1978 Dodge Transvan

In 1983 we drove (in our rental car) to the PX parking lot at the US Army base, Robinson Barracks, on the edge of Stuttgart. We saw a 1978 Dodge Transvan with a “For Sale” sign. We called the phone number on the window, and Major Doyle said they would meet us at the camper at 2:30 that afternoon. The Baskin Robbins 31 Flavors ice cream store next to the PX had just opened a couple of days earlier. The line was long and took forever, but the ice cream was just like home.

We met the Doyle’s at the PX, and since we had already had enough of the hotel and restaurant nonsense (two or three days and nights!), we bought the 1978 Dodge for their asking price. They had decided they would take it back to the States if they didn’t get the price they wanted.

After driving 7,900 miles, crossing 18 borders, visiting 8 countries, during 87 days in Europe in 1983, we parked the Dodge in a garage of a neighbor of Emmy’s cousins.

We returned twenty months later, in 1985, and in 156 days we drove 16,300 miles, crossing borders 27 times, and spent days and nights in 17 countries. The cost for our nearly 250 days and nights and 25,000 miles of European travel in this vehicle (including over 150 nights in the RV, and hundreds of meals in the kitchen), was perhaps $10 per day.

We drove the Dodge to Rotterdam, loaded it — and us — on the TSS Stefan Batory, stopped in London, sailed to Montreal, then drove to California. We drove this RV throughout the US and across Canada for the next several years. It drove very well, and was as comfortable as any vehicle we have owned, including the 1978 Cadillac that we owned for 22 years.