So I motored the highways and byways throughout northern California all thru my short 4 year Air Force career in the '61 Beetle. Off road adventures as I hunted down the elusive golden trout in streams and lakes far removed from what normal people consider roads. No SUV, nope, they didn't exist, no 4WD truck either for while they were around mostly in the military they were far from common like today. So my lil' rear engines, rear drive bug did the work for me and very successfully too! I found my bride to be in Fresno and she seemed to approve of the lil' green beast as it got us to and from the coast, the mountains and the foothills with aplomb. It became our family car after we were married in late 1966 and I installed a baby seat in it in the summer of 1968 when my son was born. Shortly after we moved from San Jose to Stinson Beach I bought a brand new 1969 dark blue bug with a cream interior, it even had a gas gauge and a radio!
To and from Stinson Beach every day going to work in The City (San Francisco) some 30 miles distant. There were two roads to take, the upper road thru Muir Woods, Mill Valley and out onto 101 and the coast road that wound along the cliffs thru Muir Beach then up past the Land Ranch thru Mill Valley and onto 101 as well. The lower road along the coast had 165 changes in direction in the 12 miles from Mill Valley to Stinson Beach, kept a driver busy and careful as well. I only ran into one deer in all those miles driving that road from the spring of 1969 to the spring of 1974 when we moved to Petaluma. Along the way we collected another child, my daughter Aimee and a 1969 VW bus that my wife dressed up for camping with curtains and other decorative details.
It then became the family car and the bug was my work car.
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