Like so many people, my husband (Matt), son (Jacob) and I have been wanting to get a VW bus for a while now... The kid's only 6, but he would talk a lot about getting this camper van to go exploring in... Really though, what could be better than taking a road trip or camping adventure in a BEAUTIFUL vintage VW?!?!?!?! We've been on the search to find one out there in good shape at a reasonable price... SO DIFFICULT!!!! I can't count the number of times we've been on kijiji or craigslist looking for something that was perfect for us... Then last Friday came...
Matt and I were sitting on the patio, drinking some wine. Again we got to talking about this bus and our grand plan of finding one to take on a road trip across Canada next summer. Wh
at an experience that would be for Jacob! Matt's already done the trip on a hitchhiking adventure a few years back, but Jacob's never been farther than New Brunswick and myself no farther than Ontario... IT'S TIME!!! Anyway, after a few glasses we pulled out the old computer and started the search again... we checked the usual spots but to no avail... Then I think... eBay... yep, that's right... eBay... the worse place in the world to look and a spot with the biggest ripoffs. Matt thought I was crazy. He thought there was no way in h&!! I would find something there that was close to us here in Halifax, or fairly priced. Most VW's on the site were in the States, or pretty beat up, or just friggin' to expensive! So I start going through the listings one by one... when all of a sudden... HOLY CRAP!!!!... there's a 1973 listed in Beach Meadows, Nova Scotia!!!! Now the irony of this is that Matt's families cottage is located in none other than... Beach Meadows, Nova Scotia. A twist of fate?... We check over the listing. The pictures look good. The description sounds good. The price sounds amazingly good. And best of all, no bids as of yet. I'm all set to email the poster when I see the message at the bottom that this is listed by
relatives on behalf of their uncle. So no emails, just calls to the bus' owner. Problem... it's 12:00 am, and we highly doubt that this would be the appropriate time to call the guy. Wouldn't exactly look good! So we wait...
The next morning we're up early. Both of us are soooooo excited about what were thinking was a little twist of fate. I wanted Matt to call at 8:00, but he thought 9:00... we compromised on 8:40... When he calls he gets the owners wife and asks her if it would be alright to come and check out the bus that day. She tells him it wouldn't be a problem, but be forewarned that there was another fellow from Calgary, Alberta interested in the bus and had a friend from Halifax coming out to see it that day. This put us into panic mode! We need to get there, and get there fast! Problem... that morning I had to work at 10:00 and wouldn't be off until 2:00. On top of it my aunt was flying in from NFLD at around the same time, so Matt was on airport duty... soooooo... Matt gets on the phone to his mother and comes up with a plan. I would walk to work, he would pick Laurel up at the airport, throw her out at our place, he would leave our car at the house, his mother would drive him to Beach Meadows to look at the bus, Laurel would pick me up after work, then I would drive Laurel and Jacob out to the cottage for the night... and that's exactly what happened. All day I hadn't heard a stitch from Matt. I tried no
t to get my hopes up, because we both thought nothing could be that perfect and we didn't want to be disappointed. I didn't tell Jacob a thing for the same reason, so he just thought we were going on a cottage adventure. As we were driving into Beach Meadows I thought about doing a drive-by of the house that it was located at. I didn't know the exact address, but I thought there was no way I'd be able to miss a big blue kamper bus sitting in someones driveway. I decided against the idea and just drove straight to the cottage. And then it happened...As we were driving down the driveway, I saw a speck of blue... IT WAS THERE!!! parked, Matt sitting on the porch looking all proud of himself! I shouted "HOLY CRAP, HE GOT IT!!! JACOB THERE'S YOUR VAN, WE GOT YOU A VAN!!!!" He was freakin' ecstatic!!!! He started squealing!!! SO HAPPY!!!! We get out to give her a look, and Matt tells us the story...
He arrived at the guy's house around 2:00, beating the guy coming from Halifax by 3 hours. He had a look and a took her for a test run. She ran perfectly and is inspected until 2011. Not a stitch of rust, only minor issues (like no heat), and she comes with a bunch of accessories (including standing tent attachment, backseat seat belts, cot for the front, VW manuels and books, etc. etc.). Matt came with money in his pocket. He asked the guy if he would consider taking her off eBay right now if he gave him immediate payment. The guy said sure, called his niece and she was off the site in minutes because there were no bidders. Matt even got a couple hundred off the first asking price! AMAZING, AMAZING MAN (both Matt and the seller :P)!!! So they do their business and the guy drives the bus over to the cottage and there you go... WE HAVE A BUS!!!!
So that night we just have to take her for a run, but seeing as we didn't have any plates for her yet we have to stick to the beach road near the cottage. We both take turns driving her back and forth along the road, with Jacob excitedly enjoying the ride in the back... I got to tell you, she's a bit difficult to drive (very much like driving a school bus), but she is 37 years old so she's not going to be as easy as your space cars now lol!... But she's GREAT!
The poopy part of the weekend was our disaster with the dog. Our golden retriever , Gus, was stung by a bee Sunday morning. He followed Matt outside to take the compost out back. Well there's bees back there and he just happened to have an encounter. When he came in he laid down beside me and started rubbing his face into the floor. I just thought he must have been chewing on the floor like he tends to do at our house, so I yelled at him. He looks up at me and his face is three times the normal size... he looked like a Shar Pei. I yelled at Matt to come look at him... not good. We get on the phone to a vet with emergency hours (located in Bridgewater a half hour away). She says a quick solution is to get Benadryl and put icepacks on his face to take down the swelling. So we take off with Gus and I in the backseat, me with icepacks pressed on the sides of his snout. I tell you trying to find Benadryl in Liverpool (town closest to Beach Meadows) is nearly impossible at 11:30 on a Sunday morning. We eventually found some at the local Ultramar and shoved two into him. The swelling came down, but he was looking pretty nasty for a day or two. Poor Gus... at least now we know he's allergic to bees... we're thinking of getting an Epipen :p...
Anyway, we are so happy and can't wait to start our adventures with Baby Blue!!! It was a rough week knowing that she was parked up in Beach Meadows while we waited to get plates and the chance to run up and get her. But Matt brought her back last night and she's safe and sound in our driveway!!!
So welcome to the family Baby Blue!!! We are so looking forward to the years to come!!!
Also... THANK YOU RON!!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment