- I am Kirsta Siems.

I'm from Farwell, Minnesota and I own a 1982 Volkswagen van.

Again, I was just scrolling Marketplace one night and I found it on there.

I've wanted one my whole life that I can remember and I messaged this guy on Facebook and went and looked at it later that week and brought it home.

Yeah, I bought it from a guy that owned the Mant Trap Lodge up by Park Rapids, Minnesota on Mant Trapp Lake, and they were just using it as like an advertisement for their lodge.

I've wanted one my whole life as long as I can remember.

It's very eclectic and fun.

I would definitely say it's unique.

It sticks out in, in on the road, definitely.

I get a lot of peace signs and thumbs up.

Yeah.

While I'm driving.

Lots of smiles.

It's nice.

It's fun.

It's a fun, fun vehicle to drive.

Well, the color alone is very eye catching, I guess you would say.

It's bright, it's a four speed, so that's interesting.

You have to push down and forward in to get it into reverse, so I'd never experienced that before.

Yeah.

Here's the four speed this's.

A four speed.

Like I said, you gotta push down and into first to get into reverse, so that's kind of different.

You sit directly above them, so it's a little bit different to a park and even to drive.

Yeah.

The oil is right in here.

There's a dipstick that took me a minute to find my first time and then this just opens up and then, and then the inch engine, this is right there and that's all there's to it.

It's very simple motor.

There's not many bells and whistles to it.

It's a 1.6 liter air cooled engine.

Yeah.

So it doesn't like hills and 55 miles per hour is about where she likes to stay.

Yeah.

I changed my own oil.

I don't trust other people to change oil on my vehicles.

I guess as much as I kind of hate to admit it, I'm like a, a hippie at heart, maybe you could say.

And I guess that's kind of a staple that goes with that.

And that's what I mean when I was a kid I always wanted one listening to Janice Joplin and collecting records that I was just like, I gotta have, I gotta have one.

I and the roomy, I, I guess I've always dreamed of, you know, as a kid going, driving across the country and just living out of your van like, you know, they did in the sixties.

So that was kind of my want for one.

In the seventies, vans were kind of like a, a big deal.

And I guess that went over to the eighties too.

They made like West Flia Volkswagen did and those are kind of more of a camper style van.

They, some of them come with like the pop top and then like with the sleeper and some of them even have like a little kitchenette and whatnot in them.

I love driving it, just seeing ev everyone, you know, either you meet in another car, they either give you a big thumbs up or a smile or a wave.

Peace signs.

I get that a lot and it just makes me happy.