So our trip started in Iowa this past August and has taken us through Gatlinburg, TN, Gettysburg, PA, Orlando, FL, McKinney, TX, Show Low, AZ, Tucson, AZ, Palm Springs, CA, Portland, OR, Monterey, CA, and the northern route back to Michigan via Utah, Wyoming, Nebraska, Illinois, Indiana. So far Bus has been mostly trouble free and running like a champ. Running a bit warm so I'll be pulling radiators for cleaning, changing the left bank thermostat, and checking water pump this summer. Have done some intense winding two lane roads to get to Cave Junction, OR at night in the rain, swerved through L.A. traffic, done some intense mountain passes including the grapevine, Donner Pass, Parley Summit, and others. Seen snow passing through the mountains near Tahoe drove through the Bonneville Salt flats, and had to change an air filter and thermostat on the journey, not to mention putting 75 gallons of gasoline into the tank in Virginia, driving through Washington D.C. at night while throwing up into a trash can, and having a no-start electrical gremlin while sitting at a truck fuel pump. Always fun. Here's a few pics along the way. In Wyoming now and will spend Thanksgiving somewhere along the route with my wife and baby girl. We like it "just us" style.
(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20171123/ebfec90b6ade105b41af7495ded415d7.jpg)(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20171123/651160d04160f5c68fa87b811c412931.jpg)(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20171123/de378633a5e8d6c5f9876581ff1bbc37.jpg)(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20171123/d461a52f4c4d22d335ba11569d0edf86.jpg)(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20171123/c8cfa16fddd5b68fe5d2908bdf5dc68e.jpg)
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20171123/22156b1ef9f6dee2bad83b5cf956a207.jpg)(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20171123/e7d0951bb3ebd5f532a712e0e36f3ba7.jpg)(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20171123/9c8b31a85c0e500e3bbddb4f7bd40f06.jpg)(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20171123/672be58b7ecbb0374c2c146559b1b71b.jpg)(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20171123/eb146930947d56b03d0cb0d32fd7a46a.jpg)(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20171123/0b89cac44ee974b62b1914e6e652fb6d.jpg)
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20171123/c28d387daa64ce0f8d7a01a127eea080.jpg)(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20171123/049513443d04101f612cf0e8d37e8895.jpg)
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
HAPPY THANKSGIVING.
I'm truly thankful for all of you here, who have helped us through every sticky Bus situation and encouraged us through two Bus builds over the past 8 years. Heather's grandad is dying as I type this so we will likely be attending a funeral in the next two weeks, which reminds us how fragile life is and how good it is to be alive and have friends, family, and faith. Eat lots, be thankful, and think of us three (well, three and some change, we are due with baby number two in February!) (https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20171123/a71fff5dab43d2687c0a8ad35e21ece7.jpg)
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
Congratulations on the new baby coming, Scott. Thank you for a few pictures of your trip! Beautiful! Be safe traveling and sorry to hear about your wife's grandfather. That is tough. We will be asking God for comfort.
Davy
Beautiful pictures, nice family, and awesome trip report.
Just one question ??? ...... How ya gonna get from Nebraska to IL? ::)
;D BK ;D
Thanks for posting the pictures. Gives me the itch to get out on the road.
Lol. Bryce, you always have to be so observant. Yes, we plan to teleport over top of Iowa lol. Forgot about the corn state. It's that memorable.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
Well you could go thru Misery (MO) instead, but I saw no way to get to IL w/o going thru one or thew other.
;D BK ;D
Love the pictures Scott :) Great looking family. Safe travels.
Jason
Happy Thanksgiving back at you!
Will and Wife
Scott,
Thanks for the trip update. It's uplifting and entertaining to keep abreast of a real world FT busnut. Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family. And life is fragile so living it fully as you do is something you've figured early in life. Enjoy, Don
Time is precious, and we waste too much of it...
Every day, we must challenge ourselves: What to do of significance today?
Thank you, we all live vicariously through you 3.5, to one degree or another.
Happy coaching!
Buswarrior
Lol thanks guys. Hope you had a wonderful day that will stretch into a wonderful weekend. We are slated to make it to our destination in Indiana on Sunday. Then on the Michigan for the holidays. I have a big Christmas concert I'll be giving in Lansing December 16 and then all should be quiet. Poor wife is battling 60mph winds in Nebraska right now. Direct side hits along I-80. Sheesh. Bus is amazingly stable though. Very very few trucks out today with the high wind warning I noticed a lot of them are just waiting it out in the truck stops.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
Wonderful trip! I have a question though-on my bus we have as many windows as possible. We like them so much, on my truck conversion the windows are even bigger. We love waking up in bed and looking out at the scenery as we wake up. And now you're being a tourist. Don't you miss not being able to see out the side of your bus-with only one side window? Just curious. Good Luck, TomC
Fantastic pictures. Great travel stories. Your #1 is sure growing up fast but then don't they all. Just had #8 grandson over for the night and now I want to go work on the bus all weekend.
I hope you still have the drive, ways and means to continue this at least until your kids get to a "I remember when" age. Would be the best memories of their lives.
Good luck, health and happy trails.
Jim I hope so too. Right now and for the past 10 years it's been my career and with more three year contracts coming it probably will be for a while to come.
Tom, we have two windows up front one on each side. We haven't had time to add the rear bedroom windows yet. I will cut them in as soon as I have the time. We did that with our old Bus the MCI 9 if you remember years ago. And remember, we winter up north a lot in -22°F weather and have spent a summer or two in Texas where it reached 104°F often. When it's like that, we aren't missing extra windows trust me. Funny how many people at the rv Parks bug me about windows and every single one of them with their bazillion windows have them covered with foil bubble. I don't ever have to do that. And if you actually count the square footage of the coach and compare that to the square footage of glass (windows, windshield, side glass) we have more glass per square foot than a lot of houses. It's just not in the bedroom. And that's ok for now. Once we get the time, I'll be cutting in new windows and putting dual pane sliders in. Right now, overheating and power steering pump leaks are on the top of the list.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
Wow, you guys do this well!
Love the pics .... hope you didn't go thru that tunnel cause the other end of it looks really small!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
^ lol. Tunnels are fun in the coach. Nothing like an Aero muffler on an 8v92 running hard and loud inside the tunnel
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
Scott, if you had windows ;), you could open one in a tunnel and turn your Jakes on, and really get an ear full!
JC
Bummer, no jakes, and no sliding windows but I do open the drivers toll booth slider. Lots of yummy sound
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
No jakes, Scott? Man, you would love driving in those mountains you drove through the last few weeks with jakes. It makes all the difference in the world.
Of course, I have no idea what it takes to add jakes. ;D
Davy
I sure would Davy. With my coach at 40,000 lbs and my toad at 6,000, she definitely could use jakes but she handles downgrades just fine. We hold in 2nd gear and don't go above 40mph ever on a downgrade that's more than a mile or two. Never had a problem.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
Yes I agree one thing at time with the most important first.
There is no such thing as "jakes" for my little bus but I'm real happy to have an exhaust brake. It is sort of like a potato in the tail pipe but it has saved my A$$ a couple of times. I only wish it didn't cut out at thirty mph. I'd recommend a Jake as a must have and soon. My MCI9 had 'em and I'm convinced. Jack
Great photos Scott & Heather! Real nice looking rig too! When we drove through tunnels in earlier years our boys would come up behind me a yell "beep the horn (air(s)) dad, beep the horn (air(s)). :-)
Haha. I always release the air horn in tunnels. Probably scares the daylights out of everyone.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro