July 31, 2002
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Herman and Candelaria Zapp are living their dream. With determination, a little bit of luck, and the help of people like Rudy and Facundo Tassara, those dreams just might come true.
The Zapps were in the midst of a journey that would take them from their home in Buenos Aires, Argentina to Anchorage, Alaska when their automobile would take them no further. Fortunately, the owners of Champion Auto Repair in Sterling were able to offer their assistance. Argentines themselves, Rudy and Facundo Tassara towed the car and got it running again at no cost.
It was not just any ordinary car, though, that needed repair. It was a classic Graham Paige model touring car from 1928.
Painted black and blue, decorated with maps and symbols of all the countries it has passed through, its four-door body and six-cylinder engine, complete with wooden spokes for the wheels and huge circular headlights, is still running on most of its original parts. And it has been running since Jan. 25, 2000 when the journey began.
For two-and-a-half years, the Zapps have been making their way north to Alaska. Originally planned as a six-to-eight-month trip, Herman and Cande have zigged and zagged their way across South, Central, and now North America, stopping along the way to meet people from all walks of life and to immerse themselves in a multitude of cultures.
They have driven across the barren deserts of Chile, hiked for a week to visit a lost city in Colombia, and built a raft to sail with their car across the Amazon River.
"You'll remember a place ... and stuff that you did in your mind. But people, you will remember them in your heart forever," said Herman Zapp.
THE ZAPPS have depended on people; the money they saved for their trip ran out back in Equador. Since then, they have had to rely on both their own ingenuity and the generosity of strangers to keep them going.
Cande Zapp began painting in watercolors and Herman Zapp made wooden frames for the pictures. They sold postcards, stickers and crafts from a folding table set up on the side of their car. They also wrote a book, "Dream Chaser," to recount their escapade through South America. Despite all this, it was still ordinary people who have been the most help.
Cande Zapp writes in "Dream Chaser," because they ran out of money, "we were required to relate to many more people in order to learn to ask for, and receive help from the poorest to the richest around us." With all the help they have received, she continues, "we don't feel as if we are traveling alone, but with a battalion of friends who hope we get there."
Along with the spirit and tokens from hundreds of people they have met along the way, the cramped little interior of the Graham Paige is now carrying another passenger. Six weeks ago, Cande Zapp gave birth to the couple's first child in North Carolina, a baby boy named Nahuel Pampa Zapp.
"We got pregnant in Guatemala," Herman Zapp said. "In Belize we figured it out. In Mexico it was growing in her belly. And here it was born."
Though an American citizen, like his father Herman Zapp who was born in San Francisco but moved to Argentina when he was 1 year old, Nahuel's heritage will be much deeper than just an American birth certificate. "Wherever he will go, he will find friends that we have met before. They are going to be like his aunts and uncles and grandfathers ... He's from everywhere," Herman Zapp said.
AFTER THEIR stopover in North Carolina, the family began to make its way toward Washington, D.C., and beyond that, New York City. But a broken carburetor and an oil leak left them a bit short. The Graham Paige's breakdown was its first on the journey that has already taken them 23,000 miles. That's when the experts of Champion Auto Repair of Sterling came to their rescue.
Facundo Tassara said that when he and his father heard the Zapps story, they had to help. "He's from our country, he's trying to do this amazing trip. We'll do whatever we can to help him out," he said.
This was not the first time the Zapps have received help along the way.
Once, when nearly stranded in Ecuador because they could not find an ATM Machine to withdraw cash for food and gasoline (this was when they still had some money left in the bank), the Zapps ran into a man who was fascinated by their car. On that very day, 14 years earlier, that man and his wife were driven to a church to be married by two Argentines driving a classic automobile similar to the Graham Paige. It made for a grand surprise when the man showed up to surprise his wife on their anniversary in a classic car, once again driven by two Argentines. For their help, the man provided Herman and Cande Zapp with food and a place to stay that night, and later, found them a free trip to Panama.
Herman and Cande Zapp have also been helped across borders by helpful agents who let them by without paying various taxes and tolls. They found two Ecuadorian Indians to navigate the raft they built down the Amazon.
In America, thanks to the hospitality of many families, they have spent only two nights in a hotel during the four months they have been in the country. "Everyone wants to help," said Herman Zapp. "Nobody is going to make your dream come down."
AFTER WASHINGTON and New York, the Zapps plan is to head north into Canada, visiting places like Ottawa and Montreal. Then, they will swoop around the Great Lakes to Detroit. Next, they will head west to Seattle and Vancouver before the final leg of the journey to Alaska.
Though they estimate another year before completing the trip, as they probably will have to wait out winter, there is no set itinerary. "Sometimes we'll say today we are going to make 200 miles and at mile 30 somebody will stop us and say don't go anywhere," Herman Zapp said. "You have to come to my house. I am a teacher and you have to give a speech at the school. ... You have to go with your mind very open, and if somebody stops you, there is a reason for that."
When it is all over, Herman and Cande Zapp will send the Graham Paige home by ship. Then, they will get to work on a larger book, one that encompasses the entire journey through all three Americas. Eventually, they hope to retire to the countryside of Argentina, near the mountains, working the land and playing host to tourists.
Until then, the Zapps will be huddled together in the Graham Paige, chugging along down the back roads of America and Canada at about 35 miles per hour. Herman Zapp joked that his wife feels like the princess of Carnival and he feels like the pope when they drive by crowds waving their hands in the air.
They are confident that they can make it all the way to the Alaska. "Whenever I was too close to something going wrong, someone appeared to help ... God is always going to find a way to help you out," said Herman Zapp.