Yesterday we had a jam-packed day. We woke up at 6:00 AM to head off to Slide Rock State Park in Sedona, AZ. It took a little over two hours to get to the park, but it was worth the trip. We walked around the river and jumped off some pretty high rocks into these beautiful green waterholes. The water was frigid so we did not swim for too long, but we enjoyed the sights of Slide Rock. We left a few hours later and headed to the town of Sedona. The town itself was really quaint and we all enjoyed driving and looking at the scenery which consisted of red rocks and beautiful rock formations. Our plans were to get to our next destination, Out of Africa Wildlife Park, around one, so we left Sedona and continued on our day’s journey.

We arrived at Out of Africa and were shocked by how small it was. We were a little weary of the park, but it actually turned out to be an awesome part of our day. The park had lions, tigers (white an orange), bears, hyenas, giraffes, a hippo, and much more. We got to see the animals with unobstructed views at a very close distance! Luckily for us, Wednesdays are predator feed days, so we even were able to see these incredible beasts being feed meat by the animal keepers.  It was quite interesting to watch them pace an salivate for their food.  The admission also included a “safari”, so we boarded an old GMC bus, much like the one we drive, and went into an enclosed habitat with many animals. This brought us within reaching distance to a giraffe, zebras and a few other animals. We even got to feed the giraffe carrots! I put a carrot in my mouth and the giraffe’s long, black, rough tongue made its way to my face and took the carrot right out of my mouth! It was a little nerve-racking, but I probably will not have another chance to kiss a giraffe in my life, so I took full advantage of the opportunity. We left the park after the safari feeling really accomplished and satisfied about our day. We got to Josh’s house around 7:00PM, made some dinner on the grill and relaxed.

Today we are trying to tie up some loose ends with the bus and knock a few more things off our list of activities for Phoenix. Make sure to check out our pictures of our adventure yesterday in the photos section!

-Ashley

Hello there, we made it to Phoenix in one piece. There were a few minor problems trying to find Josh’s and A.J.’s place (former roommates and friends of Carson’s), but arriving at 4:30 in the morning was probably a good thing since there were no cars out on the road. Later that day we met up with Megan and her family for dinner, one of Ashley’s childhood friends that she hasn’t seen in four years. They were so nice and paid for all of us. Today we went to Salt River to do the river float with A.J. which was an awesome choice since it was scorching hot. A.J. got thrown off his inner tube at one point due to some rapids he underestimated. I actually have video footage of him trying to save himself by holding onto Carson’s tube and not lose his swim trunks at the same time. It wasn’t that good because I was trying not to fall off myself, but you can take a look at it in the video section if you want. He has the whitest butt I’ve ever seen. Going through the small rapids made me think about how fun whitewater rafting would be. Hopefully I’ll get to experience that on our trip somewhere. And for dinner the ebuslive crew and Josh went to Pizza Bianco’s. Listed as one of the top ten pizza joints in the United States. You probably know this about Carson, but if you don’t he’s a pizza fanatic. He eats pizza three meals a day. I asked him what he thought of the pizza and his response was, “It was pretty good, but I don’t know if I would wait in line for a few hours like some people do.”

Today was the first official day of the trip!  I woke up around 8AM, mainly because of the heat.  I have a top bunk, and since we parked near some sand dunes outside Yuma, AZ, one of the hottest places in the country, I got heated up way before the two boys on the bottom bunks.  We eventually turned on the generator and the AC unit, so we cooled down pretty quickly before we headed off for our first day out on the town. 

 We were supposed to go to the Peanut Factory, but we found out that it actually is closed for the summer season.  Even though our main stop was closed, we still wanted to visit Yuma so we decided to stop at Wal-mart to get some essentials and take some time to figure out what we were going to do with the day.  Luckily, in the checkout line, we meet a very nice woman who directed us to some fun Yuma activities.  She told us to go to Gateway Park, a great place for swimming in the Colorado River, and she also suggested that we check out the historic Yuma Territorial Prison.  Since it was over 100 degrees outside, we decided that we first better make our way to the river to cool off!  We swam and relaxed by the water, it was very nice!  After we had our share of the river, we went up to the prison which was just down the street.  The visitor center was closed, but we looked around the prison the best we could.  Even though we were 0 for 2 on visiting open locations, we had a great time on the official first day of the trip. 

Tonight we are headed to Phoenix.  We have some pretty fun places to go, and Carson’s old two roommates to visit.  I am sure there will be a lot of fun stories in the next week so check back with us soon for updates. 

Ashley

After nearly 1 year of preparations tonight eBUS live has set sail on its first national tour. Over the past few months Lieu, Ashley, and I have been designing and building improvements for the bus to prepare for this epic journey. We now have dual overhead compartments, sliding A/C unit, full electrical system (including 12 volt and 120 volt, with batteries, inverter, converter and isolater), pantry, refrigerator, microwave, water tank w/ water pump and shower, tow dolly system, folding kitchen table w/ original school bus seats, and the list goes on and on. Needless to say it took thousands of trips to Home Depot and countless man hours to get to this point, but we made it. Of course the website still needs a little work and there are always tweaks we can do to the bus to make it even better, but we are ready.

We had to stay in San Diego to tie up a few loose ends on the bus today to make sure the bus was ready and everything was mounted down tightly. Not only did we have to finish up with the bus but we also had to get in some quality time with Ashley’s good friends: Jessica, Shanna, Kim and Brent. She wanted to add a few words about the night:

My roommate Jessica invited Carson, Lieu, and I out on her family boat. We had a good time walking around the boat one last time (first time for Lieu and Carson) before I left San Diego with no set date of returning. As we got in our car and drove back to the bus Sarah McLachlan came on the radio and the Sea World fireworks went off. It was a moment of reflection and reminiscence with my four good friends that I will remember for a long time. We took Jessica and Shanna back to my old house and Carson, Lieu and I said our goodbyes. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be but I guess we all have to move on.

So after visiting with Ashley’s good friends we finally left San Diego at 11:30. We stopped by Vons to get gas and to load the car on the dolly. We quickly learned how to operate our tow dolly and got everything else set. It was quite a spectacle and we handed out a few business cards to interested onlookers. Ashley was first at the helm and she drove flawlessly. She got us through the mountains outside San Diego at about 30 MPH (top speed on those steep grades). After the mountains it was smooth sailing at about 60 MPH until we reach our first destination, a rest area right outside Yuma, AZ. Updates will be flying in every day or two now to keep up to date and read about the adventures, don’t forget the pictures and hopefully videos too.

- Carson