Vehicle Maintenance #1of9

Volkswagen, 1970 Camper Van, driven in 1970

Arrangements had been made in the USA (with a Druggist, of all people) for the Van to be waiting for us at the Frankfurt, Germany, airport. Our plane was a day late, but the Van was there as promised.

The plan was that Emmy and I would sleep inside the Van, and Daughter Linda and her friend Pupa (AKA Linda) would sleep on cots in a tent. The problem was, the promised tent was missing, and there was no cigarette lighter to run my electric razor. Both problems were solved with little inconvenience.

We called the dealer in Hamburg and he shipped the tent to a VW dealer in Munich. In the meantime we slept three in the Van’s main bed, with Pupa sleeping in the roof-bed. Sleeping was crowded for only two nights before we picked up the tent in Munich. It worked out just fine, but Emmy said she was more crowded than she wanted to be.

Since the 110 volt razor would not work on the European 220 volt electricity, I went to a barber for a shave every other day. In Interlaken, Switzerland, the barber was a blond with soft, warm hands, and that’s better than either 110 or 220 volt.

The refrigerator, while running on the vehicle’s 12 Volt system, barely got cold while we drove, but the times we were close enough to plug into the 220 volt electricity in a campsite, it worked just fine over night. Then it would stay cold as long as we were driving, or if we did not park for too long. Since it drew power from the one and only battery, we had to turn it off while we were parked for more than a few minutes.

Just as we entered the campsite in Rome, Italy, the Van ran out of gasoline. It couldn’t have happened at a better place, and a kind lady from England provided transportation to the station and back. That was the fault of the driver, not the VW.

At the end of our trip Cousin Reinhold drove the VW Van from the Frankfurt airport to Hamburg where it was loaded on a ship to Los Angeles. Somewhere in there someone pilfered the large water bottle, the propane gas bottle, and ripped out the curtains, but insurance paid for replacements. We sold the VW Van within a week after it arrived in Los Angeles.