Beach Bound!

Thanks to Dave and Sarah, we were able to get in one more beach getaway. They rented a house in Oak Island, NC. About 10 of us spent the past four days there; sunning, singing, dancing, reading, swimming, playing... tons of fun. We ate great food; stromboli, quiche, oatmeal, fish and shrimp tacos, hot dogs, breakfast sandwiches... so yummy! The van cruised along and it took us about 4.5 hours to get there and same on the return trip. First beach trip for the VW :)

First Trip in the van

Today around 11am we left the house.... we being Team McCaulley, Mick (our black lab) and the van. We drove to Caesar's Head State Park. We parked at Raven's Cliff Trail and hiked 2.2 miles in to the overlook of the waterfall. We thought it'd be a lot closer but it was still a nice view.

We really wanted to get into some water, and so did Mick, so we hiked back to the beginning of the trail and started on another that we knew would cross a creek. So after doing 4.4 miles, we hiked down .7 miles. It was tough. But we came upon the creek and it was so refreshing! Mick cooled off, just stood with his feet in it (after drinking a ton). Mike and I cooled off in it too.

We did have to hike back UPHILL .7 miles. It was even tougher. But super cute, Mick was off leash a little and would stop for me every once in a while. He'd wait up. Turn around to make sure I was still there. :) I love my puppy!

Total I think we drove about 280 miles today. Good job Westy! You hung in there... got us there and back safely and without incident! I look forward to many more adventures with you!

We bought one!

For a year and a half we have been talking about and looking at VW Vanagons. We had saved the money from our 2008 tax returns to use for buying one. Then we decided to go to Windell's snowboard camp instead. Money gone. Then we got hard core into paying down debt. Well, about two weeks ago we started looking again. We found one in Athens, GA and decided to take a drive to see it.

Today we drove to Athens. The guy selling it was moving to California in a couple of days and was going to sell it to the title loan place if he couldn't sell it. We weren't totally stoked about this one but it was way under our budget and we figured we could put some money into it and make it our own.

But now we love this v-dub/girl/guy/westy/bus/van, whatever you want to call it. It's a 1981 Westy, pop-top, white. No camping gear on the inside. Extra storage was built in it. We have plans for making it our own and it'll take some time.

We also have a plan to travel cross country next summer... in it.
Til then I will be blogging about all our other adventures in, with, around, and because of our "new" Westy!