Getting the Bus
Crossing our i’s and dotting our t’s
Our plane left from Charleston SC at 7:00 pm Thursday, January 27th. Davis and I (Cain) had just bought a school bus on an online auction. We were able to take Friday off work in order to travel to Pennsylvania and claim our Bus within a limited window of time.
We didn’t have payment confirmation receipt until 11:00 am Thursday morning and also didn’t have liability insurance for the bus- RV conversion sorted out until about 4:00 pm. I found out the title wasn’t going to be mailed to the bus in time so I got a copy emailed to the folks that store the bus and the original was supposed to be snail mailed to our address in SC. Despite all of our ignorance going in things seemed to be working out, if only just barely.
Flying to Pittsburgh
We had a quick layover in Baltimore and then flew to Pittsburgh. On the flight, we met mother and son, Julia and Logan. They were from Jacksonville on a college visit and Julia LOVED to talk. Eventually, Julia asked some questions, and they were the first people we got to tell about Lost Bus since things have actually gotten real. We could tell the mother side of Julia was very concerned about our plan, but overall I think we sold her and she wants us to link up again in Jacksonville once the lost bus starts rolling.
We landed in Pittsburgh at around 11 pm Thursday, said goodbye to Julia and Logan, then immediately started searching for a place in the airport to sleep for the night. We didn’t have to search long; Presley’s place was right around the corner (just watch the video, honestly inexplainable).
Nobody bothered us in Presley’s place all night. We woke up at 4:30 am and found the bus that we needed to take from the airport to a different bus station in downtown Pittsburgh so that we could then catch a 6:15 am bus to Portersville.
The Kindness of Strangers
We found the ground transportation section of the airport which is where we met Dallas. Dallas works the night shift for American Airlines loading planes with luggage in all the elements that a cold Pittsburgh night can offer. He was also beyond helpful to two clueless strangers. Not only did he help us get tickets, but he got off at our stop and walked us a half mile to our next bus station. He then waited 15 minutes in the cold and snow until we were safely on our next bus. Not all heroes wear capes.
The next bus was about an hour ride to Portersville, and the driver of that bus was named Elaine. The fare for two passengers was $8 total, and they only accepted cash. Davis and I hopelessly scrounged together the $4 we had in cash between us, and Elaine graciously covered the rest. We were Elaine’s only passengers for the whole hour so we began to chat. Elaine learned about our plan, and since she was a bus driver we asked if she had any advice for driving a bus in the snow (two things we had never done). She quickly responded, “Drive SLOW and don’t talk'.” I pointed out how we were already breaking one of her rules, and she replied, “I know. You got to quit talkin’ to me”.
Elaine dropped us off at the Portersville bus stop. Concerned that we were planning to walk to the country breakfast restaurant about a mile away, she made sure to give us clear directions on how to get there; then she proceeded to drive away in very direction we needed to go while we were left trudging through the snow.
Walkin’ in a Winter Wonderland
We walked into the country breakfast store for a bite to eat and met our server, Rin. Rin noticed right away we weren’t from ‘round there, and we also didn’t have wheels. Pretty soon she got up to speed on our plan and future mission. Rin just so happened to have 30 years of school bus driving experience under her belt, and when we asked her for advice on driving in snow we got a familiar answer. “DRIVE SLOW.”
As we were paying our bill a fella who overheard our conversation with Rin offered to give us a lift the last three miles to our destination where we would be buying the bus - or at least where we thought we needed to go. We had never been provided an address - only the town of Portersville - but luckily Portersville isn’t a very big town, so it wasn’t too much trouble finding a lot full of buses. The fella who offered to give us a lift was named Brad, and he was happy to help but his truck only had room for one spare passenger at a time so Davis and I had to split up for a bit, allowing each of us an opportunity for some great one-on-one time with Brad.
I hitchhiked with Brad first leaving Davis at the diner with Rin. In my absence, Rin gave Davis $40 because she wanted us to have lunch on her once we hit the road. Davis promised we would come back by the restaurant to show off the bus on our way out of town. Meanwhile Brad dropped me off, and I got to meet the keeper of the bus, Ernie.
The Keeper of the Bus
Ernie wasn’t expecting guests and was a bit thrown off. He kept saying, “Nobody told me anything about a buyer coming,” which I later learned meant the same thing as, “I haven’t checked my email all week.” Slowly Ernie accepted that I was indeed there, and he also put together that the bus was how we intended to get home (perhaps clued in by Davis getting dropped off by our new friend Brad).
I told Ernie which bus we won in our online auction, and at that moment Ernie attempted to crush our hopes by informing us, “There in no way in hell that bus is driving off the lot today. It’s been sittin’ there for 8 months so it ain’t gonna crank, plus it’s buried behind a 5-foot snow bank at the moment.”
With our dream deflated but not quite crushed yet we asked Ernie if we could at least go look at the bus. After searching for the key for a while and lecturing us about bidding for items online, Ernie pointed us in the direction of the bus and left us to it while he made some phone calls to his boss. In about five attempts Davis got the bus to turn over and the elation was through the moon.
The Miracle on Ice
I triumphantly walked back to Ernie’s shop and asked if he had any snow shovels because “There ain’t no way in hell that bus was staying in that lot today.” Ernie helped move the snow out of the way and brought the bus into the shop to give it a quick inspection and give us a quick crash course on how to operate it. As we went through the checklist everything was in good condition and Ernie continued to be more and more impressed with the bus, eventually saying, “Actually you guys probably got the best one out of the whole bunch here".” We can’t help but agree.
We drove off the lot overjoyed, and before starting our journey back to Charleston made sure to see Rin at the diner to show off the new ride and give her a big ol’ hug.
After our reunion with Rin, we began the long journey back to Charleston, all the while being chased by a “bomb cyclone” weather system. Our bus proved a worthy vessel as she navigated through the hills of West Virginia while the snow relentlessly fell. We made it all the way to Charlotte NC where we crashed with our good friend Josh and pitched him the idea of joining us as we revive the LOST bus. Josh committed two weeks later.
Captured from the Camera