school bus

Riding the Yellow Pony Home

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So the bus was bought, the repairs were made, and then it was time to drive her 200 miles back to Nacogdoches. No problem right? This is usually the part where the next sentence is “Wrong”, and the sad story of a trying drive home ensues. Sorry to disappoint you, but fortunately for me and my fiancé who followed me in my car, there were no big problems on the trip to Nacogdoches.

The most eventful part of the trip was in Ennis, Texas where we stopped for gas and I forgot to put the gas cap back on. In a modern car that would be no biggie really, but the gas tank on my bus does not have a neck on the opening so the full tank of gas went sloshing right out of the hole and all over the road. It was a good thing I had a follower to call me and ask if there should be tons of fluid pouring out of the bus. No, there shouldn’t.

There was also a tense 20 minutes or so during the last 15 miles of the trip where I wasn’t sure we would make it to Nacogdoches without running out of gas. This resulted in a stop at a scary gas station on the west edge of town that I would not normally go to. If you have ever driven into Nacogdoches on Highway 21 from the west side of town, you know what I am talking about. Turns out the gas was low, but not dangerously so. I think maybe the gas tank is not original to the bus and the gauge is not terribly accurate (it also reads three quarters full when the tank is in fact full).

All told the trip was okay. It normally takes three hours and fifteen minutes in a regular car, but took five hours in the bus (her top speed is about 50 mph). Let me tell you, five hours spent in a less than comfortable seat, nervously driving a 37 year old school bus through the middle of nowhere is rather tiring. On the bright side, we took a route we hadn’t taken before and saw some nice countryside and we made it back in one piece without any mechanical issues so I am happy.

Buyer Beware!

~ danielleevelyn ~ Leave a comment

Okay, so maybe it wasn’t as bad as the title suggests, but I did have to fork over some cash for repairs once I bought the bus. She has always started up and run, which is about the end of my expertise when it comes to choosing a mechanically sound vehicle. Turns out she was in need of some TLC which I was sort of expecting in a 36 (now 37?) year old vehicle.

I suspected a problem with the brakes when I bought the bus, but since I had never experienced failing brakes before I didn’t realize how dangerously bad they were. I got the bus home fine by partially using the engine to brake and making sure I was plenty far behind the cars in front of me. My dad drove the bus the next morning, looked at me with alarm, and said something along the lines of “Do not drive this again until the brakes are looked at!” Apparently 24 years old isn’t too old to be scolded by daddy. It turned out that there was a major leak in one of the brake lines and there was no brake fluid left in the brake system. Oops.

Another thing that was obvious right off the bat, and still persists somewhat, was the smell of exhaust inside the bus. My dad said the odor was way too strong and that there had to be a leak somewhere in the exhaust system. He was right. The mechanic replaced the muffler, tailpipe, and exhaust manifold gaskets. Cha-ching!

Two things the mechanic found were that one of the front shocks was shot and that one of the tires was flat. It may seem crazy that I missed a flat tire, but in my defense there are two wheels on each side of the rear axle so I am guessing it was one of the inside tires. Nevertheless, I probably should have seen that. Let it be a lesson. I also ended up with two new shocks on the front axle, which I was never told about over the phone. I only noticed because I was having a look under the bus to check that the brake fluid problem was really fixed and saw two new shiny black things that were not there before. Since the service at the mechanic was great and seemed fair apart from that, I will chalk it up to an innocent oversight.

All these repairs added up to a bit of a painful total which may have influenced me when buying the bus, if only to motivate me to drive down the price, but since I am not gifted with clairvoyance I ended up finding out the hard way what the true cost of a classic vehicle is. Despite the unexpected costs, I have no regrets and I would buy the same bus again.

It’s hard to put a price on character.

Wow. I bought a damn BUS.

~ danielleevelyn ~ 5 Comments

Things have happened so quickly since my last post. At the time I posted the article about the differences in busses, I had seen a bus I was passively interested in, but I didn’t think I was that serious about it. I hoped when I created this website that I could document in detail the process of choosing a bus to make into a motorhome. I never dreamed that I would buy it so soon. I thought that everyone I knew would just say “Wow, that was a mistake” or, “Is this really something you want to do?” But to my surprise that has not been the case (I want to go into detail about this in a post soon to come). So I spent some time thinking about what I really wanted, and talking to my fiancé about what she was okay with. We ended up coming to the same conclusion, albeit by different routes. I decided that buying a bus was something I really wanted to do in my life and that I don’t know when I would pull it off if not now. My fiancé said that I was right as far as if not now, then when? So I made the plunge….12 days ago which is where my negligence on this post comes in. I bought a 1978 International Loadstar 1700 School Bus. I am afraid. I am afraid of all of the things that could go wrong, but I am also so excited. I’m excited because I have finally done something a little crazy and something that is entirely what I want to do, rather than what I think I am supposed to do. Even if I fail, this will be an event in my life that I will never forget, and I will never regret. So with no further ado, allow me to introduce my bus.

The kids were excited to pose with the bus after going for a ride around the block
Me on the day I test drove the bus
Me on the day I test drove the bus