Say Hi to Sky!
By far, Sky is our most popular and crowd pleasing employee in the history of Lightning & Thunder!
Arriving in San Francisco in 1965 from Germany as a Type II Split Window Kombi, she was sent directly to Camper America to be decked out in all her fine camping interior! From there we don't know much about her history other than for 10 years she lived in Boston as "Tela" and then she made her way to Key West, Florida, having resided there for 3 years.
Stephanie, our fearless leader had an idea to find an old VW bus and turn it into a mobile office. She drove us all crazy with her constant talking and searching VW bus sellers all over the planet. All of the buses she looked at didn't run, or needed a ton of body work (can you say rust bucket?) and seriously we never thought it would happen. She felt the same, having been misled and fooled by many bus owners, she told everyone she had given up the quest. However, in true Steph fashion, this was not really the case.
Christmas Day 2017, Stephanie had opened a gift from her brother, a red VW bus cookie jar. She immediately called him, see he felt this obsession and idea was a giant mistake, having been left stranded by non-running VW's, pushing non-running VW's or repairing non-running VW's in the late 1960's and 70's. She proclaimed to him "You did it now you know! I'm going to have one in my garage for sure. You did it!" An hour later, Sky appeared on a VW Facebook group page for sale in all places Key West. She stopped dead in her tracks as the bus was everything she wanted 1) brand new engine 2) in her desired color 3) price range was perfect and 4) located in FLORIDA! She immediately messaged the seller but did not hear back, she just figured the bus was already sold, this was just to good to be true and went about enjoying the holiday with her family.
Later that evening after everyone had left the seller sent her a message. The BUS was STILL available! She chatted with the bus owner named "Bobby" for a few minutes on messenger, they agreed to reconnect the next morning. Having been through this before, she was not optimistic that it was going to turn into anything "real". The next morning Bobby messaged her bright and early, then called her and they instantly struck up a rapport and within 30 minutes the bus was hers. He had told her he wasn't looking to make a killing on the sale of this special bus, but to just get his money back. He also didn't want a deposit, just said come get it! The next day with her husband David they drove to Key West. 9 hours down and 11 hours back with Sky following closely behind on a rented trailer, the bus was on to her next adventure!
With just a little mechanical work nearly complete, the next step for Sky is new paint and a little body work. We are all patiently waiting for her to make this transformation so we can roll her out into her new position! "You are the Sky. Everything else is just weather."