Buses By the Bridge!

Timing is everything. With my wife on maternity leave, it has opened up a new life as well as enabled us to enjoy a "normal" weekend. It is also an opportunity for us to attend our first official VW camping weekend. Our initial concerns of bringing a newborn along were somewhat eased after our practice run at home and we were able to leave on Wednesday to meet up with a group at Amboy Crater. Here are some shots of us on our first leg of the journey.

Brooke all safe and sound enjoying the views.

And my wife asleep.

Located in the Mojave desert right off the historical US Route 66, Amboy Crater is an extinct cinder cone type of volcano rising 250 feet above a 27 sq mi lava field.

Knowing that cruising to these events can be just as fun, I was thankful to come across this group I heard about on The Samba which was unofficially called Buses By the Crater.

It was a chilly 40ish degrees overnight but we had the pop-top up with the windows cracked open and our Mr Buddy heater on low which kept us nice and warm. After a quick breakfast, we were off to our next stop - Lake Havasu:

Arriving early to the event definitely had it's advantages as the good spots fill up quickly. I managed to grab a perfect spot right be the lake, on the grass with some other "Amboy Crater" friends.

We found that the Baby Bjorn put Brooke to sleep quickly so we could walk around to explore the sights.

After a tiring day it was time to sleep early so we could enjoy the first full day of Buses By the Bridge! Here is the view outside our back window right when we awoke at around 7am.

In fact, we were greeted every morning to the incredible sights of the balloon festival that was very close by.

 

I believe the final tally was over 400 registered vehicles making it the biggest event ever - here are some shots of just a few of the amazing rides we encountered.

During the day we were able to play some Frisbee while Brooke watched and cheered us on from her comfy spot in the back.

It was also a nice star filled night with a huge full moon.



This was definitely an experience we will not soon forget. It was not only incredibly fun but had some of the friendliest people anyone could meet and everyone had an interesting story to share. The passion and individuality of everyone's vehicle is what makes our vehicles so unique and is the reason we will try our best to make this an annual event.