Jorrie and I were headed west. We had ten days to make it from New York to Oregon for a wedding, but not twenty minutes into the drive, I heard “POP,” my bus had broken down. It didn’t take Jorrie long to find that a hose had disconnected. He put everything back together and we were back on the road in under an hour. We stayed the night at a truck stop, our buses fit perfectly together in one truck parking spot.
We continued driving, using the new walkie-talkies I got Jorrie for his birthday to communicate back and forth. We made it as far as Ohio before Jorrie started having bus troubles. He was blowing a lot of smoke and his bus was losing power, not being able to go over 40 mph. We stopped a few times while he fiddled with his bus, and it seemed like everything was good, but we would drive for a bit then break down again with the same issues. We had made it to a rough part of Euclid, a suburb of Cleveland, when it started acting even worse. We stopped in a Home Depot parking lot while Jorrie tried to figure out what was wrong with his vehicle.
At one point while working on the bus, a man approached us and asked Jorrie for a cigarette and he gave him one. Then the same man came back asking for water so I also gave him that. Then he asked for me to charge his phone, and when I said yes, he tried to follow me into my bus. I promptly stopped him and told him if he needed to be with his phone, I would plug in an extension cord, but he could not come into my bus. Once I gave him the cord, he plugged in his phone, then immediately unplugged it and told me it wasn’t working and I would probably have to start my bus. I knew this was not the case because I was charging his phone off of my solar power. At this point I told him I could not help him. All the while this was happening, he kept walking around my and Jorrie’s buses, checking them out.
Jorrie did end up charging the guy's phone for him, and then told him to be on his way. The man started walking away, but then slowly strolled back over and sat down on my back porch, which I did not like. I drew the line once he got on his hands and knees and started checking out the underneath of my bus. I went and asked Jorrie if he would make him leave. Jorrie nicely but sternly told the man to leave, and he did for a few minutes until he came back and knelt down between both of our buses, continuing to check out the underneath of both of them. Jorrie told him to leave again, a little more sternly. This time the man went to the edge of the parking lot and stared at us while talking on the phone. I had had enough and didn’t feel safe at all, so at that point Jorrie and I packed up and limped his bus to another part of town where we found a church parking lot to sleep in. We even met the pastor the next morning, who was very nice and didn't seem to mind that we had stayed there.
The next day we moved to a nearby abandoned parking lot where we stayed for three nights while Jorrie worked on his bus. One nice part about our spot was the fenced in athletic field next to us, it was perfect for the dogs to run around in. Jorrie worked away on his bus and after changing a bunch of parts, and rebuilding the fuel injectors in the parking lot, we thought it would be fixed, but it still wasn’t. Jorrie ended up remembering that he had accidentally dropped a bottle cap into his diesel tank, which he discovered was blocking the fuel line. He had to cut a hole into the floor of his bus to get to the fuel tank. Luckily he was able to get the cap out, get everything back together, the bus was now up and running smoothly, and we were back on the road again.
I was driving down a five lane highway with Jorrie following behind me, when all of a sudden the person in the truck in front of me slammed on their brakes and whipped around a car that was stopped in the middle road. I went around him and as I passed, I saw the man in the driver's seat was on the phone looking very panicked. I radioed Jorrie to warn him, and he said he was going to stop and help. Jorrie used his bus to block three lanes of traffic, then he got out and helped the man push his truck safely to the shoulder. It was all he could do, but at least the man would be safe until a tow truck arrived.
That night as we pulled into the parking lot of a truck stop, we noticed there was another bus there, a flat-faced short bus. In the morning we were lucky enough to meet the couple who lived in it. Their names were Will and Kara, and they were newly married. Instead of having a wedding, they built a bus and drove out into the middle of nowhere to be wed. We ended up hanging out with them for a couple hours as we showed each other our buses. They were the nicest people and it was great running into other skoolie people. It had been a while since we had. The truck stop also had a little pet area where the animals were able to play outside for a bit.
We continue down the highway as 200,000 miles rolled up on my odometer. My transmission had been starting to act a little funny; when I put my bus into drive, it wouldn’t move right away. I would have to wait for it to roll forward, and then could start driving.
We drove all day with no issues until we pulled off for the night in Aurora, Nebraska. Once I stopped at the stop sign, which was on a hill, my bus would not go again. Jorrie came to the rescue and pushed my bus with his bus until it was able to start going. Unfortunately it didn’t make it very far before it completely died in the middle of the road. I wasn’t even able to pull off. Jorrie ended up tying our buses together with a giant ratchet strap and was able to tow my bus to a Love’s Travel Stop down the road.
The next morning I called a mechanic. The first one was no help, but then I found a place called Bergan Service Repair, a family owned large truck shop. We drove Jorrie‘s bus down there and explained to the mechanic what was going on. Unfortunately, the same as all the other places around there, they couldn't get me in for at least three weeks. I explained to the man how we had a wedding to get to and asked if there was any way I could leave my bus in his parking lot until he was able to work on it. Luckily for me he said yes. Jorrie and I went back to Love’s where he hooked up and towed my bus the three miles to the garage.
As we were talking to the mechanic who owned the place, his wife brought us out a bag of local apples and cucumbers. They felt like a trustworthy family who I was comfortable leaving my home with, and how lucky was I that they were so close to where I had broken down?
I loaded some of my belongings into Jorrie’s bus, along with all three of my animals, and we continued on in his bus. I was sad to leave my home behind. This was my first time away from it since I had gotten it over a year ago. But I knew it was safe and we had a wedding to get to.
Over the next two days we did a lot of driving, and successfully made it to Portland, Oregon an hour before the wedding rehearsal, in which Jorrie was to be best man. We had a couple of days between the rehearsal and wedding, during which we should have been resting, but instead we had to do some last minute shopping to put together the final bits of our wedding outfits. The wedding was bird themed so just a dress wouldn’t do. I decided to go with a humming bird and Jorrie went with a bird of paradise.
We met the groomsmen and the rest of the wedding party out at a bar one night, finalizing plans. The next day we all met up at the wedding venue, a couple’s house on Sauvie Island, one of the largest river islands in the country, located 10 miles north of Portland. The grounds consisted of a huge front yard with apple orchards, vegetable gardens, and multiple, beautiful flower gardens. We spent the whole day setting up tables and decorations. Luckily for Jorrie and I, the couple who owned the place let us park the bus there overnight.
Finally it was wedding day! Weddings are one of my favorite things in the whole world. I just love love.
The dogs had to stay in the bus, but Thomas was able to roam and join the wedding. He loved hanging out with everybody and getting pets from all the strangers.
The wedding itself was simple and beautiful. We ate good food and I met more of Jorrie’s friends, and for dessert there was pie. The grooms did have their own small cake to cut and we got pie. Some of the the pies were even gluten free, which thrilled me.
The wedding was early in the day, and that night we met the groomsmen and a bunch of friends out for drinks. We first went to a place called Huber's Cafe, which served alcoholic coffee drinks that they lit on fire.
They started by pouring liquor into the glass and lighting that on fire. Then they would pour more in as the flames grew larger.
After that we all went to another bar with outdoor seating and hung out there before heading to our last stop, a dance club. We danced until we were ready to drop and took a taxi back to our bus.
It was an exhausting couple of weeks, but we had succeeded in making it cross country and to the wedding on time despite life’s complications. Now we finally had a bit of down time to relax.
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