Summer 2009 ~ Cross Country Trip

This is a picture of the two vehicles that got us across country for this particular trip!

Frontal View of "Harry Farris," lovingly referred to as our split window on steroids.

That's me driving!!! I am very proud of that. I drove through Sacramento Ca, Salt lake City UT and a few others. I was also driving when we had two tire blow outs. One was in the front in the salt flats and I managed to stay on the road and bring the bad boy to a stop on the shoulder. I definitely needed a beer afterwards, especially after I saw all of the rubber I laid down.

This was our big trip of the summer and just a ton of fun. We had rented our orange bus out to a couple from the UK that literally zig zagged their way from Manhattan NY, where we dropped the bus off to them , across the U.S. ending in Seattle. We had already purchased our monster bus (which was located in Oregon), so when this rental came through we just decided to kill two birds with one stone and pull the little bus with the big bus back home. We flew into Seattle on the red eye and arrived at the @$$ crack of dawn. We ended up sitting by a really nice French man who works for microsoft and chatted with him the entire flight. That being said, in the morning I was pretty tired and in desperate need of a cup of coffee. The lady at the hotel was kind enough to point us to a coffee shop down the road, which I promptly headed off towards. As I came upon it I noticed that the name of the place was "Sexy Coffee." I thought it was a little weird for the name of a coffee shop but after rounding the corner and coming face to face (there was this huge drive up window, like bigger than ones body) with a cute little chick in nothing but a pair of loose fitting thongs, sunglasses, and a skimpy little bra hence the sexy coffee theme. It takes a lot to shock or surprise me and it is safe to say that I was definitely caught off guard! I am sure my mouth was hitting the ground. While I was trying to control my shock, and of course behave normally, she set about making my coffee and telling me all about what they call bikini coffee in Seattle. I guess the locals have grown used to it but I was having a hard time concentrating on my coffee order as she hustled about in broad daylight taking my order and chatting me up as if she were fully clothed. Of course I couldn't help but look (and all the while feeling like a dirty old... well.. woman) when she was busy and also noticed that a brisk wind could quite easily dislodge her tiny under things. After my coffee was done I paid and continued on to the famous pike street market. I must say, about the half naked lady, that I thought what she was doing was great. I was just caught completely off guard. I mean my in-laws live in Seattle and not once did they tell me about half naked ladies serving coffee. For males I guess it is a good way to want to get up and going in the morning.

Of course the market was bustling with people and to some would be very over whelming. There are your usual street vendors, shops, local artists, just about any thing you can think of. The buildings at the market consist of a maze of one shop on top of the other but if you have the time and desire to explore it is a lot of fun. Of course even if you don't intend to you can't help but stop at the infamous Pike Street fish market where they are flinging fish around like it is nobodies business. These next couple of pictures are of the fish market. Sorry guys I know you were hoping for the half naked lady and although I really wanted to take her picture I didn't want her to think that I was a dirty ol' gal!

These are a couple of buildings that I thought were pretty when we were walking to the market.

This one is some guy that, as you can see, has a talent for making things out of balloons. He was just sitting there like that, as happy as can be, with all of his balloons.

The next morning the Britts dropped our bus off to us and after dropping them at the airport we headed down towards Rogue River, Oregon to pick up our big bus. This next one is my husband in Elmo as we are headed south to get the new member of the family. I must say that we saw a lot of different types of people in Seattle and they were all very nice, we even had an old man pay for our breakfast tab on his way out of the diner because he liked us. We couldn't believe it when we went to pay and the waitress told us what he had done.

We drove into Medford, Oregon and stayed the night there. The guy that we purchased the big bus from called and gave us a list of tools that he said we should have on hand in the big bus so when we got up the next morning we zipped over to Harbor Freight and picked up the stuff on our list. In the parking lot I happened to see this car and of course had to take a pic of it!

As we were leaving Medford, Oregon I saw this air force plane and thought it was pretty cool and beautiful. For some reason it reminded me of an airstream camper!

This was what you saw as soon as you pulled into Rogue River.

This place is located in a mountain valley and after a bunch of curving and winding roads we came to a salvage yard and "Harry Farris" came into sight!

Elmo and Harry Farris meet!!

These are pics of Harry Farris's living quarters! The salvage yard actually had a ton of really cool stuff but once we got to chewing the fat with the guys at the yard we forgot about taking more pics.

This is Mike, the guy we purchased the bus from.

The Captain's Chair!

Whits very first time driving the beast!

When we first pulled in and saw the guys at the yard I must admit to a bit of unease. We had not told anyone about our big bus purchase so no one knew that we were in Oregon picking it up and all that kept flashing through my mind were scenes from the movie The Hills Have Eyes. I immediately decided to try to be as polite and agreeable as possible! As with most things my fears were quickly put to rest as we started chatting and moving about the yard. Mike (the guy in the pic) and his two buddies jointly owned the yard and they were all very nice. We thought we would be picking the bus up and hitting the road but before we knew it we had chatted the entire day away with them and decided to stay the night down the road and hit the highway in the morning. My favorite guy at the yard was John a former truck driver with a great sense of humor and a bunch of funny stories. He was the one that I followed around exploring all the corners of the yard while he told us about pot cards, the local gold mining and everything in between. Yes I said pot card as in the green stuff you smoke! He said everyone has one out there and is allowed to grow up to 25 plants to then sell to the medical field! I couldn't believe my ears. I thought maybe that explained the over abundance of Vw buses out there! There were so many old buses and other cool vehicles in Oregon it would blow your mind!

These are some pics of the scenery when we hit the road the next morning. It was so beautiful that the pictures hardly do it much justice. I found myself wanting to stay in that bus hot bed surrounded by such beauty and of course the ability to have my very own pot grower card.

This one is of Mount Shasta at the top of California.

These next pics are of the mountain valleys of northern CA.

The first day in the big bus we drove from the Oregon line through CA to Reno NV. After much nagging, Whit talked me into trying to drive it. Once we hit a big flat valley in CA (there was row after row of fruit tree farms) I worked up the courage to give it a go. Whit pulled into a rest area and I pulled out. I have to say that while I believe now that I could drive any manual automobile now it is WAY different driving a huge piece of machinery. Shifting requires a huge amount of strength that is hard to comprehend until you actually do it. It feels very heavy and I had to just slam it into gear instead of finessing it like I would one of the little buses if it were acting funny.

I drove through Sacramento with many cars and trucks swerving trying to do a double take due to the shock of seeing a girl driving the thing. Outside of the city we switched back and I continued with my waving duties (everyone waved at us and were taking pics as they drove by.)
When we started our journey in the big guy we decided that we would stick to the highways in case we need mechanical assistance or help with a flat tire. We wanted to be close to places that could work on such a big old vehicle and since it is made up of semi-truck parts we thought it best to stick to the trucking routes hence the interstate travel route. We also decided that we would not drive after dark or normal business hours due to the same concerns. Well, with our desire to make it to our projected stopping point what do you think happens, it gets dark and we keep on driving. Now we are driving through the mountains after dark in this big bus, that mind you, is our first day of driving in it and not only does it start to rain but the road narrows down to cement dividers on both sides with one jutted in a little further every so often! There was not so much as a hair width of extra space on either side. I hate driving through the mountains and in that big bus all I could think about was loosing the brakes and going off the edge. Of course it doesn't help that every few miles they have signs telling you to check your brakes to prevent break loss and then give you the height and down grade percentage stats. How on earth are you supposed to check your brakes we thought. All we knew was that they were working at the moment and we hoped that they kept on working. After about an hour of those extremely stressful driving conditions we came down out of the mountains, the road opened back up, and we were never so happy to see the little dessert town of Reno! We ended up staying two nights in Reno due to needing to let our nerves recuperate!

Our first morning in Reno we went outside to unload Elmo so we could go do a little gambling and there was this guy standing by the bus just staring at it with a far off look on his face and tears in his eyes. He ended up being a retired trucker that did not have any family left and he was remembering when he and his siblings rode that same type of school bus to school. He was really nice and chatted with us and looked inside the bus every time we were out by it. Of course both days we hit the buffet, zipped over to the casino to play black jack and roulette. It was a lot of fun and of course it is easy to start drinking early when they are all free. I definitely like Reno better than Vegas. The morning that we left Reno it took us a couple of hours to get out of there because everyone wanted to talk about the buses. Everyone that we met was really nice so it was all good. The truckers especially were quite helpful our whole trip. These next pics are as we left Reno and were driving through NV.

In some parts of NV the road followed the river and right along the river were the only specks of green. It was pretty interesting to see.

At times we couldn't help but think that the scenery was just so foreign looking.

This pic was at a rest area out in the desert. I counted 5 cats just lounging in that rig! It is also worthy to note that the rest areas out in the desert have no water so I am sure you can imagine how nasty they are. I walked in only to walk right back out to use a cup in the bus.

The day that we left Reno, our goal was to get to Salt Lake City Utah. At the rest area with the cat rig I took over driving for a bit. About 10 miles from Carlin Nevada we heard this loud noise like something had flown up into the undercarriage of the bus and bounced around and then got back out. Whit and I looked at each other all wide eyed and I said 'Uhhh I hope that wasn't a part of the engine that just flew off.' As we came upon a rest stop we thought it a good idea to stop and check everything over. My husband returned from his inspection and said that we needed to find a tire center right away as a chunk of the tire had flown off and the tube was right there. He advised me to get back on the road slowly and that I probably should not look at the damaged tire. Of course I had to go check it out after that and was startled to see a chunk the size of an infant missing. I got back in and let him know that I was not going to be driving. We limped up to the next exit that thankfully had a tire center that could change semi-truck sized tires. After inspecting all of the tires we all decided that it was not a question of if they would blow but when, due to severe dry rot. We opted to have all of the tires replaced and went exploring while we waited.
I ended up finding a bunch of beautiful green rocks that were laying everywhere. A local later said they were pieces of jade and are all over the place out there. The area was rich in all sorts of minerals and such. I guess they do quite a bit of gold mining and all that in the area.
When we returned to get our bus there was a guy there that had seen it and had to stop to talk because he had just purchased one himself to do a conversion on. We must have chatted for an hour or so before we were able to get out of there. He was really sweet and quite a character. As we were leaving we exchanged business cards to keep in touch on our bus projects. I don't know how to explain it other than he was slow to hand over his card and in a hushed voice as he was handing it to me said ' I am the owner of a local brothel.' In my best Borat voice I exclaimed 'Great Success, High Five!' You could tell he was relieved that I was not the judgmental sort. I could not believe it and immediately set about asking if we could come over and check it out and take some pics. He was agreeable and very excited to show us his establishment. As we were leaving the tire place to go check it out the manager said' Don't let him talk you into anything you are not comfortable with' I laughed and assured him that was highly unlikely as my own granny used to own a "Go Go" bar back in the '80's'.
We followed him to his ranch and of course I snapped a couple of pics of the outside to prove that I had been there. We stayed for a couple of hours drinking beer and chatting with him and the ladies that were not busy. Of course I had a ton of questions about how everything worked, just all the ins and outs of the business from both the owner's and girl's side of things. Everyone was more than happy to answer my questions and we have stayed in touch with the owner since we returned home. He was really sweet and wanted us to stay in the area to take us site seeing but we had to keep going so we said our goodbyes before it got dark and hit the road once again. I have some funny pics of the inside of the brothel but I will not post them as I don't want anyone underage to see them.
These next two pics are on the way to the ranch I was trying to catch the little dust tornado in the second one.

This next one is out side of the Dovetail Ranch (the brothel)

I have to say again that everyone that we met on our trip was from different walks of life but they were all very nice and interesting.

After we left the Ranch it was dusk but I managed to snap a couple of pics of the scenery. The tunnel looking one is where we went through the mountain and of course there was a tunnel for the train as well which I also snapped a pic of .

We ended up in Wells NV that night and had hoped to get back on the road early the next morning but when we pulled out onto the highway the tire started making this terrible thumping sound so we made a u-turn and went to the tire center that was across the street from where we had spent the night.
After much head scratching ,the guys at the shop determined that one of the tires had been stamped wrong and was the next size up. Why we managed to drive the night before without any trouble out of it is beyond me but after they put a new one on it worked fine and we were back on the road.
The next couple of pics are of the scenery between Wells and West Wendover Nevada.

This is as we were entering West Wendover NV. In the far distance you can see the great salt lake desert of Utah.

I thought this was a cool name for a casino and I liked the sign. There are slots and gambling literally everywhere in Nevada!

The next one was taken in West Wendover NV when we stopped to have lunch. I thought the buses looked great with the mountains in the background.

These were the last two of Nevada as we were entering Utah.

After we crossed over into Utah we switched and I did some driving. My husband took these next few photos before he passe out on me. They are of the salt desert in Utah.

The next one was pretty trippy as it looked like the mountain was just floating in the distance. We thought it looked cool.

I was probably a good hour into the desert when the tire blew out on me. All I heard was this loud exploding noise followed by a long loud screaming/screeching sound. A lot flashed through my mind in that instance the first being that I was glad that what ever was happening at that moment was happening in the salt flat instead of the mountains. I quickly tapped the brakes to see if they still worked because I thought that I may have lost the air to them. Of course at the time I did not know that if you loose your air they lock shut and you are forced to a stop. I yelled for Whit to get up and at that time realized that I was having a lot of trouble steering. My husband jumped up and knew immediately that we had blown a front tire. I was trying to stay on the road and yelling for help while he was trying to tell me to stay calm and try slowly bring it to stop on the side of the road. After I got to the shoulder I flicked on the hazards turned it off and hopped out. I swear I probably had the shakes for the better part of 30 minutes.

I jumped out and managed to snap this pic before my camera battery died.

The people that we bought the tires from own 3 tire centers off of the interstate across NV. They sent a guy out to replace the tire and he told us that the outer rim ring was installed right by the valve and should have been installed across from the valve. The tube had burst and then the tire popped off of the rim as soon as we lost the air out of it. He said the people at the first tire center did a half @$$ job of installing our tires and it turns out we still have some that need to be taken off the rims and put back on the right way. I would not recommend them to anyone although I am happy that they sent some one out to fix the tire in the desert. We also ran both of our diesel batteries dead sitting out there for so long with the hazards on. I forgot that I had turned them on and the length of time drained them. Thank goodness the tire guy stayed around and jumped us. That little stint sucked the last bit of life out of them and we had to buy 2 new ones so the darn thing would continue to start.
I hopped back in and drove until we were almost through Salt Lake City. With all of the down shifting to climb the mountains I managed to throw my shoulder out trying to get the beast into 3rd. I literally pull onto the on ramp where the other cars were trying to get onto the interstate to switch drivers because I couldn't shift any more. I have to say that of all the cities we drove through Salt Lake City drivers were the worst. I wanted to run all of their cars over as I was driving through that city. They wouldn't let you in, they would cut you off and force you to slam on your brakes, it was maddening and sent my already frayed nerves over the edge. I was definitely ready for a rest after that fun filled and eventful day.
The next few days are a bit of a blur as we were trying to make up all of the time we lost dealing with the tire situation. We had a schedule (due to business obligations) that we had to try to stick to a close as possible. We drove through Utah, Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, and Arkansas before I felt like I even had a chance to breathe. Even though we were quite rushed at that point I did at least still remember to take some pictures while we drove through Wyoming.

I was trying to capture the remnants of some old structure in the distance by the hill in this one

These next photos were of rows and rows of windmills in the distance as we were coming up on them on I80.

These pictures were actually taken as we first came into Wyoming on I80 near Rock Springs. The banding in the rocks was very interesting and absolutely beautiful.

Located at the Summit Rest Area (Exit 323) on Interstate 80, Wyoming
We were actually on the other side of the road letting Harry Farris cool down a bit. I saw the statue and snapped a pic.

The three in this bunch are as we were entering Nebraska. I was wanting to get a pic of the welcome sign but alas I was too slow.

At the point in our trip when we actually felt caught back up was when we rolled into Arkansas. That morning when we got up we decided to grab a bite to eat at the Waffle House by our hotel. We walked over and as we approached we happened to see a 1973 orange westy similar to Elmo in the parking lot. We pocked our noses in the window and kicked the tires and decided that it showed signs of getting restored.
While we were eating breakfast my husband and I were discussing who we thought the bus belonged to out of all the people in the place. We guessed the two long haired hippy looking young men and asked them if they were the owners before we left. They were and like all of us who restore old cars were very proud to tell us of the hard work they had put into it. We would have loved to chat them up more but we were determined to stay on schedule so we said our goodbyes and headed out.
About an hour and a half after we left the awful waffle we came up on the two guys we met earlier stranded on the side of the road (they had flown past us, as the big bus only does 60mph, shortly after we had hit the road and at that time they had a bunch of smoke coming out of the exhaust of the bus. If I remember correctly her name was Rosalita and the one boys girlfriend had made the curtains for her (Rosalita the bus) which I thought was sweet.
Anyway we pulled over to help them and it turned out their motor had blown up on them. They were good college kids who had just finished up working the summer on a boys ranch out in New Mexico taking the boys hiking and camping so of course we felt compelled to help them. We pulled Elmo off of the trailer and pushed Rosalita on and continued our journey. We were headed to Memphis to pick up "Daisy" our yellow bus that had been out on another rental and was left in Tennessee at a shop. I drove Elmo with the guys, chatting them up while Whit drove Harry Farris and Rosalita. We figured that the guys at the shop we were going to could help the boys out with getting their bus fixed. We ended up being disappointed as they did not have anyone who new how to work on air-cooled motors. We decided to let them drive Daisy back to our base and have our mechanic help them with Rosalita. We caravanned all they way from Memphis, TN to Atlanta, Ga. It was a ton of fun and it felt really good to help them out. I was at the back of the line trying to take pictures of the odd scene in front of me.

These are the pics of our caravan through Alabama from my view at the back in Elmo.

When the blue Beetle came past I had to get a picture of it passing the buses in front of me.

The guys stayed with us for a couple of days to organize the motor installation for Rosalita and then flew home to New Jersey.

We were glad we could help the guys out and really enjoyed our trip home.

Everyone we met was amazing and really nice. Truckers were very helpful at every turn and lots of fun to talk to .

Although the trip was mainly for business it really spoke to us and we had a great time.

At this time I would like to share that we averaged 10 mpg in Harry Farris and for those interested we are planning on turning him into our own little land yacht. We don't want to feel rushed and we want him to fit our needs perfectly so he will be a work in progress for a while. Once he is clean I don't care if we throw an air bed, cooler, and camping stove in him and hit the open road! If we want something a little more finished in the mean time we have any one of our vw buses to go exploring in although there is something about the big bus that just gets your motor purring.