This site is pretty much an online collection and archive of all things VW and all things travel. Most of the photos are from trips I took before I bought the bus and most of the videos are taken from the bus. When I first bought a VW I thought I was buying a tool, like a big backpack to carry stuff around in. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Sure there are car clubs that have weekend meets to admire the latest sub woofers but the VW crowd is a whole different monster. When you see someone driving an older VW you’ve pretty much got them sussed out. I’ve never approached someone in a VW and had them scowl at me. There’s always a friendly handshake and a warm smile as the showing off begins. Old or new, rust or no rust, it doesn’t matter. We will sit there and fawn over someone elses ride as if it were our own expecting the same in return when we start giving our tour.

“Wow! An 8 track! I thought I was old school with my cassette player!”

VW’s are a way of life. You can never stop tinkering with your bus or finding new places to challenge it. There are never enough VW meets in a year. You never get tired of people walking up to you and talking about how they grew up camping in one or that they had a crazy old uncle who drove one until the day he died. They’re finicky with their own personalities and each one is unique with each owner knowing its limitations and nuances.

“You’ve got to double pump the gas when you’re going from third to fourth on a hill or it just might stall.”

For the most part we all name our Volkswagens. Sometimes the names will come to us because of some strange characteristic the bus has or our kids will name them. Some names are based on their colours and other names have been chosen before the bus has even been purchased. It’s not the name that gives it personality though, it’s more than that. It’s the extended family that you join when you buy one. You become a part of a community much larger than you and your bus. We wave to each other on the highway as if we’ve known each other for years. We offer up our homes, garages, equipment and know how to complete strangers just because they happen to own a bus. I’d like to see someone in a Subaru do that.

There’s something special and groovy about being a VW owner that I think is best summed up in an article by Jim Carroll over at Shu’s Views. He writes:

“It’s more smiles per mile than almost any other affordable car on the road, and that’s very good mileage indeed.”

Enjoy the site.

Scott and Dante