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Port City VW Car Show & Burn Camp Mission Kyle Badertscher Ep 63
Port City VW Car Show & Burn Camp Mission Kyle Badertscher Ep 63
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About this episode
Episode 63 – Kyle Badertscher | Port City VW Car Show & Burn Camp Mission
In this episode of DubLife Diaries, we sit down with Kyle Badertscher, the heart behind the Port City Volkswagen Car Show—one of the most meaningful VW events in the country.
Kyle shares his incredible journey into the Volkswagen world, from not owning his first car until his late 20s to becoming a driving force in a thriving VW community. What started with a single 1970 Bay Window bus named Bonnie turned into something much bigger—an annual event that now brings together hundreds of enthusiasts from across the country.
But this show is about more than just cars.
The Port City VW Car Show is built on purpose—raising money for the Oklahoma Firefighters Burn Camp, a life-changing program that supports children who have suffered severe burns and disfigurements. Kyle opens up about his personal connection to the cause, his role as a camp counselor, and how this mission fuels everything he does.
We dive into:
- The story behind Bonnie and Kyle’s VW journey
- How the Port City VW Show grew into a 500–700 car event
- The unique “Fab 15” awards and community-driven culture
- Why the Volkswagen community feels more like family
- The real impact of the Oklahoma Firefighters Burn Camp
- What it takes to build an event with purpose, heart, and longevity
This episode is a powerful reminder that cars can bring people together—but purpose is what makes it unforgettable.
If you love VW culture, community, and stories that actually matter… this one hits different.
📍 Port City VW Car Show
Held annually the first Saturday in June in Catoosa, Oklahoma
🎯 Mission: Supporting children through the Oklahoma Firefighters Burn Camp
🎙️ DubLife Diaries
Real stories. Real builds. Real people.
👉 Don’t forget to subscribe, leave a review, and share this episode with someone who loves the VW lifestyle.
Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/dublife-diaries-the-vw-lifestyle-podcast/donations
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Technical
Too Afraid to Ask
Car
Volkswagen Bus
"...ER_00]: All right, a couple wins. [SPEAKER_00]: A Volkswagen bus at a casino brings it home as kind of this novelt..."
Car
Lucid Air
"...e pumped them up, like I said, we had to carry an air compressor in the back of my brother's truck. [SP..."
Car
Chevrolet Corvette
"...n, in a crowd, you can pick out the guy driving a Corvette, and you can pick out the guy driving this. [SPEA..."
Car
Ford Mustang
"...ac. [SPEAKER_01]: You don't get that in a, even a Mustang or something on a Latin line. [SPEAKER_01]: And t..."
Car
Volkswagen Beetle
"...KER_01]: I'm learning how to take the pan's off a beetle, and I'm [SPEAKER_01]: People I've never met befo..."
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[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.
[SPEAKER_00]: Visit Volk'sMania.com to learn more about this class leading VW Magazine.
[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome back to Dublife Diaries.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm excited for this one because, well, it's kind of a wild one.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, a couple wins.
[SPEAKER_00]: A Volkswagen bus at a casino brings it home as kind of this novelty situation.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then there's one guy who's always wanted a Volkswagen his entire life.
[SPEAKER_00]: He tells these folks, if you ever want to sell that thing, call me, and eventually that call comes through.
[SPEAKER_00]: And when I say beat up, I mean it, as the story has it, there was duct tape holding the tire stems on just to try to make it to the gas station when he first picked this thing up.
[SPEAKER_00]: Turns into something a lot bigger than anybody could have ever expected.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, that one bus now leads a whole new life and a whole new community.
[SPEAKER_00]: And eventually, [SPEAKER_00]: turned into one of the most meaningful Volkswagen shows in the country, who raises money for kids who have been through things most of us can't even imagine.
[SPEAKER_00]: Kyle bought it, sure.
[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to Dublife Diaries.
[SPEAKER_01]: Man, good to talk with you.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's for sure.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've been excited about it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm watching your other videos and [SPEAKER_01]: They're they're they're awesome.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a fun culture that you're bringing to the rest of the world.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you, brother.
[SPEAKER_00]: I appreciate it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I can tell this one's going to be a fun one.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for registering.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I've said this.
[SPEAKER_00]: You probably heard me say it on other episodes before one of the hardest things for me to do is find guests.
[SPEAKER_00]: you know, and it's not that we don't have stories to tell.
[SPEAKER_00]: We do all of us, you know, great stories to tell.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a lot of folks in the community.
[SPEAKER_00]: They don't want to be on camera.
[SPEAKER_00]: They don't want to, you know, they might think that because now I have all these other folks that come on and stuff, they might think that, you know, there's [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know that.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to ask some questions.
[SPEAKER_00]: They can't control or just, you know, something.
[SPEAKER_00]: But really not the case at all, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: I keep it professional.
[SPEAKER_00]: I keep it, you know, I make sure you guys are prepared.
[SPEAKER_00]: I send you all the questions in advance.
[SPEAKER_00]: Anyway, not enough of that, enough of that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's get back to you before I dive into tonight's awesome episode.
[SPEAKER_00]: I do want to give a shout out to a couple of my sponsors first up on the list.
[SPEAKER_00]: Folks, Mania magazine.
[SPEAKER_00]: You guys know how I feel.
[SPEAKER_00]: These guys are the flies, VW Magazine on the face of the planet.
[SPEAKER_00]: Check these guys out, Volk's, Mania.com.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can use Double-Life 10 at checkout.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's DUB, LIFE, the number one, zero, and you'll get 10% off your subscription.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's only U.S. subscribers.
[SPEAKER_00]: how cool is it that I have to say that because I got people from outside in other countries trying to use that discount code let's go that's cool right all right next up on the list salty dub from the beach to the bay salty dub is tearing up the coastal vwc with epic events and swag we just wrapped up one of our awesome events last Sunday uh we had about [SPEAKER_00]: think it was about a hundred and eighty.
[SPEAKER_00]: There was about a hundred and eighty when we counted, but there was some that had already left.
[SPEAKER_00]: Anyway, about a hundred and eighty cars showed up, VDubs over the Skyway.
[SPEAKER_00]: This was the 27th annual ride over the Skyway Bridge.
[SPEAKER_00]: You spent some time in St. Pete, so you know what the Skyway Bridge is.
[SPEAKER_00]: Awesome, awesome ride, awesome, awesome time, great turnout.
[SPEAKER_00]: We saw some really cool things, and then we had a really cool car show, and some really epic handmade trophies that are made by my buddy, Alan, who owns the next shoutout that I'm going to give.
[SPEAKER_00]: Vera, a poultry of St. Pete, these guys are doing big things inside the marine industry and have a new automotive line.
[SPEAKER_00]: for interiors.
[SPEAKER_00]: So boat interiors, automotive interiors, not just Volkswagen's, but when we talk about Volkswagen's, uh, just the couple that he did right before Bugsham, he did that 73 thing that won, uh, it's best in class.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the interior is so sick, the stitching on the side of the seats are stitching the VW logo.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right.
[SPEAKER_00]: Enough of my sponsors.
[SPEAKER_00]: Enough of the shout outs.
[SPEAKER_00]: Back to you, my brother, back to you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Before we get into Volkswagen's and start talking a little bit about your past or your history.
[SPEAKER_00]: Tell me who is Kyle Baudetcher.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right.
[SPEAKER_01]: If I ever figured out, I'll call you back and give you a better detail.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, Kyle.
[SPEAKER_01]: Kyle's a big kid.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's somebody, [SPEAKER_01]: As born in Ohio northern Ohio spent time there like I told you earlier I spent two years in St. Petersburg back up to Michigan back to Ohio and then about 85 I moved out here to Oklahoma and I'm about 20 miles north of Tulsa little town called Collinsville literally old school town the road in front of my house is still cobblestone.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, yeah, it's a community, no industry.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're about to get swallowed by, we're like a housing addition for another towns all we are.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I've lived what my mom always said, I was the guy that was from the different generation.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've lived a hippy lifestyle, my entire life.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: I was always one.
[SPEAKER_01]: You see that Volkswagen, it turned my head, it shocked me.
[SPEAKER_01]: And but I've always been, my mom raised me the same way I raised, [SPEAKER_01]: And I raised them with the golden rule.
[SPEAKER_01]: You treat others as you want to be treated the world should be a good place.
[SPEAKER_01]: And to me, that I always got that vibe from the Volkswagen culture even before I was in it.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then once I got in it, about 12, 13 years ago has all I been in it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I have a habit of when I jump into something, I jump into it head for every single let's see how fast we can go.
[SPEAKER_00]: I like that, not the same way, actually.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, no, man, I started doing charity work when I was a little kid.
[SPEAKER_01]: First thing I did was ride my bicycle and as St. Jude's bikeathon.
[SPEAKER_01]: First thing I remember doing, and I kept doing stuff, kept doing stuff.
[SPEAKER_01]: I worked with the organization called CancerSex.com.
[SPEAKER_01]: And, you know, we raised money for cancer research.
[SPEAKER_01]: Been doing that for 26 years.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're the ones that are covered with cat twos and piercings and hair and you know what's that it's that it doesn't have to be a suit and tie to raise money right you know or the walks are there but we do the concerts the bike rallies the and that's where I started getting the car shows you know my my mentor that was over there that [SPEAKER_01]: Now with the Oklahoma Firefighter Burn Camp, my best friend founded it 27 years ago now.
[SPEAKER_01]: Wow.
[SPEAKER_01]: And got me involved with it.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he's like, did you've got to come over here?
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's one of those stands you walk into it.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you see, you know, my first year, I think there was 52 kids, age of 16, and they'd been burned or disfigured.
[SPEAKER_01]: And, you know, it takes your breath away.
[SPEAKER_01]: But just like you said, it's something you, especially as a parent, you wish that never happens.
[SPEAKER_01]: It scares you.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, and I got in it, and I'm like, this is where I need to be.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I instantly got to cry off.
[SPEAKER_01]: I got my kid, and it's a 101 camp.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I started out as a counselor.
[SPEAKER_01]: When you show up on Wednesday afternoon, you're given a skid.
[SPEAKER_01]: That kid, yours, night, day, everything.
[SPEAKER_01]: Till Sunday, when the mom grew dad [SPEAKER_01]: And I did that for a couple of years, the craziest part.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm only one that I know of with camp over all these years.
[SPEAKER_01]: Three years in a camp, my daughter got burned.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we were the Girl Scout parents.
[SPEAKER_01]: We had a cookout, the fire pit in the backyard.
[SPEAKER_01]: Two days later, she stepped in and get a soccer ball in the cool's rap, both feet, their degree burns, rap, both feet.
[SPEAKER_01]: Here we are, I'm going to the burn center with these nurses that I work with at camp every year.
[SPEAKER_01]: My daughter is not quite five years old or about five years old and they're like, we get her through everything, we do what we need to do and camp comes around and we're like, where's your daughter?
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, she can be here, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: She needs to be here.
[SPEAKER_01]: Never even cross my mind.
[SPEAKER_01]: I wouldn't even want my radar.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I tell people all the time, [SPEAKER_01]: You have that moment in life when your kids just blow your way.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, your first one, you get them, you're excited.
[SPEAKER_01]: They start walking, they're out of diapers, they're feeding themselves, and they're yelling at you.
[SPEAKER_01]: You graduate in high school, that's a big thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: So my daughter, at the age of 16, got to be counselor, or camper of the year, I can't.
[SPEAKER_01]: The following year, she turned around and got to be a counselor.
[SPEAKER_01]: And she's now a mentor and she was helping with the kids.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it was one of those, you know, you do something right.
[SPEAKER_01]: If that's what they want to do at that point, they're choosing.
[SPEAKER_01]: And my young kids is the same way.
[SPEAKER_01]: Man, she's the girl that is constantly helping.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like I said, she's traveled all over with me and Bonnie.
[SPEAKER_01]: My bus, my 70 bag.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we've done so much.
[SPEAKER_01]: We would travel through downtown Tulsa and pass out water and stuff to the homeless out of Bonnie.
[SPEAKER_01]: They've always been there, they've supported me, you know, I'm dad and I know that that's what we're going to do.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, you know, then here I am about to be 55 years old.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've worked with the Oklahoma Gas Company now 24 years.
[SPEAKER_00]: Wow.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, were you always in the cars or quite the opposite?
[SPEAKER_01]: I didn't know that I was 27 years old.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I went to college, I made a career out of it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Seven years.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, you see me in this mirror and you see me.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm 300 pounds, five, nine, cover with that too.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's kind of crazy looking.
[SPEAKER_01]: I was an all-american college cheerleader.
[SPEAKER_01]: The movie down on Daytona, you know, where you see the competition, I've been on stage three times on ESPN.
[SPEAKER_01]: Get out of here, man.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, man, it was when it plays right time has been most of my life.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: I went to a cheerleading tri-outs straight out of high school and the ladies like, you need to try this.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, you're talking back in 89 to 90 that wasn't a big thing like it is now.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I was used to [SPEAKER_01]: the way to buck 20, I look like a man or a height.
[SPEAKER_01]: I made my way through college.
[SPEAKER_01]: I spent five years doing that full ride, and then in one day I'm sitting in our class and a guy come in and I ended up with a full ride for theaters, start to do in set designs.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that's not where I was going with that where I was saying it was a car guy, but but that's so remember it from your history, you didn't even get Bonnie till you were what 40.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yep, that was about 14142.
[SPEAKER_00]: So let's let's let's talk about that moment for a second because we're right we're right here in the timeline.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, you're you're you're your first Volkswagen.
[SPEAKER_00]: You chased them.
[SPEAKER_00]: You always want to one.
[SPEAKER_00]: You knew you kind of Belonged in the culture.
[SPEAKER_00]: Just kind of tell us this this this story.
[SPEAKER_00]: Tell us the full story of Bonnie the bus.
[SPEAKER_01]: So back to the burn camp that everything's originated from guy I met through there's a retired firefighter.
[SPEAKER_01]: Great me and him and his wife.
[SPEAKER_01]: Gail and Tom.
[SPEAKER_01]: They, they won this thing at a casino at a woodstock reunion tour.
[SPEAKER_01]: Their local radio station was given it away.
[SPEAKER_01]: The story was that it was from Huntington Beach.
[SPEAKER_01]: They gathered off of a guy that was living out of it selling sandals out of the back of it on a beach.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, whether the story's true or not, you never know, you know, you know how that goes.
[SPEAKER_01]: all the paperwork from Huntington Beach.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's house paint, layers upon layers.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's so much bondo on the nose of this bay, you can't even stick a magnet on it.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, wait.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's great.
[SPEAKER_01]: But it was super clean paint on the top layer and they won it.
[SPEAKER_01]: She was upset.
[SPEAKER_01]: She was like, I couldn't have even won a Cadillac.
[SPEAKER_01]: We had to win this bus.
[SPEAKER_01]: What are we gonna do with it?
[SPEAKER_01]: It's set in her backyard.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, you know, people would go over there.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's got a nice little bar on the back porch and everybody would go over and see this bus and they're like, oh, that's so cool, blah, blah, blah.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that was about it.
[SPEAKER_01]: He drove it.
[SPEAKER_01]: He had it like three years and maybe drove it 50 miles.
[SPEAKER_01]: Wow.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it gets that there.
[SPEAKER_01]: It ran.
[SPEAKER_01]: Had two front seats in it, a backs bench and a lawn chair.
[SPEAKER_01]: that's all it was in it indoor outdoor green carpet all the way through the radio station had to put some aftermarket seat belts in it to do regulations to give it away from the state.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm like just like you were saying I told him I was like look I've got a connection with this thing if you want to get red of it I truly want it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, Tom, after he retired from firefighting, would go to Mexico every year and teach fireclash down there.
[SPEAKER_01]: And as wide-gale come to me and you said, are you serious?
[SPEAKER_01]: You really want this thing?
[SPEAKER_01]: I said, man, you have no clue.
[SPEAKER_01]: She goes, I need this amount of money to redo the bathroom.
[SPEAKER_01]: You want to give me this, the buses yours.
[SPEAKER_01]: I redo the bathroom from Tom Wisegon.
[SPEAKER_01]: I said, I'll be there in 20 minutes.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, but my brother called my brother and I said, let's go.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to go pick it up that bus.
[SPEAKER_01]: We could go to get it, tires are half dry running.
[SPEAKER_01]: The closest place that had tires that would fit it and they were 14s was a Sam's warehouse about five miles away.
[SPEAKER_01]: In the valve stem, we pumped them up, like I said, we had to carry an air compressor in the back of my brother's truck.
[SPEAKER_01]: We had to stop twice, air up to the tires.
[SPEAKER_01]: I pulled in there and I'm like, look, I need tires, I call you, you said you had them.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yep, we got them right here, taking us about 30 minutes.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we walked over, got us a drink and then we'd get back in this guy's pissed at me, the mechanic, dude is so mad, he goes, you got ripped off, because I got the tires on there, but we had to push it, this thing doesn't have reverse, I'm gonna go, yes it does, you've never driven a Volkswagen have you, I got in it, pushed it down, drove it out and he just started cussing, he was screaming, and like I said, got in at that point, drove it off, [SPEAKER_01]: At that point, it had a single port 1600 pre stock engine, interior was like I said, that roof rock that's on there right now was half that with and not one sticker on it, no nothing and paint looked good.
[SPEAKER_01]: I drove it at home and literally said in it, I think for 24 hours because I was just at all.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I mean, they say they say they say that they're something about old VWs, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: They're just they're just not really like other cars.
[SPEAKER_00]: So saying that, I believe you know, I've done that too.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've gotten one home and I just had to sit in it and just look around, you know?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, [SPEAKER_00]: we did it.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I got it.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was, you know, whatever the victory was or whatever that feeling is that it promotes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you think people connect with these cars, I guess emotionally, more than they do other modern cars?
[SPEAKER_01]: I truly believe it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I've been going to cars shows for a long time.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you, I mean, so you go into a culture, you see a car show and I always giggle, you know, the traditional car show you go, you polish, you put your lawn chair out, [SPEAKER_01]: And, you know, you've got your different cars, and it's a stereotype for sure.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, you can, in a crowd, you can pick out the guy driving a Corvette, and you can pick out the guy driving this.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, he, he's dressed as a friend and, yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: That, but the, the Volkswagen, it's funny because the stories are always a little different.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I can ride with whoever I want, but if I pull into a gas station in this bus, [SPEAKER_01]: The amount of people that walk up to me and they're like, man, my first car was this.
[SPEAKER_01]: My aunt had one of these.
[SPEAKER_01]: When I was 12, we drove across the country, and it's, you don't get that in a Cadillac.
[SPEAKER_01]: You don't get that in a, even a Mustang or something on a Latin line.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then as an owner, you feel it in.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I always tell people, the first two years, I own this bus was for me.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then ever since then, it's for the stories and everybody else, because, yeah, the love for him is amazing.
[SPEAKER_01]: I tease my saying for the for the Volkswagen for Bonnie is that you're either laughing with me or at me, but at least you're laughing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I'm on your your happy man.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's awesome, man.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now you said in the in your storyline that you only stop driving this car when it when it broke down.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
[SPEAKER_00]: So so how often are we talking here?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, as you see in that picture, there's a jack under the front of it right there.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've been blessed to the point where [SPEAKER_01]: it's broke down only close to home.
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: I drive on an average probably anywhere from seven to 10,000 miles a year.
[SPEAKER_01]: So this is a much daily driver.
[SPEAKER_01]: Correct.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, there's a sticker in the front window that says that yes, this is my daily driver.
[SPEAKER_01]: It breaks down quite often.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll be honest with you, this motor, I'm running to 2110 now, Duoport, K-Drons.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I got tired of everybody waving with one finger as they tried to pass me going up hills.
[SPEAKER_01]: So this one now will do the speed of the limit.
[SPEAKER_01]: I can go and turn by if I need to, but no, it's it's it's went down.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's been down now for a month.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm replacing all the brakes, the e-brakes snapped on me, you know, I've been through four motors in 12 years, most of them were up grades.
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, last year I drove out to have a suit for buses by the bridge.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, yes.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, that was a must go.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I've of us left for him.
[SPEAKER_01]: But he from St. Louis Springfield.
[SPEAKER_01]: They've been at us here in Tulsa.
[SPEAKER_01]: We've spent three days driving out with four other guys and my 70 was the newest of the five buses that ran out there.
[SPEAKER_01]: Mostly guys I run with on blessed.
[SPEAKER_01]: They've taught me a lot on how to keep her running.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, they believe that you drive a bus, you don't tow a bus unless you have to.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, that's what we do, but yeah, the culture, they definitely love their buses.
[SPEAKER_01]: You or cars, I, I have never seen anybody name their vehicle as much or have a passionate love for the smallest thing that put a doll in the back window and that's part of dressing their their family member up, I feel.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Awesome.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Totally.
[SPEAKER_00]: And to hear you say that speaking on community for a second, though.
[SPEAKER_00]: So you're 40 when you get this bus.
[SPEAKER_00]: How long is it before the VW community is actually introduced into your life after you get the bus?
[SPEAKER_01]: So Facebook, I started looking for parts and you started [SPEAKER_01]: that was here, and I met a guy, I was looking for a review mirror little to that I know I'd finally get it and really couldn't see out the back window anyway, so it's kind of useless.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, yeah, that was probably six months.
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe within five, six months before I met my first group.
[SPEAKER_01]: And at that point, I'm sitting on the floor and somebody else's shop, and I'm helping.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm learning how to take the pan's off a beetle, and I'm [SPEAKER_01]: People I've never met before in my life, I'm sleeping on their couch.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm doing stuff with them, and I went to my first car show as a Volkswagen show.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I have a tendency to win kids choice, or sponsors choice, you know, it's not.
[SPEAKER_01]: I very rarely get a best paint job, or I moved to original.
[SPEAKER_01]: Those are usually the two I don't get very often.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, very quick.
[SPEAKER_01]: I joined into the community.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the community here in the Midwest, I'm in the northeast corner of Oklahoma.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we do a lot with Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, and the shows up here, Texas comes up.
[SPEAKER_01]: The biggest show, you know, around here is when you re-cus springs Arkansas last weekend in August.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's three shows there now.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I mean, on any given year, there could be seven to nine hundred volts [SPEAKER_00]: I just heard about that show in Eureka and honestly, man, I got to, I got the goose bumps.
[SPEAKER_00]: Just listen to the meaning behind it, the history, the culture behind it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then the amount of cars that show up and the amount of people that come into that town for this Volkswagen event were just, it just blew me away.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then to hear, you know, was either day two or day three of the event.
[SPEAKER_00]: They drive to all the local nursing homes.
[SPEAKER_00]: uh you're we don't need to say nursing homes maybe it's not politically correct but all the old folks that that might be you know somewhat disabled uh they bring the show cars to them and let them come out and have those same you know stories that we all feel when we pull into the gas station right everybody can tell their stories but [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, man.
[SPEAKER_00]: Awesome.
[SPEAKER_00]: Awesome to hear.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I got a question for you about the Volkswagen community because now you're in grain.
[SPEAKER_00]: You've been in it for, you know, over 10 years.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's long enough to really understand and know, what do you think.
[SPEAKER_00]: Why do you think, I guess would be a better question.
[SPEAKER_01]: The VW community is different than other car culture communities.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's funny, you know, you have, you go into a meet and you know people, if you're anything like me, I can go into a show.
[SPEAKER_01]: I may not remember your name, but I know what car you drive and I know what it looks like and so forth.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've meet so many people over the year, but as far as why we are the way we are, I want to say it goes back just to, you know, the stereotype of the hippie era, maybe the culture [SPEAKER_01]: Very rarely am I going to be on the side of the road and not five people are going to pull over.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll get a call from somebody look.
[SPEAKER_01]: I just heard that you're broke down here.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now me.
[SPEAKER_01]: I get the calls because obviously this one stamp.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's not another one like it, especially around me, but I don't know.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, that's the tough question.
[SPEAKER_01]: I truly don't know the answer because I just openly, arms were open from the moment I walked into the group no matter where I went.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're going to have some people that are standoffish, you're purist, you know, obviously there's nothing pure about my bus.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, it has the right bumper on it, but no, man, I don't.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I'm not going to answer for it.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just, I think it's a mix of things.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I think it's the struggle of keeping them alive.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the personality of the people that these cars attract.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, the old bumper sticker, they say birds of a feather flock together.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you know, I think that that's that's kind of true because even though like you had mentioned a few minutes ago, there are so many different walks of life in this community, there's from, you know, brain surgeons all the way down to, you know, [SPEAKER_00]: We all have that same common bond, which is bonding over these older classic cars.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's really just a unique thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I don't know if somebody asked me that question, and I'd be able to answer it really clearly either.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just something, and I think we can probably land on that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, even the new ones.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, if you know, I always tease people that aren't in a Volkswagen, [SPEAKER_01]: or there goes a wet car, and they're like, what are you talking about?
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I mean, and not all the wet's are young kids.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I know a lot of people that do both, and I know the multiples, [SPEAKER_01]: that drive old aircool, that are driving new Volkswagen.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's all they have ever owned as a Volkswagen.
[SPEAKER_01]: One spec is in their blood.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, it stays there for life.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, they can hurt you.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I've been single for 12 years.
[SPEAKER_01]: And everybody's like, well, how come you don't get remarried?
[SPEAKER_01]: I have my own favorite hate relationship with that bus.
[SPEAKER_01]: We love each other and we hate each other.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you bring it to me all the time.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I prove it to hers.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's awesome.
[SPEAKER_00]: So let's talk about the the scene there and Tulsa.
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, just going through your timeline, you know, and kind of what you have created there.
[SPEAKER_00]: You step into this Tulsa Volkswagen scene when you first get into it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think you kind of noticed that it was fading out.
[SPEAKER_00]: What kind of goes through your mind when you're seeing that that first.
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, sad.
[SPEAKER_01]: So when I when I first come in 2000, I think 2015 was my first Tulsa show and there was a Tulsa Volkswagen club of Tulsa and pretty strong community, you know, you look back at the history of it and they did a good show every year, they got with the, you know, the local dealership, we have one Volkswagen dealership and Tulsa.
[SPEAKER_01]: We get with them.
[SPEAKER_01]: They would do cookouts and cruises.
[SPEAKER_01]: There was another group, you know, the third Thursday of every month, met at a local pizza place, did a little cruise through town.
[SPEAKER_01]: That community was gone.
[SPEAKER_01]: Are going great.
[SPEAKER_01]: Went to a show, come to find out.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, literally announced that the pretty much that the group is not banishing, but they're slowing down.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's one of those that I say this and anybody that watches it, especially from my community, I don't want to offend, but they were aging out.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it wasn't even that age.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not that they were too old.
[SPEAKER_01]: They'd been doing it for a long time.
[SPEAKER_01]: The same people are putting on a show every year.
[SPEAKER_01]: And if you've ever put on a show, you know that unfortunately a lot of people have opinions, but a lot of them don't step up and help.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think at that point, the ones that had been doing it for a long time had had run their realm and the show had stopped and we were still doing little cruises and there was little meets and there's multiple different groups that still get together and Tulsa and they, you know, they do their little things and I love it and I've got to be part of a lot of the different ones over the last decade, but as far as.
[SPEAKER_01]: One big show in the Tulsa area, the one that happened every year was done.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, plenty of car shows, of course, like every community, there's a car show every weekend.
[SPEAKER_01]: Sure, right.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're liganded, dedicated.
[SPEAKER_01]: There was no more.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I talked to the members of this club.
[SPEAKER_01]: I went to one of their meetings and we discussed the possibility, you know, you know, anybody that would wanna take over the club.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, be, get on the board and be part of it, and that wasn't me.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've been in different clubs over the years, and I've been with different organizations, and just wouldn't something that I was interested in.
[SPEAKER_01]: I said, but I'd be interested in doing a show with you guys a support.
[SPEAKER_01]: I need your backing.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, you guys are the glue that's held it together for decades.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't want to be against nobody.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't want to step on nobody's toes, but I really think that I'd like to do a show.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's kind of where, you know, the old club and the new part of it kind of blended.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, you've been all the nonprofits for years though, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Where did that come from in your life?
[SPEAKER_01]: I tell people a big, the big part of it is, I don't have a thick wallet.
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, I can't, I don't always have the money to give you.
[SPEAKER_01]: I want to help somebody and some people, that's what they do and that's what they appreciate to do because I mean, bottom line, when you're doing it event, when you're doing anything, you're raising money to help.
[SPEAKER_01]: I didn't have that money to raise, but I've got time and I had a strong back.
[SPEAKER_01]: years ago with cancer sucks.com and my buddy that founded the Oklahoma Firefire Burn Camps, like you got to come check this out.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I've been doing non-profits and helping with events between concerts, car shows, bike rallies and stuff like that for 20 plus years that I thought, man, I can take this on.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I got a handful of people stepped up and helped me.
[SPEAKER_01]: For sure, it's not definitely not the job for one person.
[SPEAKER_01]: Every time somebody asks me, you know, I want to do a show.
[SPEAKER_01]: What do you need to do?
[SPEAKER_01]: Before you think of anything, you've got to have a place.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can't any event you've got to do.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't care what it is.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't care if you're walking a dog.
[SPEAKER_01]: You've got to have a place to walk a dog.
[SPEAKER_01]: So to have a good car show, you need a venue.
[SPEAKER_01]: You need a place for spectators.
[SPEAKER_01]: You need a place for cars.
[SPEAKER_01]: You need this and that.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I got with that group.
[SPEAKER_01]: Started driving.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm driving down a road, and I saw this park, and I fell in love with it, made some calls, city of Katusa, said, yeah, you can use it.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's all you.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that was nine years ago, and they've blessed me.
[SPEAKER_01]: This park, the only thing that was happening in this park before we started the port city of Olsolagan show was a steam engine tractor show.
[SPEAKER_01]: Every year, that's it.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's on the Illinois River.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's on Route 66.
[SPEAKER_01]: One of the biggest attractions in Oklahoma is been around forever is what they call the Blue Whale.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's famous for Route 66.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a mile down the road, and this venue is humongous.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I can put in, if it grew, it could hold 500 to 700 cars plus suspect gators and everything else.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, and it's an open park.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's got everything there, so yeah, that was the, that was the start of my adrenaline rush.
[SPEAKER_00]: So so no show existed.
[SPEAKER_00]: You, you, you start this show kind of walk me through.
[SPEAKER_00]: I guess how it, I mean, you're kind of telling me how it evolved now, but like kind of bring me from zero to full blown event because now it's what 10 years strong, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Uh, this will be your nine eight or nine eight or nine.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're right.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're right.
[SPEAKER_00]: So still rocking to give me some of the biggest challenges early on.
[SPEAKER_01]: Early as one was I did the first show.
[SPEAKER_01]: We had 170 cars registered from five eighths.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's go.
[SPEAKER_01]: I did it from from the day we talked about it.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I found a location we did the show in three months.
[SPEAKER_01]: And well, because it's one of the old field of dreams, you built it, they will come.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was an elf, you know, Oklahoma City has some great shows.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's a group down there that puts on three shows a year that they're big, they're good, they're great shows.
[SPEAKER_01]: And but in the 98 up here, that was, that was it.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we built it, they came in that first year.
[SPEAKER_01]: It, [SPEAKER_01]: It rained something fierce Oklahoma has four seasons a day, not summers when you wake up here and it's 40 degrees by the lunch it's 90 and it's raining at supper time.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it rained but it worked and then of course the next year COVID hit.
[SPEAKER_01]: So you know as well as I do one year show if I didn't have it that second year it's dead.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's actually how three, no four of our shows that we took over, that me and my buddy Alan run now through salty dub.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the only reason we were granted that opportunity was through COVID.
[SPEAKER_00]: The shows kind of dissipated, turned in enough and then it was so hard to get them going again.
[SPEAKER_00]: A couple of the guys, like you had mentioned, the age-out type thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: They didn't have the energy anymore.
[SPEAKER_00]: pick up and keep going, bag of sponsors and organize and all this stuff because of COVID.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we obviously we stepped in, like you said, you know, might not have had the the deepest pockets, but we have pretty strong community and pretty strong ties.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we were like, I mean, hang on a second.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like if this whole, you know, the skyway thing's gonna go away, like hold on.
[SPEAKER_00]: Wait, this sounds cool.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's keep it going.
[SPEAKER_00]: I can get involved and start helping do XYZ and do the first year we did it was the 25th ride was 2024 we had 440 car show up.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like the line was over two miles long, bumper to bumper, coming over the bridge at one point.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was insane, it was insane completely.
[SPEAKER_00]: We've yet to be able to break that.
[SPEAKER_00]: This was last Sunday was the 27th annual, again, just under 200 cars, but yeah, man.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know that feeling, and I'm kind of [SPEAKER_00]: Tell us tell us this fast forward to now eight years nine years running what makes your show different I'd love to say I mean It's tough.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't see it as different Got it fair.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know you had you had curr on your show from You know, up north.
[SPEAKER_01]: He he was always a guy that came to my show and helped me Buggerama and you get ready to come up.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, he's a great day [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I had the bum garners from Oklahoma City.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I had the guys from, you know, from Dureka.
[SPEAKER_01]: I got a buddy from St. Louis.
[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, there's a lady from Springfield, Missouri.
[SPEAKER_01]: These are all people that put on shows.
[SPEAKER_01]: I started calling my biggest thing going back to the golden rule.
[SPEAKER_01]: You treat others as you want to be treated.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sure.
[SPEAKER_01]: I call everybody.
[SPEAKER_01]: I wanted to make sure I'd ever stepped on anyone's feet.
[SPEAKER_01]: I wasn't going to do.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, that right there, those people I just talked about, [SPEAKER_01]: are all within three hours of my house and my show.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I didn't want to do anything that was going to take away from anybody else.
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
[SPEAKER_01]: Your wrackle was, you know, let's, it's a community.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I grew up around bikers and cultures where, if you're wearing this color, you can't be around this color.
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, you know, and it's, I've been to the shows where, [SPEAKER_01]: You know, the purest isn't going to go look at this car because, you know, it's a great car.
[SPEAKER_01]: But man, those headlights are off of a 1968, not a 1960.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, there's so going to my show and what the one thing that does make it different that I know of is that there's no classes.
[SPEAKER_01]: The only class, every car show you go to, if you put on car shows, one of the hardest deals is, how am I gonna break down my classes?
[SPEAKER_01]: What trophies are we gonna have?
[SPEAKER_01]: You can go crazy, you could have 500 trophies.
[SPEAKER_01]: If we're getting to class, I have, we created the first year, what we call the Fab 15, the Fabulous 15.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_01]: So the Fabulous 15 is our trophies.
[SPEAKER_01]: Awards, I call them different all the time.
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, the first year was literally a piece of paper that said, Fab 15, I framed them and there was 15 of them we passed them out.
[SPEAKER_01]: And what we did is, I picked 15 random people.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I picked 14 random people because I, I tried to pick one car.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't always, but I picked it so you come to my show.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not even going to know you, but I noticed that you're talking to everybody.
[SPEAKER_01]: You had an eye for votes while I again, you love it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I walked up.
[SPEAKER_01]: I give you this piece of paper and I go give me a favor.
[SPEAKER_01]: pick your favorite car and on this bottom down here, right why you picked it and it doesn't have, it could be anything.
[SPEAKER_01]: So one of them, this right here was a trophy.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a cutting board.
[SPEAKER_01]: That is my logo, it's a usable cutting board.
[SPEAKER_01]: That looks dope.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and this was the trophy.
[SPEAKER_01]: 15 of them, all the trophies are the same.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the guy picked this, it's my favorite one, and I always tell this story, I get up on stage [SPEAKER_01]: You know, the next, the next winner is a guy named Andy Floyd.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's at from St. Joe's Missouri.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he won this because the guy said the cutting board would match the inside of his bus.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's why I want it.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not because it was the earliest.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not because it was the cleanest.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's because they vibe with it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, man.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was there.
[SPEAKER_01]: Love that.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I always give some kids a choice in this and that.
[SPEAKER_01]: for groups, clubs, sponsors, using an individual.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you want to make a trophy and you want to bring it, and you want to honor the earliest beetle here or the longest trip, you know, the normal ones, that's great.
[SPEAKER_01]: But as far as port city goes and passing out awards for cars, we do the Fab 15 is flat it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I love the idea that it's actually really, really, really cool.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, we have regular classes with our, our car show best paint, best interior or best action, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: But we also have people's choice and the way that we pick people's choice is not your average way, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: This time, you, you might know a guy you might see him on Instagram.
[SPEAKER_00]: Uh, I think it's Dave Bronan, the crust bus.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Have you seen him making his make out?
[SPEAKER_00]: He's from California.
[SPEAKER_00]: He just came to the Skyway ride and he was there.
[SPEAKER_00]: He won people's choice because, um, yeah, man, it's, it wasn't just the distance.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's also the story that comes along with that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not only did he grace us by, by coming, but [SPEAKER_00]: how cool to have a dude, you know, when in a mid 60s, you know, split bus all across it up, you know, drive that California.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he's he's making thousands of miles all over the country.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he was just down in Key West the weekend before he had come up to the Tampa Bay area.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I mean, you know, that's, you know, you win some award for that type of effort for sure around [SPEAKER_01]: Well, that's like, didn't you have a Leo Van Dell on?
[SPEAKER_01]: I did.
[SPEAKER_01]: So Leo's that way.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, no, you dumb man.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, he's from here.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's from Tulsa.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, he has saved me on a cruise.
[SPEAKER_01]: I had a wheel spin out on me and he goes, oh, I got one.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll be back in 10 minutes.
[SPEAKER_01]: We fixed my wheel and we finished the cruise.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, man, this is the right guy.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and now it's become the running joke.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's what my trophy's gonna be this year or this year.
[SPEAKER_01]: Two years ago, this is a full electric guitar.
[SPEAKER_01]: Three-stroke.
[SPEAKER_00]: Look at that.
[SPEAKER_01]: I gave out 15 of them.
[SPEAKER_01]: That is awesome.
[SPEAKER_01]: I can do.
[SPEAKER_01]: I gave out custom toolboxes.
[SPEAKER_01]: Last year was Bluetooth speakers made out of vintage luggage.
[SPEAKER_01]: And this year, I haven't even announced yet.
[SPEAKER_01]: So this year is the 100-year anniversary of Route 66.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Oklahoma is celebrating during June.
[SPEAKER_01]: Just so happens to be that when my show starts, my theme, I always do a little theme every year.
[SPEAKER_01]: This year, it's Route 66 and drive ends.
[SPEAKER_01]: So Friday night, we're doing a full drive in.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm bringing out a 30 foot screen.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're gonna, we camp out on the show site.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're doing movies.
[SPEAKER_01]: But this year, my award is Oblutooth.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm turning the old speakers from a drive and in the Bluetooth speakers.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've seen there's one guy locally here that comes to some shows and a thing Volkswagen thing and he has one of those old drop and speakers that he hangs off of his car and it is.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a Bluetooth speaker and dude, I've jonesed over it every time I see it, I'm like dude.
[SPEAKER_01]: how do you do that you know like it's I've never really wanted to bring it up or talk about it but now you show me that I'm like oh cool so you can make one dope yeah so that's kind of a weirdo because I it's dual cool it's an e-trophy but it's also a prop so now it's on your car it's on your bus from your beetle and you see the sports city logo and somebody else what is that yes and I'm proposing without even trying to promote so branding branding yeah [SPEAKER_00]: Tell us about the the the burn camp Oklahoma fighters firefighters burn camp.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know you touched on it just a little bit, but just tell me what this camp actually does for kids.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hey, a gentleman in Scotty Stokes found it in 1999.
[SPEAKER_01]: He was a Tulsa fire provider.
[SPEAKER_01]: He had went over to Fayetteville Arkansas to be a firefighter and it was a camp over there.
[SPEAKER_01]: You get to go there as a kid that's been burner just figured and you're with your peers, you're with other people that have similar situations in life and you can talk to, well, Scottie took a group of kids over there, the next year he took more kids over there and by the third year they're like, you've got more, you're bringing more kids over here than we have in the camp, you need to have your own camp.
[SPEAKER_01]: So a gentleman here in Tulsa said, look, come out to my church camp area, [SPEAKER_01]: The kids can come and you can use it.
[SPEAKER_01]: That was in 1999, and we're still going strong.
[SPEAKER_01]: So like I said, it's a burn, you're either burners, just figured.
[SPEAKER_01]: We've got everything from, you know, some small scars that are, you know, a hand or stuff you don't even see to, we've got kids that have been 90% of their body has been burned and house fires cars.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can't help it.
[SPEAKER_01]: You walked down the street, you know, and you see somebody and you don't know whether you can ask what happened or you feel better at or whatever you are.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, and those kids are feeling the same way, you know, they get to a point where.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, if somebody's looking at them, and a lot of kids don't have the, you know, the PTSD from it, the after effects, not only physically but mentally, the camp has been there for them, it's a, it's a family, it's a life.
[SPEAKER_01]: With us doing it so long, so once you become 16, you're last year's a camper, 17, you usually go into a partnership with a mentor and at 17, 18, you start being a counselor.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we give these kids, we pass out scholarships every year to two or three kids out of the camp that are trying to better their life, whether it's trade school, college, whatever it is, every kid that comes to camp will never pay ever.
[SPEAKER_01]: Any counselor, nurse, doctor, anyone that comes to camp, never pays a penny out of their pocket.
[SPEAKER_01]: Events like this, mostly private donors.
[SPEAKER_01]: This weekend is our biggest event of the year.
[SPEAKER_01]: We have an MMA fight that has blown up over the last decade.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's Cobb's versus firefighters.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're just one in the nation.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's stream live.
[SPEAKER_01]: You have to be a firefighter, have to be a cop.
[SPEAKER_01]: The cops are fighting for special Olympics.
[SPEAKER_01]: Come on, man, I love it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Dude, well, the way they split it, so they say this weekend, I think there's 12 bouts.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a firefighter's win seven of the 12 bouts.
[SPEAKER_01]: They get 60% of the profit and then the the or the other gets 40.
[SPEAKER_01]: So everyone comes out ahead.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, that's a $150,000 or a bit.
[SPEAKER_01]: to do that for so much and it's it's crazy because I'm being some of these guys look like me and you strapping on a ring and getting in a ring, you know, Joe Bluff.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now go get me wrong.
[SPEAKER_01]: Most of these guys are in pretty good shape, but once a year what happens in our big auditorium in Tulsa, the the okay center, and there's probably 20,000 people show up to watch.
[SPEAKER_01]: Holy shit dude.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I'm a huge fight fan, you know, whole life.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've been [SPEAKER_00]: Since the 90s since the no glove days, you know, no knuckles actually, you know, coming up, my son, my oldest son, he's 18, he grew up in MMA, you know, doing karate and all that stuff and then got into boxing.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's golden glove boxer fighter, you know, he's [SPEAKER_00]: If you've seen some of the posts on the Facebook page, I actually, the podcast actually has a championship belt that I made because when I go to all the local shows around here, any guys that I have come on as guests, you guys are the podcast champions.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I always put I was put the belt on your shoulder and I'd take a picture with you know my with my backdrop behind you Because man, that's what this podcast is about a celebrating, you know, the guys that live the dub life.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's just cool to hear that about the fight stuff you guys put on because my belt would go over well there.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's become cool deal.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, people know what it is.
[SPEAKER_01]: They know that 100% of this car show goes to the care.
[SPEAKER_00]: I start rated money.
[SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely.
[SPEAKER_00]: Such a cool thing, man, that you're changing lives like this through a dub show, through a Volkswagen event.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, come on.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's go.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's why you're here.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's why we're spent on this time together.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think it's so awesome.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're a great person, man.
[SPEAKER_00]: How cool.
[SPEAKER_00]: How cool.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, that's even like this.
[SPEAKER_01]: My goal is to say somebody watches this.
[SPEAKER_01]: Somebody in this tri-state area over here, and they know somebody, some kid that had been burned.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're more than welcome to reach out, contact me, get through you, get my number, and we'll get that get to camp.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's always my goal.
[SPEAKER_01]: If I can reach one person, not only financially, of course, that obviously it helps, get the cost of nobody's got to pay, but the deal is being able, because of hippolols, we can't go to a hospital and say, look, we need to get ahold of anybody that's been burnt this year.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's tough to get the word out there.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then we do these different events, and we go to little things, and we pass it out fire stations, [SPEAKER_01]: It's just one of those.
[SPEAKER_01]: I said that I got a golf tournament next weekend.
[SPEAKER_01]: I got the car show coming up.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm just going to have a look.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I love it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that's fantastic.
[SPEAKER_01]: Car stuff is known now for burn camp.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's just part of it.
[SPEAKER_01]: My biggest sponsors are individuals.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've got a couple corporate.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm bad about it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm the guy that's going to shake your hand and I feel bad asking for money.
[SPEAKER_00]: I feel bad at all asking for money because it's not coming to me.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm sure something in the community to put on for the community, more or less to put on for the whole Volkswagen community, I don't feel bad at all asking for money, but here's the thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sponsors are the hardest thing for me to tackle.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, hardest thing for me to tackle, I've got a few guys locally, you know, that that are pretty regular, uh, pretty regular in their effort, pretty regular and in donating.
[SPEAKER_00]: Awesome, you know, that that we can create that and awesome for them that they see the value in it, but it's not as easy as a lot of people think, you know, to put on these shows.
[SPEAKER_00]: We have one show called VDubs on the peer and this isn't about me, but I'm just bringing this up because I know you understand the struggle.
[SPEAKER_00]: V-dubs on the pier we have to get all, you know, jump through hoops of the city and pull a permit and pay the city for the venue space, just for the police in the morning from 7 to 9 a.m. where we have the parade is $10,000 to shut the road down.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, bro, I don't have that kind of money.
[SPEAKER_00]: right so everybody's like oh you guys are charging 50 bucks or 30 bucks or 10 bucks or whatever you're charging and it's like well yeah but wait so here's what we're doing we're hoping that the more people come the less it'll get for everybody if I can count on 250 people coming 300 350 people coming it gets cheaper for everybody because we got to cover that nut [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not going to just cover that nut, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And let everybody come for free, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: So again, it turns into this whole community thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: We'll then other people see that effort, and they're like, no, we'll donate.
[SPEAKER_00]: We'll donate, we'll donate.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's how you kind of create this ability to do shows.
[SPEAKER_00]: We haven't even scratched the surface yet of doing things like what you're doing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, we do some donations, like I said, we work with, you know, animals, SPCA, that type of stuff, but we're not, we're not into it like this yet.
[SPEAKER_00]: I would love to be, though, and I love here, and I get so much motivation, Boga Rama is all about the veterans.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you know, what a cool thing, right, to have that, too, like I'm going to find our niche eventually as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I can't wait to break raise a whole bunch of money and donate it.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's going to make me feel so awesome because that's what this is all about, dude.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's putting on for the community, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, a lot of the community like you said.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it gets me.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that the last year our trophies were custom lantern boxes.
[SPEAKER_01]: I gave about 15 vintage Coleman lanterns.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: We make them boxes.
[SPEAKER_01]: I didn't know where I was going to come up with 15 decent because it's got to be usable nice lanterns, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm at Havasu.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm out there to have a suit, buses by the bridge.
[SPEAKER_01]: And there's a guy that's got a bunch of lanterns.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I got to talk about him about let's cut a deal.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I look over in his license plates, Oklahoma.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm like, are you from Oklahoma?
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you get a car?
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, here we are in Havisoo.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he said, no, I'm from Guthrie.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm like, well, I'm from Tulsa.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm like, look, this is what I want to do.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he goes pick 15 landers or yours.
[SPEAKER_01]: Take them.
[SPEAKER_01]: pick 15 and I grab one of those men and that's not good enough.
[SPEAKER_01]: Pick this one and he goes, that one doesn't have glass, get with me in a couple weeks and I'll get you the glass for it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Wow.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know what would have been in, you know, if I'm lucky, you know, at $25, $30 a lantern, I got for free.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I have a local company that loves the idea of these trophies and [SPEAKER_01]: I go to him every year, you know, it's a guy at Arrowhead trucking has nothing to do with Volkswagen.
[SPEAKER_01]: His mechanic, the guy in charge of his shop, is my go-to guy.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's got that garage that you like, you go in and there's, you know, a 23, a 13-deluxe, a single cab, it's first, you know, he's become one of my good friends.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's one of my go-to, Adam is.
[SPEAKER_01]: that if I need something like, and he's the hardcore mechanic, he doesn't sit down and fix it formally, he makes me do that so I can learn it.
[SPEAKER_01]: But it's because of the damn we get to do this, I get to do these cool trophies.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, because I mean, I spend two grand on trophies and by getting all these sponsors, the day of my show, I don't charge anything for anything.
[SPEAKER_01]: We give out free barbecue, my brother cooks.
[SPEAKER_01]: We $25 get you into the car show, get you a free shirt, get you stickers, motorway, everything.
[SPEAKER_00]: That motivates me.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's where I want my shows to eventually be.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to arrive at knots free.
[SPEAKER_00]: Everything is free.
[SPEAKER_00]: Foods free, this is free, that's free.
[SPEAKER_00]: Everything's free, car show entries free.
[SPEAKER_00]: I would like for all that to happen.
[SPEAKER_00]: It can't yet, because right now, we got to split this pretty large nut, especially covering the city, the police, and everything else.
[SPEAKER_00]: But that's honestly, it motivates me.
[SPEAKER_00]: motivates me to hear that because that's where I want to go.
[SPEAKER_00]: Alan got a great heart too.
[SPEAKER_00]: My partner in Salty Dubb, we both feel the same way, man.
[SPEAKER_00]: We don't do this for money.
[SPEAKER_00]: I haven't, we've been running Salty Dubb for a couple of years now.
[SPEAKER_00]: It loses money.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're not in this for the money dude.
[SPEAKER_00]: I work.
[SPEAKER_00]: He works.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's got a business.
[SPEAKER_00]: I got a business.
[SPEAKER_00]: We we don't do it.
[SPEAKER_00]: We do it for community.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, we do it for the feeling that it that it gives the community the smiles that it puts on everybody's faces.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's just awesome.
[SPEAKER_00]: I love here.
[SPEAKER_00]: You got the same heart.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, that's that's the thing about it.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I tell people.
[SPEAKER_01]: So there's donation jars everywhere.
[SPEAKER_01]: You put in money.
[SPEAKER_01]: My mom was a single mom most for life raised me and my brother.
[SPEAKER_01]: And there's no way a single mom, even in this day in age, could walk up to a food truck and afford to pay.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you ain't got a good job, you can't afford it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Forty bucks at a food truck.
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
[SPEAKER_01]: Or what?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: But there ain't no tellin'.
[SPEAKER_01]: I get a guy that'll come up and grab a hot dog and drop a hundred dollar bill in.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, man.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't.
[SPEAKER_01]: My brother cooks and I'm blessed to have the family with me, but if he sees that kid walk back for four times, he's going to make a plate and go over and hand it to him.
[SPEAKER_01]: Anybody, anybody that's with our group, that's what they do.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what I love about it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, there's water grubs everywhere, everything there is just help yourself and be able to understand because there's not enough of it.
[SPEAKER_01]: And like I said, it's almost impossible to do.
[SPEAKER_01]: If it wasn't for the 20 people that are helping me financially, [SPEAKER_01]: or however many, and then the community to step in because I look over and I've got, you know, three people picking up the trash out of a trash can, and they don't have to do that, but they know that there's no one else going to do it.
[SPEAKER_01]: So they're going to do it because that's part of the community and that's what we do, we help one another.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, describe the VW community for me and just one word.
[SPEAKER_01]: For me, it's family.
[SPEAKER_01]: My dad was there, most of the time I had a step dad and my dad, but the one thing they all had in common, I don't know, the no grand balls, no uncles, no aunts, you know, my family's always been, I got my brother, but my family's been friends.
[SPEAKER_01]: And for a Volkswagen community that doesn't know me, and that allows me, you know, I get random people, Sidney checks, I need just to go to the camp.
[SPEAKER_01]: I get a call.
[SPEAKER_01]: I got a call not too long ago.
[SPEAKER_01]: What do you need me to do this year?
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, my numbers all over everything.
[SPEAKER_01]: I didn't know who these people were.
[SPEAKER_01]: Why met you last year at the show?
[SPEAKER_01]: You probably don't remember me, but I met you.
[SPEAKER_01]: You made a big appearance.
[SPEAKER_01]: You made a big strong commitment on me.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm coming back this year.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm bringing 10 more people from Texas, we're coming up.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to camp for the weekend.
[SPEAKER_01]: And yeah, I mean, and I know family means [SPEAKER_01]: But family to me is that person that's, that's gonna be there for you.
[SPEAKER_01]: When you're low, they're gonna help you up.
[SPEAKER_01]: And when you're high, they're gonna patch you on the back.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's what I've been blessed with.
[SPEAKER_01]: My car breaks down.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, there's a guy in my community.
[SPEAKER_01]: I was broke down.
[SPEAKER_01]: Eureka Springs was a three weeks away.
[SPEAKER_01]: He goes, I've got a single port 1600 in my shop, come get it, put it in your bus.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm like, okay, dude, what do you owe me?
[SPEAKER_01]: No, I don't want it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I upgraded it's my extra, the shores.
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you take one?
[SPEAKER_01]: Come on, man.
[SPEAKER_01]: But that's, I know not everyone has the same experiences in life.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's for sure.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I've been blessed enough to the negativity in the Volkswagen community.
[SPEAKER_01]: If I've met 3,000 people in the Volkswagen community over the last decade, I may have had three bad experiences.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and I don't believe it had anything to do with Volkswagen, and I don't have it anything it did with me talking to you.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was because, yeah, something outside.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, you're welcome.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's it.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the same thing with being a promoter and doing shows.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can't satisfy everybody.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's always that one or one child or one person or one animal or just one something.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's always one.
[SPEAKER_00]: Always.
[SPEAKER_01]: But the problem is, I'm the guy that is hurt from that one.
[SPEAKER_01]: If I have one set, I want to know why and how I can fix it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Love that.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's that's your heart, though, man.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's that's who you are.
[SPEAKER_00]: Arson, speaking on this, though, do you think that the next generation of us, next generation of kids of the, you know, the younger generation?
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you think they're going to carry this on?
[SPEAKER_00]: This whole Volkswagen thing that we, that we know and love so much?
[SPEAKER_01]: Not if we don't have the patients to help them and show them.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, that's the generation, but for me, even if they were younger, [SPEAKER_01]: So to me, generation's not always an age, it's how long you've been like, I'm a new generation of Volkswagen in my opinion in 10, 12 years.
[SPEAKER_01]: Right, sure.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm always used to guys that have been in it for 30, 40, you know, the world of me and miles under buses.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, if there's a kid that is new, I get to call the time, I'm looking for this, I'm looking for that, let me make some calls.
[SPEAKER_01]: I wanna show them that people are out there that wanna help.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm not there to make the money.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't want your money.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not trying to do anything like that.
[SPEAKER_01]: But yeah, in a generalization, it's tough to think it is.
[SPEAKER_01]: I told you I got a brand new granddaughter, seven months old.
[SPEAKER_01]: And one of the things that scares the Holy WVGB's data me is what life's going to be for her in 20 years.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, and all we can do, if you've raised cow, turn on the damn TV.
[SPEAKER_00]: Dude, you know, with me into going to sleep every night, you know, I've got five kids and I have those those same fears.
[SPEAKER_00]: No grandkids yet, but my daughter's my daughter's 20.
[SPEAKER_00]: She's taken life pretty serious.
[SPEAKER_00]: She's, you know, graduated from cosmetology school.
[SPEAKER_00]: She's, you know, [SPEAKER_00]: She's a licensed Florida cosmatologist.
[SPEAKER_00]: She's born, you know, born certified, whatever, whatever that past their state board is.
[SPEAKER_01]: And your head relations, yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, which is awesome, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: She works in her career, works in a salon.
[SPEAKER_00]: She's starting to make money.
[SPEAKER_00]: She's now she's talking about moving out.
[SPEAKER_00]: She's got a serious boyfriend, blah, blah, blah.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know it's coming, dude.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I do.
[SPEAKER_00]: My wife and I, we have these conversations all the time.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like dang.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like what?
[SPEAKER_00]: Number one, how the hell can they even afford to live here?
[SPEAKER_00]: right like the rent like is is you know we we own a real estate company my wife and I and we're privileged and blessed to be able to do what we do and even be able to afford you know a mortgage or rent in this area we live in paradise the tropical paradise.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I do.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm really like, unless my kids or doctors are lawyers, like, dude, I'm worried about them.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, how are you all going to be able to afford this this lifestyle?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, man, I thought I do think about it.
[SPEAKER_00]: But back to it.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not about me.
[SPEAKER_00]: Back to you.
[SPEAKER_00]: want to hear this about you.
[SPEAKER_00]: All this disappears.
[SPEAKER_00]: Everything that that that you're doing right now and all disappears tomorrow.
[SPEAKER_00]: What are you most proud of?
[SPEAKER_01]: Strictly Volkswagen.
[SPEAKER_01]: Strictly port city Volkswagen show.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's done.
[SPEAKER_01]: I can't do it anymore.
[SPEAKER_01]: Nobody else wants to take it over.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's finished.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think the thing I'm most proud of is the hugs.
[SPEAKER_01]: The the people that come out of the background [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I'm in have a student of ex-girl last year at buses by the bridge and I look over in one of the show shirts is on a guy that's on a stage giving out a trophy across the country and he's like, I came with a friend that goes, just to see your show and I fell love with it enough to buy a shirt and I'm going to come next year and he didn't even know what it was about.
[SPEAKER_01]: He just, because of the way this show is and then it, but I love that [SPEAKER_01]: Um, people want to be my friend, you know, and they they trust me enough to know that I'm not full of it and I'm really doing what I say.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm doing.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've done a lot of charity work man.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've been accused of a lot of things over the years with other charities like is the money really going there.
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
[SPEAKER_01]: I tried to be as transparent as physically possible.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I, I.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you, if you go on my online registration, that money goes straight into the Oklahoma firefighter burn camp, bank account.
[SPEAKER_01]: I didn't go to me, go straight to them.
[SPEAKER_01]: I raised the money pre-hand and I put it in that bank account and I have what I call my allowance, my big kid allowance, that allows me to buy my trophies, to buy the tents, to get the food, to get the stuff, but if it all goes away and I'm done, once again, [SPEAKER_01]: The family that I have gained over eight years of this show in nine different states that have showed up and walked up and shook my hand and thanked me for putting that on.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's probably it when it comes to that.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's a tough one because when I'm all done and on the guy it's funny I'll be laying in the middle of this field of my car show.
[SPEAKER_01]: Everyone drives off except for the people camping Saturday.
[SPEAKER_01]: and they go looking for me.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm up on stage.
[SPEAKER_01]: I just gave out trophies.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm the guy with no shoes on barefoot, passing out trophies, and then I go lay down in the middle field and my ball hysterically.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, because the love I just got from all these people, it's over that actually happened, and it didn't mother nature didn't screw me.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, nothing major happened, but the, and then, [SPEAKER_01]: It what what's crazy is to know that I'm doing the right thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: It takes me 10 minutes and I'm wondering what I need to do different next year or what I need to do.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, it doesn't stop.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's awesome.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, but it's it's it's it's my heart could be sour if it wasn't for other people.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, holding on to it and giving me the support to make it happen.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, if no one else was there, one person, you can't carry it.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, I mean, they always say it takes a community, and it does.
[SPEAKER_01]: They've got to have, they've got to have an election.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're not going to show on you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Where do they find the show?
[SPEAKER_00]: Where do they find you?
[SPEAKER_00]: How do they get in touch with you?
[SPEAKER_00]: Those are they're listening to this podcast watching it on YouTube.
[SPEAKER_00]: They, they like what they hear.
[SPEAKER_00]: How do they find you?
[SPEAKER_01]: It would have port city Volkswagen show on Facebook.
[SPEAKER_01]: The website, I got a website.
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, port city VW car show or port city Volkswagen show, um, this again, real port city Volkswagen show, you're going to find it.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's going to be a alternate link that's on Instagram.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's on Facebook.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's got its own site, but first Saturday and June every year.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we, we've, like I said, we reached out to all the other shows.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so we don't step on each other's feet.
[SPEAKER_01]: We kind of set weekends.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's Springfield, which is three hours away as a show that's following weekend.
[SPEAKER_01]: So yep, that first Saturday in June every year.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we're trying to turn it into a three day weekend.
[SPEAKER_01]: People start showing up Thursday.
[SPEAKER_01]: Most cars show you laugh.
[SPEAKER_01]: People show up at like eight in the morning, six in the morning, five in the morning.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now my people show up Thursday night and start camping in the park.
[SPEAKER_01]: And let's go.
[SPEAKER_01]: So at my show, when you're camping, you don't pick up campsite.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's part of the show.
[SPEAKER_01]: People walk to your camp.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've seen people stop and take coffee that are just spectators, you know?
[SPEAKER_01]: So, yep, what is any Volkswagen show?
[SPEAKER_01]: Ketu Soakle Homa.
[SPEAKER_01]: awesome man.
[SPEAKER_00]: I got some rapid fire questions for you.
[SPEAKER_00]: These are questions that demand a fast response.
[SPEAKER_00]: However, if a story comes of it, like I always say, let's rock and roll.
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't don't think you can't tell any stories you certainly can, but these questions are designed to be answered.
[SPEAKER_00]: First thing that comes to mind, you ready for?
[SPEAKER_00]: Try.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, let's get it.
[SPEAKER_00]: First one, air cooled or water cooled.
[SPEAKER_00]: There.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, he's a split window or bay window.
[SPEAKER_01]: I weigh 300 pounds bay window.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's so funny.
[SPEAKER_00]: I always hear the Bayes, the Cadillac of the buses, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, all right, dream VW that you don't own yet.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm a weird one.
[SPEAKER_01]: My birth year, first year disc breaks on the front, but it's still a stand up type one engine.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, still still also considered the early.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, really, that's my dream.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, okay, awkward question for you, but I always get a response here.
[SPEAKER_00]: Most overrated VW of all time, overrated.
[SPEAKER_01]: Personal, personal opinion only, and I'll be ridiculed by some of my closest friends, split window bus.
[SPEAKER_00]: Amen.
[SPEAKER_00]: You ain't alone.
[SPEAKER_00]: A lot of people ask that question too.
[SPEAKER_00]: They answer it the same way, and I think it's for multiple reasons, but the two most than I hear.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't even have to hear your your reasoning.
[SPEAKER_00]: The two most I hear are the price tag that they've gotten to over time, especially bear Jackson and, you know, these other option houses and the comfort.
[SPEAKER_00]: Uh, if you're over six to, you know, and you're over, you know, whatever, you've got to cut, you know, lean down it, so yeah, it's always comfort and it's always the price.
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, right here on 300 pounds and you can't go to a drive through window and get food because there's no window.
[SPEAKER_01]: So those are my two biggest reasons.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, man.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's good enough.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right.
[SPEAKER_00]: How about this?
[SPEAKER_00]: Opposite end of the spectrum.
[SPEAKER_00]: Most underrated.
[SPEAKER_00]: VW of all time underrated.
[SPEAKER_00]: Go to my favorite.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're in your back window.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're the Baywindow bus.
[SPEAKER_01]: You.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, a lot of people.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's the.
[SPEAKER_01]: Not to stereotype, but it's the it's the.
[SPEAKER_01]: The ugly girl from high school.
[SPEAKER_01]: You didn't want to be seen with it.
[SPEAKER_01]: But she you love being with her.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I've got that, I've got that, I've got that, I've got that, I've got that, that is absolutely awesome.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's so well said.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's great.
[SPEAKER_00]: You want to comment.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: How about this one?
[SPEAKER_00]: One tool that you can't live without.
[SPEAKER_01]: With mine, because I've had electrical problems as a jump pack.
[SPEAKER_00]: Ooh, good answer.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, good answer.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've had electrical problems with my bus, most of my life with it.
[SPEAKER_01]: So being able to jump start it has been going to go to.
[SPEAKER_00]: best road trip snack.
[SPEAKER_01]: I do the same thing every day.
[SPEAKER_01]: Beef jerky.
[SPEAKER_01]: I do beef jerky.
[SPEAKER_01]: Watch him a call at candy bar.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, I love those.
[SPEAKER_01]: Those are those are my two go to have to have snacks.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, like it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: How about this?
[SPEAKER_00]: If somebody's listening right now and they might be on the edge of starting something, maybe even starting their own Volkswagen car show, maybe starting a fundraiser, maybe get stimulated from hearing about the burn camp and they want to start something, if they're on the fence though, and they haven't done anything about it, what advice would you give them?
[SPEAKER_01]: At the end of time, I tell my kids, especially, [SPEAKER_01]: You want to be able to say that I've been there and done that, not that I wish that I had.
[SPEAKER_01]: So do it, you know, failure sucks.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not gonna lie, we've all failed at something in life, but I would rather try and fail than to not try at all.
[SPEAKER_01]: So just do it, I mean, the old Nike saying, [SPEAKER_01]: You know, try to find someone that you trust to have your back and just attempt it, you know, you, I don't know, I feel, I feel that I spend everything and I do it.
[SPEAKER_01]: halfway.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's what it feels like to me all the time.
[SPEAKER_01]: I always do a big verbal talk.
[SPEAKER_01]: As I've you've seen you've learned over the last hour or whatever, I word vomit as I call it all the time.
[SPEAKER_01]: I get nervous.
[SPEAKER_01]: I talk and I'm going to wonder what I like that.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, man, just don't be afraid.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you have the thought, find somebody to help you.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you don't want to do it yourself, be that silent partner and find somebody that'll stand up and do it with you, [SPEAKER_01]: Somebody out there need you as much as you need them.
[SPEAKER_01]: So be there for them as much as you can.
[SPEAKER_00]: Awesome, man.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're an incredible guy.
[SPEAKER_00]: This has been an incredible conversation.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're not just building the bus behind you.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're building something a lot bigger, a community, and you're giving back, and you're just such a special guy, man.
[SPEAKER_00]: I really appreciate your time.
[SPEAKER_00]: And 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 summoned and the wheels turning and always follow the road that inspires you.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is Joe Person, I'm signing off, I'll catch you on the next ride.
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