Vintage VW Show Virgins

Bry and I are vw virgins. we have never been to a vw show. We have decided to DO IT for the first time.

We leave Vancouver BC as soon as we get off work on Friday afternoon. Not knowing what to expect we pull into the Friday night meet and greet and WHOA! VWS EVERYWHERE. And not just VWS but splittys everywhere. E the bus is amongst his peops.

There are some impressive buses here. We talk to westie owners, bug owners, and of course the splitty owners. For those of you without a bus, there are a few categories of bus owners…there are the lovers of the vintage, there is the serious “I live out of my bus and everything I own is in my bus” category, and there is a category of bus owners that travel, that explore the outdoors, and that love the freedom to go anywhere and sleep and eat anywhere that the bus allows. This last category is us. And although we love to hear the stories and we could talk for hours with anyone in any category…its this last category that makes us giddy. Tell us where you’ve been and tell us where you are going in your van. We totally get off on this.

After walking around and checking out everyone else's ride, we make it back to E the bus for both a cocktail as well as a little work. Before we left van for seattle, bry worked for a couple days getting some Baltic birch and cutting them to the right sizes for our door panels. Finishing touches are so rewarding! As we were sipping and attaching we met an awesome couple, hunter and sarah that own a splitty and hunter is design-building a camper on the inside in similar fashion. we could talk to them for hours. At the same time another couple came over to chat that had just returned from 2 and a half years of exploring the Americas all the way down to Patagonia. Bry had in fact stumbled on their blog and read about some of their travels in the last year which was quite cool. Bry and I are feeling so stoked because this is the best thing we could ask for… to run into peops that have chased or are chasing their dreams. It was a pretty sweet night. Quite a few others also came over to chat with us about E, about their vans, about the world of owning a vw. Very cool.

It was getting dark and folks started leaving …bry and I stayed for a couple more hours, with him installing the door panels and karma and I hanging in the bus with a beer and some r&b music.

At last we are feeling a little sleepy and thinking ahead to where we should settle for the night. The groovy couple Hunter and Sarah had extended a very inviting offer to park/camp in front of their house about a half mile away. We decided that was a pretty sweet offer, so bry mapped their address and we drove over and parked in a lovely neighborhood in front of stella their beautiful blue/white splitty. Within a minute, Hunter was at our window, welcoming us to his hood, showing us the best spot to park for the night, and get this one…inviting us in for a margarita. How awesome is that! We said hell yes, we moved E to the designated spot, left karma in the bus to snooze and enjoyed an excellent rita with hunter, sarah and a few of their neighbors. Loved it. Afterwards, we crawled into E, covered the windows and im pretty sure we were out within 5 minutes. Not bad for our first stealth camping experience...sweet night. And tomorrow promises to be a whole lot more of that.

We wake up its raining. Awesome. Its 5:30 am and nature is calling for both of us. So we walk a couple blocks to the starshmucks we passed the night before to use their facilities. Had a great chat about the lovely weather of the pacific nw with the barista while he made us a matcha soy latte. We decided to head to show even though it was the crack of dawn because we were awake and now we were a bit wet from the seattle mist and well why not.

We follow the signs to the vw show, which is right next to the solar show and we laugh because we are a vw with a solar panel. Hmmm. Anyway, we are early and have 45 mins or so to wait so i make a little coffee and we hang out in the bus, out of the rain until they let us in. once the show starts it’s A-MAZ-ING. There are rare 21 windows, there are vans and beetles of all colours and all years. E the bus is parked alongside 2 dozen or so very beautiful splitties and he looked quite smiley. The vendors for the show consisted of the hotdogvan & the coffeebus which were quite unique. The Highlights for us were the electric karmannghia, the gorgeous metallic shimmery orange double cab, and of course chatting with a ton of people about E and all the possibilities. Karma got a lotta love all day from the dog lovers at the show. And I have to say she looks damn good while napping on the couch inside E.

It was a good time. And Saturday evening….on our way back to Van , we hit Trader Joes to stock our bachelor apartment with affordable yet delightful treats as well as a much enjoyed stop in Bellingham at Banditos for a delicious burrito as well as a little salsa taste testing. We love weekends!