Fall Finnon Fest 2010

Its already the third year that the Fall Finnon Fest has been going on! And its kind of exciting to know that we've been to every single one, since the beginning when we first moved to California! I don't really have much to say about the camp out, except the usual. It was fun and we can't wait until the next one. Here are some pictures to enjoy:


Brian's bus and his bike that he attached an engine to! Really epic!


Carl's adventure wagon with the hatch popped open. Will he end up selling it or not?


Somebody drove up Saturday evening in this Ghia. Not sure who it was, but I got this close up of the front lights.


Not sure who's bus this is, but I've seen it before. I appreciate the tarp awning!


Peter's red bus and Brett's big blue.


John's Dormmobile. Very unique - it was imported from the U.K., I think.


The hang out spot was by Shelby and Blake's Westy vanagon.


Saving the best for last! Our bus with Romy cooking breakfast and brewing some coffee on Sunday morning.

VW Camp Out at Cache Creek

We just got back from a quick camp out at the Yolo County Cache Creek campground, which is at the north end of the Napa area, near the Capay Valley. It was a small quiet campground (except for the asshole with the generator who ran it almost 24/7 and then many many motorcycles riding past on Hwy 16). I just finished the yurt a week prior, and John LaTorre, who lent me the industrial sewing machine, was going to be there, so Romy and I decided to bring the yurt along so we could show him. Normally, we wouldn't take it out just for one night of camping because of the 1-2 hr set up time, but we figured it would be nice to show John what I did with his machine!



Blake and Shelby's bus against Cache Creek below. Enjoying wine and cheese.

When we arrived on Saturday afternoon, almost everybody from the vwcamperfamily was there who rsvp'd (Blake and Shelby, Brett and Elizabeth, Joe, and John). We promptly started building the yurt, and in the middle of it Melissa showed up in her vanagon. Everybody sat on the grass and watched Romy and I build the yurt while they sipped wine/beer and other beverages.



The yurt is built and the baja.

After what felt like a long time, the yurt was finally built and we could relax! We then moved on to the picnic tables set up near the main camping area (we had to build the yurt a little ways away because we needed level ground) to have some wine and cheese and crackers as an appetizer. Mmmmm. There was quite an assortment that Shelby brought with.



The sun is going down - soon time to start a fire!

When the sun started dipping behind the cliffs, it started to get chilly (although during the day it was about 70 degrees F! More wine was busted out, and even though we thought we'd be rebellious and drink beer this time, wine was pushed upon us! So was food, which we gladly accepted. All we brought for dinner was a can of chili and a bag of tortilla chips (we had to rush out of the house and didn't think about packing more than the yurt and beer).



John and his cheap red wine.

We also went around the campground scavenging for fire wood, and found a few good pieces to add to the firewood pile. We ended up having just enough wood for a fire that lasted well past everybody's bed time. We had a great time and can't wait until the next camp out that we can make it to.



Big Blue, John's Dormobile, and Joe's bus.


Good night!

Rio Vista VW Camp Out

Rio Vista and the Sacramento River.


Peter's photo of some of the Rio Vista group, with the strange mushrooms lurking.


This past weekend we met a bunch of friends at another vwcamperfamily get together, this time in the small town of Rio Vista, CA. Rio Vista is an interesting little town. Its located on the Sacramento River in the delta which drains into the San Francisco Bay. The delta is kind of marshy, and has many levees built to contain the river water and to help irrigate fields of farmland. In 1985 and 2007, humpback whales swam all the way to Rio Vista from the Pacific Ocean via the riverways, even though its quite a ways upstream, about 50 miles from the ocean! But we were there to have a camp out at the Sandy Beach County Park where there is a big campground next to the river. We arrived Saturday night, kind of late, just after the sun went down. We found that many of the campers (a mix of bus owners and BMW motorcycle people) were already starting a huge fire. It was pretty windy but the smoke was blowing in one predominant direction, so that was okay. As with most VW camp outs, the drink of choice was cheap wine, which we all shared and did 'taste-tests.' Two buck chuck was the theme, although some didn't care to participate with their $10-plus bottles. Thats okay!

Despite the forecast for rain, the night was clear and we could see many stars. I saw the Orion constellation. There were many strange mushrooms growing in the wet grass. All of them were slimey and one near where we parked the bus looked pale purple and slimey, like a gross tumor coming out of the ground or something. We had electrical hook ups overnight, so we plugged in the bus to run the fridge and heater, but it wasn't so cold overnight, so I ended up turning the heater off.



Our bus. The blue tarp on the ground will be used in my yurt.

The next morning, Peter showed me the giant tarp thing he brought for me. He thought I might use it for my yurt that I'm building, and when I saw it, I got really excited because it will be perfect for making the floor of the yurt and the bottom band. The tarp thing is made out of Dacron material, which is similar to a heavy duty tarp and waterproof.

Near lunch time on Sunday, everyone split, but a few of us made a VW bus caravan to the nearest In-N-Out, a hamburger joint. Mmmmmmmm. Do we really look like a bunch of hippies? One woman spotted us out right away asking, "Are you the people who own those buses out there in the parking lot?" How did she know!?



Caravaning to In-N-Out. The Antioch Bridge and Mt. Diablo.


Lunch time at In-N-Out with some of the vwcamperfamily.

Caverns VW Camp Out

John, Shari, and me at the Caverns VW Camp Out vwcamperfamily event.

This weekend we joined Shari and her 1960 splitty and John and his 1971 Dormobile bus at the California Caverns. The camp out couldn't of been timed any better, as we had sunny skies driving across the valley and into the Sierra Nevada foothills. It was a nice break from all the crazy rain we've been getting. We arrived at the caverns around 2pm on Saturday, and found Shari already there behind the cavern welcome building. They had a small field set up for boy scouts in the back, which the cavern manager let us camp out at for free. There were picnic tables and even a rickety stage which had seen better days. We parked on a nice level grassy field right next to a stream which had swollen with all of the rain. In fact, a few days before, the grassy field that we were camping on was under water, but it was dry and pretty firm for us that weekend.

Shari had a bunch of firewood, and Romy and I brought kindling. We hung out till dark, debating whether or not we should wait for John (who said he was coming) to take the cavern tour. But we decided to wait, and it was a good thing, because John came rumbling in just after sunset in his bus. We had just started the fire.

John found an old Dietz lantern in Arizona when he went to Buses By the Bridge last weekend. Since he had a lot of them already, he sold it to us, and we are now the newest members of the Dietz lantern vwcamperfamily craze/club! Woo hoo!



The Dietz lantern from John.

The next morning we went on the 11am cavern tour. We were the only ones there that morning, so we had a kind of private tour. The tour guide took us on a short hike to the historical entrance to the cave along the (usually) small stream. It was mined during the mid 1800s part of the California gold rush. I think she told us that about 28,000 ouces of gold were mined out of that stream, and you can see that there were a lot of piles of dirt and rocks that the miners threw around as they were hunting for gold. The story is that the miners were shooting empty whiskey bottles along a rock wall next to the stream, and as they climbed up to retrieve some of the bottles, rocks gave way underneath them and they felt cold air blowing out of the hole. They had discovered the first entrance to the cavern (back then called Mammoth Cavern). Some of the miners were determined to find gold inside, but they had no luck. Instead they found a cave filled with many large rooms, and underground lakes.



The historic entrance to Mammoth Cavern (now California Caverns)



Getting our safety hard hats on before we go into the cave.

We got to see almost all of the cave that you could walk through except one room which was flooded due to all of the rain. It was really beautiful! There were many soda straws hanging from the ceiling, and cave bacon, and flow-stone and the bridal room was really cool! I tried taking pictures, but many of them were blurry because it was so dark in there.

In the late 1800s, the cave started to be toured, and the tourists all carved their name into the stone. Then for some reason, the cave was abandoned by 1920, and was left abandoned until 1983. During that time, people broke off a lot of the hanging features in the cave (which is sad). But there was also one man from Berkeley who found a secret room in the cave in the 60s and didn't tell anybody about it until the 80s. Because he kept it secret, it was preserved and we got to go see it. It was called the Jungle room, and had a lot of hanging formations. Many of them looked like animals, and there was even a Buddha!



Romy in the Jungle room (extremely blurry)



A flooded room in the cave, and a floating hard hat.

In 1983 (I think) the cave was protected, and it is now part of the California State Historic Landmark system. It was also renamed to California Caverns. There are a few other caverns in the area, like Merced Caverns.

After our tour was over, we packed up and started heading home. Well, Shari and John headed home. We were off to Wilbur Hot Springs. . . .

VW Campout at Bothe Napa State Park

The weekend before Thanksgiving, the vwcamperfamily (which, by the way, has a *new* website - check out the link) organized another camping get together at the Bothe Napa Valley State Park campground, and the highlight of the whole campout was a Saturday night early Thanksgiving dinner. Everybody brought a small dish with them but the star of the show was Joel's turkey deep fryer and Melissa's big turkey. There were over 10 buses that showed up, a great turn out! Here are some pictures I took over the weekend:



Our orange bus and John's dormobile bus shared a site to save a little money on the camping fees.


Sheri and Mike's split window bus, and Brett's Big Blue bus.


Joel puts the turkey in the deep fryer to cook.


The turkey looks done and ready to eat! Gobble gobble!


Waiting for all the food to cook. Hanging out by the camp fire under John's big tent.

VW Campout at Del Valle

There have been a bunch of VW campouts this month! This past weekend there was one at Del Valle, an East Bay regional park near Livermore, CA. It was very relaxing. I got to read John's book, about making tents, and I also read the Yurt Handbook. I forgot to bring the camera with, but other campers took photos and posted them online. Here are some pictures:



The group's camping station. The tent is a sunshade that John made. You can buy one, hand made, at Dragonwing Tents.


Romy and Aaron working on Aaron's orange bus. The green one is Regis's.


Our baja and John's dorm-mobile bus.


Aaron's original VW side tent.


Peter's red bus.

VW Campout at Ocean Cove

This weekend was another VW campout which we went to. It was at Ocean Cove Campground just north of Jenner on the coast. There were 7 buses all together. The skies were clear and we could see a lot of stars at night. The mornings were foggy and damp, but the sun usually burned off the fog by 10:30am, and we had sunny blue skies during the day. The campground was right next to Stillwater Cove Regional Park (in Sonoma County) where there is protected ocean shore, and some nice scenic hiking trails along the ocean. We climbed on a few of the rock that jutted into the ocean. You could hear the ocean surf all night as the waves crashed onto the shore. It was also the opening of abalone season, so there were a lot of divers who were hunting for them under the water near the shore. Some of our neighbors had some left over abalone that they cooked for dinner (which they went diving for that day), so they came to our bus group camp, and we got to try some! It tasted like as tender as fish, but it is actually a large sea snail. It was good. The California state law is that you can only dive for abalone by holding your breath (no scuba tank), or by picking them right along the shoreline.

Anyways, here are a few pictures we took over the weekend:


Buses at the campout in Ocean Cove Campground. This picture looks like it was taken in the 80s or something!


Later in the day, some more buses joined the group.


Shari and Mike's 1960 split-window bus and Doug and Stacy's early bay-window Westy.


John's early bay-window Dormmobile and our 1977 bay-window Riviera.


Melissa's cream colored Vanagon Westy and Joel's blue-ish Vanagon Westy.


Hiking along the ocean at Stillwater Cove Regional Park, which was right next to the campground.


A nice view of the coast near Jenner as we drove home along Hwy 1, south.

VW Bus Campout at Finnon Lake

Around the time that apples begin to ripen and are ready for pickin in the fall, there is a (now) traditional Finnon Lake VW Bus campout near Placerville, CA almost on the border of the Eldorado National Forest. There is a small campground next to Finnon Lake, which once was a small reservoir in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains. Many bay-area and Sacramento area bus people come to camp together in one place. I didn't get a chance to take too many pictures, but here are a few:


Heating water for morning coffee on the little side table.


The green camper is our friend Regis's '78 bus.


Camper busses in their native habitat - camping


Romy is looking for a nut to fix our sliding door, and he found one at the door of a neighboring bus at the camp-out. The owner of this bus makes really cool custom made tents and shelters.


This is a vanagon syncro camper. It has 4 wheel drive and can go off roading!