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JnJnKatiebug's avatar
JnJnKatiebug
Explorer
Oct 21, 2013

The old, old, old bus is gone.

Well back in the early 1980's my son was about six year old and loved to go camping. We did not have any money so we did the best we could. Living out in the country on a farm we always had an old farm truck so we would take it to the NF about 20 miles away and camp in the middle of nowhere. It was fun but sometime we got really cold sleeping in the truck or in an old canvas tent. One day I mention to my dad that if I had an old school bus body I would put a gooseneck hitch on it and pull it up to the mountains. That way with a wood stove and least we would be dry and warm. Well the next day dad drove up followed by a wrecker pulling the old bus body. He paid $200 for it. I pulled it in the shop and welded the hitch on. Over the next several years we made lots of memories. It looked rough but we were so far back in the woods we did not care. We spent lots of time up there, sometimes in the snow. It was always dry and warm inside.

Well it has been sitting for the last several years out in the woods rusting down. Since I sold the farm and moved to town my son had to park it on some friends property and now they needed to move it. Today my son took it to the scrap yard and sold it. It brought $800, three times what we had invested in it, plus the memories are priceless. Below is a picture taken last year, it looks pretty rough, but it was priceless back in its day.

I found out later that this was also the bus I rode to school as a child back in the early 60's so I am thinking maybe part of it will be recycled into my next RV. Things have a way of coming back around.

18 Replies

  • Only thing that could make it better is if a tree had grown through the frame of the gooseneck.
  • There is a bus of about that vintage parked in a little village near us. During the summer we will see it at various dispersed campsites in the NF. There will also be several tents and shelters made of tarps and a whole bunch of children. It looks as if they are having a wonderful time. Great story! lizzie
  • Nice thanks for sharing your story Love the old homemade RVs they had character............
  • That's a great story. On an old 4 wheeler trail in Oklahoma I wsed to drive past an old bus just like that. The picture takes me back.
  • What a great story! How creative of you folks to salvage that old bus for camping. I hope you get as many memories out of your next RV as you did that one.

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