Bob Ward | Vanbassador

Hi there, I’m Bob Ward, one of the 2025 Vanbassadors. My wife Annie and I have a Ford Transit with the Wilford conversion, which we affectionately call Fundogz. Our van has been a game-changer for our adventures, but one unexpected perk of the van was how it helped us finally get the campsite we could never reserve before.

Generally we are planners, so we like to schedule our long road trips and many of our shorter getaways well in advance. Years ago, we could make our plans without worrying about full campgrounds. But these days, if you want to book a spot at most popular campgrounds, you’ve got to be on your computer six months to the day in advance to secure the site you want. We’ve had pretty good luck with this approach, but there’s one campground that’s always eluded us: Nevada Beach at Lake Tahoe.

This is one of our favorite campgrounds because it has a fantastic dog-friendly section of beach, killer views, paddling opportunities, and easy, fun hiking and biking trails right next to the campground. You’re also close to great restaurants and some of the best trails in the Tahoe Basin. It’s an ideal basecamp if you want to hit some of the most iconic mountain bike trails in the area, like the Flume, Tahoe Rim, Mr. Toad’s and Corral. 

To add salt to the wound, this elusive campground is only about five miles or 20 minutes from our home in South Lake Tahoe.

After years of striking out at this world-class campground right in our backyard, I finally adopted a new strategy. Last year, I started checking for cancellations at Nevada Beach, and we’ve managed to sneak in several overnight getaways. One of the things that’s made these spur-of-the-moment campouts so easy is having our Wayfarer Van. At any given time, we’re about 80-90% ready to hit the road for a spontaneous trip.

This never would’ve been possible when I was tent camping – unless I wanted to stress myself out with all the packing and organizing. I used to spend hours grabbing gear from the garage or gear closet, checking things off my list, loading up the car, and then, of course, doing the reverse to clean and put everything away after the trip.

With the van, pretty much all I need to get rolling on the next trip is to gather up food and drinks, pack up our clothes, load up the mountain bikes and unleash the hounds. When we get home, we take out our clothes, wash our kitchen gear and leave it stocked for the next opportunity to hit the road.

The bottom line is that whether you are taking the entire summer to see the country or just heading out for a “quickie”, your Wayfarer van is always at the ready.  Enjoy!