Green Bus Project

Those April Fools

April 3, 2006

Having been a bit under the weather lately, I've had some down time. As I started feeling a bit better this weekend and the weather turned warmer, it seemed time to do a little work on the Green Bus Project. It seems the breaks stick and don't release the brake drum like they should. No problem I thought and whipped out the jack to take the wheel off and look at the breaks.

As these things go this does not seem such a major piece of work. The jack provided with the Transporter buses is a nice jack and easy enough to use. So it gets put in the jack point and away you go. Everything goes pretty well but it takes the front wheel off the ground before the rear wheel comes off the ground. It is about this time that the decision to block the front wheel with a small chalk becomes a worse idea than it was a few minutes ago. Being a believer in the principle that things do work out and being close to having the rear wheel off the ground I keep going.

It is not, of course, until the whole of the back wheel does leave the ground that the precarious nature of the situation becomes very apparent. About the same time a breeze comes up and begins pushing ever so slightly on the back of Green Bus Project. With this encouragement the bus decides to slide ever so slightly forward. Though the gradual movement was only a few inches, and no more than six, the jack twists sideways wedging between the socket for the jack point and the ground below.

Most important to all such predicaments is timing. Of course it is at this time the neighbor shows up. Fortunately for the foolish this April the neighbor lends a jack and the problem is soon resolved.

The Green Bus Project

March 26, 2006

With apologies to those friends who have a band called the Green Dot Project, I'll be posting from time to time on the Green Bus Project. The Green Bus is a 1979 Volkswagen Transporter Type II Canadian model with a Westfalia weekender camper conversion. Since 1980 Green Bus has been in the family. The stories of its past are too numerous to recount in one telling. Among those that stand out the most are the summers spent riding across the west, stopping in one national park and another, venturing into Canada and making memories to last a lifetime. Then there is the first accident I ever had at age 16 and the first year at college when Green Bus was my transportation. It marked our arrival in Colorado by the snapping of the clutch cable on Highway 36 on the way into Estes Park leading to a clutchless trip down Highway 34 to Loveland and on into Fort Collins.

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