In January 2013, John found Primrose, a 1982 VW Westfalia camper, just down the road from where we live. With less than 83,000 miles and an impeccable frame, this vintage van became our new home on wheels. Follow our adventures with Primrose here!
Going primitive with Primrose
How do you car camp in a Volkswagen camper when you have no power? It takes a little ingenuity to keep electronics powered and a lantern to keep you up past hiker midnight
Just Married
After three years of roaming the woods and the world together, John & Sandy get married in the Ocala National Forest with a very hiker-style wedding.
Primrose and the Big O Hike
Our first outing with Primrose this hiking season was a trip to the Big O Hike. It rained, of course, in both directions to and from Okeechobee. But we had a splendid road trip in our VW camper.
Primrose, the delivery wagon
One of the best parts of owning a VW camper van is how versatile it can be. When Primrose isn’t home, we make use of her as our delivery vehicle for various projects.
Nine more nights in Primrose
With our first Primrose trip of 2014 behind us, we are starting to see how snowbird RVers live here in Florida. And it’s a bit different than those of us who prefer to have a little outdoors with our camping.
Kicking off Hiker Season with Primrose
On January 5th, we loaded up Primrose and headed south, traveling parallel to the Florida Trail for much of the trip, starting out at Christmas. Driving south of Tosahatchee, we continued through the Deseret Ranch where we spotted our first two Florida Trail thru-hikers walking up the highway. Although they are not keeping online journals, …
Still Life, with Cows
Walking the whole Florida Trail means miles on pavement where the trail follows roads. On this lonely dead-end road in Basinger, your companions are cows.
Summiting Lake Okeechobee’s High Point
In completing an end-to-end hike of the Florida Trail, I knew I’d need to fill a gap or two left behind at the Big O Hike. Despite having walked around Lake Okeechobee several times, I was missing a few miles. During the Big O Hike, the hike begins and ends at trailheads, and in all …
Walking the Reservation
It’s been over 10 years since I walked into Billie Swamp Safari and backpacked out of the reservation to Lake Okeechobee. With the announcement that the route of the Florida Trail would shift back to the original roadwalk I missed doing back then, and our plans to meet up with thru-hikers beyond the swamps, I …
A Year with Primrose
It’s been a year since we purchased Primrose, our 1982 VW Vanagon. Here’s a recap of where we’ve been and what we’ve seen.
VW Love at the Pasco County Bug Jam
After a long drive on the back roads we arrived at the Pasco County fairgrounds in Dade City for the 25th Annual Pasco County Bug Jam. Two officers were directing traffic into a huge field for parking. Dozens of folks were working to quickly and easily get all of us parked. Our hats off to …
The Return of Primrose
With a hint of fall in the air, Primrose came out of hibernation. It was time to install the replacement speedometer cable, the one ordered many months ago. We had learned to make do, using our handheld GPS plugged in to the 12 volt outlet. It worked fine during the day, but without being backlit …
