Lenses and Wheels: How it all started...

You are young, you want to travel. You can afford it for a while, and then you can’t. You are looking for a job which includes travel and you end up driving a truck. I loved it so much and wanted to keep a record of my trips so I started carrying cameras with me and taking pictures. A bit later I’m working for a trucking magazine, getting my pictures published. Pretty soon I found out that you can’t see a lot of things because of the size of your vehicle. Once at the Golden Gate Bridge I wanted to take a picture of my truck with the bridge in the background. Just opened the door; disco lights behind me and he is yelling: what the heck you think you are doing? I just wanted to snap a picture officer. No parking, no pictures, get moving or get towed. After awhile you miss so many pictures you decide to go back on your own; at your own pace and catch up on photography. That’s exactly the story behind the following pictures. I’ve been asked many times: why are you writing? Some people drink when they are in a good mood, some people drink when they are in a bad mood, I’m writing because I have to. Drink a bit too after I’m done. When I was young I loved to look at pictures of far away places and dreaming about that later I'll get there somehow. Another reason to show a few pictures here; there might be some young kids dreaming out there.
The first part is about our round trip down the West Coast, Las Vegas, Grand Canyon, Montana, Lake Louise and back home to Vancouver Island in 2006. You have to know: I have been a VW freak all my life, for me it was the only vehicle of choice back then. We’ve found one in very good shape, modified it to our needs (added a Porta Potty, an Inverter and a Propex furnace, 2 RV batteries, a CB radio) and we were ready to go. We always travel on a low budget, trust me, traveling frugally is actually fun. I just mean that we are not using camp sites they charge 40-50 $ for one night and the next camper is 3 feet from you. Hwy 1 down the coast is breathtaking, hard to describe the beauty but pictures follow. The whole trip started a bit off the plan: we missed the Coho Ferry out of Victoria; so we had to take BC Ferries, drove trough Washington and hit the 101 just south of Portland. Oregon has to be done slowly because there is so much to see.

Our first VW in Canada. If you have ever seen it inside then you know how hard it is to put a furnace in it without loosing any space. I've got rid of the cord that is stored under the cabinet; installed a plug only and used an extension cord. This way under the cabinet I just have enough room for the Propex. Connecting it to the propane tank was not an easy task either.