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Day 3

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Sunday, September 11, 2017 - After almost 10 hours of straight driving we made it home safely. We needed to add one litre of oil near Quebec City and otherwise the van drove really well. We decided to treat ourselves to some smoked meat sandwiches at Schwartz's Deli in downtown Montreal - very delicious treat!  Made it to our laneway by 8:30 pm.  Very glad to be home!! Monday, September 12, 2017 - We made an appointment to take Buster Brown in for repairs next Monday and will do some short car trips this week closer to home so we get some type of little holiday! Depending on the weather, we might try another shorter camping trip this fall and will definitely do the East Coast trip next spring!  BB is, after all, 31 years old so this type of stuff is to be expected, hopefully, not to be repeated too soon!

Day 2

Day 2 started out well with a nice scenic drive and good weather.  We stopped near Riviere du Loup, PQ at a Tourist information spot and on return to the van noticed an oil leak under the van. We drove on and near Edmonston, NB the light and buzzer started up. We  found a Canadian Tire store where we purchased some oil and then found the nearest town - Saint Leonard where we were able to locate a garage for an assessment of the problem.  The mechanic advised us to stock up on oil and head home to Ontario and get it fixed asap. We went out for a nice dinner and decided to stay overnight in a motel and head out for home the next morning. Sad to cut our trip off before we really got going but not comfortable carrying on this way.

Day 1

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Friday, September 8, 2017 we left on our trip to the East coast with high hopes of a beautiful trip. The van performed well, very smooth and peppy and the first night of camping went well in a small private campground at Levis, P.Q.  It was a surpise to see that rates are now $42/night and that a shower costs $1 for 5 minutes of hot water!

First Trip with Buster Brown

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For many years we owned a 1984 VW Westfalia camper van and enjoyed trips to the East coast of Canada, Quebec, Ontario and one memorable venture to Kentucky with our two boys Robert and Carey. The boys grew up and went off to university and both got married.  We sold our house in the city and moved to cottage country with one acre of land and a house on the water.  Renovations and gardening became  our new hobbies as well as boats, boat lifts and docks.  We were not using our van any more and decided to sell.  After a few years, we realized we had made a mistake. In the fall of 2016 we started looking for another van and finally found one to our liking in the spring of 2017.  It was a bit of a 'fixer upper' but we saw the potential. Our new van, an 1986 model has a name,  "Buster Brown", and we will be heading out on our first road trip one day from now.  The last time we camped in a van was approximately 20 years ago so this will be interesting to see how we man