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Herbie LbNA #69301

Owner:Lone Star Quilter
Plant date:Oct 14, 2015
Location: I-65 Northbound Rest Area
City:Cullman
County:Cullman
State:Alabama
Boxes:1
Found by: Angel Winks
Last found:Mar 11, 2018
Status:FFFF
Last edited:Nov 6, 2015
The Love Bug (1968), sometimes referred to as Herbie the Love Bug, is the first in a series of comedy films made by Walt Disney Productions that starred an anthropomorphic pearl-white, fabric-sunroofed 1963 Volkswagen racing Beetle named Herbie. It was based on the 1961 book Car, Boy, Girl by Gordon Buford. The movie follows the adventures of Herbie, Herbie's driver Jim Douglas (Dean Jones), and Jim's love interest, Carole Bennett (Michele Lee). It also features Buddy Hackett as Jim's enlightened, kind-hearted friend, Tennessee Steinmetz, a character who creates "art" from used car parts. English actor David Tomlinson portrays the villainous Peter Thorndyke, owner of an auto showroom and an SCCA national champion who sells Herbie to Jim and eventually becomes Jim's racing rival.
"Herbie"
Before film began production, the titular car was not specified as a Volkswagen Beetle, and Disney set up a casting call for a dozen cars to audition. In the lineup, there were a few Toyotas, a TVR, a handful of Volvos, an MG and a pearl white Volkswagen Beetle. The Volkswagen Beetle was chosen as it was the only one that elicited the crew to reach out and pet it. The Volkswagen brand name, logo or shield does not feature anywhere in The Love Bug, as the automaker did not permit Disney to use the name. The only logo can be briefly seen in at least two places, however. The first instance is on the brake pedals during the first scene where Herbie takes control with Jim inside (on the freeway/when Herbie runs into Thorndyke's Rolls Royce), and in fact it is shown in all the future scenes when Jim is braking. The second instance is on the ignition key, when Jim tries to shut down the braking Herbie. The later sequels produced, however, do promote the Volkswagen name (as sales of the Beetle were down when the sequels were produced). The car was later given the name "Herbie" from one of Buddy Hackett's skits about a ski instructor named Klaus, who speaks with a German accent as he introduces his fellow ski instructors, who are named Hans, Fritz, Wilhelm, and Sandor. At the end of the skit, Hackett would say "If you ain't got a Herbie (pronounced "hoy-bee"), I ain't going." Herbie's trademark "53" racing number was chosen by producer Bill Walsh, who was a fan of Los Angeles Dodgers baseball player Don Drysdale (Drysdale's jersey number, later retired by the team, was 53). Walsh also gave Herbie his trademark red, white and blue racing stripes presumably for the more patriotic color and came up with the film's gags such as Herbie squirting oil and opening the doors by himself.[4] Benson Fong, who played Mr. Wu, said that when he and the others were dragged along the dirt by Herbie, it was like being pulled by 40 horses. The 1961-65 Volkswagen Beetles actually were rated by the SAE at 40 horsepower (30 kW) in factory configuration (though only 34 horsepower (25 kW) by the European DIN system which measured engine output as installed in the car with cooling fan and exhaust system attached) Herbie has his own cast billing in the closing credits, the only time this was done in the entire series of films. Today, only a handful of the original Herbie cars are known to exist. Car #10 was recovered from a warehouse in Pennsylvania, and has been preserved-still sporting its original paint from the movie.

Directions:
Driving north on I-65 in Alabama, find the rest area at mile marker 301. Take the exit and drive past the main building, past 2 flags and look for 3 concrete picnic tables. Park there and walk to the left to a "Pet Walk" sign. From there, go off-trail downhill to an oak tree with a snag of 8' in height (approximately), just to the left and downhill from it. The box is at its base under rocks and forest debris.