Believe it or not, Jack Breese once had long, dark hair, drove a "hippie bus" across Europe and ran with the bulls in Pamplona. Nearly four decades later, the Annandale businessman, his white hair trimmed short, is taking a sentimental journey back to the places he visited in the summer of 1970. Breese left Annandale and its 18-degree-below-zero cold early Wednesday, Feb. 20, in a small motorhome destined for Amsterdam, Holland. That’s the starting point for an intermittent business and pleasure trip around Europe that will span at least two years. "I wasn’t really a hippie," Breese laughed in an interview. "I had the Volkswagen camper bus and the long hair, but I had a great job." He and a friend travelled across Western Europe for five months that summer after he earned a masters of business administration from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind. Breese bought the VW van in the U.S. and picked it up at the factory in Germany. It wasn’t adorned with flowers, but it did sport a peace symbol made of electrical tape on the hubcap of the front-mounted spare tire. When the trip ended, he went to work that November as a new products developer for Standard Brands in Stamford, Conn. His future wife, B.A., was the assistant personnel director and hired him. "She liked the VW camper bus," he joked. Breese and a partner started their own company, which sells food ingredients to firms like General Mills and Hormel, in 1982. It’s now called Eagle Ingredients, and Breese is president. "I love to travel," he said, and the business has taken him to other countries to show customers where ingredients are processed. "I always wanted to go back and do this with the camper again and just be a nomad." Along the way he’ll look for new people for the company to represent, new products and new ingredients. The basic idea for the trip is to meet and talk to people, he said. "That’s the fun part of the whole thing." The trip has his wife’s blessing, but she’s staying home during the first leg of it. She has a big role in running the company, Breese said, and she also wants to continue showing her champion springer spaniel Charlie. Breese plans to take breaks this summer and next winter, when he’ll return home for extended periods. Together again in Spain And B.A. will see Spain with him during the summer of 2009, he said. Breese is travelling in an 181/2- foot Airstream Westphalia van made by Mercedes in the same factory that made his old hippie bus. It’s equipped with most of the comforts of home, including air conditioning, hot water, refrigerator, bathroom and shower. It also carries a sign on one side that says, "Minnesota: Home of 10,000 lakes and a few loons. Greetings from one of them." Breese, who grew up in Fort Wayne, Ind., drove through the Hoosier state where he visited college friends before heading for Florida. He planned to put the van on a boat this week, then visit with his mother and fly to Amsterdam in mid-March to meet the van. After catching the tulip festival, he’ll sail for England, then visit Wales, Ireland, Norway and Sweden before flying home in July. Breese said he couldn’t see the former Communist Bloc countries 38 years ago, but he plans to get to some of them this time. He’ll return to tour Russia, Poland, Ukraine and Slovakia. "I’ll end up in Turkey and fly home from Istanbul for the holidays at Thanksgiving." The trip will resume in February 2009, and B.A. will join him in Spain in July. "I’m going to do the running of the bulls again," Breese said. The event, in which people try to outrun or evade bulls let loose on the streets of Pamplona, will take place July 9. "I did it on the first trip,"he said. "I climbed the fence before the bulls actually came by. "It’s not that bad."
