Upon my arrival in Chicago at O’ Hare airport, I was informed we had a 45 minute drive to Gary Indiana (the birth place of Michel Jackson and The Jackson 5). I was a little confused, apparently the bus had a few problems. Cruising to Gary in the 89 Camary with Carson and Lieu was not quite as uncomfortable as being smooshed in to my little airplane seat next to a large black fellow, covered in tattoos, iced out, trigger finger missing, and bumping his headphones WAY to loud (he turned out to be a really nice guy). We got to the bus, the internet was down, we were completely lost without Google, and we all knew nothing of this town that was our current residence by default. With three of us and two maps, we still couldn’t decide on a route to our next destination. Using our phone a friend life line, we got some directions from a few folks with internet access. We were all ready to go and…the bus didn’t start, the first time on the whole trip. Parked in a gravel clearing close to a truck stop, dejected we went to bed and decided we’ll fix all our problems the next day.

The next day I woke up drenched in my own sweat, it’s been awhile since I slept on the bus and I forgot how hot it gets. We then had two clear missions, one was to get the bus running, and two was to replace the wireless internet card that had miraculously broken the day before. The bus had recently received a new fuel pump that moves the fuel at a greater rate but the same pressure as the original pump. The problem was that this new pump was making the fuel blow right by the carburetor. Fuel spewing everywhere, bus not starting, both very bad things. There was an auto part store about a block down just right in the middle of what was otherwise a residential neighborhood. It had no parts for our Holly carb, which we assumed was the problem. The guy sent us to Von Senus, where we found Lee who seemed to be extremely knowledgeable guy. Removing the whole carburetor and taking it into Lee at the shop, he decides if it’s not the brand new pump functioning improperly, it might be a float or a squirter. After we purchase a few things for the carb, clean it out, replace it, same thing still happening. We were all baffled, including Lee; our only option left was to put the old pump back in, (only two days old, but less fuel per hour). Though the new pump would have been better because of the higher flow rate, the old pump worked without flooding the engine, which meant the brand new Carter electric fuel pump was defective, right out of the box. All of this was absolutely ridiculous and amazingly frustrating. Mission one, done; kind of… Mission two, we head to a nearby mall which had three Sprint stores in it, at the third one a helpful guy tells us the internet card we needed is not available anywhere in his whole district, ouch. Mission two, incomplete. This was not a great day.

The next morning we head to Napa auto parts where the faulty pump had been purchased. We were met with hostility right off the bat. “We have this fuel pump,” (rude store guy interjects) “You own it! You bought it, you own it.” Carson proceeded to finish his sentence, “The pump was defective”. Another Napa employee helps by exchanging the part, but acts extremely put out by us asking her to do her job. Frustrated with our poor customer service we head downtown. We hit our fourth Sprint store in two days; a very nice lady tells us we need to go to the store five blocks away because they have a service center. Sprint store number five, by this time we know the drill. They check the card, it’s broken, we were told they would replace it, except they didn’t have any more cards. Carson and I team up on this guy who says he might be able to get us one by Tuesday. Like haggling with street vendors, the only play was to walk away, so we did. Returning a half an hour later, the employee feeling bad from the guilt trip we gave him makes an offer. Someone ordered one of our discontinued cards to some suburb northwest of Chicago, he say’s they’ll let us have it if we pick it up. Finally, at Sprint store six, we have a new card! Mission two, complete; (assuming the card worked, it did)! Ecstatic from beating the system we head to Gino’s East. It was really good Chicago style pizza, and you can write on any surface in the restaurant except the bathroom, ironic, don’t you think.

The next morning, the new fuel pump goes on, we take the bus for a test drive. Victory, the old girl is running like a champ, better than ever. No longer being stifled by not enough fuel; Mission one complete! Mission two, the internet, complete! Back running at 100 percent, in time to go have some fun and see some stuff. Between the bad pump right out of the box, and the Sprint card crapping out it ended up essentially costing us two and a half days. Hopefully the rest of my eBus live tour will go a little smoother.

- Graham