Hi Volks,

OK, we're home safe and sound, and the trip was a great one.

The pics are online here: http://www.busesofthecorn.com/The_Bug_Pack/EB2007/

The circumstances of Colleen's employment mean that in 2007 we started the trip later than usual, so I had to push HARD to make up for it. In this case I came up with a solution to get us there for Friday AM. It could be done easily enough by sleeping late on Thursday morning and then driving all night. With Joel Cort and his buddy Mark crazy enough to follow along in a syncro westy, I was set to depart at 4:15 PM. Just in time for Rush Hour; all the way from Scarborough through to Burlington, traffic moved at a crawl. Once we crossed the Burlington skyway bridge in Hamilton it was clear sailing all the way to the Duty Free where we stopped for dinner and to get some US ca$h... after that we lined up for a brief interview at the border station and we were across the border in the land of the free and the home of the brave.

I met up with Joel and Mark at about 7:45 at a rest stop in Angola NY, and after taking a minute or so to block the air vents on my bus we hit the road westbound to Erie PA, fighting vicious crosswinds to stop for fuel at 9:30PM. From there we headed south on I-79 and although the wind was a bit quieter, the weather didn't improve. In fact, it got quite a bit worse. I turned on my new driving lights and left the lowbeams on and just kept rolling. The nice thing about travelling at night is that there isn't much traffic... we hardly saw anything other than a few tractor trailers.

We motored on through Pittsburgh and down into Morgantown, by then it was getting late. It seemed to take forever to get to Beckley, but by the time we got to Wytheville I was hitting my second wind, and we kept rolling rolling rolling downhill into NC. By the time we got near Winston-Salem it was near rush hour, and the state troopers were working hard pulling over speeders left, right and center. It was a glorious sunny Friday morning, the kind where radar traps are always lucrative...

But I kept the hammer down, and we rolled on through busy traffic in Greensboro just to be royally fouled up by the directions I had downloaded from Google Maps. The last couple of years I have let my instincts bring me directly to the park, but after a 15 hour overnight trip I was not ready to trust my instincts and the google instructions took us about 15 miles off course right at the last minute. After some goofing around we were able to find our way into the park and were treated to a very warm welcome.

Once at EB, I had a limited amount of reserve energy to expend. I set up the westy, washed the oil drippings off the westrailer, and cooked some breakfast. Not 30 seconds after the pancakes hit my stomach I could feel the fatigue poisons taking me away. I excused myself and collapsed in the westy for 3 blissful hours of well-deserved shuteye.

By mid-afternoon, the sun on the westy roof woke me up with the heat. Lying there and listening to the campout happen around me, I decided that there was no point in sleeping through a perfectly good afternoon I had driven 811 miles to get myself to.

And it was an absolutely, positively gorgeous day. The kind of day where you know you're risking a sunburn and it doesn't matter, you WANT to feel that sunburn and remember the feeling it brought you. Like a tattoo, but less permanent. I hope.

So I wandered around and enjoyed the crowd. I said "hi" to lots of EB friends, and set about sharing around the Red Star Ale. It was made at my local U-Brew, and turned out very nice. I expect I will use the same brewery for the BusFusion batch, it was very convenient.

Some guitar, some beer, some cruising around talking, some hanging out at the CDN pavilion, and before I knew it, it was time for bed.

Saturday started with Breakfast Burritos, which went as good as ever. Madonna and Dave did a great job of co-ordinating! After Breakfast it was time for Boccie Ball, and I took a Canadian Team out for a round. Although Dennis, Mike and Bryon weren't experienced players, they did have a good time. After Bocce I did some more hanging out, distributed some Red Star Ale and then went to peel some spuds for dinner.

Dinner was awesome as usual. The roast pork was amazing, and the leftover chilis were as excellent as usual. From the humidity it seemed like it would be raining as soon as the sun went down, and that was pretty much exactly as it happened. That kept the door prizes moving promptly and the speeches short. Once the door prize deal was done the cooks packed up their gear and the bluegrass band took the stage; I didn't get a chance to check them out in person but Colleen said they were great. She was particularly impressed when the crowd was shouting out for "Freebird" --- and the band actually pulled it off. Next year I will definitely make the time to check them out.

A few more red cups, some more camaraderie under the White Sky, and it was time for bed. Much as I enjoyed it at the time, I didn't really want a repeat of the "stay up celebrating Adam's arrival until 2AM" experience of EB2006. Packing down and driving home is hard enough as it is. So I hit the hay at a reasonable hour, and got a good night's rest.

Soggy Sunday arrived soon enough, but at least it was warm out. I set about getting some coffee going, and then started some dishwater and sorting out the westrailer. Jamie offered to drop the White Sky but I deferred, noting that we might as well keep it up until the last minute, in case the rain came back. That turned out to be a good call. I strapped a pair of Rabbit fenders to the roofrack of the westfakia, and slowly but surely the westfakia was reverted back into traveling mode. Bryon moved his bus, we hooked up the trailer, the kids said their goodbyes, hugs abounded everywhere, and suddenly the road was moving under my wheels again. EveryBus can go by in a blur if you're not paying close attention.

The Northbound EB2007 carabus was as efficient as any I have EVER travelled in. There were five buses in total, and mine was the slowest. And I'm not generally regarded as a slowpoke on the interstate, at least not when the bus is running properly. Which it was, other than being very thirsty for oil. I think I need to replace the main rear seal ASAP. We got on the road just before 11AM, and the first stop was the traditional gas-up in Pleasant Garden. With tanks and tires topped off, the 'wagens rolled Northbound.

The Sunday trip was mostly uneventful, until we got to the toll stop at Rt 19 near Beckley WV. Suddenly Bryon was losing power at high rpms. The bus would idle OK, but the power loss was brutal at high speed. He pulled over just short of the toll booths and we radio'd ahead to let the rest of the group know what was going on. For some reason they couldn't hear us though, so Colleen called Dennis on the cell phone. That got through OK, and Jamie and Mike hiked back to see what was going on.

In the meanwhile, Bryon and I had done some basic troubleshooting. There was a smooth idle and a good strong spark on all 4 cylinders. None of the cylinders were weaker than any of the others-- I was pretty sure we could rule out a bad valve. Bryon mentioned that he had no fuel according to the gauge, so I pulled a hose off the cold- start injector and had him hit the key... we got a minor trickle of fuel, but not much. Clearly the problem was as simple as being out of gas.

I reached into the westrailer and pulled out an empty gas can that I had brought along... wishing all the time that I had thought to put some gas into it beforehand. Much to my happy surprise, it still contained half a gallon. So we wouldn't be needing to siphon anything out of my tank. We poured that into Alice's tank and then rejoined the rest of the group and stopped for more gas about a mile or so down the road.

Cold. Rain. Wind. Snow. Those four words sum up the driving conditions pretty well. We kept the "Westy Snake" together and moving steadily all through the afternoon and into the early evening, planning for dinner and a motel around Cranberry PA. We found the dinner, but economical accomodations proved a bit more elusive... We had to travel another 40 miles or so up I-79 to Grove City PA in order to find available rooms at the rate we were looking for. Once we landed, it didn't take much time to get to sleep.

Monday was a "Let's git'r done" day, interlaced with a lot of short stops. Breakfast at the motel was quick and easy, then it was off to the Walmart in Erie for a 30-minute shopping blitz. After Walmart we hit the T/A truck stop, and Mike got a great deal on a CB radio for Murphy. Then it was on to Buffalo, and the Duty Free. From there all that was left to do was to pay the toll for the peace bridge, and then roll on homewards.

In rush hour.

Again. All the way from Burlington to Scarborough.

Despite a drive-by-fruiting (Ask Mike and Den about that) along the 401 in Scarborough, we made it home safely. More than 1,600 miles covered in all, and we had a great time doing it.

Thanks to Chris, Judy and the Staff at Hagan-Stone. Thanks to Craig Frazier for the awesome pork dinner. Thanks to the other buses I traveled with: Joel Cort, The Rivers, The Webers, Bryon & Stacey, Mike, Den & Lea.

...I can't hardly wait for the next road trip. I expect BusFusion will be our next campout, and the High Country Bus Festival will be the next major expedition.

Happy Trails,

Greg Potts 1973/74/77/79 Westfakia "Bob The Tomato www.pottsfamily.ca www.busesofthecorn.com