Bugs, Buses & Brotherhood Drew Bird Estep Ep64

[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to Dub Life Diaries.

[SPEAKER_00]: The podcast where passion meets the open road.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm Joe Parson, your host, and also a lifelong lover.

[SPEAKER_00]: Book a love, because this ride is just beginning.

[SPEAKER_00]: This podcast is sponsored by Volk's Mania Magazine.

[SPEAKER_00]: Good times, great cars, awesome Volk's Maniacs.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome back to Dublife Diaries.

[SPEAKER_00]: Most people think cars are just machines, metal, wheels, and an engine that gets you from point A to point B.

[SPEAKER_00]: But then every once in a while, there's something that's just a little bit different.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's something that shows up in your life that's not just transportation.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a memory, it's an identity, it's a connection.

[SPEAKER_00]: And for some people, it becomes the thread that runs through their entire life without them even realizing it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Today's guest is one of those people.

[SPEAKER_00]: Drew, Bird, Eastip, he didn't grow up rich.

[SPEAKER_00]: No dealerships in the family, no race teams, no big flashy story, probably like you'd even expect.

[SPEAKER_00]: Just the middle class family from Tennessee trying to make life work.

[SPEAKER_00]: But somehow woven into all of it, the highs, the lows, the chaos, the rebuilding.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's Volkswagen.

[SPEAKER_00]: and it's not on the way that you'd expect it either.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're talking about beta beetles that barely ran.

[SPEAKER_00]: A car with literally a wooden bumper, a wooden bumper, a bus with flowers and a giant FU painted on the side of it.

[SPEAKER_00]: And moments that hit so deep, a grown man will even break down, just thinking about getting this car back into his life, not because of what it's worth either, because of what it represents.

[SPEAKER_00]: Family, brotherhood, identity, and that feeling that when you lose yourself for a little while sometimes, and then something unexpected pulls you back.

[SPEAKER_00]: What makes this story so powerful is it's not just about cars and Drew will be the first one to tell you this ain't even really his story.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's his family story.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's about brothers who show up when you need him the most about rebuilding life when it knocks you flat on your back about finding that one thing that keeps calling you back no matter how far you drift off.

[SPEAKER_00]: Somehow for him, that thing is Volkswagen's.

[SPEAKER_00]: From Beatles to buses to build an entire garage around one car and end it up with four.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is going to be one of those conversations that starts with cars, but very quickly turns into something way deeper.

[SPEAKER_00]: So if you've ever had that something in your life, a passion, a person, a memory that's stuck with you through everything, [SPEAKER_00]: This one's going to feel a little bit different.

[SPEAKER_00]: This one's for you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Drew, bird, Eastett, welcome to Doug Live Diaries.

[SPEAKER_00]: Hey, thank you.

[SPEAKER_00]: You appreciate it.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're welcome, brother.

[SPEAKER_00]: You are so welcome.

[SPEAKER_00]: I've been looking forward to this one since I talked to you that first time on the cell phone for just a little while.

[SPEAKER_00]: This going to be a great family, great story.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm excited for this one.

[SPEAKER_00]: Before we get into it though, and dive into questions, I'll give a shout out to my sponsors real quick.

[SPEAKER_00]: First up on the list, Volk's Mania Magazine.

[SPEAKER_00]: You guys know how I feel.

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[SPEAKER_00]: All right, buddy, [SPEAKER_00]: Back to you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Back to you.

[SPEAKER_00]: You got you ready to jump into this.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's do it man.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm ready for you.

[SPEAKER_00]: So take me back then.

[SPEAKER_00]: What did life look like growing up in your family?

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, my father was a military guy, served 23 years in a military.

[SPEAKER_01]: Armed forces was our army retired when I was younger.

[SPEAKER_01]: My brothers got an experience of few things overseas, but we retired, he retired back in his hometown and Johnson City, Tennessee.

[SPEAKER_01]: And we grew up with a lot of love, not a lot of money, my dad, [SPEAKER_01]: Once you get out the military, you know, you, he actually didn't graduate high school.

[SPEAKER_01]: He, he finished the eighth grade.

[SPEAKER_01]: He was at all a child went to school in the military.

[SPEAKER_01]: Got his GD when he retired, went back to school, went to college, got a degree.

[SPEAKER_01]: Wow.

[SPEAKER_01]: He was more of a trade guy than anything.

[SPEAKER_01]: very hand on which kind of helped me out a life obviously and helped my brothers out as well.

[SPEAKER_01]: But yeah, you know, small net family, my two brothers Scott and Billy, huge part of my life still are a mom and father, just loving us and giving us everything we needed.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now.

[SPEAKER_00]: You said that you didn't grow up with a lot of money, but when we talk about your background, I look at your story, your memory, sound rich.

[SPEAKER_00]: Why is that?

[SPEAKER_01]: Just post that family, you know, my mom and dad, they both grew up in East Tennessee, they both were only about four miles [SPEAKER_01]: You know, being that close and around that community, I think that that made us rich, you know, I mean, just being able to be around family and get that love and you know, I said Martin money wasn't necessarily always that wasn't like we were.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, we've, we've, for Fed, closed, we've had a roof over our heads, but as for like, riches?

[SPEAKER_01]: No.

[SPEAKER_01]: No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no [SPEAKER_00]: Now, you mentioned beetles.

[SPEAKER_00]: They were around, you know, always, all through your childhood growing up.

[SPEAKER_00]: What do you think it was about those early beetles that stuck with you the most?

[SPEAKER_01]: But for me, it was definitely the smell.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's something about that when you sit down in the seats and that crack, and I don't know what it is.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I've heard so many stories about horse hair, and then those things, I don't know what it is, but the original is the best.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, there's something about it.

[SPEAKER_00]: I hear that.

[SPEAKER_00]: I've had, I've brought it up myself on these on these previous episodes and I have guests at say the same thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's especially if they have original interior.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think it's a mixture of a vinyl in the horse hair and the gasoline, it's like a mixture of all the, but, but you're right, man.

[SPEAKER_00]: That that's sent is one of a kind for sure.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now.

[SPEAKER_00]: growing up, do you remember the feeling of the car more than the car itself?

[SPEAKER_00]: Or do you remember the car itself more than the feeling of having those cars?

[SPEAKER_01]: I'll be honest with you.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think it's a little bit of both.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I've always enjoyed the flat dash, just the metal dash, just I've always loved that feel to look.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, as a kid, not getting to drive, but being around [SPEAKER_01]: To be honest, the experience of the car and riding in them, obviously, yes, you know, I mean there's there's is so much, you know, with the brothers in the back, no sea belts, you know, we're acting a fool and dad's trying to calm us down and just I guess it's a little bit of both, you know, I've enjoyed everything about this course still that.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, you say, and I mentioned this in your intro, but your first beetle had a wooden bumper.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: Explain that for me, because I got to hear this story.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, my middle brother, a middle brother, was in college and I was in high school.

[SPEAKER_01]: And just getting ready to get my driver's license, getting ready to do my thing.

[SPEAKER_01]: I hope that we drive in.

[SPEAKER_01]: And my father, I was saying we would, at this point in time, my mother and father separate.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I was back in Tennessee, we moved around and I moved back to Tennessee with my father.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, probably the only thing that we could really afford at the time was two full twack and beetles for 300 bucks.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, it was a perfect piece.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, 300 bucks.

[SPEAKER_01]: Hmm.

[SPEAKER_01]: It one was a super beat.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I wanted to say it was a 72, 73.

[SPEAKER_01]: And the other was a 1970 standard beatle that I just, it was my thing.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I had a choice.

[SPEAKER_01]: I got to pick out, [SPEAKER_01]: He actually gave me the option to say to my middle brother, the option, which my middle brother still says stuff about that.

[SPEAKER_01]: And, but I wanted to, you know, wanted to super for a second because it had to suddenly, I was like, yeah, I could roll back the sunroof.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, it'll be in East Tennessee, I could live in Lake, I could have this sunroof back.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, anyways, [SPEAKER_01]: looking a little further at the super beetle is rusted out.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, the body, it was just, it looked like, you know, I guess Tennessee saw whatever got to it and it'd been a lot of work.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I wanted something a little more solid.

[SPEAKER_01]: So the 70, I looked at it.

[SPEAKER_01]: It was basically the four pads needed to be replaced and of course replacing the one of my six that I had as a front [SPEAKER_01]: But yeah, that's a, when that car shot and I couldn't believe it.

[SPEAKER_01]: I looked at my dad and I said, really, a wooden buffer on this car and he just kind of laughed.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's like, look, we're going to replace all that.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's the big deal.

[SPEAKER_01]: But I actually drove around for about three, four months with that wooden buffer on the front of that car.

[SPEAKER_01]: It was crazy.

[SPEAKER_00]: What is a car like that?

[SPEAKER_00]: Teach a young guy.

[SPEAKER_01]: For me, I think respect for cars and [SPEAKER_01]: not only respect for money to be honest, you know, when you, when you see your father and I get it, you know, I've, I've bought cars, you know, bought cars, but there's something about getting those cars and it's yours and that freedom, when you're at that age, there's something about even working on and having that car, you see,

[SPEAKER_01]: a project, and I noticed sounds cliche, and I hate to sound like this, but I have always had a little back when I can see cars, especially Volkswagen's or even motorcycles I used to ride.

[SPEAKER_01]: But I can see the future of it at home, and it's almost like I can see things put on it.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I know there's a lot of builders out there, and it sees that, and it's just to me it's unique, and I would love that feeling.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that's kind of, but I think I think it teaches a young man, especially respect, just respect for how things can break down on.

[SPEAKER_01]: And when you have no money and how you're going to fix it, you know?

[SPEAKER_01]: It teaches you a lot of lessons.

[SPEAKER_00]: You'll figure it out.

[SPEAKER_00]: So do you think then that in your life that with these first cars, do you think this is where the obsession started for you or was it before this, even?

[SPEAKER_01]: I think I got stung with it at an early age.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think that it probably bit me then, but I didn't realize as much until my very first beat, my 70 beat.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think that get it in that car and the adventures that that car and I went on.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, they really were, I mean, we only vote while I say only, but mostly around Western North Carolina and Eastern Tennessee.

[SPEAKER_00]: I had a 72 standard fresh out of high school, 1995, 96 was when I bought this car, Tyrone Square Mall Park and Lot, St. Petersburg, Florida.

[SPEAKER_00]: I paid two grand for it, had 77,000 miles on it, bought it from a little lady one owner.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was beautiful.

[SPEAKER_00]: But you just said something that resonated with me and made me want to say those details.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that was, [SPEAKER_00]: the stories and the adventures that you went on in that car.

[SPEAKER_00]: I did the same thing, man.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, you know, between going down south to Boca Grant and fishing, you know, for tarp and in the past and taking that car down there and link it up with some charter boat captains and, you know, getting out there and fishing to East Coast trips and Venice trips.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, we used to strap the surfboards up on the roof, you know, my buddies at first were like, [SPEAKER_00]: Man, hold on, you expect us to get in that little car and you think that thing's going to make it?

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, absolutely.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, you think that thing's going to make it all the way.

[SPEAKER_00]: You have to drive down the B-line.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we're going to go to the East Coast, man.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're crazy.

[SPEAKER_00]: But hey, we'll do it.

[SPEAKER_00]: We'll try.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that went, that went from that to a year or two later.

[SPEAKER_00]: Hey, we're all going in the Beetle.

[SPEAKER_00]: it's like they could trust it.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know what I mean?

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I mean, this saying about me, that this is definitely about.

[SPEAKER_01]: No, that's it.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think it is.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think it's about the whole community.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that's why you're doing what you do.

[SPEAKER_01]: And we do appreciate you, man.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I know that.

[SPEAKER_01]: that's something that's very important.

[SPEAKER_01]: It really is.

[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you, man.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I agree, you know, because guys like you and being able to to lock these stories in for life, this is what it's all about, man, is is telling these stories.

[SPEAKER_00]: Everybody's got a Volkswagen story, but not everybody has a whole lifetime around them, you know.

[SPEAKER_00]: All right.

[SPEAKER_00]: When I get these opportunities to connect with guys like you, your family, your brothers, yourself, you know, the whole thing, your father, the whole picture is just such a great thing, man.

[SPEAKER_00]: So thank you for coming on for sure.

[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for having me for sure.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's no.

[SPEAKER_00]: In your backstory, you mentioned that you went through a tough period.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: Talk to me about this tough period.

[SPEAKER_00]: What happened?

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, later on in life down, I've, you know, through college, uh, I did well, through college now.

[SPEAKER_01]: I had, I had several Beatles.

[SPEAKER_01]: I had a Volkswagen thing, uh, drove it to college.

[SPEAKER_01]: Cool.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, year 1973, you have you ever seen that, well, I'm sure you have, but the Charlotte fornic green color.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, is that like, is that called green version of North Carolina blue?

[SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[SPEAKER_00]: They called it the beat you blew is what it was called.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: It was called beat you blew it.

[SPEAKER_01]: I want to say I can't remember the company that made it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Anyways, [SPEAKER_01]: My brother bought that car in the summer socket.

[SPEAKER_01]: I only he lived here at him.

[SPEAKER_01]: My middle brother lived here at the time.

[SPEAKER_01]: But he bought the car at his wife, bought it for $1,000 at a car a lot.

[SPEAKER_01]: I ended up with and painted it that color because he picked it out.

[SPEAKER_01]: Did some work on it?

[SPEAKER_01]: took the put and had to put a new top arm and there's so many things in that car driving back and forth from East Tennessee to Greenville.

[SPEAKER_01]: You're on the Greenville North Carolina South Carolina and I went to school there in college there and I had a 68 B to let in time as well and my father and I built a motor and that saying there's just there's so much [SPEAKER_01]: life throws and really to secure your things, you know, and there's guys out there it's been tougher times than me, but looking at, you know, divorces, you know, I had a child with a lady and my child's great, going to school, you know, just there's a lot of struggles

[SPEAKER_01]: I'll be honest with you, there was early in my life, my mom was telling me that I could have been somebody else's son.

[SPEAKER_01]: Right, right, right.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, [SPEAKER_01]: Here's what's crazy, come to find out two years ago, I took a test, a DNA test, and because my middle brother and I just wanted to know, we didn't care because we're brothers.

[SPEAKER_01]: Right.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're family.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, exactly.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is how strong that bond is.

[SPEAKER_01]: Sticker than blood.

[SPEAKER_01]: It is.

[SPEAKER_01]: A hundred percent love, man, will always come.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: Come to find out.

[SPEAKER_01]: I am somebody else's son.

[SPEAKER_01]: but I'm still an east step, 100%, 10%, okay, all right.

[SPEAKER_01]: So anyways, my, and so when I refer to my father, my father was an east step because he's the one that provided me with my first car, my passion for beetles, my roof of my head, food, everything.

[SPEAKER_01]: My not a head a lot of money, but we had a lot of love and I love that.

[SPEAKER_01]: I've never changed anything about that.

[SPEAKER_01]: I know I'm kind of getting off the subject area.

[SPEAKER_00]: All right.

[SPEAKER_00]: So through the hard times, did you lose any of your cars?

[SPEAKER_00]: I did.

[SPEAKER_01]: Time I had a 74 slammed standard beetle.

[SPEAKER_01]: Cut the roof out of it and I bought one of those, I don't remember the company, but it was out of Arizona, but you could drop in a rack top and [SPEAKER_01]: up in my drug brother's driveway.

[SPEAKER_01]: We set measured 20,000 times.

[SPEAKER_01]: I felt like the measured everything cut the roof out.

[SPEAKER_01]: I put original food wheels off of the 911 on it.

[SPEAKER_01]: I set to get the drums drilled out somewhere in Minnesota.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I don't have any, I didn't have a ton of money.

[SPEAKER_01]: I was just doing it when I saved money up.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'd get little things done.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I would love that far, dual parks.

[SPEAKER_01]: It only had like MP34 picks on it, you know, but that man it, it runs strong.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like a 17706, it was just a great look for.

[SPEAKER_01]: I missed that car in a sense, but it kind of pushed me to go for it.

[SPEAKER_01]: But I did lose that far.

[SPEAKER_01]: I lost it because I wanted to get out of, I thought.

[SPEAKER_01]: I wanted to do more of the Harley riding, [SPEAKER_01]: You know, which I did, I wrote all of a, I can pin point anywhere in Florida at any city in Florida.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I've been there on a motor side.

[SPEAKER_01]: Same.

[SPEAKER_01]: St. Pete St. Pete.

[SPEAKER_01]: St. Pete.

[SPEAKER_01]: I love St. Pete.

[SPEAKER_01]: Hey, how can you not go to the dollar museum?

[SPEAKER_01]: The dollar museum is best.

[SPEAKER_00]: Hey, so, so when we do V-dubbs on the pier in January at the Dolly Museum right across the street from the Dolly Museum is a little park called Albert Witted Park.

[SPEAKER_00]: that that scene of those cars lined up right when we're about to start that parade about 250 cars when the photographer is in the background he's taking that picture of you know all those cars lined up three rows and that big giant dolly museum the big glass bubbles like kind of encompassing the whole backdrop it's just a sick shot and I knew you could connect with it because you said [SPEAKER_01]: But, you know, that show, that's one of the shows I've been wanting, I've been marking on my list, that's definitely a show I've been wanting to go to.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I've seen, I've seen some YouTube videos.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you guys doing that, I watch, I watch everybody's YouTube video, if it has anything to do with both wagons.

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, so I've seen the drone flying in and out of the buses.

[SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's important to stand.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm dying to get there.

[SPEAKER_01]: I promise you, I'm going, I'm coming back.

[SPEAKER_00]: All right.

[SPEAKER_00]: Good stuff, man.

[SPEAKER_00]: You are more than welcome.

[SPEAKER_00]: More than welcome.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'll be looking forward to it now fast forward.

[SPEAKER_00]: Just a little bit.

[SPEAKER_00]: You lost that car, but your brother and your knee surprised you with a beetle walk me through that moment.

[SPEAKER_00]: All right.

[SPEAKER_00]: That is the same car.

[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, it was fun.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, no, that car.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, that no, here's the thing that car when I lost that car.

[SPEAKER_01]: I did trade.

[SPEAKER_01]: I was doing trading with my oldest brother that lives in Ohio, then.

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: But if that car was bought at a local Volkswagen dealership, well, not dealership.

[SPEAKER_01]: It was a shop.

[SPEAKER_01]: It was named Jerry's book shop, which God rest his soul.

[SPEAKER_01]: He passed away last August.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's a group.

[SPEAKER_01]: Amazing man.

[SPEAKER_01]: Did so much work for me.

[SPEAKER_01]: But Jerry had it in his front of his shop, and so my brother comes by my apartment.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I was driving an old 1980 West German Ford Fiesta, not a Festeba, but it was a Fiesta.

[SPEAKER_01]: But the hood would have opened up the wrong way, you know, and like a European car, it was slow, it was a cool car, I painted it, you know, hand painting, you know, doing my own thing, but anyways, my brother comes by my apartment, picks me up and goes, hey, I need you to go with me and check out this car McGee as I'm looking at the story.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I said, oh, yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: Car McGee, that's pretty cool, man, because you had to convertible.

[SPEAKER_01]: This thing's gonna be right.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because it's at Jerry's book shop.

[SPEAKER_01]: We need to write up here and look and see what you think.

[SPEAKER_01]: I like to get your opinion.

[SPEAKER_01]: I say, yeah, cool, let's go.

[SPEAKER_01]: So we hopped in the car at the time.

[SPEAKER_01]: My niece was about five, six years old.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so we get out of the car and Jerry's clothes.

[SPEAKER_01]: So he's already locked up for the day he's gone.

[SPEAKER_01]: But the Beatles set an outside defense of his life.

[SPEAKER_01]: And the Carmen Dia that my brother was trying to refer to was on the right side of his field in the weeds.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: that we get over there and I look at this car and it's destroyed.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I look like a tree fell on top of it.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, it was just destroyed.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, I looked at my brother and I said, what are you talking about?

[SPEAKER_01]: And he goes, this car right here, man, this car McGee, I want to restore it.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm like, I don't know about that car's game.

[SPEAKER_01]: That car was gone.

[SPEAKER_01]: Anyways, my niece has tugged it on him as he's talking about this car McGee.

[SPEAKER_01]: And she's like, no dad, no dad, no dad.

[SPEAKER_01]: The beetle, the orange beetle, and my brother's looks down like a single.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, calm down, calm down.

[SPEAKER_01]: And she's like, no dad, the orange beetle, the orange beetle.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because it was orange before I painted it.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I never liked orange beetles.

[SPEAKER_01]: That was one of my only things.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm sorry.

[SPEAKER_01]: I just don't like orange beetles.

[SPEAKER_01]: But anyways, finally he looks that mangoes.

[SPEAKER_01]: Hey, man.

[SPEAKER_01]: He just pulls the keys out of his pocket and it gives him to me and puts him in and he goes, I bought you a beat on there.

[SPEAKER_01]: I said, what?

[SPEAKER_01]: He said, I don't want you to be around, drive around that one far.

[SPEAKER_01]: I want you to drive around something that you enjoyed and you've always enjoyed both games.

[SPEAKER_01]: And he goes, we can do something with this.

[SPEAKER_01]: He goes, not third cylinder is not, so it needs a rebuild, but we'll fix that.

[SPEAKER_01]: We'll get that fixed, and I said, oh, dude.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because I'm not the greatest of mechanics, and I'm gonna lose chain tree kind of guys that try to, but I'd learn a lot.

[SPEAKER_01]: And, [SPEAKER_01]: Well, I got the motor rebuild it and that was my car man.

[SPEAKER_01]: I drove that far around and did all that work to it over the years.

[SPEAKER_01]: I drove that car for a while.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then what do I said before, when I traded it to my oldest brother, so I was brother.

[SPEAKER_01]: He took it to Ohio and had it for about a year in his driveway.

[SPEAKER_01]: And some young kid bought it there.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's like, I think he was like 18 years old and.

[SPEAKER_01]: They read the motor again and now he's driving it around in Ohio up around a young town of Ohio right now.

[SPEAKER_01]: So that car is still on the road still same wheels same wheels slams.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I mean, it had so much custom work done to it.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, of course, like this everybody does steering wheels.

[SPEAKER_01]: We all do the wheels steering wheels.

[SPEAKER_01]: It had static lowering in [SPEAKER_00]: So fast forward, I guess, to recent times, you build a lot of cars now, you know, you've had a lifetime around these cars is building cars.

[SPEAKER_00]: I know you said you're more of a shade tree type mechanic, but is it still kind of like therapeutic for you?

[SPEAKER_00]: Like it is for a lot of these builders?

[SPEAKER_01]: 100%.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I don't think I realized it in early all in life in my 20s and 30s.

[SPEAKER_01]: of how much it is therapeutic for me.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, just yesterday, you know, I've got a few visitors in at my house right now, but in my garage, they went and took a little nap.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm sitting, I get out of the house, I go out in my garage and I go work on my bus.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I'm just, I'm out here.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm constantly, I probably out there more than I am in my house, other than taking a shower [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so you're dad.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is going to be a good story because this was in the in the intro as well.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's talk about the bus with the flowers and the big F U on the on what is this story and what did he do the F U or what we did not even that this thing was pulled out of the woods and place up a mountain city Tennessee.

[SPEAKER_01]: So that's a very tip of the east Tennessee close for the North Carolina line.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know how the bus got to have you in the flowers on and apparently some, there was somebody was pissed, somebody was pissed, but my dad bought the bus for, I think it was like $180, $170, what was, what was the bus?

[SPEAKER_01]: It was like a 74 bay window.

[SPEAKER_01]: Striped out, it was a transporter, it was a transporter, it was a tentop.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: The walkthrough had no middle seat, had a back seat that was ripped up, had a, you know, two front seats were pretty good, but nothing else inside of it.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it was red and white, white top red pop.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, he gets it.

[SPEAKER_01]: and my oldest brother living in Tennessee at the time around him went and helped him got it out.

[SPEAKER_01]: Those two worked together very well.

[SPEAKER_01]: And in fact, my brother, my oldest brother said he had to put a nail in the back hub on the nut, so it wouldn't spin out.

[SPEAKER_01]: He was [SPEAKER_01]: And set that for a little while, they worked on a little bit, had it running.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, here comes my middle brother by man, would you get we went up to visit?

[SPEAKER_01]: He was from South Carolina, so he came up from South Carolina.

[SPEAKER_01]: Man, when you get that bus, I want to buy that.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, of course, my older brother at the time already bought it from my dad, I think he was painting like 300 bucks for it.

[SPEAKER_01]: No, a little brother.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, that wasn't fun.

[SPEAKER_01]: And this is good, this is good.

[SPEAKER_01]: My family loves to do this.

[SPEAKER_01]: But we're good with each other.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I love it.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't truly do.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I'm never brother because yeah, it's, I'll sell it to you for 1,500 bucks.

[SPEAKER_01]: And my middle brother bottle.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: And even funnier story.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm the youngest.

[SPEAKER_01]: I ended up with it.

[SPEAKER_01]: I had a 65 Mustang at the time.

[SPEAKER_01]: It was at a 289 automatic and four and I still had my black beetle at the time too.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, that car, I wanted that bus so bad.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I traded a 65 Mustang that I picked up on a trade and I drove that bus [SPEAKER_01]: for like three years and I love that thing.

[SPEAKER_01]: It ran like a champion.

[SPEAKER_01]: It really did.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, that was, I tended to win those.

[SPEAKER_01]: Painted, my middle brother helped me get it painted.

[SPEAKER_01]: We got it painted black on the bottom, white on top.

[SPEAKER_01]: Have to five start, empty wheels on it.

[SPEAKER_01]: It did have a that year's on it.

[SPEAKER_01]: It was a cool bus.

[SPEAKER_01]: 10, it did.

[SPEAKER_01]: Dark 10 and winters, you could even see that thing.

[SPEAKER_01]: And me get the skipper round in it.

[SPEAKER_01]: I love it, man.

[SPEAKER_00]: What do you think?

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, tell me why VW buses are such a different experience over vehicles.

[SPEAKER_01]: The city next space, for me, even the splitties and even the bay windows, the city in position experience for me is the best.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's like you have full view of everything.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's almost like you don't have a windshield.

[SPEAKER_01]: I guess it's kind of like riding a motorcycle if it makes sense.

[SPEAKER_00]: You have a full view.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think it was like that.

[SPEAKER_00]: I had a 74 thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: I could take the roof back.

[SPEAKER_00]: I could drop the windshield.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it was like riding a motorcycle.

[SPEAKER_00]: 100%.

[SPEAKER_01]: 100%.

[SPEAKER_01]: Same thing when I had my 73.

[SPEAKER_01]: When I'd do that, it was just, it was a great feeling in that.

[SPEAKER_01]: I thoroughly enjoyed that.

[SPEAKER_01]: But that was definitely, you know, they went out for me and I've always loved bees.

[SPEAKER_01]: I've always enjoyed them.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I want to get a sliddy.

[SPEAKER_01]: I want to do all that.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm still working.

[SPEAKER_01]: I work in progress.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's what it's doing.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're always going to become a marketplace looking for deals for sure.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, but, you know, one day it'll happen.

[SPEAKER_00]: We all of us, I want a bay.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's where I'm at.

[SPEAKER_00]: I want our early bay.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I probably want like a 69, 70 or 71.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, man.

[SPEAKER_01]: So many people have I've seen so many of them I just went to a show Saturday at NEC's motorplex and I'll just find the other side of Orange where Xoth can't align us and I mean, I met some great people there in critical time.

[SPEAKER_01]: I drove the blue bus and [SPEAKER_01]: Man, I mean, that was just, I saw two, I saw 169 lowlight, and it was, it was in such great condition.

[SPEAKER_01]: And, you know, it's just, I'll get one for me.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'll get one one day.

[SPEAKER_00]: Just like you were, yeah, man.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, man.

[SPEAKER_00]: You definitely were.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, time's got to be right.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, you traded a hardly for a bus.

[SPEAKER_00]: Is that this bus?

[SPEAKER_00]: Tell me about that story.

[SPEAKER_01]: Ah, it's a, and this is the bus that I built my garage around.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's, ah, yeah, 1978 CE2, so it's a champagne edition.

[SPEAKER_01]: Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey [SPEAKER_01]: uh bus and they took them and they made these champagne additions so they did all these funky colors like that, that cute green looking with green carpet and green and it looks like dirt diggler's living room.

[SPEAKER_00]: Exactly.

[SPEAKER_01]: And the champagne addition is the same exact way man.

[SPEAKER_01]: the champagne edition is nothing less of that.

[SPEAKER_01]: It was, so the champagne edition on the buses they took and did like a date brown is a original color that it's called, and on the top they did a fox red.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, and those are original pink names.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm like, okay, [SPEAKER_01]: interior and like a cream insert in the seats, that's not a great color in the buses for in my opinion, some people love them and I get it.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I love this bus, but I've customized it.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm still working on it.

[SPEAKER_01]: But I built a 24 by 30 garage just for this bus because I can feel, I can, I think this bus truly brought me back within the past five years of being back into both wagons man, but just being back again and totally loving it.

[SPEAKER_00]: So you built you built the garage around this bus having one and now now you have four So so so what happened?

[SPEAKER_01]: You get lucky or the stars are lying or what what's going on here a little bit of a star Lining has as definitely happened I Come about getting my father's my father was always in the Volkswagen, but my father would became a shriner [SPEAKER_01]: And he did a lot of stuff for the children's the Schriners Hospital and stuff and he did also he did parades, so he had a 60s beetle, it's not a max, but hey, he did, you know, couldn't really find a max body, but it's an old it's a 70s body on a 59 chassis.

[SPEAKER_01]: I really love to have the 59 to be honest with you.

[SPEAKER_00]: But yeah, 59 to beautiful two years.

[SPEAKER_00]: They only made that back window for two years.

[SPEAKER_01]: I know it breaks my heart thinking about it, but that's okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: So in 1995, he built himself a tombuggy, and this thing has probably, I would say, to be on a side.

[SPEAKER_01]: 1835 CC, I'm not quite sure, solid motor, very solid motor.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's got probably 2,000 miles on it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Wow.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, because all he used it for was Berates.

[SPEAKER_01]: Right.

[SPEAKER_01]: I've got it in my garage.

[SPEAKER_01]: I just pulled the my oldest brother king down these down the visit and he just pulled the motor for me.

[SPEAKER_01]: We've pulled it out.

[SPEAKER_01]: I've got it on a stand.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to go through it.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm doing like I'm doing like a 90 amp alternator on it.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm doing I'm going hook it up.

[SPEAKER_01]: I've got the.

[SPEAKER_01]: I've got a new distributor up, but man, I'm doing a new dog housing.

[SPEAKER_01]: I've got that super shroud.

[SPEAKER_01]: I figured I'd try it out, see how that thing turned.

[SPEAKER_01]: See that?

[SPEAKER_01]: Sounds good.

[SPEAKER_01]: I just bought it.

[SPEAKER_01]: I just bought a De Toro 4040 carburetor at a slot me.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm gonna put those on it.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, this kind of, I wanna, [SPEAKER_01]: I want to put some boost on it, but it's a good little car to be honest with you.

[SPEAKER_01]: That will never go anywhere, it's my father's, so it's a mine, I want to make it, I want to redo the body, the end here, and stuff, and I want to make it a monument, basically for him.

[SPEAKER_01]: And for him, you know, it passed it along to your family.

[SPEAKER_00]: yeah, man.

[SPEAKER_00]: So in your life, looking at it, you know, 30,000 foot view.

[SPEAKER_00]: When did this go from a hobby in your life to really more of an identity in your life?

[SPEAKER_01]: I would definitely say probably in my college years.

[SPEAKER_01]: Right into beginning of the college years, the 68 beetle that I had and traded around [SPEAKER_01]: the Jerry and Jerry's book shop here and software that did it back then.

[SPEAKER_01]: He went through every bolt to that car and everything was it was absolutely it was the Savannah beige with beige interior and had the aftermarket air conditioning underneath the dash.

[SPEAKER_01]: That was that car I think probably did it for me to be honest now of course even going through my life and having some hard times think it's always been there, but I think like I just said in the past five years, I think the champagne edition bus has has really thrown like gasoline on the fire.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm working on the Champaign Institute right now.

[SPEAKER_01]: But I'm one of those guys, don't get me wrong.

[SPEAKER_01]: I love car shoes.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think they're great.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I love people that love that.

[SPEAKER_01]: And you get your awards.

[SPEAKER_01]: I truly love that for them.

[SPEAKER_01]: But for me, it's more about the mechanics and the drive.

[SPEAKER_01]: Just the drive and the adventure when you get in, when you get in a car like that and just go, [SPEAKER_00]: you got it to me, like somebody listening to this that doesn't know.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's never driven in a Volkswagen, especially a classic one.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not really something you can describe really.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know what I'm about.

[SPEAKER_00]: So when you say the drive, like I feel that, not a lot of people that aren't in this scene can feel that because they don't understand.

[SPEAKER_00]: These these cars drive amazingly.

[SPEAKER_00]: they're engineered to like, with perfection.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're like, they're, they're great.

[SPEAKER_00]: Even Lord, you know, whatever.

[SPEAKER_00]: Dude, they ride amazing, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: That's great, they're great.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's that feeling, I don't know what it is.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, you can have a stock steam and will you can have it aftermarket steam, will you still believe it?

[SPEAKER_01]: There's nothing up there's something about it.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, it's just a feel.

[SPEAKER_01]: When I just drove my bus to the show this past weekend, [SPEAKER_01]: Man, just leaning on that stand will and looking out that window and just having your tunes play in the wind blowing in your hair.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I do have a little bit, I'm sorry, but I don't say it.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't say it, I don't say it.

[SPEAKER_00]: You got me.

[SPEAKER_02]: You don't feel the wind, man.

[SPEAKER_00]: I might feel it more than you do.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: So what are your, what are your friends and even more less your family?

[SPEAKER_00]: What do they say about your collection these days?

[SPEAKER_01]: They love it, because they know that I'm passionate about it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now they do think I'm a little crazy because I do go extensively when I go to I'll find shops that close down or closing or people that have shops and they will [SPEAKER_01]: I'll go and buy, I'll go buy like, you know, a case of wheel bearings for the left and right front of a 63-meter under like why, and I'm like, I just want to have the stock.

[SPEAKER_01]: I just want to, I mean, I've got six linkages for dual carburetor.

[SPEAKER_01]: Some of them are not even worth a crap, but I have, and that is why I actually let.

[SPEAKER_00]: When the apocalypse comes, we know where to come for parts.

[SPEAKER_01]: Hey, I've got, you guys need to accelerate a cable standbell.

[SPEAKER_01]: What are you just letting me know?

[SPEAKER_01]: You just letting me know if you need to go up.

[SPEAKER_00]: So in your, in your, in your collection or in your, in the thought process of acquiring, is there ever a final car?

[SPEAKER_00]: Does it ever end or is it like most of us where we're just always searching?

[SPEAKER_00]: There's two.

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_00]: So you do have two finals.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's hear about it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Um, one is a big outreach because I, I would definitely like to have an all metal body and I know this is nine, uh, it's a 1956, 356 course speed, yes sir.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's, that's my, that's been my dream since I was 19 years old.

[SPEAKER_01]: Wow, I got the ride in, I got the ride in one.

[SPEAKER_01]: It actually drive one at 19 years old by first year in college, a gentleman there in Green and North Green will stop Carolina.

[SPEAKER_01]: Actually, I had a shop and I drove my 68 meter by it.

[SPEAKER_01]: And he came out and we took a ride together and he let me drive it.

[SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, all metal, 1956, 356, now that's a that's a far reach, but hey, I asked if there was a final, you know what I mean, that's a beyond pretty awesome one to land on to be truly honest, 1963 double cab splitty, oh yeah, that's what I want, that's that's truly that's truly probably.

[SPEAKER_01]: my goal, my end goal is 63, at look, early 60s, early 60s all day long, whatever.

[SPEAKER_01]: I even like the 50s buses, I mean, but I don't know why there's 60s area in it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Hey, yeah, hey, man.

[SPEAKER_00]: We all got that that one, you know, for me it's a 6869 Bay window.

[SPEAKER_00]: I want us to hurry windshield.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, I want to slam it.

[SPEAKER_00]: I know, you know, hey, man, you're going to mess up the ride.

[SPEAKER_01]: You're going to blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah [SPEAKER_01]: It's amazing.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's in the middle of the day for a moment even more.

[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, it cools the whole thing down.

[SPEAKER_01]: I've got a authority in the back too.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: Dude, you got full flow.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, full flow.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I mean, look, I'm looking.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's, I'm not rich now.

[SPEAKER_01]: I save up.

[SPEAKER_01]: I, I do a lot of swaps.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that's, that's the how I get my things.

[SPEAKER_01]: Really, I mean, you know, I, [SPEAKER_01]: Just kind of do what you got to do in life to get those cars out there, man.

[SPEAKER_01]: You get them on the road.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, man.

[SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely.

[SPEAKER_00]: So answer this question for me.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: Why Volkswagen specifically?

[SPEAKER_01]: I've always been fascinated with German engineering.

[SPEAKER_01]: No lie.

[SPEAKER_01]: I know Germans have a hard time with the electrical.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, we can go back to 88 Shoraka or an 88.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think the 80s had a whole just a bad time with the electrical.

[SPEAKER_00]: Just in the 80s, yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: I love driving those cars, but you're right.

[SPEAKER_01]: They had so much, they had so many problems.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think, well, in fact, yours, you know, to be honest, could be the K-car, I mean, when you were put in battle electrical and PCB valves and cars and stuff like that, I mean, you're just like, what dude?

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, what the hell were y'all thinking?

[SPEAKER_00]: Even the four trucks normally an unstoppable force.

[SPEAKER_00]: Exactly.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's the forward truck was an electrical nightmare.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I got, you know, my thing is I don't know to be honest with you.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think Volkswagen put me and don't get me wrong when I say this because I love all of those things.

[SPEAKER_01]: I love watercooled and aircooled.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then you have some guys that are a little more pure as sort of one side and the other.

[SPEAKER_01]: But for me, [SPEAKER_01]: I do love hair cool a little bit more and the reason why is if you can try to push as much course power out of a car that's being cooled by air.

[SPEAKER_01]: And to make it run and consistently run as long as all these cars have over these years, it's amazing to me.

[SPEAKER_00]: It blows my mind.

[SPEAKER_00]: Me too.

[SPEAKER_00]: Straight up, you know, and I like the story I told you, I go back to high school, man.

[SPEAKER_00]: Everybody doubted that car.

[SPEAKER_00]: I didn't.

[SPEAKER_00]: That car brought me and my friends everywhere, dude.

[SPEAKER_01]: And my first that 70 bit of we talked about I took that saying we do we had this one hill and we had a moderately team Minnesota twins in our hometown and it had a [SPEAKER_01]: literally like a cliff of a hill and that had a road that goes up before the drive that forward drives and go up it and then struggle on up.

[SPEAKER_01]: I took that 70 beatle with snow tires on the back of it, straight up with it with my friends in it and it was amazing.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, bet, bet.

[SPEAKER_00]: You hear that, I'm kind of the great stories about traction and not getting stuck, etc.

[SPEAKER_00]: Again, you go back to that engineering dude, the weight in the back, you know, I mean, yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's incredible.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think it really [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, looking back over time, you have mentioned quite a few times even throughout the podcast that this isn't really just your story.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's also your family story.

[SPEAKER_00]: Explain that to me.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, today, you know, with my father, you know, exposing me to the beetle to Volkswagen [SPEAKER_01]: He had a, he was stationed in Germany.

[SPEAKER_01]: He had a 65 Mustang in Germany and also had a beetle in Germany.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, well, the beetle while he was there.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I can't remember the year.

[SPEAKER_01]: I wasn't even born yet, but my two brothers got to ride in it over in Germany.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I wouldn't even twinkle in the eye.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, but to be honest with you, that car.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, that time frame with him, I think with my brothers, my oldest brother is a great mechanic, he's very good with his hands, he's a great welder, impresses me.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, beyond mean to you, impresses me.

[SPEAKER_01]: My middle brother is just as far as so big.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, he's got a harder goal.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, he would give the shirt off of it.

[SPEAKER_01]: We all would give the shirt off of our backs for people.

[SPEAKER_00]: Just to help him out.

[SPEAKER_00]: Y'all sound like a pretty tight family, man.

[SPEAKER_00]: I would probably be friends if you were close.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I'm the youngest.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm the youngest.

[SPEAKER_00]: My family is well.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm the youngest brother's.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, man, I'm the youngest of the film.

[SPEAKER_00]: We went through the good times, the hard times, everything.

[SPEAKER_00]: you know we're still close you know we we all have our own families we all do our own thing but you know I can describe both of my brothers and say just the greatest things about both of them in the memories I have from my childhood and I feel you know that a lot of it relates to almost kind of like the stories that you've been telling as a younger brother.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, you, you kind of get to sit back and learn from them, meaning you get to learn from their mistakes.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're like, oh, hey, this is exactly what I'm not going to do, but thanks for getting arrested.

[SPEAKER_00]: All right.

[SPEAKER_00]: No, I don't got to do that is okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's another story for another time.

[SPEAKER_00]: But, man, I'm the youngest as well, and I do have a younger sister biologically, but she didn't grow up in the same household as us, still were very close.

[SPEAKER_00]: But inside our family, inside our unit, of being under the same roof, it was just like you, two older brothers, a dad that was close, and all that good stuff.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, man, you're you're definitely not wrong.

[SPEAKER_00]: Not not even a little bit.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it was my dad solo actually.

[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, man, big ups to him for sure.

[SPEAKER_00]: He stuck it out.

[SPEAKER_00]: He raised some crazy ass boys.

[SPEAKER_00]: We were nuts.

[SPEAKER_00]: Dude.

[SPEAKER_00]: We were nuts.

[SPEAKER_00]: We were to.

[SPEAKER_01]: I look back at my dad and what he put up with.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm like, I'm just amazed.

[SPEAKER_01]: I've got a daughter, like I said, that's in college.

[SPEAKER_01]: And she's the best thing, yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, she's the nicest person ever.

[SPEAKER_01]: I was like, how in the world are you having that on that?

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, no, so we were a different time.

[SPEAKER_00]: You see those memes and stuff out there.

[SPEAKER_00]: We drank from the garden hose.

[SPEAKER_00]: We had fuckin' rowd dial phones and, you know, [SPEAKER_00]: We had to stop by pay phones on the side of the road to call home to say we wrecked our bike and got a flat tire come pick us up.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was just, yeah, I mean, but I look back to like you just said, my kids too, they're just so different than I was when I was when I was and I'm so grateful.

[SPEAKER_00]: for that, you know, I just give them the best life I possibly can, regardless of how hard I have to work or whatever I have to do to make sure that I provide for them.

[SPEAKER_00]: I moved out when I was 17, you know, I had to, I was forced into life, you know, to defend for myself and, you know, I think it was the best thing that ever could have happened to me.

[SPEAKER_00]: you know, looking back at my life now, 48 years old, but I don't want my kids to struggle like I had to carry it.

[SPEAKER_00]: So when my wife and I we've been together 25 years when we first met and we talked about having to start a family one day, literally man, the conversations we used to have were [SPEAKER_00]: You know, we're going to provide for them.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're going to go a college.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're going to stay at home the whole time.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're not.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're not like trying to force them out.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, you hear about them families all the time that are like, Hey, man, 8 out of group.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, you out of here.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's never been me.

[SPEAKER_00]: Never will be me.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't give a flying shit.

[SPEAKER_00]: How old they are.

[SPEAKER_00]: They can stay here.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not messed them up.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm a lot.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'll build a house in the back yard.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't care.

[SPEAKER_01]: Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, [SPEAKER_01]: going to be eight soon.

[SPEAKER_01]: I say she just turns out she's getting ready to be eight.

[SPEAKER_01]: And she loves riding in my blue bus to picture that you saw.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I've taken for rides downtown, softer all the time and she loves it.

[SPEAKER_01]: She actually loves it, but I haven't decided on which bus she's going to more than likely get by daughter.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, and then my daughter's probably going to get everything else to do whatever she wants to do, as she loves both wagons as well.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'll do she can make do it.

[SPEAKER_00]: She can get into them.

[SPEAKER_00]: She'll show them.

[SPEAKER_00]: She'll have dad's cars, you know, and do they don't get no better, you know.

[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, yeah, I really did.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that's so awesome.

[SPEAKER_00]: All right, brother, I got some rapid fire style questions.

[SPEAKER_00]: These are questions that demand a fast response.

[SPEAKER_00]: If it comes of it, great.

[SPEAKER_00]: If not all good, we don't have to have a story either.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're designed to be fast.

[SPEAKER_00]: So you ready for?

[SPEAKER_00]: Ready.

[SPEAKER_00]: All right, number one.

[SPEAKER_00]: First up, beetle or bus.

[SPEAKER_00]: Bus, only pick one.

[SPEAKER_00]: All right, that was good.

[SPEAKER_00]: All right.

[SPEAKER_00]: air cool.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, come on, they don't.

[SPEAKER_00]: That was probably a dumb question, but, but, how about this?

[SPEAKER_00]: Cause you mentioned kind of, you know, you float it in the 50s and 60s.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I kind of think where your answer is going to be.

[SPEAKER_00]: But how about the best decade for VWs?

[SPEAKER_01]: Can I go half a decade, let's go early 60s.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, you can go half a decade.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's still, yeah, yeah, yeah, early 60s.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm a, and I'm a big guy.

[SPEAKER_01]: I love the late days, early 60s for some reason.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know the cars, man.

[SPEAKER_01]: The headlights.

[SPEAKER_01]: Ooh.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah, even the dashes like yeah, the the the gear, you know, great car, you know, all through the 60s and the 70s, you know, I have won a 71 and I just I like the the metal dash is better.

[SPEAKER_00]: I just do that's me.

[SPEAKER_00]: Just I just do I just really do.

[SPEAKER_00]: All right.

[SPEAKER_00]: Dream road trip location.

[UNKNOWN]: Ooh.

[SPEAKER_00]: Uh, buses by the bridge, probably.

[SPEAKER_00]: Hey, man, me too, dude.

[SPEAKER_00]: We need to link.

[SPEAKER_00]: We'll go.

[SPEAKER_00]: Bus by the bridge, get a bay window.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm coming up.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to pick up a pick you up and we're going to head up there together.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to do bus.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm there.

[SPEAKER_00]: Hey, that too, myself, man.

[SPEAKER_01]: The desert, man.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's something at that moment.

[SPEAKER_00]: I spent 12 years in Colorado and, you know, there's just something about being west, there's no moisture, there ain't no rust in them cars.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[SPEAKER_00]: No.

[SPEAKER_00]: Do.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, you're just like, wait a minute, what year is this thing?

[SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[SPEAKER_00]: How?

[SPEAKER_00]: What did you learn on it?

[SPEAKER_02]: What pack would you like to learn?

[SPEAKER_00]: Cover this thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: Solid gold?

[SPEAKER_02]: No, but you have for sure.

[SPEAKER_00]: Bus is about the bridge of good answer.

[SPEAKER_00]: And yeah, one day we'll make that happen.

[SPEAKER_00]: All right.

[SPEAKER_00]: How about this manual or automatic?

[SPEAKER_00]: No explanation.

[SPEAKER_00]: Manual.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, all day.

[SPEAKER_01]: All day long.

[SPEAKER_01]: In fact, all my cars are manual right now.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, you already said this, so I'm pretty sure I've got the answer to this one, but one VW that you're going to keep forever.

[SPEAKER_01]: My dad's.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's my soul.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's my soul to it's connected to him.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, he passed away in 2000.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that's that's the one.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_00]: Um, most emotional moment tied to a car in your life.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'd have to say, well, my brother handed me those keys because I cried like a little baby.

[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, my God, dude, I was, you know, I was out of college, but actually, I was still taking us some night classes that USC University of South Carolina and I cried like a little baby.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, what a emotional scene is incredible.

[SPEAKER_01]: My brothers are phenomenal guys.

[SPEAKER_01]: They really are.

[SPEAKER_00]: Sounds like it.

[SPEAKER_00]: So are mine, man.

[SPEAKER_00]: So are mine.

[SPEAKER_00]: Describe the Volkswagen community for me in just one word.

[SPEAKER_00]: For now, oh, that's a good one man.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's a good one.

[SPEAKER_00]: I like it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Man, this has been a good one.

[SPEAKER_00]: This has been good, good, good times, good story.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's one just about cars.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is about family, identity, finding your way back when life knocks you down.

[SPEAKER_00]: I swear, man, this has been a great conversation.

[SPEAKER_01]: I love talking with you, man.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you ever love something that carried you through life, you get it.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, you'll get this conversation too, brother.

[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you, man, for your time.

[SPEAKER_00]: I appreciate you.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think we've got to get that.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's a wrap for this episode of Dub Life Diaries.

[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks for riding along with us, and diving into these incredible stories of the people in the Dub that drive their dreams.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you love today's episode, don't forget to subscribe or hit that follow button so you never miss an adventure.

[SPEAKER_00]: Do you have a story to tell or know somebody else who's living the dove life?

[SPEAKER_00]: Awesome.

[SPEAKER_00]: Reach out to us.

[SPEAKER_00]: You can find us on all socials and dove life diaries.

[SPEAKER_00]: Or shoot me an email.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not hard to find.

[SPEAKER_00]: Double life diaries at gmail.com.

[SPEAKER_00]: Until next time, keep the engine tummen and the wheels turning and always follow the road that inspires you.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is Joe Person.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm signing off.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'll catch you on the next ride.

Bugs, Buses & Brotherhood Drew Bird Estep Ep64

Volkswagen Beetle

Beetle Super Beetle

Porsche 911

Ford Fiesta

Ford Mustang

Toyota A90

Porsche 356

Original notes