On the road.....

As previously mentioned, I am on an adventure of sorts.  Bought a 1974 VW Bus in Seattle and I'm taking her cross country back to Boston.  Something I have always wanted to do (Drive Cross the USA) and part of getting the right vehicle.

Have had a few hiccups - Fuel Pump went in Spokane, WA - That delayed me a day but found a shop with great mechanics.  Had to replace 2 front tires after road damage on Rt 16 leaving Mt. Rushmore ....These things happen on a 3000 mile drive in 40 yr old vehicle.

Every where I go, she's the "Rock Star" as all anyone wants to talk about is her, I'm just the entourage.  This VW Bus attracts attention everywhere we go.....

I'll post pics later once I get home .  Trying to get there sometime Saturday......Inshalla
 As my Afghan friends would say.

Hawaii VW Wisdom for Air Cooled Engines

This is very cool and very true......I would like to visit this place next time I get out to Maui

When I get home......

Where I would like to be/In my @vw Bus heading to the beach- I'll do it this summer when I get home from #Afghanistan twitter.com/Leadership_One…

— Middleboro Jones (@Leadership_One) March 22, 2013

Blogger.com is having issues / Christmas is coming

For some reason, my blog pages have been displayed oddly over the last few days - It comes up like normal on my IPAD but looks like CRAP on my work PC.  I tried a few fixes but so far " no joy" has been called.

In the meantime, I am getting ready for Christmas, as much as we can have Christmas here in the shitewilds of Afghanistan......Listening to Christmas music while here makes me feel special and thankful for all my blessings.

I found this pic online the other day and it gave me a big smile.....I sooooo want to decorate my bus like this someday ( when she is up and running - and of course, when I am home to dirve it at Christmas time)

For today, I can share it with you and hope it makes you smile too

Time and $$$$ - The two essential ingredients in restoring a classic

Today was one of those days when I was thinking about all the fun I want to have in the new VW BUS project when she is redone -

Here is how she appears presently:

 

 



Here is what she should look like when she is restored to her prior glory days:

Time and $$$ - When I have the TIME, I usually don't have the $$$$ and vice-a-versa.....

Here's to hoping I can get the two essential ingredients together when I am back on the homefront in the future.....Then the real fun of restoring her will begin.

VW Bus Style Trailer is very very cool

This is a very cool way to trailer and camp....I will have to look into this type of trailer as hauling one of these behind my 1970 VW Bus would be awesome for road trips

 

Now this is how to hitch a ride in a VW.

The Dub Box is a faux Volkswagen Microbus that has been reimagined as a travel trailer.

The 12-foot-long fiberglass creation can be outfitted in a variety of configurations, including a double bed sleeper or food truck.

It weighs about 1,300 pounds and comes with integrated trailer brakes, gas stove, sink, retro refrigerator and an audio system for a starting price of $17,990, but optional extras include heating, a pop top roof and even hinged safari windows. A do-it-yourself rolling shell is available for $8,990.

First developed in the U.K., the Dub Box is manufactured in Oregon and, as the company points out, no real VWs are hurt in the process.

Hooking up one of these to an original Type 2 may be the formula for the freakiest road trip of all time

My next project - A tricked out VW Bus

Like any other person who likes to tinker with old cars ( rusty metal), I am always thinking about the next project I can get working on once  I get the chance - I will have to wait until my time in Kandahar concludes sometime in the future...

This is along the lines of what I am thinking about -

Yeah, I am not the " Hippie Bus " type but I have had a serious liking for the Veedubs since I drove a Karmann Ghia in college....I would like to have it stay fairly close to original but add a little resto-mod flare to it at the same time....something like this -

I would have to make sure it wasn't too low to the ground as in my neck of the woods, that could cause issues but you get the picture.  Take an iconic VW Bus and make it something special.

It all comes down to Time & $$$$ - When I have the TIME, I usually don't have the $$$ and vice-a-versa...we will see what we can devise when I get some time at home to hunt down one that needs some TLC.

UPDATE - Here is the one I chose - a good starting point - A fairly rust free body in need of a little TLC - Came with a TON of parts - a 1970 Bus with serious potential - It is not as old as I wanted as getting a "Splitty" would have been cool but finding a worthy one was either too much $$$ or too much rust - This girl will be the right place to start and worthy of a good refit.....ohhhhh yeah.

VW Concept Van.....not a hippies' van but hi-tech wheels for the future

VW keeps trying to bring back enough of what made them famous (cute cars that were endearing) and add in hi-tech aspects to make sure they are at the edge of innovation.....

I'm not sure that we'll see a pile of kids pile into this for a road trip to a Phish Concert...more likely this would be useful for trendy Urbanites heading out to IKEA.....

Volkswagen Bulli Concept Debuts at New York Auto Show
Anto Thermadam
April 24, 2011
www.nitrobahn.com

Volkswagen’s new Bulli Concept for America made its U.S. debut at the 2011 New York Auto Show. The new compact six-seat multipurpose vehicle that is based on the MDS or “modular design system platform” was previously launched at the 2011 Geneva Motor Show.

The zero-emissions vehicle is electrically powered using an electric motor that can generate a power output of 85 kW and a torque of 199 lb.-ft. The electric motor is supplied with energy from a lithium-ion battery with a maximum storage capacity of 40 kWh.

When it comes to performance, the new Bulli can accelerate from 0 to 62 mph in about 11.5 seconds and with a top speed of 87 mph. The lithium-ion battery pack lets the Bulli Concept to a run a total of 186.4 miles on single charge.

Volkswagen had announced the availability of gas and diesel direct injection powertrains as alternative drives for the new Bulli Concept that was launched at Geneva Motor Show. But the German automaker has not made it clear whether the engine options will be there for the North American model.

The Volkswagen Bulli Concept that debuted at New York will also feature an infotainment system that’s solely controlled by an Apple iPad, the company added.

VW Van, stolen in 1974, Returns Home With a Little Help From Its Friends

A VW Van is one vehicle that inspires loyalty among it's owners....Like many VWs, there were great memories associated with the time spent on the road....I had a 1969 Karmann Ghia in College and it was FUN to drive.....pretty sporty too.

Here is the end of the story for a VW Van that was stolen in 1974 ad found it's way back to it's rightful owner....with a little help from some friends.


Van, Stolen in '74, Returns Home With a Little Help From Its Friends
By MIRIAM JORDAN
WSJ.com


SPOKANE, Wash.—Last Christmas, Michele "Mikey" Carlson Squires' middle son, Matt, gave her a toy Volkswagen van, just like the blue-and-white hippie mobile stolen from her in 1974.

The gift was meant as a consolation. Miraculously, the real microbus recently had been discovered and auctioned off, but Ms. Squires was outbid in her attempt to buy it. "You didn't get your van back, but this is something you'll always remember it by," said her son.

This year, Ms. Squires has her bus back just in time for Christmas.

"Everything looks the same, except the curtains are gone," Ms. Squires declared, sitting at the wheel of the refurbished 1965 microbus outside the Chinese restaurant where she works.

On Tuesday night, Ms. Squires gathered family, old buddies and customers at Cathay Inn to celebrate the van's homecoming, a day after she and her boyfriend finished hauling it 1,300 miles from a car auctioneer's lot in California. "Congratulations, Mikey!" read a banner that greeted about 100 revelers, who posed for pictures with the vehicle in the biting cold.

Ms. Squires' bus was merely a memory when she spotted it on a TV news report in November 2009. It had been found by customs agents at the Los Angeles port—in pristine condition and bound for Europe—three decades after disappearing from a Spokane auto-repair shop.

After the The Wall Street Journal ran a front-page story last year about Ms. Squires' surprising discovery and her attempts to reclaim the van, a retired attorney tracked her down at Cathay Inn. As they exchanged recipes and family stories by email, a friendship blossomed. "I decided I was going to do everything to get her beloved back," says Kris Cook, 68, of Tulsa, Okla.

And thus began the year-long journey to reunite Ms. Squires with her VW bus. "Not a week went by when someone at the restaurant didn't ask me about it," says Ms. Squires of the bus, which went missing just before a trip she had planned to the Rocky Mountains with several girlfriends, then in their 20s.

Now 59 years old, those women were at Tuesday's celebration wearing tie-dye shirts and peace-sign chokers. Janice Updike, who claims to be the wildest of the van gang, brought a chocolate cake with a design of a VW bus, peace signs and daisies adorning its side. A barber shop quartet that sang at the Cathay Inn in the 1970s crooned a corny song about Coney Island. On a round table with memorabilia, an album featured fuzzy pictures of Mikey and her friends in bandanas and bell-bottom jeans.

"We'd pile in as many people as we could get in there," said Maralee Appa, who is ribbed by the gals about having conceived her oldest daughter in the van. (She denies it).

Ms. Squires, tall and thin with a girlish face framed by brown hair and bangs, was overwhelmed by the attention. "This is surreal," she said.

Over the past year, she's had other offers of help. One man said he'd give her $1,000 to help buy back the van, in honor of a VW bus he had once owned. Ms. Squires thanked him but didn't take the money. Another wrote a letter to Allstate Insurance Co., which had paid a $2,500 claim to Ms. Squires after it was stolen in 1974, in which he suggested that giving the vehicle back to her would be good public relations for the company.

Shortly after the van was retrieved last year, Allstate, which said it was the rightful owner because it had paid the claim decades ago, announced it would auction the bus and donate the proceeds to charity. A few days before Christmas, the van was sold at auction for $30,250 to an undisclosed buyer.

Ms. Squires figured "the party was over," she recalls. But Ms. Cook, the attorney from Tulsa, never lost hope. In a flurry of phone calls and emails, she began questioning whether any party since Ms. Squires had a title to the vehicle, which had changed hands several times. "I obnoxiously bugged companies and authorities," says Ms. Cook.

Finally, she learned from the National Insurance Crime Bureau and the California Highway Patrol that Allstate didn't have title to the vehicle, which meant it couldn't legally transfer it to a new owner. Then, the California Department of Motor Vehicles notified Copart.com, the company that conducted the auction, that a court judgment was required "stating to whom the vehicle has been awarded."

Months passed. The van sat in a Copart.com warehouse in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.

The parties finally reached a settlement that enabled Ms. Squires to get the bus back. Ms. Squires says she agreed with Copart and other parties not to disclose the terms of the deal, revealing only that she borrowed money from her boyfriend, Earl Roethle, to acquire it.

Last week, Ms. Squires and her boyfriend set out from Washington state to southern California, pulling a trailer behind their truck. For good luck, Ms. Squires placed the toy bus that her son gave her last Christmas on it.

The couple drove about 18 hours, stopping only for fuel and bathroom breaks. When Ms. Squires first saw the VW, she gushed, "It's got some cobwebs and dust on it, but it's beautiful." It needed a jump start to come to life.

On the ride back to Washington, a highway patrolman approached Mr. Roethle when he stopped for diesel just 60 miles outside Spokane. Mr. Roethle says he froze, only to hear the officer ask: "Is that the 'one'?"

In Spokane, Mr. Roethle installed a new battery, put air in the tires and shined up the bus for the celebration. "If I were to pay all that money for a car, I'd buy a vintage Pontiac GTO," he said, before quickly adding: "But it means a lot to Mikey. We'll have fun with it."

At the party Tuesday night, Ms. Squires's sister, Pat Strong, had her own idea: "Truth is, I'd like her to keep it for a year, sell it and put the money in her retirement account."

Not a chance, said Ms. Squires: "This is my legacy to my grandchildren."

She's waiting for the winter to pass before she starts driving it. She and her buddies already have plans to ride the bus in the Spokane Lilac Festival parade next spring, all decked out for the occasion.

Write to Miriam Jordan at miriam.jordan@wsj.com

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