Named, Officially

We finally, in quite an unexpected moment, came up with the absolutely, perfect name for our short bus....

Sewing Factory

While Zach has been in Saratoga finishing up the construction on the bus, I have been frantically packing up our apartment on Cape Cod in preparation of our nearing departure date (yikes, we're actually leaving soon), and sewing the curtains! Ok, that's not exactly true, Mallory has been sewing the curtains, I have been ironing and pinning the material, and watching Mallory sew, totally in awe of her skills. I tried to do one seam on my own, and quickly realized that Mallory, queen of all things crafty, should be in charge of that part of the project. Mallory has been so kind to trudge over to my apartment nearly every day this week after she gets out of work at 8pm and we've stitched until nearly 1am every night, but we've finished, and the curtains look amazing. I did try to thank Mallory by feeding her risotto made out of all the items in my refrigerator that were about to expire or that I didn't want to move (it was actually pretty good) but really that's not enough. Jaco also tried to help with the curtain project, but if you don't have thumbs, there's only so much you can do. So, thank you Jaco for moral support, thank you Mallory for so much stitching, and thank you mom for the beautiful fabric that I'm sure is going to make the bus look like home. Oh, and thank you Norah Bourbon for stopping in to show us your lobster halloween costume, and distracting Jaco.

Plumbing!

Oh yes, that's the sink....in our bus....how cool is that?

Golden Fuel

And then we got some oil. Our search for waste vegetable oil on Cape Cod was trying, to say the least, but we were fortunate enough to receive help and supplies from Spinner's Pizza in Ring Brother's Marketplace and from Ian from the Underground Bakery and Cafe. Not only did these people supply us with oil, but they are both responsible for some delicious meals. And then we pumped the oil into the tank. I won't go into the details for a very long and very frustrating process in which we went through several pumps and filters before finding the magical combination, but we did it, and Zach drove the bus back to Saratoga powered by waste vegetable oil. Oh, did I mention that Zach, single-handedly, (I read the kit directions maybe five times and I still had no clue what was going on) installed the oil kit onto the bus? Amazing. It doesn't smell as much like french fries when you drive the bus as I had hoped, but maybe that's for the best.

Rebuild, Repair

Ok, so we can't exactly say that everything has been smooth sailing. Our friends and family have certainly crossed their fingers for us as we've encountered a few, let's say "bumps" in our journey towards school-bus overhaul completion. I suppose when you rescue a school bus from a salvage yard, even if it is in wonderful condition, it's not entirely unreasonable for a few things to crack, rupture, or just stop working. First there was the infamous blinker problem, then the squeaky belt issue, the water pump replacement, and, my personal favorite, the leak in the break lines. Fearing yet another trip to the garage (when you have a small school bus as your vehicle, you have to take it to a special garage because regular garages don't have lifts that can support it, but that special garage also services local coach buses and trolleys, which is awesome, oh yeah, and they also charge you hundreds of dollars and your first born child just to fix a minor problem), Zach enlisted Andrew's mechanical expertise to remedy the break line issue. First, Zach had to gallantly drive the bus about seventeen miles using only the e-brake. I was so nervous that the e-brake would fail that I offered to drive my car behind the bus the whole way, but then Zach pointed out that if the e-brake did fail, and the bus did run into something, then the fact that I was driving my car behind the bus really wouldn't be of any help anyway, except then I would be at the scene to prance around nervously about the fact that the bus had just hit something. Long story short, I worried at home while Zach made the drive alone, and it was fine. The worst part was actually the driveway, I think. Then we backed the bus into the Bourbons' garage. The mirrors on the bus are actually wider than the garage door, but the body of the bus just clears the sides. There are few things more nerve wracking than backing a two-ton vehicle without brakes towards a building, but we got it in! It was such a tight fit that you couldn't get around the bus to get into the garage, so you had to go through the side door, and then through the bus door, through the bus, and out the back emergency exit. But they fixed it! I kind of helped, I was in charge of watching the brake-fluid level while Zach bled the brakes, and Andrew pretended that he was a bus-driver hauling around a bunch of unruly kids. It was a good day for everyone.