DEFEND YOUR RIDE: Rae At The Historic Mounds Theatre

Q: I heard that this van is a champ.

A: It is. It won a big VW show about two years ago.

Q: Did you do the rehab?

A: When I got it four years ago, the whole inside was burnt out. We've redone the whole thing.

Q: You said this is the sixth VW van you've owned?

A: Yeah, I always wanted another one. I have spent many years traveling the country in these vans.

Q: You must have been a total hippie.

A: Big time.

Q: How did you find this one?

A: My daughter found it on eBay. She said she was going to bid on it, and I said, "Please don't do it!" It was outside of the state. We'd have to go get it. Then she won. But the price was so low, the guy really didn't want to sell it for that. He did everything he could so we wouldn't be able to pick it up.

Q: What did he do?

A: He said, "You have to have insurance and license plates when you show up, and you have to be here in three days or it's null and void." Any normal person wouldn't have a license plate because you have to wait, but my husband is a car dealer.

Q: The eBay guy didn't think you'd pull it off!

A: He didn't. No way. A friend of mine had free air miles and my husband gave him a temporary plate. He slapped it on and drove it home.

Q: But it needed a lot of work…

A: Yes, so I advertised on Craigslist looking for a 1970s interior. In the dead of the winter, 30 below zero, we found an interior at a creamery not too far away. This guy had had everything down to the screws and the curtain rods.

Q: That's not so bad. You even sewed the curtains!

A: Then I also acquired the 1974 VW Cabriolet, convertible named Voodoo. My daughter learned how to drive a stick shift. She drives that one with me.  The pair causes a lot of commotion.

Q: Then you started doing shows.

A: My daughter wanted to do one, and I said, "We can't do that, you never see a Volkswagen in a car show." But we went and people just crowded around us.

Q: They were freaking out!

A: They were. I even have a hookah in back. There used to be a Volkswagen stigma. It's a '70s car, but you didn't see them at the classic car shows before. Now you do. The Volkswagen people came out of the woodwork, finally.

Q: How many miles do you typically get out of a VW van?

A: They never die.

Q: What do you think it is about the VWs that makes them your thing?

A: They fit my personality. It's a peaceful sort of car, just look at it. I have always been in love them.

Q: Any favorite stories about this or your other VWs?

A: I won't tell you any of those stories! <laughing> I can share this one. When I was young, I was traveling the country in one of my VWs through Chattanooga, Tennessee to the Blue Ridge Mountains. I thought, this is where I want to be buried, in my van. So I called a mortuary and asked, "Can you bury me in a VW van on the Blue Ridge Mountain Parkway?" And they said yes!