While Zainab sticks to her Arabic lute, Domi enjoys to play some chords on his guitar called “Cash” – named after his probably greatest American idol Johnny Cash.

Domi is not only into songs of John R. Cash, he also likes reading books about the “Man in Black”. One of the books below we found for just one Dollar in a small thrift store in Los Angeles.

The Love Bug is able to honk again. A loud horn is for sure one of the most important features while touring the world in a small car.

For just a couple bucks you can get all different kinds of universal horns in automotive stores. Domi decided to buy an extra loud low tone horn.

Underneath you can see our the old horn which didn’t work well anymore after honking our way through Europe, Asia, Australia, North and Middle America.

Zainab has a great passion for music. She loves to write her own songs and to play her Arabic lute (“Oud”) every day. Thanks to her dear friend Moustafa she was able to learn playing this wonderful instrument. On our travels Zainab carries her beloved Oud always with her.

Zainab with her Oud in Searles Valley, California

Herbie found his new owner Domi in 2006. At that time he was a member of the VW Bug Club of Vienna (“Käferclub Wien”) which unfortunately doesn’t exist anymore.

But what luckily lasts are all the so important friends we got to know in those years. Today our Love Bug is member of the air-cooled community DLV (“Die Luftverkühlten”).

In just about a week we’ll leave our camp in Ridgecrest. We’re going to drive all the way through Southern California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas in order to cross the Mexican border. Our destination will be the port of Veracruz on the east coast of Mexico. Herbie has to take a ship to Colombia (South America) and we’ll take a flight.

As we already toured across all 48 continental United States in Herbie and the camper we want to show you a beautiful spot in each state we’ll have to travel through again now.

Imperial Sand Dunes, California

Monument Valley, Arizona

White Sands, New Mexico

Big Bend, Texas

Pacific coast, Mexico

When we are on travels we abstain from many things which may be so normal to others, even though we have to live without some features features, because our vehicle or camper simply doesn’t offer it. But at least since we are on the road exploring the earth we got used to get along totally without certain daily goods others take so very much for granted.

We got no cell phone or iPhone, no Facebook or Twitter, no Lonely Planet, no TV, no iPad, no GPS, no heater (in our trailer), no A/C (in our car and camper), no airbags, no seat belts, no head restraints, no ABS (anti-lock brake system), no power steering and no brake booster unit.

But recently we finally got a blog, so you can follow Herbie’s adventures!

Today Domi bought a steering wheel pedal lock at a local auto part store for our trip to Mexico and South America. If somebody wants to steal Ocho, he would be still able to do so but we want to make it more difficult. Hopefully everything will be fine and our Number 53 will return to the USA safely.

Our friend and long time traveler Lloyd Treichel dedicated his very last post for 2011 to Herbie and our ongoing trip around the world. Look it up via his blog called Wandrin.

We got to know Lloyd when we met him just about a year ago in Yuma, Arizona. He told us about “enjoying a life of nomadic exploring”. Back then he already posted an entry about Herbie Around The World.

Thank you Lloyd and we’re looking forward to seeing you soon!

We wish you a Happy New Year and all the best for 2012!

The Love Bug in front of the so-called Salvation or Love Mountain in Niland, California.

There is a house in Ridgecrest, they call the setting sun…
It was again just an unbelievable gorgeous sunset we had here in Kern County today. Domi immediately grabbed a camera and ran outside. What he saw remembered him of the traditional folk song “The House of the Rising Sun” – even though it was a sunset.

Herbie is enjoying the sunsets out here in the desert. In fact our camp is located in the Mojave Desert of California. A big sky and these huge landscapes are creating an incredible atmosphere – and the best thing is, there is no humidity at all!

When we got back to the United States there was no single rust spot on one of the chrome parts on Herbie, even though our beloved VW Beetle was waiting for us just outside. We think that he’s feeling very comfortable in such dry area.

If everything works out Herbie will go on a cruise across the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. His ship leaves on January 30 in Veracruz, Mexico, and reaches Cartagena, Colombia, on February 6.

Anyway we’ll have to drive down there first. Our route will lead us through three time zones within California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas before crossing the border to Mexico.

Many people ask us what kind of motor oil we use while traveling around the world with a camper in tow. We are probably pretty different to others but there is one thing for sure, Herbie just gets the very best – especially regarding his engine.

Therefore we are just using fully synthetic oil with a very high high-temperature viscosity rate like a 15W-50 or a 5W-50. And we think it doesn’t really matter what kind a car you have – a fully synthetic with a number 50 or even 60 in the end is always the better bet.

From Ridgecrest, California, where we are now, via Brownsville, Texas, to Veracruz, Mexico, Herbie will have to drive 2,350 miles (or 3,780 kilometers) to get on a vessel in order to be shipped to Columbia. This is actually our plan for January!

“That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for Herbie”. This is not a mission to the moon but it is still quite a trip, although our Volkswagen brought us already so far. But we are pretty sure that he’ll manage this too.

Our plan is to travel across South America following our “Yellow Brick Road” – this time the Pan-American Highway. So we’d travel through countries like Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile and Argentina.

We wish you a “Merry Christmas”!
You’ll find today’s issue of the Austrian newspaper “Heute” in which we are sending our Christmas wishes to our Austrian fellows, friends and family members. If you don’t have the chance to get the printed version here’s a copy or you read the article online.

This week’s issues of “The Daily Independent” and “The News Review” in Ridgecrest include stories about “The OZ House” and our friend and camp’s host Lyle Gregory and his brother Noli Laqui from the Philippines.

Our dear friend Michael Lee Phillips took a very nice shot of Herbie in front of the Trona train tracks in Searles Valley, California.

We’re planning to go to South America next, in order to continue Herbie’s World Tour. We’ve already driven across all 48 lower United States, we went to Canada and traveled through Mexico and all Central American countries. There is just South America left. But why haven’t we been there yet?

We actually wanted to go there last time but we couldn’t because first of all our passports were completely marked and full with visas and secondly we didn’t want to ship our car and camper at that time. Many people forget that there is a “huge” gap between Panama and Colombia – at least for travelers who depend on roads.

The so-called Darién Gap is a 54 miles (87 kilometers) stretch of rainforest in the very south of Panama where they tried to build a road in order to complete the Pan-American Highway system but they failed. So there is still this gap and the only way to do it is going by plane or either by boat around it.

The Pan-American Highway is with 29,800 miles (47,958 kilometers) the world’s longest driveable road and goes all the way from Alaska down to Tierra del Fuego (Chile).

There is no other way than shipping a vehicle from North (or Central) to South America. Therefore we’ll have to put Herbie on one of the big cargo ships where thefts happen quite often. So we ordered a lock for the engine hood.

But we had to get it twice because the first one didn’t work properly and it broke.

Thanks to ISP West we got the broken one exchanged.

“All’s well that ends well”, Shakespeare would say! Everything is good now and we can go down South without any worries regarding our probably most important widget – Herbie’s engine which hauled us already through four continents.

Since we are back in the US in order to continue our journey around the world we’re staying at the so-called “OZ Camp” in Ridgecrest,  preparing Herbie and ourselves for our ongoing trip. As last year we helped decorating the whole block in the manner of “OZ” – coming from the most famous American fairytale “The Wonderful Wizard of OZ” written by L. Frank Baum and first published in 1900.

The story about the little farm girl Dorothy from Kansas got probably even more popular when MGM produced their first movie in colors – “The Wizard of Oz” – in 1939.

Also Herbie got part of the show – highlighted in his iconic blue and red colors.

It became a big tradition out here in the desert. Every year “The Land of OZ” is born again. And Herbie and his camper are enjoying themselves highlighted in the front yard.

We drove to Lancaster for shopping and also in order to change all four tires on our almost 49 years old VW Bug. That is the third time that we put new tires on Herbie while touring around the globe.

On the internet we got a pretty good deal on these tires. So we ordered them online and received them just couple days later.

We chose “low noise” tires with the following dimensions: 165/80R15

We want to say many thanks to Randy Hannah from Burroughs High School in Ridgecrest, California, who helped Domi with all kinds of repairs on our Herbie car during the last couple weeks.

Today we had a blast! We set up a meeting with a young guy called Kyle from Palmdale. We got to know him via LoveBugFans.com. Since the age of 12 he owns a VW Bug which he transformed himself into an awesome Herbie replica.

Here you can see Kyle with his Californian Herbie and Domi with our Love Bug from Austria. We definitely want to stay in touch with Kyle and we’re looking forward meeting him and his Herbie again very soon.

Our friends and neighbors are opening their very own restaurant in Ridgecrest. The Ramírez family is already well known for their excellent traditional Salvadoran food. And they’ll be the first introducing the people of Ridgecrest to so-called “Pupusas” – a very special meal in El Salvadoran culture.

The brand new and only El Salvadoran restaurant in town – “La Fuente” – will open its doors to the public on Monday, December 19, starting at 10:30 a.m.

It’s located on 221 E. Ridgecrest Blvd. and will be open from Monday through Saturday.

You are on the right spot if you think about where the old “Junk Food Junction” was!

A traditional family restaurant owned by Lilian and Orlando Ramírez and their four kids.

We’ll see you there! Watch out for Herbie at the grand opening on December 26!

“The News Review” – a weekly newspaper here in Ridgecrest, California – brought out a nice story about us and Herbie “The Love Bug” going around the world in today’s issue. The article is written by Linda Saholt.