Wheels

Happy Fathers Day to all you dads out there. This post is for you.

Our Karmann in the early morning light awaiting the start of the adventure. She was a bit nervous about her new passengers but was excited to get the journey started.

This little girl is a delight to travel with. 

These were some of my favourite roads to take. The narrow hedges and beautiful Welsh farmland make for some fun driving.

Up in the Black Mountains of Wales. Felt just like home driving on the snow and slush. 

We constantly say how the Karmann is the perfect little camper. All the amenities of a big camper but with the short wheel base we could get her just about anywhere. At our house in Northern Wales I had to do a 6 point turn at the top of a hill every time we came home. 

After looking at the 14th Defender that day Josie decided she didn't care anymore.

This Coast Guard Cat was used to haul the rescue boats up and down the beach but I thought it'd be great for running errands on the roads back home.

Karmann got to see some amazing country.

Nicely set up 110 wagon in Belfast.

One of Josie's favourite spots. I like to start em young.

The Coast Guard had some great work trucks.

Another nicely set up rig in Kenmare, Ireland.

A well used work truck.

This was the Gap of Dunloe in Killarney National Park, Ireland. Probably my favourite road of the trip.

Up towards the Gap of Dunloe. Does it get any better than that?

Here's Karmann checking out Samson and Goliath, a couple of the worlds largest cranes, in Belfast harbour. Very close to the dry dock where they built the Titanic.

Josie thought this was a cute little Defender 90 so I obliged her and posed for the picture.

Josie thought this little Morris J type van from the 50's was off the hook. So cool.

Lots of funny little cars in Budapest. We would play a game called "How many of those could we fit in the back of Dads truck."

They couldn't find a parking spot for Karmann so we parked her up on the curb and right across the whole sidewalk. Downtown Budapest was not built for campers.

She loves to get her hands on the wheel. 

Could have used this Z4 a few months earlier on the Gap of Dunloe but the canal top road of Holland were plenty fun.

Doesn't get any better than this one folks. 

Josie has logged a fair amount of miles in this Chariot. Still smiling thankfully.

I just love to see these Unimog's at work. This one is up in the hills of Slovenia.

Karmann served us well at this lovely campground near Venice.

Everett spotted this clean 110 in the hilltop town of Castiglione del Lago, Italy.

One of the few times Karmann couldn't get us to where we wanted to go. About 2 inches too tall. 

Another Unimog U1800 in Slovenia.

Kathy living out her Vespa dreams.

Lovely old truck we saw in Rome.

This is what Kathy and I will use when we do Europe with just the two of us. It's a 4x4 Volkswagon T3, one of Karmann's cousin.

And then we found the Unimog Museum in Gaggenau, Germany! Unimog and Mercedes have been making these trucks since the late 1940's. They are really quite amazing. Extremely versatile and rugged. Used for farming, logging, mining, road work and just about anything else you can think of. 

They even made tractors for a while. 

We took a ride in this U4000 around a test track. 45deg slopes, up to 38 deg side angle. Very impressive capabilities.

We are currently in "talks" about trading the toyota van in for one of these. Don't think any of the neighbours would notice. 

Great looking work truck.

Here's us driving off into the sunset. We're still trying to decide if we're going to come back home or not. The travel life is pretty great.