Well my friend had money burning a hole in his pocket and I had been asking him when he was going to be a proud bus owner over the past 6 months or so, so he finally took the plunge. He knew nothing of buses, but had become addicted the first time he rode in my Binz. He hysterically laughed the entire ride. The blinkers went on and he busted out laughing. I shifted a gear and he busted out laughing. Everything about the bus he thought was quirky and funny, said he felt like he was riding in a tank. At the end of the ride his only response was "I want one." After that, all his working hours were spent on the internet and drawing up buses on the 'bus selecta'. After he was serious about buying, of course he couldn't find anything he wanted, so he flew us up to WA on the drop of a dime as soon as he saw the ad for his "perfect bus".

We flew up to Spokane Washington Saturday morning and got there around 11am. Right off the bat things went downhill. Delta airlines had lost my suitcase. You know, the one that was crammed full of nothing except tons of MY tools? The one we needed to make it from WA back to AZ with an unknown bus? The one with my winter coat, the flashlight, the ground tarp, the sockets, the wrenches etc? So we sat around at the airport waiting for the next flight which didn't come until 4:30 that afternoon. Still no luggage. Did you know they never scan those tags that they attach to your suitcase? Only gets scanned if it goes unclaimed, and they don't scan it when they load it on the plane. Which means I don't know if it even ever got in the plane, or if its in Germany right now. Decided to leave the airport with the seller and went to Wal-Mart to buy supplies (tools etc). $200 later in Stanley tools, and 3 pairs of socks (which were of no help, damn Idaho weather) a jacket and etc, we were off. My friend loved the truck so we took off in it. It was a 61 sc with safaris, straight axle rear with bug tranny,1776 w/kadrons, flipped spindles, newly recovered humpback seat, etc. He drove it around the block and said that was the bus he wanted, despite all the things I mentioned wrong with it (He plans to have me fix everything if you know what I mean). The owner then began pulling the license plates off. Great, have to drive across 3 or 4 states with no plates?? We took off and not too long into the trip I realized this truck was as bouncy as a trampoline. No shocks underneath, heh this should be fun!. We made our way thru Idaho late on schedule. Snow began and the temp dropped rapidly. We got off the highway on "a shortcut" the locals pointed out on the map, and headed down on a backroad in the direction of Idaho falls through our 'virtual hell on earth' as it would soon become to be called.

    We soon found ourselves on some mountain range, climbing up and down hills at 20 mph sliding all over the road, a place where snowplows never bother to go and the snow was pouring down. Not a car in sight. 4 hours later we made it out of the mountain drive onto some lower flatter roads, when we saw the "deer ahead" sign. And that's when it began. An elk shot out from the road straight towards the side of the bus and just skimmed past the back of the bumper. I slowed down to about 10mph and was just putting along the road. Elk were everywhere jumping out and running alongside of us then randomly darting out, cutting me off and forcing me to brake and steer to the opposite side of the road. I looked back and saw about 6 or 7 of em' just hangin out in the road behind us in the moonlight. If it weren't -3000 degrees outside I woulda climbed out and got the camera out. 

Damn it was so cold.

    The next morning we were out on some Idaho highway, and the wind was blowing the snow so hard across the road, looked like a solid white fog across the road.  I was running about 45 while everyone else flew by at 80-90mph. We went under a bridge and when we came out the other side, I was fishtailing 4 or 5 times, fighting it. Finally went around 180 and slid off the road into a bottomless snow pit that divides the highways. Something tells me the low profile tires weren't snow friendly. Looked around to see 6 or 7 other cars slid off the road as well with the owners talkin on phones, so we held tight waiting for help to arrive. A two tone bay window owner rolled by, didn't smile, wave, or flip us off. Just cruised on by slow,  looking at us with a straight face. Gotta love those fat chicks. Cop shows up and ask us where were from and where we are going and finishes the questions with "So how much DOPE does she have in er'???" I reply in a pissed off tone: "Uhhh - none?" and he laughs and says "suuuuuree" and drives away. He goes to all the other cars and talks to them and in the meantime the tow truck had shown up. The cop pulls up again and tells the truck driver "Be sure to pull this truck out of the snow first, cause we need to get all the dope out of there!!!" I can't make this stuff up, true story. Then the two tow drivers and the cop bust up laughing.... wtf?? the cop takes off again and we hand the tow driver a $50 and just take off. That Idaho cop seemed like he was already high, he didn't need more (no we didn't have any). Damn it was so cold. We hit up a Walmart and bought one of those propane heaters. I think that actually saved my life that weekend. It did light my shoe on fire and part of my pants after laying on it trying to sleep, but it was sure worth it. Later that night we got off the interstate in search of a Denny's and we took a wrong turn into a parking lot. My friend was driving and the carb linkage was a little sticky for some reason (the owner had it rigged up as well). Anyway he came to a super steep drive and tapped the gas and it revved up and shot him down the drive and BAM heard a loud bang that didn't sound friendly. We made our way over to Denny's and go to get out.....but we cant. Turns out there was only one bolt in each side of the bumper brackets and the impact had pushed the bumper so the ends were up and blocking both doors! So were stuck in the bus trying to get out, and my friend starts trying to convince me to go head first out of the safari- hell no! It was soooo damn cold at this point I was rapidly considering it. The people in Denny's just stared out the window even though my friend was waving for them to come and help us. Nobody dared come out there. A group of guys pulled up and pushed the bumper down. My friend spent the next 30 minutes diggin snow out from under it in the wet parking lot trying to remove the bumper. Luckily there was no damage. How do you people live in the snow?
Blows my mind.

    There was some serious celebration going on when we left Idaho. Don't think I'll ever step foot back in that state. Going through Utah was  pretty uneventful and not as cold, but we did get pulled over on the way out. Cop wanted to know why we didn't have plates. He also asked me what kind of vehicle it was. Obviously you Utah guys don't drive your buses enough!  He did let us go, but not without threats of impounding it and etc. Lost a grey hubcap in Utah on the interstate. So keep an eye out in your travels thru there =) At a local gas station I pulled up and a drifter was standing there and said "Hey! that used to be a German car!" I questioned him about the usage of the words "used to be" and  he replied" Yah it used to be German, before you lowered it!" Ha-ha. After he was done talkin shit, he walked off and as we drove out, there he was thumbin for a ride! hah.... nope.

Decided we didn't want to risk more snow covered roads so we made our way over to Vegas then cut back thru to AZ. Had to cross the Hoover damn though which is heavily guarded. I pull up to the security checkpoint and the "dark skinned" guy in front of us in a small white compact nice car gets pulled to the side and they start tearing his car apart. gutting the trunk, the inside, all being thrown on the ground. We pull up to the line and I'm all nervous. The guard shines his light on me then in the bed and says "Go on ahead, have fun!" hahah. We were probably the most suspicious people he has seen in a while. But he sent us thru the turnstile with a smile, and turned us loose inside.

    Once we hit AZ it was smooth sailing and the roads were all smooth, what a difference! Speed kicked up to 75 no problem, safaris  wide open, jackets came off. What a different world! I find it funny that absolutely nothing went wrong with the bus (besides the fact that every control in the cabin was adjusted wrong, clutch, brakes, steering, etc) but that everything else possible went wrong! Oh yah, noticed it has mcode 362, and it was not a 12v bus and does not have seatbelt mounting points. So looks like there is more then one meaning for 362 as well. All in all it was about 1700 miles / 47 hours to drive home which was about double what we had planned.. Some guy near my friends house already wants to buy the truck, but I doubt he'll sell it after his recent experience. He definitely got jumped into the hobby on that one!

-Wade

Update: This bus was traded away.