Bernie

My Dad has a 1981 Volkswagen Westfalia named Bernie. As my parents are moving onto their Bayliner, they don't have room for any extra rolling stock. But, my Dad isn't quite ready to part with Bernie, so in exchange for giving Bernie a home, we get to go on adventures with him!

Bernie arrived a few weeks ago when my parents drove over from Southeast Idaho to see my sister off on her grand adventure, the Camino de Santiago through Spain. (More on that on her blog - shewouldflyregardless.wordpress.com) 

The first weekend we had him, we went on an overnight camping trip to a nearby lake. It was a pretty perfect maiden voyage, on which the entire family participated.  

We found an old logging pad up a relatively steep hill (by Bernie's definition) just a little ways off the road on some BLM land. It was perfectly secluded with only a handful of cars driving by on the road the entire time we were there.  

Bernie has been opulently outfitted over the years by my Dad. In addition to the built in stove, he has a two burner outdoor camp stove with a collapsible oven, griddle, and camping toaster for accessories. There is a solar shower setup complete with wooden grate to stand on, foot pump to control the water flow and a pop up shower stall. We also have several options for outdoor tables and sun shades so we can configure the outdoor space as needed. I'll have to do a post specifically going over all of the accoutrements of Bernie as it really is quite extensive. For this trip, it was forecasted to rain overnight, so we kept camp simple and broke it down before going to bed so everything was inside. 

The dogs thoroughly enjoyed their time. Chester, not so much. I managed to get a picture of him before he decided he was over it. But shortly after it was taken, he tried to pull a Homeward Bound and took off down the hillside in the direction of home. From that point on he was confined to Bernie. We will still take him with us in the future, but I need to work out what will make the trip opulent for him. 

The overnight temps were in the low to mid-fifties and we stayed plenty warm. We had a dog bed with an extra blanket on the floor for Kona and then Boomer snuggled up with us in the bed, under the two down comforters and extra blanket we brought for us. Chester moved around during the night, sometimes in bed with us, sometimes up on the top bunk.  

The next morning we lazy-ed around for a bit and then packed up and headed home. Bernie didn't give us any fits on the drive on the way out or the way home - a huge plus for keeping Hubbie interested.