Follow Our Progress

January 10th 2004

It's been a VERY hectic couple of days!  I don't have the energy to go back and explain all of the things that have happened over the last 48 hours, so I'm going to try to just summarize and get some pictures up here on the web site...

	Yesterday we finally got a picture of the whole bus out from under the roof of our friend Tedd's house. Because of the ice storm and horrible weather we were not able to keep our appointment to get the Jeep tow bar installed, so Friday we stopped in at the hitch installation place and found out we were on the schedule for 10:00 AM We scrambled to get everything attached to the bus and got it to the shop in record time.
	The Jeep was the first to get worked on.  It got a really nice stainless steel collapsible tow bar installed. No big ugly tow bar sticking up over the hood...
	While the Jeep was being worked on, Becky and I got some work done on the bus. We put the doors on that cover the battery compartment and propane tanks.  Then we worked on getting the last of the windows tinted.
	Notice the lack of holes on the side of the bus? It was time for us to turn around the bus and back it up to the garage doors for the hitch installation.
	The bus settles pretty quick, so the shop used a couple of jack stands to keep the bus up off the ground long enough to get the hitch and wiring installed. It was pretty cool to see them cut and weld the custom hitch assembly and then install it under the bus.
	By the time everything was put together and ready to go we had run out of daylight... The Jeep decided to throw us another curve - this time with the brakes.  Right after we left the hitch installer to get Erika from school, the brakes on the Jeep decided to just crap out.  I'm not sure what happened, but you have to pump the brakes to get them to work well and there's a horrible grinding noise coming from the right rear drum...  On top of that, the 4 wheel drive shift lever would not stay in neutral, so I had to jam some "spacers" in between the shifter to keep it from slipping into 4L... Not to let it get us down, we just hooked the Jeep up to the back of the bus and headed out for home.

OK, that brings us up to the point where we left the hitch installer...  I'll let Becky take over and tell the rest of the story...

Becky's notes:

Ok, so it's been crazy.  We decided that is was WAY too scary to try to back the bus into Tedd & Linda's yard in the dark... between posts... under a roof... in the dark.  So, we drove around for a little while - trying to decide what to do.  We called up Alan, and he gave us a couple of suggestions.  We ended up parking close to our house - and made an impromptu camping night of it.  We were close enough to the house to grab the supplies we needed (pillows, blankets, food, etc) and enough batteries to keep the kids happy with the tv and dvd player.  

Now here is where we come to a difference of opinion.  I thought the night went really well.  We had trouble getting the propane heater to work on inverted power (the blower worked, but it never lit to heat - we'll need to call suburban on that one), but the wood stove worked fine.  We forgot the coolers we use as the second half of our bed supports, and so decided to put the futon mattress on the floor.  I had grabbed our down comforter from the house as well as one of our quilts.  I slept like a baby.  Gary did not fare so well.  He was cold, and had trouble getting comfortable on the firm mattress.  I just huddled under the blankets with only my face sticking out - just like any mid-western kid would on a cold January night.  The good news is that the kids slept really good too.  They had their down sleeping bags, and the advantage of a warmer room with less drafts.  

In the morning, Gary was up first - he was the hero and went out for coffee and doughnuts!  We had a nice morning, and saw the sun come up through our duct-taped curtains.  

We had an appointment with "the engine guy" at 11, so we headed back to Tedd and Linda's house after a nice drive around town.  I think Gary was really enjoying driving.  The day was a blur of trips to different auto parts stores for me - and Gary got an informal education on beginning bus maintenance.  What to watch out for, what needs attention, etc.  Overall - we got a thumbs up for our trip to Quartzsite.  We need a U-joint, and a couple of other things we have written down, things to get along the way.  Our transmission fluid was low, but the transmission was ok.  It is making all the right noises I guess.  We both almost cried when we were told we were "good bus people" - sniff... 

Of course since the bus is ok, the jeep has decided to crap out on us.  The brakes are super squishy, and making a horrible grinding noise (mostly when in the lower gears - sounds like its grabbing or something - metal on metal type sound, oh - and the parking brake doesn't work anymore - not like it was fabulous to start or anything...)  Gary asked the hitch guys about it - but they swear they didn't touch anything even close to that - so lucky us we get to fix the jeep before we leave!  

So, the bus is currently half in- half out of Tedd and Linda's yard since it got dark again today before we were ready.  We'll head out there again in the morning and go from there.  PHEW!  I told you it's been crazy!  Now, I really have to go take a shower - no hot water at the bus this morning.