When you get to know Wally Byam as I have, you will see, if you wish, the adult child.
He loved gadgets. He loved War Surplus stores, and wandering the aisles looking for “goodies.” And when he traveled to Europe, he never passed up a chance to see the construction and hardware in European trailers, looking for a new latch or floorplan.
My first experience with this side of Wally was in 1951. I camped with the Byam group in the High Sierras, and my sleeping bag was a surplus “mummy” bag. Dang, today, looking back, it must have been the prototype for today’s commonly used body bags.
Most of Wally’s camping equipment came from Surplus stores. On his first Caravan, which traveled through Mexico and Central America, he purchased a Dodge Power Wagon and added an Airstream-made canopy.
Clive and Gareth, sons of a close friend, came along to drive the Wagon and to assist Wally in setting up campsites each night. The boys would bring out heavy power cables to supply electricity – for lights only – for the Caravanners.
Wally had purchased two generators. Where else but a War Surplus store could they have come from? The one I remember was a power plant from a German Panzer tank.
And for his home, Wally purchased a marimba in Guatemala.
So on the 1956 Airstream Wally Byam European Caravan, it was no different: a gadget is a gadget is a gadget.
Wally saw the BMW Isetta and purchased one in Munich, Germany. There is no doubt that, in Wally’s eyes, this was another gadget. If you’re not familiar with the Isetta, it was a tiny car, seating two, with a one-cylinder motorcycle engine and a convertible top. Many people mistake it for a three-wheeled vehicle. Speed maxed out around 45 miles per hour.
He chose a driver. “Pee Wee” drove Wally’s “gadget” for four months in Europe. Lucky me.
So how was this tiny little vehicle going to make the trip from Europe to Los Angeles at the end of the Caravan? Simple.
Ship it with the Schwamborn rig to the dock in Brooklyn and have Dale drive it to California.
There were no Interstates in 1956, a limited number of four-lane highways, and a few killer three-land roads. But predominantly across the Nation were two-lane highways. There were hills and mountains to cross, which set up an interesting scenario: with ever-changing speed limits between 45 and 65 mph, how would the Isetta fare?
My mother, Helen Byam Schwamborn, had her Chevrolet station wagon and a 22-foot Airstream. I had this dwarfed vehicle that might do 45 on a level highway, but when climbing hills topped out at 25 miles per hour if I was lucky.
Another hazard: semis trying to make up time from one destination to another. Helen seemed concerned that she did not want her son to become a permanent part of an out-of-control 18-wheeler.
The Isetta would be the lead vehicle on this cross-country journey, with the Chevy and Airstream riding shotgun for the Isetta. My mother was a saint. There she is, protecting me by traveling between 25 and 45 miles per hour as we drove coast to coast.
Excluding a brief detour to stop in Jackson Center, Ohio, home of the Airstream factory, the nine-day trip was roughly 2,800 miles.
In the picture, you’ll see my mother and me by the Isetta at the annual Palm Springs Airstream rally. In the background, you’ll see Helen’s Airstream decked out with flags accumulated from the European Caravan.
Wally eventually gave me the pink slip and I used it as school transportation while attending Bakersfield College.
I will leave it to your imagination the trip the Isetta and I had from Wally’s home over the Ridge Route to Bakersfield.
Dale “Pee Wee” Schwamborn has silver in his blood. Each week, Pee Wee shares one of his many stories, including his experiences on the iconic Airstream Caravans, his time spent working in the Airstream factory, and the many Airstreamers he’s befriended, far and wide.
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