Your first van memory thingy!

Excluding the test drive, the drive home was a bit sketchy but decided to drive through villages and the backroads rather than the motorway.

I had the phone on the dash blasting out tinny tunes, windows down, shades on, mild sense of euphoria and anticipation rolled into one.

spluttery, no fuel gauge...

sang along to “Me, My Mum, My Dad and my Brother” by the Wonderstuff (a song about good memories) while stuck in traffic... couldn’t hear the phone once up to the dizzying speed of 40mph

Then the inevitable breakdown as she ran out of petrol as we climbed a long hill and the remaining fuel drained away from the fuel outlet!!

And at that point she earned her name - Landyn - a homebrew feminisation of the old English for long hill (Landon) and slightly less pedo use of the “pigg” in the number plate than calling her Peppa.

A few months on I was working on her outside my house and Community police lady knocked on my neighbours door and while she waited for her to answer we started the story of what the van was called and why... as I was starting to get to the pig bit my neighbour answered the door and I realised that the Police lady may not have seen that part of the story in quite a an innocent way as it was intended!

 

Yes ! But know body has ever seen it and if you do it’s probably a mirage


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1983 in Germany when a friend of my mums had just bought a brand new brown and beige T3 caravelle and we all went out for a drive with me getting the honour of sitting above the engine as there weren't enough seats.

 

I bought my bus knowing it didn't change into 3rd gear properly, (it's an auto), it was the first one I'd seen and had never been in one or driven one before. It was only 30 miles away so I decided to drive it home. My first memory was the drive home at 35mph as it refused to change up on all but 2 occasions, seeing all the traffic in my mirrors and the look on their faces when they finally got past still haunts me.

My last memory was the drive home from Techenders last September at 35mph as one of the camshaft lobes had rounded off , seeing all the traffic in my mirrors and the look on their faces when they finally got past still haunts me.

Some things never change

 

Bought the Bug as something for me, after finding out that trying too hard to be what other people want you to be, can result in unexpected loneliness.

Took the Bug the 1500 odd miles to Superfest at Le Man's after getting it back on the road and decided, however much I like the idea of taking the Bug racing, you need to get home after breaking it, besides staying in a tent is only fun when the sun shines.

Looked for a rust free Bus and rejected mine as being too far away, in Hull, and too fussy for my tastes, it did tick the rest off my boxes, however.

I also had this strange notion that the Bus could tow a Bug. By the time I realized that was a daft idea, I was hooked on trying it. A few weeks later, the same Bus turned back up just an hour away, I was suspicious, but decided to look anyway. Turns out the owner was living a new dream and had bought a guest house/hotel, the Bus was pretty rust free, I was unlikely to find better without traveling, and its reappearance locally was legit; they needed the money for renovations.

My abiding memory? My inability to find second gear as I pulled away in my very own Van, five minutes later, with my mate zooming off into the distance, I was slowly getting the hang of the gearbox everyone waves and loves them, but they aren't really a driver's vehicle

I still don't have anything to tow the Bug, it's seriously tempting to cash in, given the current climate for campers, especially while the racing itch remains unscratched and camping opportunities of the type I enjoy, festivals and the like, where's there's lots to see and do, actually remain somewhat curtailed. The pragmatist inside me keeps saying, it's a lot of money tied up, not really getting enough use

 

Picked ours up fro Cullompton in Devon, ran out of fuel within about 500 yards.
Once that was sorted the long drive home to South Yorkshire at about 50mph in convoy with the wife seemed to take forever...once home and timing sorted, it was much more pleasant to drive.

 

I know the feeling well Andrew, the problem is that the money would soon be spent on other stuff and that'd be it no more bus

 

Yeah, it's a tough call, and apologies, it wasn't intended as a moan, just a realistic assessment of planned use (not really enough) versus cost, maintenance effort and storage issues. The lack of festivals, shows and such like, is an embuggerance that's clouding the bigger picture, but I think my expectations were probably just too high. If there were 3 TLB's in the world, all where I could make multiple nuisances of myself, it might work better

I wonder what the market will do once the masses realize that actually having a Van is a social thing and being sociable right now is a big problem.

 

I sold my second westy in 2018
Bought an Eriba caravan though it would be more comfortable used it for a while but it didn’t feel the same .
Soon got rid and bought the tin top ,
I still don’t know if it was the right thing to do or not

 

Ha! Never buy anything sight-unseen. I’ll post his hilarious eBay description if I can find it. He worked in Marketing. Need I say more?

 

Bought a kombi minibus in 1990 for £800 from a shyster in the Forest of Dean who assured me there wasn't supposed to be a sill under the sliding door..........Once had 9 of us in it but most had to get out and run alongside to get up a hill on the way to into town.

Took the bench seats out and had my mam's wicker sofa in there for a while, then it got hit from behind and written off outside our house, the deformation panel smashed into the back of my mam's car parked in front, writing that off as well.

 

My 73 Westy was bought second hand by my grandparents in 1979. Sadly, my grandfather passed away later that year and they never had a chance to use it for camping. My grandmother began using it as a daily driver in the late 80’s after she totaled her Plymouth Duster. It was a tough car to use as daily driver in the northern US and my grandmother had a club foot from polio.

During my first year of university, I sold my Vespa 150 and was about to move up to a 400 cc bike. My family freaked. My aunt and grandmother were both nurses. They offered to give me the bus if I put my bike money toward getting grandma a used K car. I had wanted that bus since the late 70’s.

So I have owned the bus and have been driving it since 1990. I was 20 years old when I first got it.