Vanagon Diaries: Custer State Park, SD

In March, Chris and I drove the Van to the Black Hills and Custer State Park in South Dakota.  We spent Spring break  camping and hanging out with buffalo.   

Since it was the off season, we were two of the only people in the entire state park.  

Custer State Park Camp Ground

We had some visitors at the camp site.

It took a while, but they finally got Bella's attention.

Bella chilling in the front seat.

So many Bison  

They made driving a little difficult...

This one licked the van.

Mount Rushmore 

Mount Rushmore is pretty awesome in the off season.  We were literally the only people there!

Playing with a Camera Lens 

My Odd Car Buying Experience

We recently bought a 1984 Volkswagen Vanagon, and we had an interesting car buying experience.  

It started out pretty typical.  Then it became not so typical.  


Let's begin:

Step 1.  Arrive in Kalispell, MT.  

Step 2.  Spend two hours at Vanagon sellers house, checking out the Vanagon and talking about the Vanagon.  

Step 3.  Next morning, back at Vanagon sellers house, getting to the nitty gritty of Vanagon buying.

...was kind of thinking that'd be it...we'd pay the guy and be on our way...I was wrong.  

Step 4.  Vanagon seller realizes we need a notary.  He also realizes we have time to kill before the notary opens, we hang out in his living room for a while and he starts raving about Cosco.  

Step 5.  Vanagon seller asks if we want to go to Cosco.  

We say why the hell not.  

We go to Cosco.  (Spend an hour eating samples and buying things we hadn't realized we needed.)

Van of My Dreams

The Westy Fund

We started a westy fund a few months ago (along with our house down payment fund, our emergency fund, and our swear jar-just kidding, we don't have a swear jar).  

After searching for a Vanagon on the typical sites, Samba.com, BusDepot.com, and GoWesty.com, we found one on CraigsList.  Go figure.