Tomorrow is the final day of Mme Awesome’s Sun Dance. Your support and attention are supremely appreciated. Please, when resting, eating and drinking support our Dancer.

I woke to pouring rain, and stood looking out the window at the now covered river’s flood plains and seriously considering waiting until tomorrow, whose precipitation is predicted to be less, to make the drive. And then lickety split things changed: the downpour turned to a drizzle and quickly even less. So what else could I do but arrange a driver via Lyft for the trip. A few minutes later, off we went.

Wouldn’t you know that Jay, my chauffeur, has done several bus conversions himself! And used them commercially too. A real, living and breathing pro. He had plenty of useful suggestions and stories which made the drive super quick. He is very bullish on painting the bus with a foam roller strongly recommended regular fuel filter replacement. I wrote down some places for this and that he’s used or knows of too. His confidence in the project was calming and appreciated.

At the yard and very excited, I contacted the project’s film crew, Ramble Pictures, right away to share the news and get any tips. “Be sure to hold the phone sideways” I was told.

I signed some papers, watched the 100s be penned, received the temp tags and title, shook some hands and away I went. Just like that.

Every mile closer was great news. It was an extra long 2.25 hour trip due to highway tragedy that kept me on mostly county roads, an expanse of opportunity to have a situation. One time, approaching a bridge and about midway (meaning close to nothing), my heart sank when I smelled something not good. Thankfully whatever it was dissipated and I drove on.

The only awful thing I noticed is the driver’s chair. Horrible. A torture device. That has to go. Next, in order, is wow the bus is loud. First there is the road noise, by that I mean how much the thing rattles and booms at even the slightest imperfection. Then there is the engine. Positively deafening. To the point where I could not always hear the directions on my phone even at max volume. There’s a protrusion at my feet making for an awkward foot move when having to brake. Did I say loud? That’s really it for the problems. 😄

Steering is great. Easy with one hand even in the world’s most uncomfortable seat. I didn’t notice any shimmying. My new friend Jay told me that he’s seen vehicles not driven for a bit have sticky pistons and we both agreed that’d be a splendid resolution. As far as I can tell, he’s right. Stopping in of itself is good too. OMG is that engine powerful: just to see what would happen, I pressed down the gas going uphill on a freeway already at 65 and wham! the bus downshifted and motored; I really left behind those loser slowpoke vehicles.

How cool it arrived during the Sun Dance?

It turns out there is diesel and biodiesel. Are they different? Does the bus care? I don’t know and, at the gas station which sold the latter and desperately searching for answers on my phone, acquiesced to simply not fill up until I had attained certainty.

I’m also going to have a skoolie.net thread on the conversion. While there will certainly be some cutting and pasting going on, the thread will be about build specific info save the first post. You can follow here if you like.

This concludes Phase One: Let’s Find A Bus. Tomorrow we start the Registration and Swankification Phase.