Jan 12, 2010 The little bus that could
On December 30th we departed Nashville on a trip of a lifetime. I’m so proud to tell you that together we restored a 1972 VW bus, affectionately now known as Double Nickels.
I hope you were following along on our CES Bound blog, as we rumbled down the great roads of Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and Nevada. If you weren’t you really need to stop reading this post and head over there now, it’s fine, I can wait for you…
Oh good you’re back!
I’ve written before about how much I love working for Griffin, but this trip really took the cake. Can you picture cramming in a mini-bus with four of your co-workers for six days?
I enjoyed some of the questions I got at CES about our journey. A few people asked if we all slept in the bus together. I explained that while we all love each other, we don’t love each other THAT much. 
A highlight was driving down the Las Vegas strip yelling and waving to the people who were quick to laugh and wave back. People LOVE classic VWs. We even rolled up next to a couple of Sin City hipsters in a Lamborghini who I challenged to a race. The driver revved his engine and blast off ahead of us. The joke was on him when he was stuck at a light as we past him to make our turn. We won.
I explained to our CES visitors that we couldn’t find a parking spot for Double Nickels, so we decided to park her right in our booth! It was so much fun showing her off and seeing jaws drop when I explained how we drove her all the way to Vegas.
Another repeat joke was showing off the heating system, which consisted of five Snuggies that Jackie had customized for us. I randomly selected the pink one with peace signs, but my personal favorite was the leopard print with the bedazzled owl.
At night we could see our breath in the bus as we traveled through the desert – it was really cold in there! We even resorted to glove warmers to use in our shoes to keep our toes warm.
What now?
J. is spending the next two weeks putting together four final episodes of our CES Bound videos. You really should watch the previous ones for a laugh, they were so much fun to produce. The new ones will be posted on the CES Bound blog soon.
Most of Bradley’s photos are now available on Flickr, they are truly breathtaking. You really need to see them just for the unanimous favorite shot of Jackie with the Mexican wrestling mask in the desert – it’s a classic!
Mark begged to drive Double Nickels home, but we had to ship her back, because we have already spent so much time away from the office. Mark’s obsession with all things classic Volkswagen really helped to make this trip a reality.
Jackie is considering a full time job customizing Snuggies. We wish her luck.
Double Nickels is on route home to Nashville. She’s wrapped up warm on a flatbed, we’re expecting her here later this week. We can’t wait to see her!
Thank You!
If you came to one of our meet ups, we met you along the way or you visited our booth – thank you so much. Without you we wouldn’t have had nearly as much fun.
I want to thank Brightkite, Threadless and Sunbrella. The Brightkite map on the top of the CES Bound blog was a fun way for you to follow us along our journey. Threadless made some amazing tee shirts which we handed out along the way. Sunbrella supplied us with plenty of really awesome fabric which we made our pillows, seat covers and drapes from. Thank you all for your support.
I also want to sincerely thank everyone who helped rebuild Double Nickels and Griffin management for believing in us. Most normal companies never would have gone for something like this, I’m so happy I work where anything is possible.
Hands-free Mic with Audio Cable