There and Back Again ---- A Volkswagen Tale

Here is a submission we made at the request of VW Camper Magazine out of England.

How do I summarize a year long trip in a '72 VW Bus named Olive? A trip that takes two corporate cubical junkies from 3000 sq ft of household trappings and "stuff" to 50 sq feet of compact German engineering in a mobile office. How do I tell you about the beauty and splendor of nature that rolled out before us as we traversed North America, or of the wonderful warm-hearted people we met along the way, who would not take no for an answer as they opened their homes to us in the sweltering 110 degree summer heat or the blustering winds of hurricane Irene?

Shall I try and describe what you see as you drive around the twists and turns of the Gaspe Peninsula during a moonlit night: a coastal drive with dozens of tiny bays and quiet little fishing villages, the moonlite shining on the water like a million diamonds. Lake Louise on a cool early morning with it's turquoise glacier fed waters surrounded by snow capped mountains, or the sudden appearance of a large moose running astride us as we make our way across the ocean of colorful fields which stretch to the distant horizon on the great Canadian prairie.

How can I begin to tell you about the wonderful people who invited us into their lives and homes, who shared with us their stories of escape from Communist Czechoslovakia many years ago, or the artist who tells us of a private beach to spend the night in Liverpool, Nova Scotia. The kind stranger in Montana who buys gas for our bus just because a VW brings him such fond memories. The harden soldier in Texas, who owned a VW Bus while stationed in Europe and how he met his wife there, likely conceiving their son inside their beloved bus. I invite him into the Olive so he can reminisce and watch as his eyes fill up with tears. It's funny how a VW bus touches such a wide range of people. Young children laugh and smile and older folks always have a story of their own adventures in a VW. Olive has instant appeal to everyone. When we randomly see signage for a car show sign, we decide to pull into the small, one street town. We are amazed to see such a selection of restored autos. Olive pulls into the middle of the street where they make a spot for her. The crowds quickly form and it seems like the mustangs and corvettes are totally forgotten as the growing mass encompass our bus, with an anxious audience yearning to hear how two middle aged, non-hippies make a living from a pretty green bus.

We have traveled over 22,000 miles since we bought our bus in August 2010. Eight months of restoration in a warehouse and then the beginning of our new life in May of 2011. Now nearly a year later my wife just turned to me as we were driving north on the famous #1 Hwy of California, between Los Angeles and Monterey, and asked, 'How has this changed me?'  

I think about that. What does it mean, to not have anything?

But I do have something... a life that countless people have expressed envy for, time and again as we shared our story. 'You guys have the right idea' - we'd hear them say.

How have I changed? I am the same person I was in the beginning.

I think now, looking at all the times that we have had 'chance' encounters with people at just the right time in just the right place, and I think that the thing that has changed the most is my faith. I have seen dozens and dozens of what we call 'God moments' and have been privileged to be a part of these with kind people from every walk of life. I would be writing all night to try and detail all of them. Many we still are writing every week or month as the correspondence with these people we met 'in passing' continues. My wife calls it 'A moment in your life' and we talk of writing a book from our adventures.
We got a wonderful going away gift from my folks, a Volkswagen Camper Cookbook by Steve and Suz Rooker. With our new cabinets I designed, we have ample counter top space for the SMEV two burner cooktop and sink combo unit - the sweetest thing. Not wanting an ugly propane tank dangling from the outside of our bus, we opted for 1 pound mini tanks inside the bus. Our fresh water is a 5 gallon tank from a water cooler which fits nicely inside the cabinets under the sink. A electric fridge provides lots of space for our food and runs off two deep cycle batteries which also give the tiny amount of juice needed to turn on the LED lights I placed in the new headliner and roof trim. After removing the gas heater we needed some way to keep warm so picked out a Alpaca comforter which was a good investment. The original motor, with only 85,500 miles didn't need a thing. She ran so smooth and powered us over the Rocky Mountains and across the massive nation of Canada before the original Solex carbs quietly gave up the ghost. Replacing them with new Kadrons was the first of the new parts to replace the 40 year old tired ones. The starter died in New Orleans and the transmission in San Diego. With new shiny parts she runs as good as the day she rolled off the line.

I understand that not everyone can live like this. I know some need the big screen tv and hot tub or walk-in shower. But living like this is really not that bad. Local swimming pools have all these things for less then ten bucks. Local pubs feature all the sporting events we feel we can't miss, but what we realize is, there's really not much on that we care to watch.

I suppose telling you what motivated us to do this would be helpful. As Christians when you hear from God you decide whether your going to do anything about it or not. Sometimes it's just something like, go pray for that person, or give that guy fifty dollars. What we heard was clear... "Would you sell everything you own?"  We said simply, "Yes, sir".  Next came "Get mobile"  Not being sure what was meant by that we went for a coffee to discuss it and that's when we picked up an issue of VW Camper magazine and saw the beauty of restored buses. With that image in mind we thought we'd look online to see if by chance we could find one. Within 48 hours a bus showed up for sale in Vancouver. We liked what we saw and took the two hour ferry ride to inspect her closely. On the way over we decide to call her Olive, after a publishing company we own. Once there, we noticed a curtain in the back window with images of olives and the word Olives written over and over again. Confirmation is nice. That is just the first of what would be dozens of signs to us that we were on the right path. Feeling confident about our future we commence the transition from suburban work a day types to a lifestyle of gypsy travelers doing graphic design work from your neighborhood Starbucks. Each and every day meeting people at just the right time and just the right place. Our blog contains so many stories of the people we have met and the blessings they have been to us and us to them.

How do you end an adventure like this? Do you end it at all? Have we stumbled upon nirvana and found that life is more than working 9-5 and commuting to the cubical. We will be heading up the west coast of the United States through to May, heading to what we call 'home' - Vancouver Island, BC. We will have circumnavigated the entire continent including six weeks in Baja, Mexico. We have walked for six hours in Washington, DC hunting down the Constitution. We have stood completely soaked at the very front of a boat as it sailed the showering mists at the base of the thundering Niagara Falls. We have proudly stood in a North Carolina church, the only token white folks amid a congregation of people who know how to sing and clap, and we just did our best. We have pulled into burger joints to have complete strangers notice Olive and invite us to Thanksgiving dinner, even putting us up for a night. We seen snow covered cactus as we drove through a blizzard in the deserts of New Mexico. We have weathered two hurricanes on the east coast and freezing temperatures as we pulled away from the Grand Canyon. Entertained crowds parked in front of yet another Starbucks on the cobble stoned streets of Savannah, Georgia, with it's haunting trees and century old buildings.

It's the magic of a Volkswagen bus. The only vehicle ever made that causes spontaneous smiles to break out on people. No matter the age, no matter the status in life. We have had bikers give us a friendly wave and lawyers offer to buy our baby. No matter who you are, you have a fond memory of a Volkswagen Bus. 

Big Sur Coastal Drive

The drive up the California Coast was amazing....a warm sunny day with a cloudless blue sky...one of the most beautiful drives on our trip. It was challenging to keep my eyes on the twisting road that lay in front of me and not keep gazing at the spectacular view of the Pacific ... it was magical.  

Along the way we passed the famous Hearst Castle...we stopped for a closer look but the tours were pretty booked up and we didn't want to waste such a wonderful day inside the castle.

View of the Hearst Castle

We stopped for lunch at a cliffside cafe on the Big Sur....and we're blessed by seeing a gray humpback whale breaching...wow! We enjoyed some world famous fish and chips...very yummy. Then continuing down the highway we discovered a pull off view point which was hosted by some rather friendly...furry 'marmots' - I think. They really loved the flax crackers we had.

We spent 3 days in Monterey California, enjoying more sunny days and leisurely walks on Fisherman's Wharf. We then made our way further north over the Golden Gate bridge and on to our most anticipated destination to date.... Redding California.

My new friends are hungry

Olive checking out another lighthouse

beautiful ocean view

San Diego

Ok... it's been a while and I apologize. So I'll bring you up to speed on current events...

1) we left Vegas and headed to San Diego

2) we had some transmission issues... not serious... but I got on it before it got serious. So we had it rebuilt and did some other repairs.

3) the mechanic we found was a good christian guy and after the work we went out into the country to his place as he offered us a shooting lesson. Fired off some arrows from his bows also crossbows and a few clips from a 9mm. Man was that loud!

Lunch Time!

4) We had to pop into the San Diego Zoo before we left and it was quickly apparent why it was a world famous zoo. We saw loads of exotic animals in a comfortable stroll around the park. The best part I suppose was the Mountain Gorilla's. After the walkabout, we were ready to leave but wanted to see the Gorilla's once more before we left. One last memory before we hit the road. We had a great view as the majestic animal paraded past the glass. He walked in front of us and had a seat only a few feet away. Unfortunately he had some business to attend to and we had a front row seat. Well, that was ok... he had to go. So it was a natural function. No problem. Then he reached behind him and finished pulling out .... "a snack"... he popped it into his mouth... and we almost lost our lunch. People ran in horror, the screams, the tears, children crying, mother's covering the faces of their babies and then the crowd began to stampede away from the awful image at the glass, trampling the elderly underfoot, ---- it was a terrible sight... oh the humanity!!!!  .... Ok... so I exaggerated a bit. But it was just gross. We stopped a worker in the park and made sure they heard our disappointment that they were not feeding the animals any better, as the creatures felt the need to have seconds.... of what they already had! ... Ok enough of that... we left San Diego.

Can you name the animals below? Email us if you think you got them all.

And now for something completely different....Vegas!

MGM Grand

It was with mixed feeling that we ventured into Las Vegas...big city....bright lights...not a place on my top ten list to visit, but it was on the way and I have to say that we were pleasantly surprised to find it wasn't as big as we thought. The strip is just a small part of this city. It was very clean and aside from the corners that had the peddlers trying to hand you illicit cards, it was nice to walk the streets....totally safe. The weather was great...sunny every day high 70's hitting almost 80. We enjoyed people watching...and prayed as we walked. We found out too that two of our kids.. Haley and Chris were there somewhere but we couldn't get ahold of them...we kept an eye out but no luck...ha ha...no luck in Vegas...oh well.

Bellagio lobby with Chinese New Year display

The one thing we did do while we were there was OD on cirque du soleil shows. We watched "O" which was great... "The Beatles" which was inspiring .... and "KA" which was spectacular! I think we need to do  the story of Christ in a cirque du soleil mode...it would be indescribable : )

Caesar's Palace

Bellagio water display to music...was great!

Waiting to get into the Beatles Cirque Show

They Died to Make the Desert Bloom

These are the words on the Oskar Hansen's memorial honouring the 112 men that lost their lives.

With that on our minds viewing the Hoover Dam had a new perspective. We often forget all of the planning and striving that goes into engineering such a marvel and look at it as a finished work. Sometimes we need to step back and understand the sacrifice that was given.

The Dam was built between 1931 and 1936 and sits on the Arizona and Nevada borders…so as you walk across the top of the dam you walk from one state to the other and the time zone changes too by one hour. Want to extend your day…just take a walk. After a wonderful hour in the sun it is off to Vegas!

Mark enjoying the view

Beautiful....wish you were here.