Joe Mitchell bought a Volkswagen campervan while cycling in college and fell in love with the machines.
BREMEN, Maine — Joe Mitchell lived a stereotypical adventurer’s dream while in college from 1996-2001.
While earning an engineering degree, he raced bicycles for the University of Colorado and hiked or climbed in his spare time.
“When I was in school, I was a big climber,” Mitchell smiled. “And Boulder, Colorado’s just full of hippies, and I enjoyed that lifestyle.”
What better vehicle for Mitchell to fall in love with than a Volkswagen Vanagon. Like their famous, curvy predecessors from the 1960s, the Vanagons of the mid-80s and early 90s offered a miniature bus for families—or explorers like Mitchell—and the Westfalia models transformed the vehicles into full-fledged campers that can sleep four comfortabl and include additional storage compartments, a pop-top, a two-burner stove, and a mini fridge.
“I just thought they were cool but, honestly, it was a way to throw my bike in the back and go to bike races and not have to stay in a hotel room with six other guys, you know?” Mitchell explained.
By chance, in 1999, he also met a man who owned a VW van parts business and was looking to retire, so Mitchell bought it. He sold it in 2006 and bought it back again in 2023. Around the same time, he also took over a Vanagon rental company and moved into a warehouse in Bremen where people used to build catamarans. Since then, he and a small team have been fixing up and renting out vintage campervans to Mainers and visitors seeking a Maine adventure on four wheels.
Mitchell had six near-spotless vans lined up when I visited him one March morning. He said he had 35 vans in various stages of repair spread around the property. We hopped in one of the travel-ready models and he showed me around.
“I’m not cool; it’s the vehicle,” he conceded. “And people seeing it and getting a kick out of it—to me, that’s what’s exciting about the vintage aspect of these, you know? Other people enjoy seeing it.”
Indeed, on two separate occasions, a passing walker stopped, waved, and watched our off-champagne-hued van roll by.
YouTube is spackled with “van life” content creators; many who love Vanagons. Being in Mitchell’s line of work helps. Like many other owners, he swapped out the original underperforming engines with those from Volkswagen Jettas. He also installed custom cruise control panels in some of the vans and made other functionality improvements. However, by and large, the Vanagons look as they did when they made their first trek. The paint is original whenever possible, and there is plenty of brown upholstery inside.
There will come a time when these machines are all gone. But as long as there are people like Joe Mitchell, they’ll get a new life.