The 2025 Americas Transportation Experience Spring Fling

After a week of foreboding weather forecasts (that proved to be pretty accurate), more than 325 intrepid bus enthusiasts registered for the Museum of Bus Transportation/America’s Transportation Experience’s Spring Fling. In addition, as in the past, there were several uncounted walk-ins.

Attendance was down a little bit from last year, but it was still quite a success considering the weather. It’s hard to complain because it’s the first rainy Saturday we’ve had in more than 20 consecutive Spring Flings.

This year was special because an intrepid group of volunteers drove 30 (out of the total fleet of 40) historic buses up from the Annex to display at the main campus of the museum. This is in addition to a number of visiting buses and motorhomes.

One of the volunteer group’s significant accomplishments this year was setting up a library of maintenance and parts manuals. In the process, they identified several duplicates that were displayed and sold at the memorabilia marketplace. This raises money to help maintain our buses and puts these rare resources in the hands of other folks who are preserving bus history.

Congratulations to the trophy winners:

Best Antique Bus: 1957 GM 4104 - Friends of the NJ Transportation Heritage Center
Best Modern Bus: 2005 Prevost H3-45 – Trans-Bridge Lines
Best Motorhome Conversion: 1980 Prevost Liberty Motorhome - Tom Hamilton and Jim Lucas, Cranston, RI
Furthest Traveled: - 1967 MCI MC-7 - Robert Geer, Ledyard, CT
Best Manufacturer Demo: 2025 MCI J-Model - Executive Coach, Lancaster, PA

Thanks to everyone who braved the weather… Hope you had a great time.

For more information about this museum, click here: https://www.aacamuseum.org/mobt/.

Aerial photos by Stefan Aleo.

Article written by David Millhouser

Dave Millhouser started driving buses cross-country for a non-profit Christian organization called “Young Life” as a summer job in 1965. They carried high school kids from the East Coast to ranches in Colorado in a fleet that consisted of three 1947 Brills, a 1947 Aerocoach, and a 1937 Brill. Their fleet grew to 23 buses and traveled all 48 contiguous states and much of Canada.

When Young Life dropped their bus program, Dave ended up selling parts for Hausman Bus Sales. In 1978 Dave was hired by Eagle International to sell motorcoaches and spent the next 30 years doing that… 13 years with Eagle, as well as stints with MCI, Setra, and Van Hool. His first sale was an Eagle shell for a motorhome, and his career ended selling double-decker Van Hools.

Dave had a side career in underwater photography/writing, and Bus and Motorcoach News asked him to do a regular column in 2006. Millhouser.net is an effort to make those columns available to bus people.

If you find value in them, feel free to use them at no charge. Dave would ask that you consider a donation to the Friends of the New Jersey Transportation Heritage Center

https://www.friendsnjthc.org/

and

Pacific Bus Museum

https://pacbus.org/

In May of 2015, the Editor of Bus & Motorcoach News called Dave a Bad Example for Motorcoach Drivers… his proudest accomplishment to date. Read the columns and you’ll see why.

Click HERE to read other articles by this Author

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