Close friends of ours, Eva and Flo, just started their own road trip. They’re heading West in a Volkswagen Bug from 1966 pulling a QEK camper, just like our Herbie did.

They already passed the border to Switzerland (picture above) as their first leg should lead them to Spain, visiting a mutual friend of ours, Monserrate Espinosa, a fellow traveler, we got to know in Spain and who toured the world in his Toyota 4Runner called “Bruno”.

At this point we wish Eva and Flo all the best for their journey. Travel safe and enjoy life! And please tell Monserrate our warmest regards! Yours, Domi & Zainab

You can follow Flo and Eva’s Euro trip at www.dlv.co.at.

Our Herbie is protected by RustStop® – an electronic rust protection system we highly recommend since we installed it in the year 2013 while we were on our Africa trip!

Meanwhile Domi ended up selling this unique product together with his friend Friedrich as its European master distributor. And here’s the entire story about this journey…

After we reached the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa, the most southwestern point of the African continent, we received an invitation by the fellow travelers Arno and Elize van der Merwe from Mossel Bay. We spent memorable times together.

Arno’s travel companion was a Toyota Hilux named “Bakkie” and Domi wondered about its remarkable good condition. Even though they lived right at the sea, we couldn’t spot any rust on it. Eventually Arno let the cat out of the bag and showed Domi an electronic module called “RustStop®”, which was mounted to the car.

Needless to say that we were eager to get such a device for Herbie too. So we did! While heading East we stopped by the head office of RustStop®, as this is a South African company. They already invented this kind of rust protection system back in the 80ies. Normally Domi would have to polish the chrome parts at least every month in order to avoid rust, especially on the cheap repro bumpers and hub caps. Since RustStop® is installed, Domi has never polished the chrome again. And within two years of driving in various weather conditions we cannot spot any new rust!

So it came to pass that we decided to take this unique product back home and sell it as its European master distributor. And here we are – you can find Domi’s and Friedrich’s RustStop® shop at www.ruststop.at. Look and see yourself!

The automotive magazine “Petrolicious” just published an excellent story on Herbie’s World Tour called “Herbie: One of the Special Ones”. Thanks to its writer Brian Garrity!

The article tells about “Jim Douglas Special” or rather Herbie, the Love Bug, as we use to call him and of course the passion of a so-called “Petrolista”. Read the story here!

We wish all our followers, friends and family members a Happy New Year 2015!

These are some Christmas presents we got from our best friends and our family.

On the occasion of the Fall of the Wall 25 years ago we met today to drive our two-stroke cars from the old GDR (German Democratic Republic) around Vienna’s city center.

Due to the collapse of the GDR and the German reunification the era of East German cars ran out as well but there are still some folks driving them through town…

As always Herbie served as a daily driver in the summer season. But now the winter is coming and Domi got him ready to hibernate in a little town on the countryside of Austria.

Thanks to our friend Flo, Herbie and the camper found a shelter at his rural property about 120 kilometers northwest of Vienna, where they’ll stay at least until April next year.

Austrian winters are harsh. In order to de-ice the road, they put salt on the streets which causes a lot of corrosion. Therefore people are storing their vintage cars indoors in winter.

On Saturday, the legendary Late Summer Ride 2014 will take place. It is the only vintage Volkswagen and air-cooled Show of Vienna and celebrates its 3^rd year of existence.

As a club member of DLV, Herbie will be there as well of course. You can find more information by visiting the website of DLV – Aircooled Community. See you there!

Volkswagen just released their brand new television commercial with pop star Helene Fischer and our Herbie. Click here or on the picture below to watch the spot!

Herbie just returned from a shooting for a television commercial by Volkswagen.

The Love Bug was picked up by a Volkswagen Amarok pulling a trailer sent by Porsche Austria heading to the Carinthian Wörthersee where the shooting took place.

At the “Volkswagen Beetle Show of Stockerau”, arranged by the KDKF Austria,  Domi got the prize for the “dirtiest Bug” as Herbie’s engine compartment is still covered by the red mud of Africa – the award of course should rather honor Herbie’s World Tour.

Georgy, Flo and Domi spent the entire Sunday together – first at the show and later on harvesting cherries at Flo’s place in his native town Gerasdorf, just outside of Vienna.

After we returned to Austria we woke Herbie No. II up from his winter sleep and Domi just visited together with friends of our “DLV – Aircooled Community” a vintage Volkswagen show in Upper Austria. On their way they followed the Danube river upstream driving through the world famous Wachau valley, a UNESCO world heritage site.

Thanks to the air-cooled VW club “Käferfreunde Strudengau” for the wonderful event!

This is the most amazing wedding present! Michele Lee, the co-star in Walt Disney’s “The Love Bug”, congratulated us on our marriage by signing personal autographs for us. Lyle Gregory, dear friend and our Californian camp host, introduced Herbie’s World Tour to this lovely actress from Los Angeles. Thank you both so much for this!

“Domi and Zainab – You  are as amazing as this car!” (by Michele Lee)

“Domi and Zainab – The Bug loves you!” (by Michele Lee)

“Domi + Zainab, Happy Tour! Happy Herbie! Happy marriage!” (by Michele Lee 2014)

Before we were heading back home to Austria again, Domi took Herbie for a final ride following the railway tracks towards Trona and its Pinnacles, a national natural landmark.

It’s always sad leaving Herbie behind but our Californian friends will keep an eye on him!

Today Jeanne and Dave Hecht of “Tales on the Trails” visited us out here in Ridgecrest. They wanted to meet up with us because they’re actually planning to travel the world in their Jeep Cherokee pulling “Tater”, a special custom made off-road camper.

These two adventurers contacted us because they were looking for people who have already experienced traveling the world with a trailer in tow. They got to our website through Sheena and Brad van Orden from Flagstaff, Arizona, who’re touring around the globe in a Volkswagen Vanagon named “Nacho” (find on “Drive Nacho Drive”).

We spent hours literally telling each other “tales on trails” and sharing our story of Herbie’s World Tour. We wish you, Jeanne and Dave, bon voyage and a safe journey!

The Love Bug is back in Las Vegas again! On Herbie’s World Tour we spent a lot of time in “Sin City”. This time we had a room at the “Circus Circus” in Northern part of the Strip.

We love to drive Herbie up and down the Las Vegas Boulevard and taking pictures from the parking lots from where you get excellent views over Nevada’s most populous city.

On our way to Mesquite, Nevada, where we’re staying for tonight, we drove through the Zion National Park in Utah. Tomorrow we’ll reach Las Vegas, our trip’s final destination.

As we’re trying to visit our most favorite spots in the US Southwest on this short leg of Herbie’s World Tour, we explored the Bryce Canyon National Park today in the morning.

Last night we were staying at a neat little motel in Panguitch, not far from Bryce Canyon.

Today we toured Domi’s favorite national park in the United States. It’s the Canyonlands National Park nearby the city of Moab where we’ve been already many times in the past.

After our visit at Canyonlands we headed back to our motel in the town of Green River.

As we were passing the city of Moab in Southeastern Utah today, we reunited with our most favorite route. For us, the Highway 128 is probably the most scenic on our planet.

Those 50 miles are a byway that connects Moab with freeway I-70 which lead us to Green River where we’ll stay for the next two nights in order to visit the local national parks.

We just crossed the border entering the State of Utah. Right on the frontier between Arizona and Utah we visited one of Domi’s most favorite spots in the United States of America, the Navajo Tribal Park of the so-called Monument Valley.

Today we visited Canyon de Chelly, a National Monument just outside Chinle, a town located in the Navajo Nation, the largest Native American Reservation in the USA.

In the morning we started out heading North by leaving Holbrook, where we spent last night at a motel on the old Route 66. Our destination for today was the State of Utah.

Today we were driving the scenic route through the Salt River Canyon again, which is located within the White Mountain Apache Reservation on the Eastern side of Arizona.

As we left Tucson, where we spent the last two nights in a motel on Benson Highway, we were heading North all the way to Holbrook at the world famous nostalgic Route 66.

The gas prices in Arizona range around 3.30 US-Dollar a gallon right now, which would be around 0.60 Euro per liter – less than half the price we’d have to pay for fuel in Austria.

Before we left Tucson, we visited Dee Lusby. She is a luminary in terms of natural and fully organic beekeeping. We spent hours chatting while she showed us her bees.

Her pristine honey is without any doubt one of the most exquisite throughout the entire world and is free of all 171 named pesticides tested (in parts per billion) by the USDA.

Dee Lusby’s beeyards are spread over an area as large as the island of Cyprus, just to get an impression how many bee colonies she has. And she is the only caretaker!

We really enjoyed spending time with Dee chatting and learning about the only truthful way how beekeeping and hence living in general will remain possible in the future of our planet!

We are in love with dates ever since! On Herbie’s World Tour we got the chance to check them all out and we found the best of them all – and you may not believe it – in the United States of America. Here we’ve had the by far best Medjool dates world wide.

Our most favorite dates so far come from “Berryman Farms” in Bard, Southern California. These long standing date palm trees are irrigated by the world famous Colorado river.

Yesterday we just bought another bunch of delicious Medjool dates at “Berryman Farms” where we also met Roberto again – the head “palmero” of Berryman’s date ranch.

On our US road trip visiting all 48 lower states, we were hanging out for weeks and weeks in Yuma, Arizona, which is right on the other side of the impressive Colorado river.

As Zainab was spending a big part of her childhood in Egypt and in the UAE (United Arab Emirates), she has a deep bond with dates and of course their palm trees.

And as we headed towards Tucson, we stopped (as we’d always do) at the town and freeway travel center called “Dateland” in the Sonoran Desert of Southern Arizona.

You cannot miss “Dateland” when you’re driving the freeway I-8 between Yuma to Tucson, although the biggest occurrence of date palm tree farms is in the Coachella Valley.

Before we came to the United States the first time, we’d never have thought that we could find here our most favorite dates in the whole world. We love to have them together with Pine refined coffee and unsalted raw crunchy almond butter (see above).

The Austrian daily newspaper “Heute” just published a story on our wedding today!
You can find pictures of our marriage down below or by clicking here!