Bringing the Bus back to Phoenix

[LowTide]

As some of you may know, we flew to Maryland to pick up our bus and will be departing tomorrow morning and heading back to Phoenix. We have been here a few days learning about the operating systems and learning to drive her.

The first day was a bit nerve racking, grinding gears and miss-shifting, second day went so much better and I am sure by the time we get home, I will look back at the first day of my lessons and chuckle.

While I type this message, I sit here with a big grin as I still can hear this voice beside me saying bring it down...down, down, slow, slow, slower.......LOL.
The voice I speak of is Tom whipping me into control. I am so glad he is still in good shape and did not have a heart attack from my driving skills.

We spent the early part of today running for couple of parts for the simulators, but came up empty handed....although I did learn the meaning of improvising to get the job done. Once we overcame that obstacle, we all went to Lewis Delaware to pick up crab cakes and take a look at the Atlantic Ocean where the ferry comes in while enjoying a few crab cake sandwiches. The sad part was all we could think of was Cliff and what the chances were of all these crab cakes making it back to Phoenix....just kidding Cliff, they will arrive safely……errrrr…….

I am attaching some pics of the bus (Pushin’ Too Hard) and also some pics of this beautiful area we are in. I know it's not much to start with, but we promise to include more pics as we move along down the coast with more updates from our trip.
 
We also want to take a moment to thank Tom and his wife for being so gracious as to let us stay on their property for a few days as we got our ducks in a row......we truly have met some very good people that we consider friends and plan on a return trip to see them in the future. Heck, we love this area, it is so beautiful, so beautiful that my wife told me she did not want to go home, but we have things to tend to and our day will come when we can take care of our affairs and hit the road

All The Best
Mike and Lori

[LowTide]

Here is another .......

[LowTide]

More beautiful scenery.

[eagle19952]

She's a beaut...have a good ride.
This part actually made me laugh out loud.

The sad part was all we could think of was Cliff and what the chances were of all these crab cakes making it back to Phoenix....just kidding Cliff, they will arrive safely……errrrr…….

[B_K]

Hmmm had to take a second look, as there is a similar looking bus down the road from us I just noticed as I was driving own the hwy the other day.
But I know for sure the other one said "Silver Streak" in the destination sign.

Still fine looking bus, have fun and be safe in your travels.

Oh and if you need help checking the quality of those crab cakes I'm only 15 mins. N of I-40 between Nashville & Memphis! (wouldn't want to take a chance on Clifford getting sick on bad crab cakes would we?)
  BK 

[longjohn]

Mike
 Congrats on your new journey! I live about thirty miles from Tom, and came so very close to buying your bus( had my mind set on an eagle) I don't know Tom other than a few phone calls ,except by reputation. He like myself  are both old  gear jammers  back in the day Mr Tom had one of the baddest  homegrown detroit's around!( modest that he is not many know  the old trucking tales) Now the fact that he is from the eastern shore makes them good folks But you already know that.... No doubt if Tom thought anything was not right, it would have been fixed before you left his yard.............. Glad you enjoyed your visit, enjoy all the back roads you can because that's where  the good life is.  
 Safe trip home

[oldmansax]

Phyllis & I have really enjoyed having Mike & Lori. They are a wonderful couple & we're glad they are getting our bus. It's nice to turn her over to a younger couple with the ddrive & determination to keep her like she should be. I'm sorry to say she's been pretty neglected since I haven't been able to drive her much. I'm sure Mike & Lori will make her "theirs" over the next few years & get many years of enjoyment.

Mike wasn't all that bad shifting and driving ........ he's just a little ...... hmmmmmm.... shall we say overly ambitious turning into parking lots & side roads!        I told him I was going to get him a sign:

SLOW!!!!!!!

 

Clifford, you may want to meet them in South Carolina or Georgia if you want to be sure to get your crab cakes....... Mike was sure enjoying the sandwich we bought today!

TOM

[luvrbus]

LOL I know where he lives Tom only 32 blocks down Cactus from us,I can see the look on the neighbors face when he ask them to remove the cars from the cul-d-sac to park the baby

good luck and safe travels you 2

[technomadia]

So happy to see this marvelous bus find a new home!  It definitely caught our attention, even after we made a pretty firm decision to go automatic and 35'.. thank goodness Tom was wise enough to turn our offer down so we continued on to find the bus right for us. But we just loved this one!

Happy wishes to all!
 - Cherie

[John316]

Mike,

Glad to hear that you are enjoying it! I think you will have a blast.

Tom is right though. Speed kills. Seriously. You HAVE to go slower. I think that can be the biggest rookie mistake is thinking it drives like a car, and take corners too fast. Speed is your enemy. You will never regret going slower on corners. Slow down way early from when you think you actually need to slow down. Observe all exit ramp speed signs (the ones that we always used to ignore in cars).

Speed is your enemy. That tour bus that just flipped in NJ on an onramp. I never heard the official report of what happened, but I can tell you what happened. He was going too fast. Speed kills.

Enjoy your new home. You have a great trip back, coming up.

John

[oldmansax]

Just for the record:

The crab cakes were unmolested and in good condition when they left my custody!
 

TOM

[harleyman_1000]

 Speed kills Does that mean I shouldn't put nitrous on the 4106 Im thinking about as my first bus 

[OneLapper]

Speed kills Does that mean I shouldn't put nitrous on the 4106 Im thinking about as my first bus 

No nitrous. Propane injection is ok though!!

Sorry, no more hijacking

[LowTide]

Mike,

Glad to hear that you are enjoying it! I think you will have a blast.

Tom is right though. Speed kills. Seriously. You HAVE to go slower. I think that can be the biggest rookie mistake is thinking it drives like a car, and take corners too fast. Speed is your enemy. You will never regret going slower on corners. Slow down way early from when you think you actually need to slow down. Observe all exit ramp speed signs (the ones that we always used to ignore in cars).

Speed is your enemy. That tour bus that just flipped in NJ on an onramp. I never heard the official report of what happened, but I can tell you what happened. He was going too fast. Speed kills.

Enjoy your new home. You have a great trip back, coming up.

John

Trust me, I am going allot slower and hogging the lanes when I need to turn. I have given up on how angry anyone will get behind me so now I am taking charge and they can all wait or go around

[LowTide]

Thanks for all the well wishes, we do appreciate it!

We wanted to give you another update on our trip home.
 
The bus is running like a champ and has given us no issues and has been nothing but a pleasure to drive. My shifting is getting to be second nature, which makes me a bit more comfortable and a bit less stressful.
My wife loves the bus and has taken over all the inside duties and is a top notch co pilot, although I had to remind her today to not stand behind the bus while guiding me when I am backing up.

We have not gone that far as we are really enjoying the east coast and all the beautiful sights. We left Maryland on Tuesday and stayed at the rest stop before the Chesapeake Bay bridge tunnel and then headed out early in the morning. I have to admit, that tunnel had me gripping the wheel as I am not used to driving in something like that, although crossing the bridge itself was very nice....had some good cross winds and the bus handled it well.
Lori has been shooting still images out the front window as well as video. I will download some images tomorrow and post them….bit tired tonight and will be up at the crack of dawn to get some beach shots, possible sunrise shots too.

We stopped  in the Virginia Beach area on Wednesday for a while and realized the fridge LP had shut off during our drive after the tunnel, come to find out we had lost our propane due to a leaky fitting which was corrected and filled up on propane and all is back to normal. No need to worry Cliff, crab cakes are still in good shape, but there was a moment I thought for sure we were going to have to start eating them....leaving you hungry.....LOL.

We headed out of Virginia Beach today, went to Edenton and decided to pull out and look over some of the boats while taking a break when were approached by an older gentlemen and got to talking about the bus, after a long talk about us going to the outer banks, he road away on his bicycle and shortly returned in an older car and told my wife and I to take his car and go see the town but he needed it back by 7 this evening, but had to decline and thanked him for the generous offer. I swear if he had offered his car to someone in Phoenix, it would have been parted out…..LOL. The people on this side of the country are so nice that it has put us into culture shock.

Once we left Edenton, we doubled back about 5 miles and headed to the outer banks and are really glad we took his advice, this place is beautiful! We are now at the camp Hatteras and will be staying here for another day, departing on Saturday afternoon 4:00 on the Ocracoke-Cedar Island Ferry and will be beating feet towards home….planning on being in Phoenix by next Friday.

I almost forgot to mention, a couple cam over to see the bus and told us there was an old 1959 or 1960 GM bus at the campground just the other day. I wonder who this bus nut was…..would have been neat to run into someone from the board!

Wish my post wasn’t so long, but with all the excitement of this trip, I got a bit long winded.
Tonight we are heading down to the beach to sit and check out the Milky Way….sooo many stars out that it boggles the mind.
I will post pictures tomorrow.

All The Best
Mike and Lori
Cape Hatteras