Well, Volkswagens have always been my dream car. When I was 15, after looking with my best bud for 6 months, I finally found it. A white, 1970 deluxe (didn’t know it at the time) “California” transporter I named “Sonnie”. I bought it for $1200 and it sat in my garage another 6 months before I actually had a license. It ran good and had hardly any rust. I drove it through high school and helped me get a hot girlfriend (who is now my wife). At some point in time I bought a 74 weekender that I used to pass on the way to school. It was Sonnie’s girlfriend, so I bought it for my girlfriend. Alas, it never ran for more than 5 miles, so I sold it. Before I sold it I took out the camper interior and put it in Sonnie, and I had also changed the windows. After three years and two engines, and in a serious lapse of judgment about myself, I sold Sonnie after I blew my second engine.
So eleven years after my first dream car purchase, and four children later, my wife and I got the hitch for another bus to enjoy. It had to be a pop-top this time, so we could go camping, and fortunately it would not have to be a daily driver. So we started looking on a trip out west for our new bus. We hoped to find one and tow it back to Florida. we saw some westys in Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona, but were shocked at the prices that VWs were fetching now. So we watched and waited. And then my wife remembered that her uncle used to have a camper sitting out in one of his fields (he had 100s of rotting cars out in the woods). So she called him up and he said he didn’t have one…he had too. He ended up giving them to us for free! And so the journey has begun with our 1969 and 1971 Westfaslias.
