Clark White
Explorer
My Uncle purchased this thing brand new and has used it for many a great trip, but his back is giving out and he no longer really fits in the little Westfalia. It had been in storage for a while, but he agreed to let it go, so now it's my turn to take it on many a great adventure! :wings:
Obviously the screen is in rather rough shape, but it is one of the very few things that aren't in perfect condition. The interior is nearly immaculate, with only the front carpet showing any real ware! She's a 1990 VW Vanagon Westfalia Camper Van. Hows that for a mouthful? What that means is that it's a 2wd camper, pop top with bed's for 4, fridge, two burner stove, sink, and plenty of storage, but the same size going down the road as a Toyota Tacoma (just a bit bigger than my 4Runner). It does quite well off road, especially for being 2wd, and considering it's a camper, not a rock buggy, it can get just about anywhere I would want to take it. The perfect road trip vehicle!
I have somewhat of a strange schedule, and work a lot of weekends, so since I actually had weekend time this last week my girl friend, Rex and his wife Carrie and I decided we would take it out for my maiden voyage. The weather when we planned this was supposed to be bright, sunny, and warm. About a week before it had changed to a "chance" of rain. 3 days before it was 40% chance...2 days before, 100% chance. I talked to Rex, but we agreed we're not the Wicked Witch of the West, we won't melt, and that we are fine with camping in AZ rains (pours for 20min, then gets sunny again, we can handle that...) Well for anyone who was in the state this last weekend knows, thats NOT how this rain storm went. It was bright and sunny Friday day as we packed up, but just as we left it started to rain...and it never stopped. I have no pictures from Fri night its self since it was wet and muddy, and I really just didn't feel like getting my camera gear out for that. It rained almost all night, except for a short which the coyotes took advantage of to yip and howell, then right back to rain. I had waterproofed the tent of the Westy Friday morning, so we remained dry, as did Rex and Carrie in their Flip Pack, but everything outside got completely soaked. We awoke around 7am to more of the same...rain.
This was starting to get old. We did our best to make breakfast, and I fired up the propane heater (it was raining too hard to get a fire going) and we all moved into the VW.
We waited until noon to make a decision, but we eventually decided screw this, the rains not letting up, it's time to throw in the towel and head home.
Carter staring longingly at the mess that was camp. I let the dogs out as much as I could, but they would be soaking wet and shivering within a minute of stepping outside, and make a muddy mess when they came back.
You can see most of the tent remained dry, and even what looks wet didn't really soak through any...
What was a dry road 18hrs prior...the rain wasn't hard enough to be a real flood concern, but it made a few sections more interesting, for sure.
Driving the thankfully dry wash back to town...
Low clouds over Wilhoit
It was still a fun trip, despite being one wet night instead of two dry like we had planned. It was a good test for the VW, with washed out roads, rain on the tent, etc., all of which it passed with flying colors, and we all agreed that one night of rainy camping is better than no camping...but one night of that was enough. We met back at Rex and Carries where Ustadza made some amazing stew and we all thawed out with their wood stove blazing. Hopefully we will get to try this again soon, but in much drier weather!
Clark White
Obviously the screen is in rather rough shape, but it is one of the very few things that aren't in perfect condition. The interior is nearly immaculate, with only the front carpet showing any real ware! She's a 1990 VW Vanagon Westfalia Camper Van. Hows that for a mouthful? What that means is that it's a 2wd camper, pop top with bed's for 4, fridge, two burner stove, sink, and plenty of storage, but the same size going down the road as a Toyota Tacoma (just a bit bigger than my 4Runner). It does quite well off road, especially for being 2wd, and considering it's a camper, not a rock buggy, it can get just about anywhere I would want to take it. The perfect road trip vehicle!
I have somewhat of a strange schedule, and work a lot of weekends, so since I actually had weekend time this last week my girl friend, Rex and his wife Carrie and I decided we would take it out for my maiden voyage. The weather when we planned this was supposed to be bright, sunny, and warm. About a week before it had changed to a "chance" of rain. 3 days before it was 40% chance...2 days before, 100% chance. I talked to Rex, but we agreed we're not the Wicked Witch of the West, we won't melt, and that we are fine with camping in AZ rains (pours for 20min, then gets sunny again, we can handle that...) Well for anyone who was in the state this last weekend knows, thats NOT how this rain storm went. It was bright and sunny Friday day as we packed up, but just as we left it started to rain...and it never stopped. I have no pictures from Fri night its self since it was wet and muddy, and I really just didn't feel like getting my camera gear out for that. It rained almost all night, except for a short which the coyotes took advantage of to yip and howell, then right back to rain. I had waterproofed the tent of the Westy Friday morning, so we remained dry, as did Rex and Carrie in their Flip Pack, but everything outside got completely soaked. We awoke around 7am to more of the same...rain.
This was starting to get old. We did our best to make breakfast, and I fired up the propane heater (it was raining too hard to get a fire going) and we all moved into the VW.
We waited until noon to make a decision, but we eventually decided screw this, the rains not letting up, it's time to throw in the towel and head home.
Carter staring longingly at the mess that was camp. I let the dogs out as much as I could, but they would be soaking wet and shivering within a minute of stepping outside, and make a muddy mess when they came back.
You can see most of the tent remained dry, and even what looks wet didn't really soak through any...
What was a dry road 18hrs prior...the rain wasn't hard enough to be a real flood concern, but it made a few sections more interesting, for sure.
Driving the thankfully dry wash back to town...
Low clouds over Wilhoit
It was still a fun trip, despite being one wet night instead of two dry like we had planned. It was a good test for the VW, with washed out roads, rain on the tent, etc., all of which it passed with flying colors, and we all agreed that one night of rainy camping is better than no camping...but one night of that was enough. We met back at Rex and Carries where Ustadza made some amazing stew and we all thawed out with their wood stove blazing. Hopefully we will get to try this again soon, but in much drier weather!
Clark White
