We are currently working on a book entitled "The Three of Us" the cover pix of which appears directly below; the pix well exemplifies the three of us, that being me, Wendy & RR2.  When we finish the book, and if it takes off, maybe they'll make a movie on it.......you never know these things but if that ever happened, I want Brad Pitt & Angelina Jolie to play the roles......they'd be perfect!  It's great to dream isn't it?   

Firstly a little more background on ourselves.  Wendy & I lived permanently for 17 of our 20 traveling years in the custom designed Volkswagen camper pictured above & below which we christened "RR2"; the first 3 years we lived in an English Commer camper already named "RoadRanger" and which we later sold in the USA.  "Roadranger & RR2" were our permanent homes as we explored all continents of the world barring of course, the Antarctica.  Shipping the vehicles some 68 times overall, we toured at least 200 countries including many islands and then finally ended up in Alberta, Canada.  Australian by birth, we immigrated to Canada and until recently, have used the "V-dub" on annual holidays. 

Alas, we have become creatures of comfort since we bought a 26ft trailer which appears like a one acre mansion inside when compared to the living area in RR2.  Once we acquired the  trailer, the thought of selling RR2 before the weather deteriorated it further, became more of  a reality.  The whole idea of selling  filled us with melancholy because there is one heck of a lot of memories tied up in this vehicle which got us out of a few hazardous situations over the years..............C'est la vie!                      

The two photographs above well illustrate why RR2 attracted so much attention when we traveled around the world.  It is unique in every way with its exterior design and shape, interior setup,  and the many, many innovations that experience prompted us to create over the years.  So much so, that within a week of our arrival by sea in New York, it was featured on "Good Morning America" with Bill Curtis (TV) and also in the "Long Island Times," (New York newspaper).  Since then, it has been featured on both American & National Canadian radio, other TV programs, ski magazines  & in many town newspapers but all this is now past tense.  When we were living in it, I kept RR2 looking pretty sharp because at the time, it was our home and we were proud of it. 

Of course, one of the reasons why the vehicle attracted so much attention was the fact that we kept some details of our travels hand painted on RR2 as shown above; maintaining the artwork, turned out to be a "labour of love" but it proved to be a magnet for the media.  From Prudhoe Bay, Alaska to Ushuaia, Argentina; from Denpasar, Indonesia to London, England; from Iceland to the Cape of Good Hope, Sth. Africa; from Cape York, Australia to Bluff, New Zealand; the adventures are many that we have experienced while in possession of RR2 and during that time,  I must have replaced just about every part of the vehicle, often  in less than ideal conditions.

As a result, there are many, many stories attached to the maintenance of RR2; one of them being that since the initial Australian warranty expired, no one other than myself has ever worked on the vehicle and it is now on its fifth engine!  Ever tried replacing a seized velocity joint while lying in snow melt on a mountain pass; or changing a wheel bearing with lions nearby & your wife on shotgun guard; or having to remove an engine with the vehicle parked on sand?  Those were the days and the isolation of the Sahara Desert (pictured above), well depicts the fact that regardless of the problem, you must be able to fix your vehicle wherever you may break down because if you leave it to get help, it will likely be stripped if you indeed make it back.  And forget about leaving your wife there to watch the vehicle, she'll be the first to disappear.  

And what led us to settle in frost bitten Canada when we could have returned to our temperate home country?  Having skied at almost every snow resort of any note worldwide, including some unlikely locations like Morocco, Lebanon, Turkey, Iran, South Africa & India, settling in a city an hour's drive from some of the best skiing in the Rockies, made a whole lot of sense to us.  The fact that a ski resort manager offered us free skiing & mountain top accommodation if we allowed him to use our vehicle to promote his resort, also helped as well.  RR2, as you can see in the two pictures below, attracted a great deal of interest in the largest mall in North America located in Edmonton, Alberta; great fun and more TV/ radio.                

Pictured below in April 2006, "RR2" was in outdoor storage for years since those days and the glamour of the vehicle had faded somewhat but nothing that could not be restored with a little time & effort.  Thanks to the fastidious body preservation that I put the vehicle through when new, RR2 was remarkably rust free for its age, partly due also to the fact that we had never driven it in winter since living in Calgary which experiences a low humidity climate due to its location just east of the Rockies. 

One of the things that we will indeed miss about RR2 is the right hand drive.  There are advantages in North America,  having the wheel where it is; for one thing, parallel parking is a breeze and on the highway, you sure know where the road shoulder is.  As a result, your vehicle tends to travel further away from the center line than left hand drivers do and that's a whole lot safer.  We'll also miss the startled look on people's faces when they realize, as we pass them by, that the vehicle appears to have no driver.  Kids were the funniest and would come up with comments lke .......... "hey mom, look at that funny rig!"  

 In preparation for the sale of RR2, we put together three pages with text over pix that detailed the many features of this unique vehicle.  Now that RR2 has been sold, we have decided to leave an abbreviated two page version on the website because many of the additional features pictured  therein, came into being through experiences that are detailed throughout the pages of "The Three of  Us;" just click on "RR2 Exterior" and "RR2 Interior" to become more familiar with the home we lived in for 17 years. 

If you're not that interested in VW campers, go to "Guess Where" for a much more detailed account of some of RR2's world wide journeys, trials and tribulations and after that, "Close Calls" which will lead you to a dramatic excerpt from our book "The Three of Us."  Entitled "Derbyshire Dilemmas," it details the near demise of both RR2 and ourselves.  

Regards to all and visit us again for updates.  Your E-mail comments  are welcomed but Norton will kill all Spam before I ever get to see it.

Trevor & Wendy. 

PS:  A note for  those interested in photography!  For convenience sake, most pictures on this web site are copies of 4 x 6 prints selected from our travel scrap books.  However, in the case of "Derbyshire Dilemmas," the pix are copies of 35mm slides held up against a white background.  All the copies were taken in sunlight with a Canon A610 digital camera, set in Macro mode, using  aperture priority (F8) and 400ASA.  The exceptions to these copies are those current pictures taken of the exterior and interior of RR2 in storage which were taken by the Canon direct on an Auto setting.