Where is Ben?

Vintage Bus Run Ends in Amarillo, TX

An update since my last post: On Tuesday, I drove from Sayre, OK to Amarillo, TX and ended up having some bus problems. The bus was simply lacking power and didn't want to have its RPMs go up all that high. I first broke down within yards of Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo. I made a call to a diesel road-side assistance company and they came out with fuel filters that seemed to fix the problem, so I continued on my way toward California. 

During the time I was in Texas, I took photos of the bus in front of same nice restored gas stations in Shamrock, TX as shown below... right after taking the first shot, and odd rooster car drove by, which I had to capture with my iPhone (that's what all these photos are from).

 

A few hours later, after crossing into New Mexico, I noticed that it was very difficult to make it up hills with any kind of speed. I finally hit a rather steep hill and had to continuously downshift until I ended up in 1st gear and even then, the engine didn't have enough power to pull me over the hill, so I had to shut it down and call for assistance. At this point I was quite a ways away from any major city. 

My AAA service was only setup for normal cars and didn't cover RVs, but I paid $250 to upgrade it to RV status (that would have cost me only $53 if I didn't need service the same day). With AAA, you get up to 100 miles of towing. Amarillo was 97 miles from where I broke down! I knew I wanted to head to Amarillo since I knew I could fly out of that spot without any problems. That tow job would have cost me over $1000 bucks if I hadn't done it through AAA!

I'm sure my lack of power issue could have be resolved after spending many hours with a qualified diesel mechanic, but it was getting close to 1am and the temp was falling fast. I just didn't have a bunch of time to deal with details since I had already lost half of my day trying to get the fuel filters changed out. In the end, I decided to park the vintage bus in Amarillo and have it freighted the rest of the way to California. I have found a company that can accommodate my needs in that area and they should be picking up the bus within the next 24 hours. 

I have since flown from Amarillo to San Diego and am hanging out in my current bus.

I'm not overly bummed or anything... I was happy that the vintage bus made it as far as it did since it had it's original engine and transmission. I plan to replace the engine with one that has more than twice the power and will also install a six speed automatic transmission. Let me know if you know of a economical source for a Cummins ISL 425HP engine and Allison World transmission... that's my current quest. 

Note: All the photos shown in this post are from my iPhone.

Paris Springs, MO to Sayer, OK

Well today my goal was to make it all the way to Texas and I'm sad to say that it wasn't meant to be. Instead, I've made it to Sayre, OK which is a total of 22.8 miles from the Texas border. I would have made it to my desired destination if it wasn't for me going a bit too quickly when programming my GPS. I entered "Shamrock", which is the city I wanted to end up in, but I didn't realize that it was still set to search in Oklahoma. Needless to say, Shamrock, OK is a five and a half hour drive from where I am right now. Unfortunately, I made it almost 40 miles in that direction before I realized that it wasn't sending me in the right direction. I have to backtrack and by the time I got back to Sayre, I saw a mini city of RV's at the local Flying J's Truck stop that were parked in an area away from all the idling trucks and so I caved and called it a night.

I spent most of today driving with a few stops to take photos of the vintage bus in front of various old train stations and gas stations. 

St. Louis, MO to Paris Springs, MO

After posting yesterday's update, I decided to drive a bit more. I ended up driving for about an hour and a half and spent the night in Cuba, MO. I didn't actually get to sleep until after 3am. That made for a late start today. 

Just outside of Cuba is Bob's Gasoline Alley where I was greeted by a car club and had free lunch: 

Just down the road from there is the world's largest rocking chair:

For the rest of the day, I drove only 153 miles and ended up at Paris Springs, MO. This included some rather steep hills where the 1963 engine only allowed me to budge over them at around 35 mph at full throttle. I'm parked just inside the gate of the Gay Parita Sinclair gas station... I caught the owner right as he was locking up for the night: 

Here's an image of the same place from my real camera that I took last year:

Tomorrow, I want to get an early start (that means before noon) and make my way as close to Shamrock, TX as is humanly possible.

Note: All the photos shown above were taken with my iPhone

Columbus, OH to St. Louis, MO

Today I drove about 420 miles... Google maps claims that can be done in 6.5 hours. Google maps needs to get with it and add a vintage bus setting which would give a more accurate 11+ hour estimate. I spent most of today driving, eating or napping, so there's not a lot to report. I spent about 1/4 of the day driving through the rain and it seems that truck drivers in Ohio don't know how to drive in the rain. There number of jackknifed trucks was amazing and added at least an hour to my journey. Tomorrow morning I plan to get on Route 66. 

Columbus, OH to Columbus, OH

The distance between where I started my day and where I ended it was around 23 miles. In between those two stops, I visited a bunch of local bus nuts who wanted to take a look at my new acquisition. I ended up parking for the night in a friend's driveway who has a nice 50 amp electrical plug which means I should have heat tonight.

The weather forecast for last night called for a low temperature in the lower 50's. In reality it got down below 45 degrees. That's the kind of temp where I can easily make it through the night, but don't have much incentive to get out from under the covers in the morning. 

Tomorrow, I plan to head West toward St. Louis. 

Alliance, OH to Columbus, OH

I picked up the 1963 Flxible Starliner bus today. After spending an hour or two going over the various RV systems with the previous owner, it was time to hit the road. 

My first stop was Loudonville, OH which is where the bus was manufactured. That's where I met up with a local bus expert and saw and amazing collection of memorabilia about the company. I also drove the bus to the actual building where it was made and took a photo of the bus just outside the garage doors where it would have been delivered. 

Today I drove about 160 miles and spent a good portion of my time trying to get used to driving a bus powered by a 1963 vintage motor and a manual transmission... and no power steering. That setup means that I have to slub over big hills at between 35-50 MPH. I plan to repower the bus with an engine that puts out at least twice the power and has a six speed automatic, which should make for a much more enjoyable driving experience.

Originally I was planning to drive up to Michigan to inspect a 1957 Buick that I was thinking about purchasing. I've since decided that I'd rather head South and West right away since making that side trip could easily add three days to my trip. 

I think it will take me 3-4 days to figure out just how far I'll want to drive on an average day... only then will I be able to figure out how long it will take me to get to Los Angeles. I plan to get on Route 66 starting in St. Louis, MO. 

If you have any questions about the bus, just submit them in the comments section and I'll try to answer them... but be sure to first glance at the Vintage Bus Project link on the left sidebar of this page because it just might contain the answer to your question.

The Vintage Bus Project Begins!

For over a year I've been contemplating, planning and trying to start "The Vintage Bus Project". In the process of searching for a vintage bus, I've investigated no fewer than 89 individual buses. I've driven all over the US inspecting them and am very happy to have finally picked what I am sure is the right bus for me. 

On October 21st, 2009 I'm scheduled to acquire the 1963 Flxible Starliner bus that is shown above. It's located near Akron, OH at the moment. My current bus is located in San Diego and the person I'm thinking of using to re-power the vintage bus is also in Southern California, so I plan to drive the vintage bus all the way from OH to CA over the next few weeks. 

I've also found a 1957 Buick Caballero station wagon that I might want to acquire on this trip. It's the car I was planning to tow behind the vintage bus once I start to live on it. I plan to repaint the vintage bus so that it resembles this paint job (yes, it's that's the bus that was used in the Robin Williams movie "RV"):

 

After seeing that, you might get an idea for why I think the Buick would be a good car to tow behind the vintage bus... here's what the station wagon looks like:

As with the bus, I'd plan to update the Buick to a modern drivetrain. I'll inspect the Buick the day after I pick up the vintage bus... it's located in Michigan. 

I plan to follow the entire length of Route 66 on my way back to California. I'm planning on shooting night scenes this time around to really round out my photo library since I've already followed the full length of Route 66 twice. It will likely take me a few weeks to make it back to California.

It should take about a year before the bus and wagon are ready to replace my current bus/jeep combo. Until that point, I plan to remain living in my current bus.  

Here are some more photographs of the vintage bus. Keep in mind that I plan to repaint it, rip out the interior and do a brand new interior that is customized to my needs and tastes. 

     
 
If you're itching for more frequent updates, then be sure to check out my twitter stream on the left sidebar of this blog. The map in the same area is usually a pretty accurate gauge for my current position on planet earth.

Vintage Bus Hunt Continues

I'm flying to Columbus, OH today. I'll be driving around Ohio and then on to Ontario, Canada to inspect three vintage buses. I hope one of these will work out for my vintage bus project (details on the left sidebar if this site).

I had the tattoo shown above added to my left arm during PhotoshopWorld. It's an eagle holding a Wacom pen... It lasted for three days... Ballpoint pen tattoos just dint last all that long.

Neon Boneyard Shoot

I just finished shooting at the Neon Boneyard in Las Vegas!

The photo above was taken on my iPhone.