Valerie Wilson's 1968 VW Bus

I have been saying for a few years now that since my initials are VW, I should have a VW.  I wasn't quire sure what I wanted as I began looking at the different types of VWs. I never really looked at the buses until Lon's niece's then fiancé (now husband) put a sealed bid in on a bus and got it. Although I didn't care much for the green color, I thought it was a neat vehicle with a pop up top, fridge and sink. It had a Corvair engine in it and needed some other work. He eventually sold it after acquiring a second bus.
     I started looking on Ebay, as well as other places, and found there are a lot of these vehicles out there. In the meantime, my parents found a 1968 VW bug for sale near their corner. I told them I was going to start shopping at their corner since they previously purchased a Metropolitan near their corner also. (This was while we were in the middle of a search for a Met ourselves.) Anyway, I found several buses on Ebay, which looked very interesting. Of course, some of them went for a lot more than I wanted to spend.
     Then there was the one in Texas, which looked very nice. We eventually called the owner to talk to him about it, and he told us he had someone who really, really wanted this one. Well, my heart wasn't set on this one since I still was a little unsure about body styles and years. The gentleman in Texas said that he had another one coming up soon and maybe we could deal before he posted it on Ebay. He called a week or so later to tell us about this '68 bus, and I think it was meant to be since I just bought an original sales brochure introducing the "Dawn Of a New Era" in VW buses. 1968 was the first year of the bay window, and I had the exact brochure showing this vehicle that was available in Texas!
     As it turns out, this vehicle was ordered and picked up in Hanover, Germany in October 1967. The original owners manual shows that it was driven around Europe for about eight months before being shipped to the states. It was then used in Billings, Montana for awhile before the owner moved to California. Once there, he put the bus in storage until it was purchased from his estate just a few years ago. A woman from Texas was the second owner, and she sold it to the gentleman I bought it from. The bus's fourth owner and new home are now in Buffalo. It is mostly in original condition and will be making many runs with LER in the upcoming touring seasons.