Lots of memories here, too. My first car was a 1966 bug that I bought from my brother in 1974. That was also my first engine rebuild a couple of years later. Then I had a ‘68 van until a tree fell on it in 1980, and a ‘69 van from 1987 until 1998. I too carried many parts and tools, as well a a copy of John Muir’s indispensable book (though it was a mistake when they changed away from a spiral binding in the later editions).
I learned 4-wheel sliding on gravel roads in the bug, and took the vans into some horrible places and got out again. Lived in the ‘68 van one summer while working for the Forest Service.
I miss having a VW sometimes, but I really don’t miss trudging along the highway at 55 or so, and slower up hills.
I converted all of my vans to campers in the back so we could sleep on the road when we traveled. My wife and I are both veterans and served in the Air Force together. We took long road trips on our leaves and in between assignments in our vans. We loved them
Once, when we were stationed in Missouri, we took a long camping trip in our VW van through the back roads of Tennessee, snooping around for antiques. Backcountry rural roads are not always marked clearly, so after heading down one road a while, we realized we'd taken a wrong turn at the previous fork in the road. So I turned the van around but misjudged the tall grass in the roadside ditch and backed too far into it. The entire back of the van went down into the ditch, while the front end shot up into the air with the front wheels spinning. Everything in the van but my wife and I slide to the backend. We just looked at each other, and after our initial shock, just laughed out loud at our predicament. We were in the middle of nowhere and no help in sight. We tried pulling the front end down onto the road but the weight in the back was too much. No cell phones back then so we just pulled out a couple of lawn chairs and sat down to wait for a car to drive by. After about 45 minutes, an old pick-up truck came by with an even older couple inside. They stopped and looked at our problem and agreed to pull us out. It didn't take much because we were kind of balanced like a teeter-totter. One yank with their chain tipped us back on the road and our problem was solved. We thanked them profusely, even offered to pay them for their trouble. They refused but said their payoff was seeing a couple of Missourians stuck like we were. They were from Tennessee and were mocking us with tongue-in-cheek. We all laughed and were on the road again.
Just one more story we tell about our adventurous and eventful VW road trips. There are lots of them.