This story started over 25 years ago, when I got my learner's permit. I didn't know how to drive a stick shift, so my best friend's mom took me out around the neighborhood in their 1973 VW Beetle. She had been the happy owner since 1975 and was passing it down to my best friend as his first car. We had many adventures in that Bug, growing up in Washington state.
I later had a 1971 Beetle of my own in high school and a few years in college, until I passed it on to my younger brother.
The VW Beetle obsession had hit me hard. I started a toy Bug collection years ago and wanted to get my hands on anything and everything Volkswagen. I had always told Kevin and Geri that if the Bug ever left the family, I wanted it. Kevin had passed it down to his sister, a cousin had it for a while and another sister owned it.
While on a ski lift in 2012, Kevin called and asked if I wanted her. Of course the answer was YES. After we worked out all the details and shipped the old girl out to Maine, I was once again a VW owner. And it wasn't just any VW, it was the actual car that I had learned to drive stick on forever ago! The Bug had new seat covers, fresh paint and new wheels since the days we drove her. The only thing that I have done to it (other than oil changes and brakes) is put in a new Euro Exhaust. It has been so great to be reunited and back in the driver’s seat of a classic VW!