More info on this yearly campout here
Friday morning we finished packing up Buster. This time around we had a better idea of what we needed for the trip and this really helped to make the camp out more enjoyable. We picked up Chris Slaymaker from the airport around noon and headed back to the house. He had recently purchased a squareback in the area and flew out to camp for a couple days before driving it back home. He looked it over and deemed it fit for driving to the event. While he looked it over a bit more, I ran to my friends audio shop to grab a Sirius satellite radio receiver. Buster hasn’t seen tunes in many years, but over the past couple days we managed to get a deck and some speakers in there. Man, it was nice to be cruising down the road again with music. I managed to take a bit more time than expected finishing up with the radio and getting everyone in the bus, but we managed to head out around 2 or 3pm. We all hopped in and hit the road. A couple short stops here and there and we were on the road. The camp site is about an hour and half from our place so the drive wasn’t bad. The climb into the state park was a bit brutal. There was one spot where first gear was the only option. Come to find out, there was an even harder route that we could have taken that boasted a 19% grade for a couple miles. No thanks 
We were the last ones to arrive at loop D and were welcomed by a slew of kids as we drove in. A few minutes later, the bus was situated and the circus tent was in route. We brought another tent for Slaymaker to stay in that we had never used. We bought it a while back and never did use it since we ended up getting Buster back in shape. When we started setting it up, it was apparent that this thing was absolutely huge! Once we got things semi situated we went and did the rounds. There were 5 of us total, including Slaymaker’s squareback. We had hoped for a few more but with the camp falling on Mother’s day, there were others that had previous engagements. The next spot over is where Bret and his family were camped and the first thing I noticed on his Westy was the rear bumper. It was an after market piece that looked really stout, but not over done. Next to them was Chris Flesher’s (BustedBus) absolutely prestine Westy. This one was really well taken care of and the interior showed it. Dan Radom was next to Chris and was sporting the LED rope light that I know a few of us are looking for. The rest of the day was taken up by playing with the kids and lounging around the camp site. We didn’t really have any planned events for the kids but between throwing footballs, bocce, bubble machines, scooters, and other items…the kids had quite a few things to keep them busy and help them get to sleep later in the evening.
Saturday morning came fairly quick. I hadn’t slept as well as I wanted but I think that was largely because I just hoped in bed with all my clothes on. Alissa decided to go to bed once the sun started coming up so she was passed out in the bus while we cooked up some breakfast for Cameron and Katie. The kids did well in the bunk bed setup I built for the front and this left us a huge amount of room compared to the scenario we had at the 11 Mile Reservoir camp out. So far, this trip was going 100% smoother. Bret and company saved us from a near catastrophe when we realized we had coffee grounds and sugar, but no percolator. They hooked it up and kept us going every morning. After the breakfast feasting, there was more playing by the kids. Slaymaker started working on the squareback since there were a few items he wanted sorted out before the big road trip that was going to start early the next morning. He got the turn signals working, the stock steering wheel back in place of the after market one that was there, and a newer radio deck that we had in the garage. Gots to have the tunes! On a side note, the spare he pumped up before we headed out to the campground failed to hold any air. Thankfully the tires he was rolling on were in pretty good shape. Everyone agreed that the squareback looked really nice. Congrats to Slaymaker on a good find. In other parts of the camp, siestas were in order. Chris Flesher was snoozing in his Westy and Dan was napping as well. The weather so far had been pretty good and Saturday was no different. There were some scattered clouds though that looked as if they wanted to drop some rain but nothing heavy ever came of them. After the kids were playing with the smaller kid-sized Bocce balls, it was decided that it was time to get the large set out. Leah and I, Brett, and Slaymaker went the rounds for a while. Bret won the first match and although Leah had a descent lead in the second round, Brett managed to comeback again and win it as well. The new set was broke in well by the rough terrain and we managed not to injure any wild chipmunks. Although, there were a few dents in the tree trunks and a couple small rocks that were split After that of course, there was more relaxing and hanging out. We originally had talked about trying to take a hike on Saturday but the scattered dark clouds made hanging around the campsite seem like a better idea. Now that Flesher was awake after sleeping all night and morning, it was mentioned that he might make a run back to his shop. We rolled with the idea and Bret and I tagged along. I needed a few parts and had wanted to see the shop anyhow. The drive was all of 10 minutes to get to his house and the shop was sweet. Plenty of bay window bus laying around the isles of parts to go through. I picked up a another rim/tire since we had no spare and managed to find a shifter extension. The ride also showed us a few other places that looked good for camping in in the future. After cooking up some meals for dinner, we hung out around the camp fire and let the kids take turns telling stories. It was very fun watching them come up with stories and there were plenty of laughs to be had. Of course, marshmallows were roasted, burnt, and fried to a crisp too. Slaymaker had turned in early and said his good bye’s already. His plan was to head out at dawn to get the best start he could on the road (As of this writing, he has made it home safely and had no problems with the vehicle.) Saturday night seemed to be about 10 degrees cooler than the night before and I assumed I would eventually be turning to my now trusty BN4 to help get the bus toasty. But, never happened. Once the kids were in the bus and Leah and I hoped in rear bed, everything seemed to be just right. We slept the best Saturday night by far. Alissa went to sleep well and we headed to bed a little earlier than the night before. Being the first good rest in the bus, my opinion now is that the foam we put in the bus was worth the extra cost. The extra cost came from adding 2 inches of memory foam on top of the 4 inch base foam. Woke up without being sore at all, and so did Leah.
Sunday morning we woke up to Slaymaker having departed. Neither Leah or I heard him leave. Since I was limited on what I could do for Leah being that it was Mother’s day, I hopped up out of bed when I woke up to try and take care of all the kids, their food, etc so she could relax a little more. The day before, we had agreed to take the buses up to a place called Panorama Point to try and get a scenic shot with them. Since we had quite a bit of stuff to pack up and didn’t need to rush home, Leah and I came to the conclusion that we would just unhook the bus from the tent and worry about packing after the short ride to the top. This was so that anyone needing to leave early could do so and we could take our time packing up. The short ride to Panorama Point was uneventful but the scenery was great. Getting out of the city and into the Rockies really does just slow time down a little bit and help us to relax. Everyone grabbed a few shots and then headed to the lookout deck the provided a view West into the Rockies. After a brief viewing, everyone said their good-byes and headed out. Bret’s family and ours headed back to camp to pack up a little more while Chris Flesher and Dan family headed off home. At this point, Leah and I were both ready to go for a ride. Instead of packing everything up nice and neat, we pretty much tossed everything on the rack and in the bus, and tossed the kids in the car. We were only about an hour away from home and would take care of everything there. We said our see-ya-later’s to Bret’s family and got ready to leave. Right as we were about ready to head out, we got one last surprise. A ranger was walking around the camp loops with a Black Bear pelt. She let all of us study and feel the pelt while she told us a few facts about the bears that were in the area. It was icing on the cake for us. We cruised out of the park and discussed which was we wanted to go. Going a different route home sounded interesting to us and since the morning air was still cool, we decided to go for the route with the 19% grade. Little did we know, we would be going down the grade and not up. In any case, the route was very beautiful and the weather for the drive home was pleasant.
Overall, we were enjoyed our stay. As I said earlier, this camp out went way smoother than our previous one. The main contributor to that being the bunk beds for the kids to sleep in. It really helped to take advantage of the space in the front of the bus. There are alot of areas near us to check out and having just a short ride home afterwards really is nice. We are more used to the long multi-day road trips from going to vw bus camp out’s on the East coast. We are looking forward to hooking up with others again to check out these places.
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