Steve's Blogpost and Other Misc. Ramblings

Former Enumclaw School District bus #14 seen in Potlatch, Washington.

Well, guys. After more than a year, I am PROUD to announce that after seven and a half years, I am now THE OWNER of a Gillig once again.

The bus made it home today, although there were some technical difficulties.

After a fit with the electrical wiring for the turnsignals and the having major hassles with the brake light wiring (which took two hours to resolve; involved jumping the negative ground for one light to get both to work due to heavy corrosion), the bus made it home in one piece.

It definitely hadn’t had its legs stretched like this in ages! Distance from its former location to here? 54 miles. AND it came with a full tank of diesel!

The trip home was fraught with technical difficulties, missed turns (GilligCoaches.NET’s Tim Olsen assisted in the homecoming, and was unfamiliar with the area), but I’m now glad that this part of the journey, is now over.

Former Enumclaw School District bus #14 sitting in a field in Washington's Wynoochee River valley, just outside the town of Montesano.

Sitting in the mud is definitely never a good thing, unless you’re in a 4-wheel-drive truck or Jeep and having fun at it. However, if you’re a school bus owner, it can be your worst enemy.

And can also trap your bus. Over the last year, I’ve been working on paying off the 1966 Gillig I’m picking up in Montesano. Over the last year, it also seems that the soil’s water content has increased tenfold since my last visit. What was once a dry pasture is now a wet, muddy bog that has kept me from bringing the bus home. On Saturday August 22, I tried to bring the bus home and apparently the tires are glued to the mud and clay soil out there.

I try back again in a few days, and hopefully I’ll have photos this time to document the progress. It’s only a week (or two) away from coming home!

The new blog software has finally been unveiled. After quite a bit of testing and a lot of mySQL database headaches, we’re here.

The new software, ran off of a Wordpress format, will be the new home for this blog. The old blog, and its contents, can be read here.