by Glenn Taylor, Northern News Services
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Photo: Shot of rear end of Eddie Hintz's bus with Eddie (wearing tie-
dyed shirt and a crazy grin) beside it pointing to bumper sticker on
rear window.
Photo caption: Vantastic. Eddie Hintz of Austin, Tex. shows off the next bumper sticker to adorn his 26-year-old VW van: "I survived the Dempster." |
Inuvik attracts some of the most interesting tourists in the world. Remember the Japanese man who walked up the Dempster Highway one winter? Here's another interesting group.
A convoy of 13 Volkswagen buses puffed into town last week, piloted by drivers from Puerto Rico to Edmonton, Ohio, Indiana, Washington and Texas. Some drove for more than three weeks to get here.
How did they all get together--and why were they here? Blame the Internet.
A Vancouver couple gave Californian Ron Lussier the idea for a VW Dempster trip, so he posted an ad on the Internet. Replies fired back: "We're coming to do the Dempster Dare."
VW owner Brian McDonald had it easy. The Inuvik man has been in contact with the group on the 'net for months, and welcomed them when they arrived.
It hasn't all been "Fahrvergnugen."
So far, the group has suffered six blown tires, two overheats, a fuel line problem, and required one set of brakes, two wheel bearings and a shock absorber.
One man had a huge stash behind the front seat--an extra engine, just in case. And then there's "Sideways Sue" who ditched her van on kilometre 2 of the Dempster.
"But consider that half of those problems were on my bus, and it's 26 years old," pipes in Eddie Hintz. The colourful 20-something Texan drives a van that Timothy Leary (God rest his soul) would have been proud to trip in. His new "I survived the Dempster" bumper sticker is plastered among such revolutionary slogans as "Will be president for food."
"That's almost as revolutionary a statement as those other stickers," says Hintz.
Somehow, this odd, lozenge-shaped bus and its little brother, Herbie--the VW Beetle--have come to symbolize the counterculture. Make love, not war. Smoke it if you got it. And somehow, many of these faces also define that culture.
I couldn't resist asking, as the group huddles under the shadow of the Igloo church: do hippies and VW vans go hand in hand?
"It depends on what you mean by 'hippy,'" says one driver, defiantly.
"Peace and love and all of that," I say.
"Oh, definitely," he replies.
Some are obviously old hippies with weathered headbands and sublime grins. But others have hauled along their 2.5 kids and the dog. Like their strange wheels, these people are as interesting as they come.
What's the attraction of this frumpy [TTC: Hey!] little van? They answers come in a flurry: "Have you ever driven one?"... "You just get this crazy smile on your face." ... "It's the flat (steering) wheel you can lean on, like a bus."