Dub Freeze 2014

Posted on February 16, 2014 by campervantures

The sun was shining, so all the Dub nuts set off to Stafford County Show Ground for the first big show of the year: Dub Freeze!

We were very excited to be out in Rufus, who was running like a dream:

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The sound, the smell, the stance. Love him!

A post shared by arch (@archduchess_) on Feb 16, 2014 at 1:02am PST

We got into an impromptu convoy on the way, then arrived in the day parking field and managed to do a bit of ploughing as we crossed the grass, whoops!

We entered the showground and met Rufus’s brother!

And saw lots of other lovely cars and vans on show and for sale:

Inside the hall it was very busy and there was lots to see, with lots of traders and autojumble:

Beautiful work from Bromsgrove, as always.

A good variety of watercooled and aircooled cars in the show and shine:

The Carole Nash Sparkplug challenge!

Alan, Alan, Alan…

Great sticker from Hayburner.

There was lots to see, lots of familiar faces, and good to meet up with friends, including Claire, who got intimately acquainted with Rufus whilst checking his ride height!

What a great start to the 2014 show season, all the bad weather we’ve had recently hadn’t made the parking too quagmirish, although some people did get stuck, and a good turnout from punters and traders alike meant that there was something for everyone.

What’s your next show going to be? Let us know in the comments.

We’re looking forward to meeting up with more friends at SpringDub on March 2nd. See you there!

Coming soon to a show near you

Posted on January 26, 2014 by campervantures

Rooobarb and I decided to have a more formal discussion about the shows were were planning to attend this year.

We’d had a chat back in maybe October or November, and jotted down a few possibles, with the plan to eliminate a few and go camping on our own instead of doing the show thing so much this year. Last year, being our first year of camper ownership, we went a bit crazy with the show attending, and spent lots of money out of the “Repairing old Volkswagens” fund. We said we wouldn’t do as many shows this year.

We got our list out. And ended up adding to it. Whoops.

So our plan for the year looks something like this:

Day visit – 16^th February – DubFreeze, Stafford

Day visit – 2^nd March – Spring Dub, Harrogate

Easter Weekend – 18^th-21^st April – Bus Types, Oswestry

Early May Bank Holiday Weekend – 3^rd-5^th May – Vicky Farm and Stanford Hall

Weekend – 17th-18th May All Types VW Show, Bodelwyddan Castle, Wales

Day Visit – 21^st-22^nd June – CumbriaVAG, Kendal

Weekend – 4^th-6^th July – Camper Jam, Shropshire

End of Term Weekend – 18^th-20^th July – Dubs at the Castle, Monmouthshire

Day Visit – 3^rd August – Tatton Park, Cheshire

Day Visit – 8^th-10^th August – Blackpool Breeze

Weekend – 15^th – 17^th August – VW Festival, Leeds

Weekend – 5^th-7^th September – Busfest, Malvern

Weekend – 12th-14th September – VW Field of Dreams

Weekend – 26th-28th September – Dubs int Dales

Other camping:

Goredale Scar

Coniston Hall

Fraisthorpe

Where are you going camping this summer? What shows do you fancy? Let us know in the comments!

Meet Rufus.

Posted on December 1, 2013 by campervantures

Some of you may know that Rooobarb’s trusty Seat Ibiza decided to break itself in spectacular fashion, dropping a gear fork into the gearbox amongst other things, making it uneconomical to repair.

So we decided that the time was right to replace our hitherto reliable and sensible daily driver with something air-cooled and full of personality.

From our Beetle pumpkin design it is fairly obvious what our tastes are and what sort of bug we were looking for. So we were really pleased when we went down to Bidford-upon-Avon to see Alex’s 67 in original ruby paint:

And decided that it was the car for us. Rooobarb drove it home with no drama, although the fact that it is slammed made getting it up the dropped kerb into our back yard interesting!

The plan is to use it as a daily driver, although that plan took a slight hit when the accelerator cable became disconnected on Day 2 of garage manoeuvres, and we subsequently discovered that the pedal assembly was incomplete and would need replacing or reconditioning if it was going to be in regular use. So, currently, the car is off the road, with a reconditioned late pedal assembly in place, which means new cables that are slightly longer to reach at both ends. But hopefully back on the road this week. The car is mechanically sound, full of lovely period charm and solid underneath. Who could ask for more. Watch this space for further updates.

Ladies and gentlemen, I introduce Rufus!

Incidentally, the name Rufus means redhead. Works for us! There are other interesting links to his name too, but you’ll have to wait for those until another day…

Thanks, Volkswagen!

Posted on November 16, 2013 by campervantures

You may remember that a couple of weeks ago I carved a Beetle pumpkin for Hallowe’en, and decided to pop it on Volkswagen UK’s Facebook page.

They chose it as one of their finalists in their pumpkin competition, and it was chosen by fans to be one of the top three pumpkins, meaning I won a prize!

On Friday I had a “while you were out” card from the postman, and on Saturday morning I went and collected this:

Which now means we’ve got a bit of a show and shine line up going on in our living room, with the Lego camper my parents bought us last Christmas.

Yay! Lucky old me. Thanks Volkswagen. That was a really nice thing to do, the money box came really quickly, and brought an extra smile to my face as I didn’t carve the pumpkin to win a prize, just for my own amusement. It made me smile lots though that so many people liked it.

Now, what do I carve to top that next year? I was thinking an Evolution of Van line up – best start earlier if I’m going to be carving 5 pumpkins!