I promised myself I would stop writing so much in these entries because I don’t want to bore you, but bear with me while I vent about this day, it was a roller coaster ride so to speak. It all started when I woke up at about 8:15 to go to the DMV (phase 1 of 3 to get the bus back). After getting ready and driving over there it was about 8:40 and I was in line, but not just any line, it was a line outside the building before it opens because apparently Wednesday is a special day where the DMV doesn’t open until 9 instead of 8. So I was in line behind about 30 people, but by the time the place opened there were about 45 people behind me, so I wasn’t feeling too bad. I finally make it up to the front of the line, only to explain what I need and then get a number which granted me the right to wait in a chair instead of the line. So then some more time passes, finally I get up to talk to this guy about registering the bus. I filled out a bunch of paper work, had some issues about the fact that I don’t have a resident address in California. Anyway, I chated with the guy and he was going to hook me up with a temporary registration until July which is where the registration year ends and begins. That way I wouldn’t have to register for the whole past year just to get two months out of it. Oh and I also registered for next year. Things were looking good for phase 1, until he informed me that I had to get the bus smog checked, we’ll now call this phase 4 because it naturally has to come after getting the bus out of impound. So the DMV wasn’t that bad first time around but I had to come back to bring my smog stuff back so I wasn’t out of the woods yet.

Next stop on the path to getting the bus back was phase 2 which was going to City Hall to get the bus “released” from impound. I walked in told the lady what I needed and she pulls out this huge binder full of police impound reports. As my luck finally kicks in for the day, the lady could not find my report. So she gets some higher authority to help her figure this out. The next lady can’t figure it out so she calls the police station, evidently the lady that fills these things was sick yesterday and today so there is a bunch of papers lying around in the police office somewhere. So this higher authority lady has to go to the police office and find these things, meanwhile I am just chilling in the city hall lounge. Finally she comes back, I give them my licenses, fill out a bunch of paper work, pay a bunch of money and I left with a form that will release the bus from the towing yard. So phase 2 was a bit worse than phase 1 but I got it done and I moved on the phase 3.

Phase 3, getting the bus back finally. So at this point I needed somebody to help me because I needed a ride to the bus so I could drive it back. I went back to the condo to see if Luke could help out and drive me to the towing yard. So we finally arrive at the towing yard with the release and temporary registration in hand ready to go. We had to walk around the side of this rather gloomy building as if it were a speakeasy. There was this window on the side of the building in this alleyway type area. The window is double pain with one of the slip your stuff under the glass things you see at banks in the ghetto. At this point I am a little suspicious. I couldn’t walk right up though because there were a couple of Hispanics trying to talk to the old white lady inside in Spanish and surprisingly she did not understand a word of it. So needless to say that transaction took a while, while Luke and I waited. Finally I got up there, gave here my paper work and licenses, paid a huge sum of money and got another release paper that I was to give to one of the yard attendants. (By the way, the lady loved me and the bus idea and wanted to hook me up with some sort of discount, but she couldn’t). So anyway, walked around some barbed wire fence, gave the slip to some old man that could hardly walk and he pointed to where the bus was as if I couldn’t see it. Luke and I walked over there and fired it up, we were ready to get this done and get out of there. Of course it couldn’t be that easy. So we sat there for a while waiting for our air pressure to get up to operating range. (For those of you that don’t know air brakes its OK I didn’t either until a few days ago, but basically you have a compressor and air tanks that operate the brakes. You need pressure in the tanks in order to release the brakes, without pressure they lock up.) So we were not getting any pressure and we knew something was wrong. We got out and looked under the bus and quickly realized that a value on one of the tanks was hang from the tank lying on the ground. Apparently the towers took that out for some reason unknown. We borrowed a nearby workers crescent wrench and Luke climbed under the bus and put the valve back in. We fired it back up and pressure began to rise, we were back in business. All we had left to do was the newfound phase 4 of the smog check.

We took the bus to this test station where we previously asked if he could check a bus and he said yes. So blah blah blah, he checks it and chats with us for a while, at the same time as he baby sits some little kid that kept running around inside and outside the bus. So obviously this transaction wasn’t very snappy either. Finally he gets the test done, the bus passes, we pay a bunch of money and phase 4 is complete. Oh yeah so I guess there is phase 5, go back to the DMV and get fully registered.

Luckily the DMV was only a block from the smog place. Apparently all I had to do was drop the smog thing off with the guy I talked to earlier and he would finish everything up and we would be set until July 07. Again, it can never be that easy, he was out to lunch (it was about 12:05 at this point). So we decided we would take the bus back, park it on the street and then drop this off on our way out of town (we still planned on making it to Magic Mountain for a short day). So we get back to the DMV at like 12:40 and the guys is suppose to be back at 12:30 but he’s not. So I get a number and wait again to just give it to another worker so we can get out of there. All of a sudden all hell breaks loose. After waiting a bunch I get up to this guy who is probably 25 and things his life sucks so he needs my life to suck too. He takes the temporary registration from my pile of papers which were directly in front of me not him. He tears that up and then starts looking at my stuff. He can’t figure out what the last guy did and what I had already paid for. So he gets the DMV regional manger over the check it out. As time passes they slowly figure out that the last guy was hookin me up and that is unacceptable. So then I had to pay like a few more bucks for some reason but now this hot shot changed it so that the bus would only be registered for this year (July 05 – July 06). So the money I had paid for 07 was switched to 06 and my temporary sweet deal was lost because the first guy took a long lunch. Then out of the corner of my eye I saw the superintendent lady giving my first guy a lecture about me as he strolled back in from lunch 15 minutes late. So finally phase 5 was done, we had the bus back and it was registered. We still wanted to have some fun but it was already 1, Magic Mountain closes at 6, and we are about an hour away from it.

Since the morning was so awful I didn’t care about the price or the time I just wanted to ride some rides. So we blazed over there and made it in the park by about 2. We called Ashley and friends to come meet us at the new ride, Tatsu. The day was finally turning around because the line was only about 30 minutes long. Tatsu was awesome and I definitely want to ride it again. Then we went to X my favorite ride in the park. Luck kicks back in as we wait in line and the operators decide they need another train on the track (they only had one when we first arrived). Sounds like a good idea, but actually it sucks because we were getting pretty close but now we had to wait an extra 45 minutes or so just for the ride to start again. We waited and we waited. We kept getting cut in front of also, which sucked. (And to the 50 year old dude that we had an altercation with, I hope you are proud of yourself for going to an amusement park by yourself and cutting in front of little kids to ride the rides faster.) Anyway, we finally rode the X and it was incredible, best ride ever. Then we quickly rode Goliath and Batman as we were racing the clock trying to get our monies worth. Fortunately this time the lines were short. Lastly we ran to this crazy swing ride that Ashley had done with CT and Paul before we got there. CT and/or Paul sponsored our experience and it was amazing. You get lifted back like a couple hundred feet and you just drop straight down and swing out of it, it’s really cool sorry I am not explaining it well. I guess it is a lot like bungee jumping from what I hear. So that was it for our park adventure. Then CT and Paul took us out to Red Lobster and it was great, thanks again.

Oh, but the day is not over yet, as we were getting back we decided to stop by the bus to put the tabs on. We see a cop roll up behind us and he informs us that we can not park the bus there because it is over the weight limit on city streets. I guess we are never home free with the bus. So luckily Luke called his mom Rhonda and she was able to find a place for us to put it over night. What a day, and if you read this whole thing, congrats I hope it was worth it.

-Carson

Crazy day today. Started out pretty smoothly, it was sunny and 80 degrees out. We went for a swim in the pool just chilaxin having a nice day all afternoon. Then, since Josh was heading out of town he needed to get an oil change and so did Luke coincidentally so we went to do that at like 4 or so. Side note, the guy at the oil change place though we were awesome and gave Josh and Luke big discounts and free car washes, that’s neither hear nor there. So we are driving back to the condo and we notice the bus is not where we parked it (one street down from the condo). So then Josh calls the police, we figure either we need to report a stolen vehicle or we got impounded. So we finally figure out that is was impounded because the vehicle was registered as “in-operable” and therefore can not be parked on city streets. I was under the impression that we had a couple days to figure out the registration and all that after buying a vehicle but unfortunately not in this case (lucky me). So Josh talks to the cops and we find out there is three things I have to do to get the bus back: 1. go to the DMV to register the bus 2. go to city hall to release the bus from impound and 3. go to McCarty towing to get the bus back. So my luck naturally continues as none of these tasks can be completed because it was about 5:05 when we figured all this out. So now I have to wait until tomorrow to sort this whole thing out. And I thought I was going to Magic Mountain with Luke, Ashley, CT and Paul. Later in the evening I helped Josh pack his stuff up a bit because he is leaving early tomorrow morning for his mammoth drive. I’ll let you know how tomorrow goes.

-Carson

I came back from San Diego in the afternoon, hung out in Santa Monica for a bit before my meeting in the evening. Checked my mail, this and that, went to the meeting and then went back to Port Hueneme to catch up with the team. Oh yeah, can’t forget Monday night dinners at KFC with Pete after the meeting, but anyway. Not much exciting happened today with the bus or anything, other than the fact that one of the eBUS live members decided over the weekend to drop out. I won’t get into the details of it because it’s pretty complicated and it’s basically a personal decision. Josh Canas who was pivotal in the process of getting the bus last week has suddenly left the project to move to the east coast and live with his family and near his girlfriend. So to Josh, the best of luck to you…and to everybody else, we are in the process of finding a new member to join the team so stay tuned (also we need a camcorder if your interested in helping). I guess that it for now; we have a lot of work ahead of us. Getting the bus in living order is going to be a huge task, not to mention it needs to run pretty good to because we are planning on driving it up to Washington pretty soon. I’ll get back to you when more interesting things happen, which in the next few weeks will probably be pretty often knowing our track record. Alright, later.
-Carson

RENO HERE WE COME! Last Friday, Carson, Josh, and I set out on our adventure to go pick up our bus. We left my mom’s house in Port Hueneme, CA around 10:30pm and headed north for the following nine hours. The iPod was pumping and the caffeine was flowing and I think I even lost my voice due to excessive sing-along sessions. Carson and Josh did all driving while I sat in the back and worked on the eBUS live logo. We made it just past Sacramento when we decided to take a power nap just off the I-80 junction (well, truth be told, I was already napping…good work guys).

Around 6am, as the sun came up, we finished our drive to the biggest little city in the world. And what a city it was. First stop, IHOP, because you cannot start a morning without you chocolate chip pancakes…eh Carson? Apart from being the coldest IHOP ever, we found out then next best thing about Reno…the people. Our waitress was probably the nicest and most chipper woman at 9 am in the world.

After IHOP, we did what everyone does in the biggest little city…gamble at 10am! Carson and Josh didn’t gamble too much but I won $80 right way on the wheel of fortune slot! Then we headed to the craps table and with the help of the nice morning dealers, we learned most of the rules and ended up winning almost $200!!!

For the next part of my story I’d like to give a shout out to the Reno Public Library. We don’t if we could have done it without you.

So as you’re probably guessing, after making some money, we hit up the local library and watched Castaway on my laptop while sucking down some “buck’s.” You see, the reason we had to kill so much time is because we were supposed to meet Joe, the previous owner of the bus, earlier in the day and as it turned out, he couldn’t meet us until around 5.

After the movie, and a good nap, it was time to go check out the bus. After a quick stop at Sonic, with the second nicest waitress in the world, we headed out to the desert to make the deal. After checking the area for any pre dug holes, we spotted our bus. It was located in a sandy lot just between a sailboat and a pink mobile home. Who says there’s nothing fun out in the desert?

So moving on, it fired right up; we paid Joe and headed on our long trek back to Southern California. We had to hustle because Josh and I were scheduled to proctor teacher evaluation tests in LA at 6:15am. The trip started off great, Josh and Carson were in the bus and I followed in Carson’s Camry. Then we hit the mountains and started to think our deal wasn’t so great. After several pull offs due to top speeds of 5 mph, we realized we weren’t going to all make it back in time.

After a few phone calls, we realized it was the carburetor and decided to truck on and that it would be better if one of us made it to work then none at all. So I made the pass, gave a few honks, and put that Camry to work. I had 6 hours till work and about 380 miles to drive…it was going to be another long night.

After averaging about 90 mph and only making one stop for gas, I made it with 15 minutes to spare. So I hit up the local Micky D’s, took a shower in the sink and changed clothes, excited as ever to sit in a silent room for two five hour sessions of riveting test taking.

As for Josh and Carson, they made it home around noon, keeping it nice and slow as to not upset anything else in the engine. It was just the first of many adventures to come for the eBUS live.

-Luke

I guess Josh didn’t want to finish his post, so I’ll wrap things up about the bus purchase. Oh an yes the purchase completed the three-peat of crazy purchases. We found the bus on ebay about a day ago, we called the guy up found out is was in Reno, NV and it was in pretty good condition. It was only going for about $800 so we couldn’t pass it up. Put the bid in and everything worked out, I guess I am now a bus owner and I don’t even know how to drive such a huge thing. Well I didn’t know how to sail before I bought a sailboat, I guess I just don’t sweat the details (some don’t consider those details, but oh well). So we are planning on driving up to Reno on Thursday/Friday (it takes about 9 hours), buying the bus and driving it back by Saturday so that Josh and Luke can go proctor a test for some extra cash and I can make it to San Diego to visit Ashley for a special weekend (we’ve been dating for 7 years). Thats it, I’m sure you’ll be hearing back from me soon about this craziness planned for the next few days.

-Carson

We bought our first bus! Maybe two? Four years ago, people said, “you can’t buy a golf cart on campus. They are expensive; its illegal on campus and you’ll hit people.” And guess what, we bought a golf cart. Last year people again said, “You can’t buy a 25’ sailboat. You are college students and have never sailed before!” Surprise, surprise, we bought a Cal 25’ Marconi-rigged sloop in a matter of days. We also sailed it 26 miles to Catalina three weeks later. Maybe we are in the bus…

-Cañas

Late starting day. We were exhausted from flights, long games of wiffle ball and sailing all day. I interviewed at Starbuck’s in Malibu. Nailed the interview and I start on Thursday morning to train. Should be entertaining working there with crazy kids like Karl and Patrick until the eBUS live project gets up and running.

Carson and I armed ourselves with every piece of identification that we could find and ventured to the Santa Monica Postal Office to get ourselves a PO Box. Unbelievable, the third form of ID needed to get the box was either a lease/mortgage with our names on it, a utility bill, or a Voter’s registration card. So for the past year we have lived in a house in Malibu without our names on the lease so neither of us had the first two items, plus neither of us were registered in the state of California to register…or so we thought. I decided to check my old mailbox at school at what arrived in the mail today? My California Registration Card! It was a sign, an omen that we were meant to start eBUS live and get a box today. So now we are official:

eBUS live
PO Box #1586
Santa Monica, CA 90406

Holla! Ok, big day tomorrow. Some bus auctions that we have been watching our running out.

-Cañas

Carson returned from his cousin’s wedding in Washington D.C., and just in time. Moral and motivation of eBUS live was low because Carson had the money to buy the bus. Unfortunately, his flight was delayed and rerouted through Chicago so Pete, Luke, David Brooks and I had to kill some time at our Marina in Long Beach. We ended up buying a wiffle ball set from the local Ralph’s and playing homerun derby in the parking lots for over two hours. The cops came to check us out and we thought our game was going to end for sure, but we ended up entertaining them for a while so they let us keep playing our game. I ended up coming from behind and hitting a homerun to win the game in the bottom of the last inning. Now we are tired, sore and have been riding with five people in my little Honda for a few hours today. Night.

-Cañas

RIP MPH! It’s been a wild ride while it lasted. Thank you for all the great times; hitting golf balls off the roof into the ocean, diving off the rock, and playing baseball in the livingroom. I know for a fact that our senior year wouldn’t have been the same with out you. I love you MPH, but we have move on to bigger and better things. Don’t worry, we’ll visit. Plus, for the next few weeks we’ll be living at my mom’s house in Port Hueneme. eBUS live here we come!
-luke