislain, Heather and Morgane after trying to meet up for months. They are from Montreal and are traveling for a year in a much newer and nicer VW Eurovan (running water! central heat!) Morgane is 7 and she and Bode played all weekend.
There was definitely the colorful vibe you’d expect from a VW party. Flaming and electric hula hoops, tie-dyed everything, bonfires, hootenannies, VW stuff everywhere and plenty of spare parts. Ghis and I were joking about everyone selling things, but Jason was in heaven, buying little bits and pieces. He even put them all on the van while we took the kids canoeing under London Bridge.
There were tons of planned activities that kept us busy. A jumpy house, kids raffles and games, and the chili cook-off I entered and lost. We skipped the polar bear club meeting.
And, we met some more great people and got some good information about the next part of our journey.
There were LOTS of buses at Havasu. If you’re VW bus averse, you may want to shield your eyes from the next few posts… all with themes.
