Little Miss Sunshine Debuted Three Years Ago Tonight

Speaking of the Sundance Film Festival in Utah - which I did in my article a few days ago about interior design firm Barclay Butera's Airstream trailer - I finally got around to watching roadtrippin favourite, Little Miss Sunshine.

The movie premiered at the indie festival three years ago tonight, earning standing ovations from the crowd. It then went on to be nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

The storyline follows a family of spare parts that road trips in a VW Bus from Albquerque, New Mexico to Redondo Beach, California  continue reading... »

Vintage Surfari Wagons Rents VW Buses in Cali

Surf, camp and hang out.

Those are words to live by, according to Bill and Diane Staggs, the owners of Vintage Surfari Wagons in Costa Mesa, California.

With a fleet of seven classic VW buses for rent, Vintage Surfari Wagons appeals to the independent-minded traveler looking to explore the Golden State’s surf beaches and coast line, and beyond.

Each of the buses comes fully stocked with all the necessary camping gear, and surf and bike racks are available on request.  continue reading... »

Road Trip From Montreal to Mexico is Online

Road trip destination: Thetford Mines, Quebec to Bahias de Huatulco, Oaxaca, Mexico, and back home again.

But in 2006-2007, I roadtripped in Mexico to Sonora to Chiapas to Quintana Roo to the Yucatan...  continue reading... »

A Tribute to the "Viva Westfalia" Blog

The information superhighway is littered with the carnage of abandoned blogs.

One cyber narrative that flamed brightly for a year and a half before going silent is "Viva Westfalia", whose tag line is: "Celebrating the magic that is an aircooled Volkswagen camper".

Between December 2005 and June 2007, the anonymous and photo-less blogger uploaded 29 tight and cool posts, each on VW buses, and each with an eye catching photo or video. They cover some of the same stories we've written about here at roadtrippin.com.  continue reading... »

Bumfuzzle Road Trip Featured in VW Camper & Commercial Magazine

The January/February 2009 issue of Volkswagen Camper & Commercial magazine has an article by Pat Schulte about the epic road trip he and his wife are doing down the Pan-American Highway in a 1958 VW Panelvan.

Our November 2008 profile of the Schulte's road trip and their bumfuzzle.com website can be seen here.

The couple - natives of St. Paul, Minnesota - are currently cooling their heels in Colombia, waiting for their blue baby to be shipped from Panama.

Volkswagen Camper & Commercial magazine, which celebrates all things having to do with the VW Bus, started publishing in 2000.  continue reading... »

The Algae Biodiesel Westfalia Camper Van

David Levine's road trip from the high school where he teaches to Chicago's landmark Sears Tower was a short drive for man - about 20 miles round trip - but perhaps a giant step for mankind.

It's also a cool account of biofuels being used to fill the tank of a VW van.

As the story goes, Levine's students at the Al Raby School for Community and Environment in Garfield Park, Illinois started culturing algae in their chemistry class at the beginning of their junior year.

The appeal of algae fuel over other more conventional sources of biodiesel is obvious: algae's not a food crop like, say, corn and soybeans.  continue reading... »

Not All Who Wander Across North America Are Lost

Names: Marc Kramer and Eliana Ardila
Hometown: Miami, Florida

Road trip destination: Miami, Florida, to Alaska and back again.

Date started: June 4, 2008.
Anticipated end date: Around Feb 4, 2009.

Months on the road and ground covered: A total of 8 months on the road, somewhere around 25,000 miles of driving, 25 U.S. states, 3 Canadian provinces, and a small taste of Mexico.  continue reading... »

Go Westy Campers Launches New Blog For VW Van Owners

Earlier this month, Go Westy Campers launched its new blog, "Westylife".

Go Westy is of course the supercharged VW van garage and sales shop located in Los Osos, California, near San Luis Obispo.

Jad Josey, a Go Westy rep and the blog's moderator, told me that they launched the blog as one feature of a new "Community" section of their website, which will be launching soon.  continue reading... »

The Lowdown on Camper Van Awnings - Part II (Shady Boy)

In The Lowdown on Camper Van Awnings - Part I, we covered Fiammas, the model we ended up buying for our VW van.

A second awning option we considered was the Shady Boy brand, which is manufactured by Equinox Sunshine Products Ltd.

Equinox, which is located in a suburb of Vancouver, British Columbia, is the baby of Wolfgang Vogt.

Vogt, who has been in business for over 12 years, told me in an email that his lightweight awnings come in four colours (burgundy, sky blue, mountain blue and silver), take only 30 minutes to install, and can be mounted on any camper van.

When fully deployed, the Shady Boy is 10 ft wide and pulls out 6 ft deep.  continue reading... »

The Lowdown on Camper Van Awnings - Part I (Fiamma)

It blocks the blazing sun in Mexico and Central America.

It provides cover from the pelting rain in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska.

It casts a shadow over the windows, no matter the locale, creating another layer of privacy.

A good awning is, in my mind, an essential purchase for your camper van before embarking on an extended road trip.

Before our 2007 journey, we spent considerable time researching the various van awning options out there for our 1987 VW Vanagon.  continue reading... »