Sentimental Sunday... The Hero and an Orange Bus story

The first experience the Hero and I had of desert like weather was when we went to Arizona to visit.  It was mid to late May.  In Texas it was already very warm to hot.  We packed accordingly.  It was before the days of internet checking weather. 

While we were there, we visited the Grand Canyon with his sister, and a some ghost towns. It was cold at the Grand Canyon and we had to borrow coats to when we explored.

The Hero with daughter #2, a niece, daughter #1, nephew and moi.

Our time visiting the Hero's sister was wonderful. The time in Mesa was wonderful. Then, it was time to go back home. We made our plans to go through the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest on the way back.  We wanted to see as much as we could because a trip was a premium item for us.  After fond good byes, we headed back toward Texas.  The trip through the Painted Desert was hot and dry.  I look back now and think why didn't I take pictures of the family with the landscape.  Books with pictures of the Painted Desert landscape are readily available in stores and on the internet. My family at the Painted Desert is not there and won't be, because I took a picture of what the desert looked like. Take a lesson from me and make memories that count. 

The trip through the Painted Desert took longer than we anticipated.  We looked at the map and recognized that it was too far to make it to a camping ground that evening.  At the end of the Park gates was a large parking area, we pulled over, ate supper, and read stories until the girls fell asleep.  The Hero, sat his table outside on the ground next to the van so we could make the girls bed on the floor and we could sleep in the back.  It got chilly and we ended up with all of us snuggled on the bed.  The Hero woke up first, and began to clean up the sleeping gear so I could make breakfast.  He discovered it was COLD (a note here, it was cold but not freezing, however the Hero thought anything below 70 was freezing, lol).  He opened the door, then closed it quickly.  His decision was that we were driving on to find a place to go to the bathroom and eat breakfast.  I started dressing the girls as he drove.  From the front of the van about a half an hour down the road I heard.... "Oh no!"  I responded with "What is wrong?"   (Head slap) "I forgot to pick up the table.  It is sitting on the side of  the road."   Deep sigh from the Hero, "I guess, I'll have to make another."
Another lesson.  Don't rush off from your camp, you will always forget something. 

Sentimental Sunday... The Hero and the Orange VW Bus

To my knowledge the only picture we have of it.

The vehicle the Hero bought for our beginning family was an Orange Volkswagen Bus.  It had been converted inside by the previous owner to have a "bed" in the back.  We traveled frequently to Oklahoma to see my parents and TexasBlu would end up in a makeshift bed in the back seat of our car (back in the day before seat belts).  She loved lying and reading her books, so he wanted her to be comfortable. Thus the Bus with a bed in the back.  : )
The other reason he bought the Volkswagen was that he had heard they were extremely easy to work on. (Rolling eyes, not sure who was the source of that information).  His dad had never taught him how to work on a car.  They just always sent it to a garage to get fixed.  He decided, given our financial situation,  he needed to learn to work on his car himself.  Wa-la, easy to fix VW.  We were blissfully ignorant of our life to come.
First, no one worked on VW's except VW dealerships or specialized garages. Expensive.

This is similar, but it seemed the one we had was a lot tighter in the area. 

Second,  The bus, he found out, was not like the basic VW.  It had a Porsche engine with dual carburetors.  He found out he had to check the battery fluid.  Hmmm.  Where was it... oh yes, down under the carburetor and to the back... He had to buy a special mirror to be able to view it.  Just things like that...
Third, it was a stick shift.  Oh lots of experiences with that.   
Well, this was a preview.  He had many stories come out of owning the VW bus and had a love/hate relationship with it for years.  For the next few weeks, I will be writing the Orange Volkswagen Bus Adventures, or how the Hero learned to be a mechanic. ; )