Where should I begin with today's entry??? Soo much has happened in the past month so I will begin with some "non-camping" experiences. A regrettable occurrence in the family had us making last minute plans to visit Arizona. We decided to take the VW Beetle instead of flying as the expense would be greatly reduced and overall time would not be that much more when factoring the commute time to and from airports. This was also a great time to test out our new 2.0L TDI Beetle on a 600 mile 10 hour drive. Here are some shots of the car that keeps on amazing me with it's incredible fuel efficiency. Below you can see our bike rack installed as well as the highest average fuel efficiency I have attained

As you can see I finally attained over 70MPG!!! Granted this was mainly downhill at just under 60mph and over a distance of 30 miles. Overall this TDI engine is averaging well over 600 miles per 13 gallon tank which easily surpases 45MPG and all within the Los Angeles area (city/highway combined). I do drive with fuel efficiency in mind but it baffles me that VW's EPA rating for this car is 29/41 city/highway as our real life averages are much better.
Anyway, back to our Arizona trip: We of course made the best of our situation and managed to visit the historic western city of Tombstone. Here we are doing our job at being tourists.....

We then managed to catch a gun fight show that was rated the best in Tombstone! I guess the competition was pretty poor as the acting was terrible....although I have to give them an A for effort.

We learned that this silver mining town had over 18,000 people in it's hay day with over 500 licensed saloons. Certainly a tough way of life back then as our one day visit was enough for us.

We averaged 50.5 MPG on our trip from Los Angeles to Sierra Vista with the AC on full blast to counter the 105+ degree temps also carrying 3 passengers and luggage. The drive back saw an average of 52.3MPG which I attribute to the elevation decrease. I can only imagine the power (240 ft/lbs of torque) and fuel efficiency if this amazing engine were to be swapped into our camper!

Welcome to California!

Almost a month has gone by since my last post and what a month it has been. Portland seems like a distant memory and California is already feeling like home, although the near perfect weather and beautiful new home accommodations helped a great deal with the transition.

With all our belongings packed away in the moving truck and the Beetle safely on the first leg of her journey, we made sure we were going to take our time driving down to enjoy both the California coast and obviously some more camping!
Before our journey begins, yet another internal upgrade was completed. I think the new 2-tone velour front door panels (from Sewfine Products) make a huge improvement over the rotted originals
Before:

and After, with new (and compact) 4" speakers

With a somewhat early head start after my wife finished her last working day in Portland....we were off! Our goal was to make it to see the in-laws in Mountain View CA as quick as we could so we managed to make it to a simple rest stop near Medford Oregon on the first night. It dipped down into the low 30's at night and we even had a light dusting of snow by sunrise.

We had no desire to hang out at a highway rest stop any longer than needed so we were on our way bright and early. The drive down I5 can get pretty boring and I found myself following a tractor trailer for approx 150 miles. Even though I wasn't following closely at all, we discovered a pleasant surprise at our next gas station. The drafting effect provided from the truck gave me a record 21.2 MPG which far exceeded the 17+- I usually get.
During a great visit with the in-laws we were able to catch a San Francisco Giants game (thanks BIL)

A beautiful ballpark, with perfect weather, great seats and awesome food.

Another great visit with the in-laws in the books, we then ended up driving the Vanagon for almost the entire day down HWY 1. Slow and curvy at times but the views and scenery made it all worthwhile.

Of course my navigator extraordinaire was thoroughly enjoying the (too comfortable) racing seats

We happened to notice an Elephant Seal colony on our drive so stopped to take a look at these amazing creatures. We discovered that this colony was 7,500 strong and the males can weigh up to 5000 lbs!!

I was in awe seeing so many in one relatively small area

We decided to splurge on our first California camping experience as new state residents and stopped at Refugio state park. The few positive reviews we read about the park and beach certainly didn't disappoint.

There were no electric hook-ups and the price was $45 for the night but that was offset by the proximity to the beach and beautiful views right from our site.

After a nice walk along the beach before sunset it was time for the sounds of the ocean to lull us to sleep. You also couldn't ask for much better of a view when waking up in the morning

The Vanagon ran flawlessly for the entire trip and safely brought us to our new home in Woodland Hills. I discovered that the California DMV is a frustrating model of inefficiency but after yet another successful smog test, I think our Westy looks happier with her new California plates

We are looking forward to discovering what new camping opportunities California has to offer in the near future.

Pre-California

As we will be moving to California shortly, we thought it best to experience one more Oregon camping excursion. With that in mind we visited 2 Oregon state parks close to Portland. After a long week at work we decided to visit Silver Falls state park first:
We arrived during nightfall and found an open site that was close to all the amenities:

My wife took some excellent photos of the camper but unfortunately it was raining and the house battery was completely dead so it was off to Salem Oregon to look for another battery and campsite to stay for the night:
We decided to change parks to see if there was less rain - here is my wife's collage of our trip between campgrounds:

The next day was spent at Champoeg state park which has great facilities and wonderful camping attractions:

This experience represents the first time we used our amazing "BusDepot" side awning, courtesy of our parents Christmas present, which worked excellent and added 3 times the usable covered space!
After a quick learning experience we put the awning together in approx 15 minutes but should have it down to 5 minutes next time.
We had an issue with the Kinetik house battery not charging properly so utilized a spare riding lawn mower battery that I had to power the the "house" electronics - here are a few shots of our camper during the night. This also marks the first camping experience with our new 3 window canvas tent and sleeping in the upper bunk provided an extra 2" or so which made a big difference in comfort when sleeping

Time to enjoy the nature provided at this great campsite.......We first biked to the visitor center to enlighten ourselves about the area:

We learned that Oregon was almost part of Canada (Britain and Hudson's Bay company - Go Canada!) until 1848 when Oregon was finally made into an United States Territory and finally a US state in 1859. Above are some original Hudson's Bay blankets and myself towering over some tiny original settlers!!!Our final day we enjoyed some of the excellent biking trails and met some "friends" along the way

Another great camping experience. We received a few positive comments on our "Westfalia" and new awning from the fellow campers which made us appreciate what a special vehicle we have and called it yet another successful weekend

The day finally arrived and I was able to proceed with one of my final interior transformations. After doing my research, I decided to purchase some black alcantara suede type racing seats for the front as well as a new 9 piece charcoal grey carpet kit.
Here is a shot of the front as it was when we purchased our Westy

 

As you can see the original theme is brown on brown and my overall goal was to slowly transform into grey/black. The 30+ year old seats were like sitting on concrete blocks and the carpet was not only extremely stained but didn't smell the greatest.
With that thinking in mind, I decided to take my chances on some brand new seats purchased via eBay for $233 including shipping. The seats not only matched my color scheme but are extremely comfortable. The most difficult part of the seat install was making custom seat brackets that would fit properly on the existing swivel seat brackets. After several trips to Home Depot and approx $50 I had created a secure bracket that works great with the sliders provided with the seats. I also had my first experience with an angle grinder to cut the metal to size and smooth out the corners which was great fun.

Having the old seats out gave me an opportunity to clean the swivel seat bases and shine them up. Here is a before and after:

Then it was time to do a test run to make sure my new brackets fit properly and securely

Once the charcoal grey 9 piece carpet kit, ordered from Sewfine Products, arrived via UPS I couldn't wait to get it installed. Huge props to my wife for the tremendous help with installation of the new carpet. Here are the installation shots:

Removing the old carpet was very easy as the 30 year old glue had lost all it's adhesive properties. The original underpad was pretty gross but the underlying metal was in great shape after all the dirt was cleaned away.

I also purchased new insulation and 3 cans of spray carpet adhesive which worked great. Sewfine did a great job of cutting the individual pieces as well as providing detailed on-line installation pictures.

Here is the final product!! I think it looks great and fits well with the overall theme I have been attempting to achieve. There is no more musty smell and I couldn't be happier with the fit and finish of the new carpet. The seats are larger than the stock originals as well as 1-2 inches higher at the base. A smaller steering wheel might be in the future as the leg-room between the seat base is more restrictive now but more than acceptable as they are 100 times more comfortable.

 

My wife and I are extremely happy with what we have accomplished in 9 months personalizing our camper and look forward to many more years of enhancement and exploration in our future.