Honorable mention
San Juan Barndoor
Dyer Lytle
Honorable mention
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Part 1"I hope my link pin bolts are tight", Dave Parks thought to himself as he flung the bus into yet another hairpin turn in the road, tires screaming. Early bus suspension was never made for this kind of driving but he was in a hurry, opportunity only knocks once, or so they say.
Events leading up to this moment had started nearly two weeks earlier when his friend, Neal Abt, in Cortez, had left a message on his answering machine that simply said "I saw a bus like the one you drive in a barn out at a farm where I was installing a septic system. Strange thing is, it had big VW logo on the back where the back window should be. Looked kind of old and interesting, give me a call and I'll give you the details."
Now Dave was was fairly new to the world of VW busses, he'd only owned his '65 for about a year, but in his spare time as a student at the Durango Institute, he'd been learning as much about old Volkswagens as possible, and this sounded like a barndoor, a very early barndoor. Unfortunately, it didn't seem likely that a VW bus that old would show up in Colorado, maybe in Germany, but not the U. S. of A. Probably some mid sixties bus that had been hacked up. But he'd better take a look, just in case.
Of course, it was just about that time that Neal had gone on vacation taking the information about the bus with him. The following weekend, Dave had driven down from Silverton, where he was working for the summer at the railroad, to Cortez and had spent most of that Saturday driving around the outskirts of town looking into any and all barns he could see from the road. He was barked at by an assortment of dogs, saw a lot of farm and ranch equipment, and got a nose full of alfalfa pollen, but saw no busses.
The San Juan Skyway is certainly a beautiful drive but its not very fast, specially in an old VW bus. Second gear always got a good workout up around Coal Bank pass. On the way home, Dave passed another splitty near Purgatory and waved, you don't see too many splitty busses in south-west Colorado. When he got home he started a fire in the wood stove and called Neal yet again to see if, maybe, he was back from vacation. No luck.
It was Thursday before Neal's voice finally came live, not recorded, over the telephone.
"Don't ever do that to me again!", Dave blurted, even before greeting his friend, "I've been trying to figure out where that bus is for nearly two weeks!"
"Huh?", said Neal, "What are you talking about, did you lose your bus?"
"Ouch", thought Dave, "try to remember that not all people are interested in VW busses!" Since he had become interested in transporters, Dave had immersed himself in VW bus culture. In his dorm room at the institute he had spent hours and hours on the internet reading about busses, looking at pictures of busses, exchanging e-mail about busses, chatting with other bus owners, etc. He had also found a collection of past issues of various VW magazines at the local used bookstore and bought about 7 years worth. But, the majority of people around him didn't share his fascination with these vehicles. In fact, a lot of people looked at him a little strange when he started talking about the practicality and fun of owning and operating a vehicle as old as his.
Neal was a case in point, his entire philosophy of vehicle ownership could be summed up in one sentence, "If you can't haul DIRT with it, what GOOD is it?" Neal drove a late model four wheel drive pickup truck with a V-8 engine and a winch on the front bumper. When he wasn't taking classes at the institute, he was helping his dad install septic systems in Montezuma county.
"Neal, I'm talking about the bus you mentioned in the phone message you left on my machine before you left on vacation, remember? The bus in the barn?" Dave tried to keep the excitement and frustration out of his voice.
"Oh yeah, that bus," you could almost hear the wheels turning, "Hey, when I asked the guy, he said his father brought that bus over from Germany when he immigrated to the U.S. in the early 50's."
Dave began thinking a variety of thoughts including what his parents would say if he used some of his inheritance to buy another bus and just how long would it take to get to Cortez, 100 miles away.
"You know," continued Neal, "I was just talking about that bus to some guys in the parking lot at Disneyland yesterday. I was walking back to my truck and I saw a couple of those vee-dub busses and four people talking, it looked like these two sort of hippy looking guys were selling one of the busses to a couple Japanese gentleman. I told 'em I knew a friend in Colorado that had one of those busses. We got to talking and I also told them about that old bus in the barn." Neal paused for for a moment, "And you know, it was the strangest thing, those two Japanese guys started talking real fast in Japanese, and then they wanted to know exactly where the bus was at! Well I told them the general area and damned if they didn't jump in their Lexus and take off, right there in the middle of the conversation, imagine that!"
"Oh, I can imagine!" replied Dave, "I think that is one rare bus you spotted and those guys probably want to buy it, there are some people in Japan collecting those sorts of things and they come over here, buy them, and ship 'em back to Japan." Dave thought quickly, "How about I drive down to Cortez, pick you up, and we go have a look at that bus?"
"Well, okay", Neal sighed, "I'm a little tired from driving but what the heck."
"I'll see you as soon as possible." Dave hung up the phone and prepared to leave. He was in a hurry.
Part 2
It was probably a good thing Dave was driving a vehicle with a top speed of about 65 that day, he might have gotten himself in trouble with the police or wrapped his vehicle around a tree otherwise. As it was, by the time he passed Rockwood, his brakes were smoking. From there on, except for a slowdown going through Durango, he drove flat out until he got the the Abt's in Cortez.
Mr. Abt was in the yard, doing something with their tank truck when Dave rolled up to the house.
"Hi Mr. Abt, where's Neal, I want him quick?!"
"Hey!" called Neal from the front porch, "Its Davy boy and his race car!" Dave have looked him crossly. "Okay, okay", smiled Neal, "I'm ready!"
With Neal riding shotgun and giving directions, they quickly arrived at the farm house and barn where Neal said the old bus was located. In the driveway was a Lexus.
"Hey, that looks like the same car those Japanese men were driving in LA yesterday. I wonder what they're doing around here." Neal sounded surprised.
They parked behind the the other vehicle, got out, and knocked at the door of the house. Mark Schmidt answered the door, recognized Neal, and greeted them, "Hi there, what can I do for you boys? My new septic system seems to be working just fine, Mr. Abt!"
"Howdy, Mr. Schmidt," replied Neal, "No, I'm not here about the septic system, this is my friend Dave Parks from Durango, he is interested in that old Volkswagen you've got out in your barn."
"That so?" Mr. Schmidt's eyebrows rose a quarter of an inch, "Well when it rains it pours, hasn't been anyone interested in that old thing for 40 years and here I've got two lookers in one day!" Looking beyond Dave and Neal, Mr. Schmidt caught sight of Dave's '65, "Well, pleased to meet you Dave, I see you're driving one of those old busses yourself, come on in and meet Mr. Suzuki, he just arrived a few minutes ago wanting to talk about my old bus also."
So Dave and Neal and Mr. Schmidt went in and introductions were made all around. Together, they all went out to take a look at the bus in the barn.
Dave's eyes were wide, "See how the drip rails only go part way back, and the lack of a back window, yup, I'd say that's a 1950 panel van, one of the oldest ones!"
Mr. Schmidt explained that his father had immigrated to the U.S in 1953 and had bought this bus with him. Mark had been a boy at the time but remembered driving the bus around hauling plumbing tools and fixtures along the dirt roads in southern Colorado and northern New Mexico. In about 1959, they had bought a new Chevrolet truck and retired the VW to the barn where it had sat for the last, nearly 40 years.
They looked around and inside the vehicle, it was fairly beat up, dents and scrapes, a bit of rust underneath, probably repairable. The paint was in bad shape, the roof had a thin coating of rust where the paint was mostly gone. The front seat didn't look to bad until Mr. Schmidt sat in the passenger side, then the seams came apart and the material ripped and it was clear some upholstery work would be necessary. Mr. Schmidt said the last he knew, the engine ran but had a lot of miles on it. There was no battery, the gas tank had been drained and all four tires were flat and cracked, probably wouldn't hold air.
Mr. Suzuki asked, "Are you interested in selling this vehicle? My company usually buys only the deluxe passenger bus but the age of this one makes it collectible so we are still interested in buying it."
Dave was, of course also interested, "I would really like to buy this bus too, if you are interested in selling it, that is."
Mr. Schmidt looked thoughtful, "Well, I could use the extra space in this corner of the barn. I was thinking of moving this thing outside to make room and using it to store some stuff too, like a small shed. But if there are people who might put it to good use as a vehicle, I might be inclined to sell it."
"My company would be willing to offer you $5000 for this bus." Mr. Suzuki got right to the point.
"Yow!" thought Dave, "Thats about how much I've got in my savings account."
"Wow!" exclaimed Mr. Schmidt, "I never thought it would be worth that much! Now let me think for a minute, no use rushing in to anything." Mr. Schmidt sat down on a stool near the open door to the barn and looked out over the fields of hay and alfalfa. After a minute or two he said, "You know, I'm curious, both of you want to buy this old Volkswagen, but what would each of you do with it if you owned it?"
Mr. Suzuki spoke up first, "We would ship it to Japan, where the restoration professionals at our company would fully restore the vehicle to better than original condition, then we would seek a collector to purchase the vehicle. These old VWs are very popular in Tokyo these days."
Dave looked beaten, how could he compete with someone who promised to completely restore the bus? If he spent most of his money buying the bus it would take a long time to fix it up, school expenses came first. "Well," he said, "I can't promise to restore the bus right away because I couldn't afford it, but I do love these old busses and I would, eventually fix it up. Until then I would drive it, take good care of it, and take it to some of the VW events so other people could enjoy it. Most of all, I would have fun with it and treat it like a member of my family."
Mr. Schmidt was quiet again. Flys buzzed around the barn. Cows were mooing in a distant field. The snow capped peaks of the San Juan mountains blazed in the afternoon sun. A single engined airplane droned far overhead. A hawk floated on thermals and then landed on a telephone pole. Dave, Neal, Mr. Suzuki, and a 1950 VW panel van waited.
"Tell you what I'm going to do." Mark Schmidt finally looked up at them, "I'm sorry Mr. Suzuki but I'm going to sell the bus to this young man here. I think he is sincere about the good care he will give the bus and I have to admit, I'd like to see it stay around here so I can maybe see it once in a while driving down these roads the way it used to when I was a kid. It would be sort of like keeping it in the family, the San Juan mountain family."
Mr. Suzuki looked upset, "Goodbye Mr. Schmidt," was all he said, and then he left. As he was driving away, his partner called him on the cellular phone saying there was another bus for sale in Farmington and to meet him there. Mr. Suzuki headed down state route 666, the '50 panel already nearly forgotten.
Back in Cortez, Dave was stunned. Mr. Schmidt had just told him that he would sell his old bus to him for $2000. "I would have sold it for less than that but now that I know something about the possible value of the vehicle, I think its only fair that I raise my price a bit."
Dave arranged to get the money to Mr. Schmidt the following weekend and Neal promised to help him get the bus to Dave's parents house in Durango over the next couple of weeks.
"I can't understand how you can pay $2000 for a beat up old vehicle like that." wondered Neal.
Dave just smiled, he knew he had a lot of work ahead of him, parts would be hard to find, body work and painting would cost money, it might be a year before he would be able to drive his new bus. But all in all, he was very happy to have found and purchased the San Juan barndoor.
The End
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