Grover

Here's Grover.

Our beautiful 32 year old brand new bus that had been completely rebuilt from bare metal by Melmo Restoration in Bend Oregon.  New engine, brakes, suspension, paint, interior, 3 way fridge, custom built mahogany cabinets, rare VW AC- a dream Bus.  After being promised he’d be done within 3 months, we finally got him after 5 months on July 23^rd.  He still had a huge punch list of things that weren’t done and details that needed to be fixed, but he was running and we put 650 miles on him in our first 5 days with him.  Then the driveshaft completely separated from the transaxle at the CV joint.  An easy fix of tightening 6 bolts, but not a good sign.  The bolts hadn’t been tightened hardly at all.  Fortunately it fell off at 5 mph and caused no damage at all, and not at 65 mph when we were on the freeway a day earlier.  That could have been serious, dangerous trouble.  The next day, two days before we leave Portland, while driving across town to our friends’ house, the engine caught fire, and Grover died like this….  

Tun, Mojo, and I were in him at the time, but no one was hurt and no close calls or real panic or anything, though it’s always unnerving to watch something you were just sitting in have 15 foot flames pouring out of it.  Long story short- Grover acted like he ran out of gas while we were driving but he should’ve had about a half tank.  Confused we pushed him to the side of the road, figured someone siphoned gas out of his unlockable tank, I started to walk to the gas station a couple of blocks away to get gas.  As I cross the street, a biker points at the bus and yells something.  I turn and see smoke coming out the back and a puddle of gas burning underneath the engine (which is at the rear).  I run back, yell at Tun and Mojo to get out, and we quickly push Grover forward about 5 feet hoping the puddle of gas is all that’s burning and it will burn out.  It doesn’t.  Fire department gets there quick- maybe 7 minutes later but it’s raging by then.  

So, so long Grover.  While really sad to loose something that we had invested so much time, energy, and dreams into, there were a lot of blessings in the situation.  What if we wouldn’t have had that minute or so before the fire started?  What if that biker hadn’t gotten my attention?  What if we were in the middle of nowhere in 110 degree heat when it happened?  What if the driveshaft and the loose fuel line clamp were just the tip of the iceberg of screw-up’s by Melmo?  So things turned out just fine, but still sad and ridiculous that our journey with Grover ends before our trip even starts.  Four days earlier at our going away party I told Les Szigethy “And if Grover burns down on the side of a mountain half way through the trip, then that will just be part of the adventure.”  That was supposed to be just something you say when you've had 3 beers and you're trying to sound wise, I didn’t want to have to mean it.  Well, the adventure didn’t wait for the mountain.  Oh, and remind me never to say anything like that again.   

However, we did try to maintain the “it’s just part of the adventure” sentiment while we scrambled the next couple of days to find a replacement vehicle.  We looked at all options- buy a Prius again (we had sold ours the night before Grover burnt down) and tent camp, maybe get a newer Ford or Dodge van based camper van (and deal with the serious style points we’d be docked for doing so), or somehow find another Bus in a couple of days that wasn’t a project and was ready to take off on a 10k mile journey.  Those are pretty rare.  Searching online we found only a couple in the country that fit the bill, and one was parked 15 minutes from our house.  Her name was Lucy...