We named her ‘Helga’. It sounded sturdy and substantial besides. Toni found a definition somewhere that said it meant a ‘blessing’- which she has been. Although new, bright, and shiny, RVs have a certain allure, for a small percentage of us, the price, uniqueness, and challenges encountered in the, shall we say, “more experienced” buses, trucks, and vans are too much to pass up.

Our journey down the RV path began as we approached retirement. The kids were busy ‘adulting,’ and I (Eric) stumbled onto some “Bus-Nut” pages on the internet. Having a past that included both truck driving and mechanics gave me the confidence that we could pull off owning a bus.

We both grew up camping and backpacking, and for a few years, raising our two daughters, we had a VW van and a Ford van. As a family, we also used to go ‘airplane camping’ on dirt strips in a variety of Cessnas. The idea of traveling more as retired folks, with all the comforts of home in an RV, was pretty intriguing and seemed like a logical next step.

After looking at a few ads and doing some reading, we wound up buying a 1957 GM 4104, which we named “Babe the Blue Ox” or just “Babe” for short. For those not familiar, Babe the Blue Ox was Paul Bunyan’s ox. “Babe” had been converted many years ago, and most of her systems worked fairly well.

Over the years we owned her, we had to do a lot of maintenance. Just to name a few: we overhauled the engine (in frame), throwout bearing (clutch while we were at it), full exhaust, alternator, starter, batteries, throttle cable (that was a job), steer tires, one airbag, leaking injector, furnace issues, generator change, various easy and not so easy electrical issues, etc. etc. I just went through our old journals and refreshed my memory.

We did a lot of work on “Babe,” but we loved her and made many great memories with her. Over the course of six years and 30,000 miles with her, we traveled all over the Northwest, and she never made us walk. Hint for anyone just starting out: carry lots of tools!

I seem to have a bad habit of seeing a dirt road going off into the woods and allowing my curiosity to get the better of my wife’s good judgment. These diversions have led to some wonderful adventures, but sometimes they have made us suspect that our former Greyhound might not have been designed for this particular kind of adventuring. Somehow “Babe” seemed to think forest service ‘two trackers’ were not in her job description.

We began to look for something that would align better with our attraction to the steep, winding, and rough roads we liked to explore. As we considered the various options, the old truck driver in me was drawn to the converted “Motor homes”. We wound up buying “Helga” and passed “Babe” along to some friends who were nearing retirement and had experience driving trucks and doing maintenance. Our hope is that they will keep her on the road and enjoy her as much as we did.

“Helga” was built in 1995, which, as I understand it, was the first year GM, White, and Volvo joined under the Volvo name. She was originally a tractor with a sleeper. At some unknown place and time, someone removed one of the axles, the sleeper, and, from the looks of the frame, may have lengthened her. They then mounted an over-the-cab box and built her out as a motorhome.

We bought her from the race car folks who pulled a trailer hauling cars to the races, living aboard her while there. The interior was mostly functional, but it appeared that when the racing folks were on the road, their main use was as a place to sleep. There was a small microwave and a refrigerator with just one shelf. There were two couches but no table. There were mattresses in the area over the cab and a couple more in the back. The floor was the truck bed, and the cabinets were half-painted and half-natural. We probably paid too much for her, considering all of the things that we have had to fix.

Over the past three years and 32,000 miles with her, we have come to appreciate many good things about her. She has an 11.1-liter Series 60 Detroit Diesel engine that runs strong and averages around 10 MPG. It starts pretty well in the cold and uses hardly any oil. She has an Eaton Fuller 10-speed manual transmission that lets us barely creep along on rough roads when necessary. The standard transmission probably also serves as an anti-theft device these days.

With 45+ gallons of propane, we don’t have to change tanks or worry about running out in the middle of the night in the winter. Having 100 gallons of fresh water and the same amount of blackwater gives us the choice between staying out longer and taking luxurious showers. With 200 gallons of diesel fuel, we can go a long way. We can also get out of the expensive state we live in and go buy fuel where it is cheaper. After having the rear end gearing changed, she’ll loaf down the road at about 1400 rpm at 60 MPH.

When you buy 1957 buses and 1995 trucks, stuff happens. On our way home from purchasing “Helga,” we pulled off the road in the middle of nowhere, Nevada, for the night. We had no tools because we had just bought her and were taking her home.  We woke up to about three inches of new snow. We started her up alright, but she wouldn’t build more than 30 pounds of air pressure. After getting her good and warm and finding just the right rock to beat on her regulator, we got her going. Just the kind of thing that happens with old vehicles.

Another time, still on the way home, smoke came rolling out from under the dash. We had a dead short in an unfused hot wire to the cigarette lighter, which melted a plastic airline behind the dash. It got a little interesting for a while, but we got it sorted out. Still on our first trip, getting her home, the main breaker on the Onan generator blew. When I went to reset it, the switch broke off. However, we were able to get it going with a little ingenuity.

We have had to get help before, too. I (Eric) went down the wrong road about 80 miles East of Ely, Nevada, hit soft sand, and got stuck beyond our ability to extricate ourselves. That was expensive! The best way to avoid these things is to sit at home in your favorite chair, but where is the fun in that?

We spent three nights in Helga, and we began fixing what was wrong with her and making changes to make her our own. We stripped the painted cabinets (we like natural wood), rebuilt the bed as a full size and centered both the bed and the underbed water tank, removed the 110V water heater and installed a propane on demand one, added a small pressure tank, added a two burner propane stovetop, removed one of the couches and installed a dinette, added some different wall coverings, cleaned and painted underneath storage bays, added an exhaust brake, replaced all house and truck batteries, added a voltmeter for house and truck batteries in the kitchen, built two bedside tables, installed a new furnace, installed Pergo flooring, installed cabinets over the head of the bed, made new curtains between living area and cab.  Yes, it was a lot of work, but now, it is the way we like it.

After a couple of short trips, we installed 200 watts of solar, replaced the bathroom roof vent, and installed a backup camera. The 3500-watt inverter we installed lets us use 110-volt appliances for short periods without the generator. When we bought Helga, she had a 50-amp plug but no cord. Silly me, I went ahead and bought a very expensive 50-amp cord. It looked like the Fourth of July when I plugged her in! Someone had wired one leg straight to ground! Buyer beware! Early on, I noticed that the rear-end torque arm was completely shot. I was able to replace that and four bad shocks on my own, but the front end needed extensive work, which we paid a shop to do. Not cheap!

Up to this point, most of our energy has gone into getting her home and setting her up the way we want. We bought her on March 8, 2023, and got her home on March 18, 2023 (we did quite a bit of fooling around on the way home). By May 2nd, we had her usable again, and most of the rest of our modifications were done at home between our various trips, or sometimes at campgrounds just for something to do, or on the side of the road or in the parts store parking lot out of necessity. The longer we have owned and used her, the less we have to work on her. Up to this point, Helga was all over white. It took a lot of convincing, but well, I’ll have Toni tell you why Helga looks the way she does now.

Toni: When we first got Helga, I agreed with Eric that she had a pretty boring exterior, and even on the inside, she was too “white”.  Eric kept suggesting that I could paint a large mural on her sides. I have an art background, but have been doing only small, detailed pieces.  I was totally intimidated by the size of the work area!  It seemed way too daunting to even fathom painting her exterior.  I finally agreed to some painting in the bedroom instead of wallpaper, so that was the beginning.  I planned to do more on the inside, but nothing was really happening.

We started looking for ways to make Helga’s exterior look less boring.  After about a year of Helga being all white and pricing wraps, I saw an old hippie school bus at the ski hill.  We spent three nights in Helga up at 49 Degrees North (our local ski hill) to enjoy spring skiing. The Skoolie had a mountain scene painted on the side. It started me thinking maybe I COULD do my own painting.  I waited for the weather to warm up and ordered some supplies. Eric got the ladder out, and I got some big brushes and (this might make some of you cringe) outdoor acrylic paint, and started painting. I HAD A BLAST! I was literally sucked into the creative vortex! 

Quite a while later, we traveled to Arizona, then on to Texas, and eventually to South Carolina.  Eric was in meetings while we were in Texas. I had some time on my hands and some interior acrylic paint, while 35-mile-an-hour gusts of wind rocked Helga and me, I painted the bathroom and the living area, once again captured in “the vortex”.

I will pass the narrative back to Eric:  Well, that’s pretty much the story of Helga. Tonight, trying to finish up this story, we are on top of a pass up a two-tracker on BLM ground somewhere in Nevada. We have had a lot of fun wandering around and goofing off in this beautiful country we get to live in. Ha, just woke up to snow, welcome to our world.