In November of 2018, I placed a bid on a VW bus in Clear Lake, Iowa, owned by James and Miranda Eilders. I had never owned a VW before and I figured it would be a neat car to own, to take out on the weekends, and tool around town. I did not have the slightest clue how much my life would change.
Here in the penultimate episode of “So You Owned a VW Bus,” we stopped by Clear Lake and sat down with James and Miranda as well as Miranda’s dad, Ken, who did a lot of work on the bus. We heard about their lives and Adie’s previous life. But mostly, I had a chance to thank them.
This bus has been my true home for the past four years—the one place where no matter what happened, I could go and take refuge, pop the top and read a book, cook some eggs, take a nap. Still, even today, Miracle and I consider it our home and we count down until the next time we rattle it out of the driveway. This bus has introduced us to incredibly interesting, kind, and wonderful people in 49 states. How else would we have ever met Gianfranco and Kim, or Eric and Heidi, Nellie or Tim or Captain Pete or Jenn and Alice or Ian McIntyre or any number of other people we now call friends? Was there any better way to discover America than by driving the backroads at 45 mph and periodically breaking down? Is there any better way to know yourself and your life partner than by taking off for a full year in a 80 square foot bus and periodically breaking down? It’s not an exaggeration to say when Miranda and James decided to sell Adie to me, it changed the entire course of my life.
So, thank you Miranda for parting with your baby; I hope we’ve done you proud. Thank you James for your support, for sitting down with us, for letting me use your driveway for one last Adie repair before we completed the last leg of our journey. Thank you so much. My life is richer because of you.
On the Road with Adie 