A Great Weekend By A Great Lake

 

Kay and I took Appa the Volksbison, our ’85 VW Vanagaon camper, down to Lake Erie this past weekend.    On the plus side, I had recently discovered that our camper’s onboard fridge was actually functional.   I had ordered a kit to convert the space to extra shelving and storage, but had been procrastinating about taking the fridge out and junking it.   However, on our last outing, I was startled to discover that some of the items stored in the fridge space were cold to the touch!   Evidently I had it set so that it ran off the battery while the van was in motion, and I realized that the fridge was working.   A little tinkering with it this summer, and some YouTube research, taught me how to run it off an external power cord while parked, to get it properly chilled, and then how to get the pilot lit so that it could run on propane once we reached our destination.   This meant that we had all the VW’s original systems working:  the propane stove, the fridge, and the water tan/sink/tap.   Excited, we searched for a destination and settled on Wheatley Provincial Park, down on Lake Erie.  Wheatley is not far from Point Pelee, which is the southernmost point in Canada, on a latitude with Northern California.

We made it.  Appa is old and slow and somewhat prone to overheating, so I kept a close eye on the temperature gauge, but we made it there and back without much incident.  We were blessed with a perfect early fall weekend and a campsite by the water.

If you peer into the side door, you’ll see Kay celebrating our arrival.

 

Walkway to the beachfront along Lake Erie.

 

 

 Some of the park’s many denizens.  We got up before sunrise on Saturday morning and were treated to the unforgettable sight of stars reflected on the water.    I wish I could have captured that in a photo, but some things are best saved for memories.  I may never see starlight reflected on water again, but I’ll never forget the sight.

 

 

 

I tried going for my morning run along this beach.   It wasn’t my fastest run.   In fact, it was like one of those dreams when you’re trying to run away from monsters but caught in quicksand.

 

 Church by the lake.

 

A Good Day At Church

Kay and I took church with us to Rockwood Conservation Area this weekend.

The traffic on the way to church was light and there was lots of parking.

 We decided we would sit right in front of the altar rather than as far back in the church as humanly possible.  

Safely home thanks to Appa the Volksbison.

 

With Appa The Volksbison To The Badlands

As our time in Alberta comes to an end this summer, Kay and I are trying to see as much of this spectacular province as we can. Last weekend we took Appa The Volksbison to Dinosaur Provincial Park, a place of great interest to paleontologists, birdwatchers, geologists, and people who like strange, otherworldly landscapes.

Appa the Volksbison, our 1985 VW Westfalia camper, got us there and back safely, and was a welcome refuge when a storm blew in around dinnertime on Friday. Appa, as faithful readers of this blog may remember, was the faithful six-legged flying bison which was the faithful mount and companion of Aang from the Nickelodeon series Avatar: The Last Airbender, and was the inspiration for our Westy's name , and has since become the spirit or avatar of our camper.

A silly picture of me and friend at the lookout site at the park entrance, overlooking the badlands.

Much more sensible photos by Kay.

Prairie smoke (Erythrocoma triflora), one of the amazing plants that manages to survive in this harsh landscape. Kay has been doing some wonderful photo studies of plants and flowers, especially now that she has a macro lens.

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Fragments of a a dinosaur fossil that we saw on a guided tour of the park's protected area. These are part of the leg of a hadrosaur, a large plant eating Cretaceous era beast. Dinosaur Provincial Park was the equivalent of a goldrush for 19th and early 20th century fossil hunters, and contrbuted specimens to many famous museums. Our guide gave us several ways to recognize dinosaur fossils. 1) they look like bones, as you can see here. 2) (and I didn't know this), if you lick your finger and touch it to what you think is a fossil, it will be sticky, unlike rocks. Who knew?

Kay took this picture of a camel-shaped hoodoo named (so said our guide), well, Fred. I love the pyramid shaped formation behind it.

It's an amazing experience to drive through the prairies for miles and then to see the ground fall away, exposing this alien landscape as one approaches the park. Highly recommended if you have the time to travel through southern Alberta.

Best Christmas Card Postage Stamp Of The Season

I was delighted to get a Christmas card this week with a stamp featuring a vintage VW camper van w Canada flag and canoe, part of Canada Post's Canadian Pride series. Other than that it's a VW, it's a pretty iconic Canadian image.

Here's our own iconic image, the lovely Kay (aka Mrs Padre) alongside our '85 Westy, Appa The Volksbison, and our canoe, Free, at Spruce Coulee Lake, Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park, last summer. All that's missing is a Canadian flag. It's minus gazillion outside tonight, but as I revisit this picture I'm comfortably warm and summer sun lazy again. And was that a loon I just heard?

Propane Gain

Look beneath the appalling line of rust in this photo. Ok, I hear you say, I'll look below that appalling rust. Ummm, what exactly am I looking at?

Aha! I say, so glad you asked. What you see there is a brand new propane tank for Wilhelm, or Kaiser Bill, as we call him, my 1985 VW Vanagon camper. When I bought Bill, the original tank was badly rusted and an RV dealership told me the valve was rusted shut and maybe I could find a replacement from a wrecker's yard. I didn't much relish that possibility, since if I could find one, it would likely be as rusted and sketchy as my original. But then a friend of mine told me about the brnad new propane tanks available from Go Westy, and I thought it could well be $300+ dollars well spent if that meant I could greet Mrs. Padre in the morning with a cup of hot coffee brewed on the onboard stove, rather than go outside, possibly in the cold and rain, to wrestle with the Coleman stove. Plus, the idea of actually using the stove in the mornings or in the evenings raised the enticing possibility of a heat source, since, as we discovered on a late summer trip to Waterton National Park, Bill can be quite Chill in cold weather.

The tank duly arrived from GoWesty, and parted me with another $70 for duty when the UPS guy showed up at the door. Mrs. Padre had not been prepped for that possibility, as I had not considered it, and was not amused to have to pay for it. Now to make it work. This Monday, I met up with my friend Ronnie, a member of the local Vdub Club. Seems there at least a half dozen of the Brits stationed here at BATUS who have bought old VW campers and are restoring them with the aim of shipping them back to the UK when their tours are done. It took several hours and a bit of straining, as the new regulator was too long to allow a fitting with the gas pipes running up into the stove, or "cooker" as Ronnie put it, so we had to swap it with the regulator from the old tank, but a fit was achieved. Haven't tested it yet, but getting the tank filled and tested is on the agenda.

Kaiser Bill, fully recovered from the propane tank transplant, and resting under a convenient awning behind the base chapel.

I found out the next day that while Ronnie was helping me, his British army duty phone had fallen out of his pocket, and as I merrily drove away, Bill crushed it into a million places. Some legacy German hostility to the British army, perhaps? Ronnie told me that the BATUS SigsO had been dubious about his claim that "The Padre drove over my duty phone", so I called Major D, confessed that I had apparently destroyed one of HM's Duty Phones, and would report for punishment at a time of his choosing. Fortunately for me, Major D was amused, and told me this incident would make it into his memoirs under the heading of Humorous Army Stories. Imagine my relief to be so reprieved.

Next on the agenda: getting the tank filled and tested, having the fuel injectors cleaned by a local garage, replacing the struts on the rear gate, taking out the useless fridge and replacing it with a storage shelf kit on order from Go Westy, and our first road trip before May is over. Grinding off the rust, sealing the metal, and repainting are longer term projects.

A Really Bad VW Bus Day

This shot is from a collection assembled by Jon Rafman, a series of "beautiful and strange images" captured by the Google Street View car for his project entitled “The Nine Eyes of Google Street View” . These are all images caught by the camera of Google street view cars from around the world.

I feel for the chap in this photo, especially if that's his VW bus burning on the street. I'm praying I never look out one day and see the same thing going on with mine!

Westfalia Wistfulness

Last week the housing people at CFB Suffield served notices that garage tenants had to empty them in prepartion for new doors being installed. That gave me the perfect excuse to pay a call on Kaiser Bill (short for Wilhelm) where I had parked him in fear of a winter that, so far, has never come (I am not at all convinced that the money spent on this garage as been worth it). I hadn't turned the key since I took him there on 11 November, and was afraid that cold weather might have killed the battery, but after a few growls he started up and now sits parked behind the base chapel.

Driving Bill around the PMQ patch a few times to perk him up a bit made me start looking forward to warmer weather and a chance to bash around Alberta and parts further, which may explain why, after seeing a 20mm model of a VW Bug on the Guild Wargamer's site, got to wondering if there was a 1/72nd model Vanagon out there, maybe something diecast, to sit on my desk and cheer my winter thoughts.

Haven't found one yet, but did find a great discussion on the Car Lust website of the lovable and quirky Vanagon, with this amazing video. Check out the awesome 1980s lettering, the strange choice in music (especially the creepy final lyrics) and the handsome bearded gentleman who may have a romantic companion joining him, or possibly just lives in hope.



So all this has me thinking that there's still time before winter's over to get the replacement propane tank purchased from GoWesty installed, and maybe a few other touches, like replacing the broken fridge with a storage unit, before this year's Westy season.

Roll on spring.

Where was Mad Padre?

Mad Padre has been offline for several weeks while Mrs. Padre and I bashed around southern Alberta in our new/old VW Westfalia Vanagon camper. Today I'm clean shaven and looking reasonably military. Yesterday I looked like a bit of a civvie freakazoid.



This picture, and the next, show Mrs. Padre and myself with our Westy at Spruce Coulee Lake, Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park, in SE Alberta. The Westy doesn't have a name yet. I'm thinking of Lt. Gruber (if you're a fan of Allo! Allo! you'll get the reference) because it drives a bit like a tiny tank. However, I'm open to your suggestions.



MTF on our adventures.