A Very British Affair

Dave Manning has been travelling the USA in his bus and making music for as long as he can remember. Here he shares his experience of a summer of VW shows in his Beetle camper.

- Dave Manning

I don’t care if it rains all weekend and I get struck by lightning. My Bus made it!” said Gavin at Volkspower 2016. I know what he means.

Most of us do. For Gavin it was a hard to track down oil leak in his early bay. For me it was just after the grocery stop on my way to my first of 4 VW shows in as many weeks. Last stop done, camper stocked with food and booze, two hour drive to the Mighty Dub Fest in a light rain. “Maybe I’ll take the coast road,” I thought. Just passed the “no speed restrictions” sign on the edge of the village, I dropped it into fourth and opened the throttle all the way.

Then that curve! Slam on the brakes! Fed-Ex truck coming the other way. Rear end of my wife’s ’66 breaks free. Really free. Counter steer, oh, and counter steer the other way. I don’t know how many times I spun, seems like it was around one way and then around the other, but somehow I stayed, mostly, in my lane and by the grace of God there wasn’t a stone wall right on the edge of this road. Stop.

Fed-Ex truck stops. I wave out the window, put it in first gear and drive. Time for a sharp exit. I sure don’t need to hang around for a full police write-up of the incident. I stop a mile down the road; shake off the nerves. Pick some fresh flowers for the bud-vase.