new camper

It is a new-to-me camper. It is a Westfalia James Cook built onto a Mercedes Benz Sprinter chassis. The completed camper was imported by Airstream into the United States in 2005. Airstream contribution is to make certain changes to the camper for the American market to meet the required certifications. Unfortunately there are a number of misguided changes that are evidently to cater to the tastes and preferences of the RV buyers in the US. Only 250 was ever imported into this country.

Most folks would call it RV but I prefer to call it a camper. I found it in Southern California in the spring of 2012. The photo was taken after I driven it back and awaiting the processing of the out of state title and registrations.

deep cleaning of the interior upholstery - i search all around town to find very good commercial machine; i also bought the shampoo from profession cleaning supply 

Here is how it looks today after much the exterior was cleaned up and restored back to the original Westfalia James Cook appearance. The loud and jazzy decals catered to the American RV buyers' taste has been removed together with all the Airstream emblems. Gone too are the frivolous warning labels.

(_!_) ugly shall we say?

ouch! It is not that bad. It is like removing bad body tattoo. Just a lot of hard work, pain, and patience.

removing the dodge marking on the rear door

 the letters plies right off but left the adhesive foam

a plastic scraper and gasoline to dissolve the adhesive

all the dodge vehicle emblems removed and front grill replaced with the correct mercedes one
the u-shape trim came pre-primed but had to be painted to match the body's silver color

Near Crescent City, CA

Crescent City, CA

Redwood forest - Avenue of the Giants

San Francisco, CA

The hilly streets and bad road in SF is very hard on the camper. Worst is the difficulty in finding a parking spot.I would not want a camper that is any bigger than this 18.5 ft length. I am thankful to Westfalia very sensibly chosen the shortest wheelbase version of the MB Sprinter to build the James Cook with.

Ramen party - always wanted to recreate the charms of the Asian street food scenes. The girls loved the ramen. They also learnt to use the chopsticks. It started with a few finds I brought back from San Francisco and Oakland. I set up a mock ramen street food set and by the afternoon I ask my neighbor if his kids would like some ramen. From there the party took off.

The next day I taught him how to make ramen. The process included he went shopping with me in the local Asian markets to making the finished products.