OUR MAIDEN VOYAGE.

monday, july 23rd thru tuesday, november 20th - 2007

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THE WAY OUT OF FLORIDA .:|:.

We bought Bernard in early March 2007, parked him at our friend Nino's house, removed all of the seats, laid futon mattresses on the floor, and moved in. We were ready to leave but Bernard would require an intense amount of labor and funding before he was ready. We used what was previously our rent money to pay for supplies, and our free time to pay for labor. We now find ourselves towards the end of July with one handful of finished projects, the other hand full of unfinished projects, and a travelers itch that we really need to scratch. So, we dropped and postponed the unfinished handful of building an electrical system, a roll out awning, solar panels, storage boxes and other things we don't even know about yet for the relief associated with scratching that itch. The projects we have finished include: bunks, counter tops, a sink and water tank with a foot pump, a propane stove, a toilet and shower room, bus cubbies for clothes and personal effects, a dinnette or seti which folds into a spare bed, a ro of deck, book shelves, kitchen shelves, and version 1 of our veggie oil fuel system. Goodbye Sarasota, hello the open road. We collected oil for the first time from T & T Shell gas station on Palmer Rd. and Pings Chinese Cuisine on Fruitville and Honore before filling up our drinking water containers at the Publix. We jumped on I-75 heading north, first stop - Gainesville.

On our way to Gainesville we came across the first bug in the veggie oil fuel system. After trouble shooting we came to the conclusion that the anti rust paint was peeling off of the inside of the fuel tanks and clogging the draw pipe. Quick fix solution, install a wire mesh screen over the end of the draw pipe. We also decided to install a second racor filter assembly allowing us to filter down to 2 microns. Roth's Aunts house in Crawfordville, Florida near Tallahassee seemed to be our best location for the modification and we could stop their when we left Gainesville.

Our time in Gainesville began with our friends Lee and Kaitlin, from Sarasota, and Kat, who was visiting her mother in Gainesville, meeting us in the walmart parking lot off Archer blvd. where we talked of our excitement about the endless possibilities we were about to encounter as we chilled on the roof deck. We slept where we were and in the morning prepared a delicious tofu scramble breakfast thanks to Lee and Kaitlin before they returned to Sarasota. We spent time with Kat and her mother Victoria, bought an inverter and gps unit from best buy, mechanics tools from sears, and ended up staying with our friend RC at her apartment complex for a few days. RC is a wonderful hostess and over the next couple of days she fed us and let us take showers while we researched, ordered parts, and planned for our modifications in Crawfordville. We met RC's friend Heide, bought cantelope, tomatoes, and basil from the farmers market, played apples to apples at maudes coffee shop and made tomatoe basil quinoa with f ruit on the side for dinner. On our last night in town the girls talked us into a night of drinking and dancing. Simply put, we had fun.

In Crawfordville we were met with open arms for the second time. We made several trips to the local hardware stores, recieved the parts we ordered on the internet in Gainesville, built a wire screen cage around our draw pipe to prevent paint chips from clogging it, fixed our easy up tent, installed cleats on the roof deck to tie things down, painted our bathroom and installed our new racor 900FH filter assembly. We did good, we were very productive. We had help welding the bracket for our new racor filter from Gramps, who lived next door to my aunt. We watched in awe as this 90 year old man climbed right up onto Bernard and did the damn thing. He charged us $5.00 and told us we ain't worth a shit but he was glad to help us out. He had no teeth, had been drinking since he woke up, wore overalls with a pack of chew in his pocket, and maintained a mouth full of chew. Awesome. Our search for oil in Crawfordville landed us two potential dumpsters nearly full of oil except it turned out neither were of any use to us. We learned why. The first dumpster belonged to a small fried chicken place that freshly hand breaded their chicken. Because of this the oil was filthy with small and large particles of batter which clogged our filter instantly. The second dumpster load of oil was a small hamburger joint. This oil could not be used because the hamburger grill grease was mixed in with the vegetable oil causing the same problem, instantaneous filter clogging. So, we were off to tally.

We failed to find grease our first evening in Tallahassee so we took a queue from bobs dad and bought a 12 back of busch beer in cans, sat up on top of the roof deck in the walmart parking lot, and drank to making it this far. We also met our first neighbor, Guy from Cali who lived in an RV and bred pitbulls. The following morning we met our friends topher and laura for lunch at Soul V, a rasta vegatarian cart downtown. Delicious. Afterwards we found some grease, got cut short due to a monstrous rain storm and took off for New-Hampshire. Wooh!

THE LONG ROAD TO NEW-HAMPSHIRE .:|:.

We picked up some more oil at a gas station in Georgia with a small diner attached. Replaced our first clogged filter in a Lowes parking lot. We had a radiator hose leak on our way out of Georgia and met some neat old black man at the gas station. He joked about coming with us but in the end I think he decided to stay. We slept at a truck stop somewhere, replaced the radiator hose in the morning and picked up wireless internet so we found a racor filter distributor in Greensboro, North Carolina and headed there. It was hard to find oil, we slept at a beautiful rest stop in North Carolina and found 40 gallons of good clean oil in Oxford. We started using pillow cases to prefilter the oil. Picked up some bad oil in virginia that looked clean except the engine couldn't drive any more than about 35mph and when we switched back to diesel it took a couple of minutes to return to normal. weird. We slept at a walmart outside of DC, headed to Sykesville Maryland to visit Bobs Uncle Stew and Aunt Janis who fed us a nd let us take a shower! (thank you). We got rid of the bad oil, found good oil. Drove through to New Jersy and slept at walmart. Purchased more filters in Elmwood Park New Jersy because we had clogged and replaced a few more. Found some good oil from a fancy restaurant in North Jersy. Drove on through to a welcome center in New Hampshire and spent the night and then drove to Tilton in the morning, It seemed to take forever, it was stressful, we laughed, we were discouraged, we were relieved and at last, we made it. Now the sweetness begins.

We came to Tilton to visit our friends Dave and Nalowa who were working at a summer camp. We pulled up to camp driftwood, explained the bus to a couple of kids and counselors and then got in their van and headed to a river. The river was amazing, located right in the middle of all of these rocks way up in this mountain. We ran around on the rocks next to the water, we soaked in a calm pool of water, jumped into the rapids and narrowly excaped the waterfall, did some mini rock climbing, and sat in a small hot tub like pool of water in the middle of some rocks. Mountains are crazy after growing up in Florida. Back in Tilton we found an internet coffee shop downtown where we spent some parts of days researching oil collection, developing some new theories on vegetable oil school buses, getting to know the owners and beginning construction of Bernardthebus.com. Nalowa had a night off from camp and took us to the park for beers. Some local kids walked up and talked with us about the differences between us an d them and how we were chill and they were rowdy. I think that we were positive influences because by the time we left they had taken to encouraging each other to chill. They say kickin rocks when it's time to leave. We went to a basement rock concert for a local band in Concord who jammed out. Went back to camp driftwood here and there for a full presentation and for breakfast. We attended an Allison Kraus Concert, we slept at the Tilton walmart every night where we there, met some of the employees who loved the bus, and before we left we found a beautiful dumpster full of clean oil behind a pizza place next to a thai place. The mother load! The pizza shop owner lady didn't want us to take the oil but there was no way we were going to pass this one up so Bob talked her into it, right on Bob! We took our first 50 gallons and went back the next day for about 80 gallons more.

MAINE IS WORTH THE EFFORT .:|:.

We came to portland because we were told by Bobs parents that we had to visit their friend's Steven and Sharon Bunker. They own and run the China Sea Marine Trading Company with a shop in downtown Portland. We found a spot to park the bus on the street and went to check out the shop. Portland is awesome, kids skate boarding down the street, artists can set up and sell stuff on the sidewalks, and there is a park where people hang out and play music. Bunker's shop was amazing. He has maps, mermaid carvings and paintings, pirate treasure, neat antique boat gadgets, authentic sailor's clothes and hats, old sponges, swords and muskets, and all kinds of sea trinkets and such. We also found java net in downtown portland with wireless internet and coffee. We listened to a free rasta reggae concert and found a flyer for the Burdock Gathering in Starkes, Maine at a people's Free space place. We picked up some 10 micron filters to try instead of the 2's because the 2's are clogging quickly. We are going to need a better oil collection system.

The Bunker's offered us a place to park at their house outside of Portland. Once again we fed and given use of the laundry and the shower. We spoke with bunker in his study about pirates, and pipe tabacco, swords and tama hauks, living your dreams and a life of adventure and politics. Bunkers house and workshop looks very similar to his shop in town. He has basically any prop you could think of to put into a pirate movie. Muskets, rifles, cannons, nets, skulls, a parrot, old wood signs, old books, pipes, compass, looking glasses, and everything else. We met bunkers neighbor chris who is taking steps towards getting off the grid. He has compost piles, chickens, solar panels and his entire yard is basically a garden. He gave us some of his tomatoes, brocoli, garlic and dandelion greens. Very nice chris, thanks.

Ok, this was cool. The Burdock Gathering Website. This gathering was held on an organic farm right next to this river, sweet sweet spot. We attended a solar panel workshop, made sumac wine, drank sumac wine, sorted wild blueberrys, picked weeds out of the potatoes in the garden, traded things at the swap meet, watched the caberet/talent show, hung out with the naked people at the river, and ate really good food all for free. We also, since the burdock gathering is about skill trading, did a workshop with Bernard the bus about how our waste vegetable oil system works. We met great people interested in living and actually living a sustainable life styles off the grid. These people are returning to making their own things, growing their own food, harvesting local and wild plants and healing herbs and healing themselves. What more is there to say, this event is one of those reasons we are on this bus adventure and it isn't really possib ly to describe these feelings in words.

Lets see, next we were off to Camden where Bob's father had about a weeks worth of work lined up for us with an old friend of his. Camden is a bit on the fancy side of a tourist town with a nice little bay used as a harbor. Roth didn't want to stay in a walmart parking lot for the week and we couldn't find any other places to park so we stayed at the state park for $20 a night. ouch. But, we did meet Ray and Terri from bradenton florida. They were work camping for the summer in maine. Weird how you meet people from near where you live when you are so far away. They maintain the Land Yacht Safari Blog. They gave us more food and encouragement than anyone we have met thus far. They invited us over for diner and drinks one evening. Gave us beer and cigarettes, and we played guitar late enough to get complaints from neighboring campers during a rain storm. Grate folks and we look forward to se eing them back home this winter. As for the boat work, we had fun. We helped sand down a teak deck on a nice sail boa t. The people we working with were great and we got paid! Time to head for Ashefest.

ASHEFEST OR BUST .:|:.

Our trip from Maine to Ashefest landed us in Baltimore for the night mostly due to the fact Bob had a couple of friends he needed to see. We had $5.00 pizza's and forties! We picked up some beautiful used oil from the baltimore whole foods market. Bobs friend Adam was currently employed at this whole foods and was able to arrange a meeting between us and the store team leader. He was excited about our project leaving us very encouraged, feeling positive we would be openly welcomed at other whole foods across the nation. Things are going good at this point. On our way north we had ridiculous troubles finding oil. As we return south it seems the oil has found us. We have money, we have oil and we are on our way.

Festivals life is one all of its own. Its like living in a small nomadic village for a few days. The lifestyle is foreign to modern american life of people zipping around, aggressively struggling to fulfill their wants and desires. Instead, festivals are peaceful places where people come to escape and be happy. Anything goes, all kinds of things happen and it is rumored that the longer a person spends in this world of festivals the harder it becomes to return to their previous life. Similar to anyone who works in the peace corps or spends to much time at sea. Festivals are also information sharing posts where it is possible to find out about all kinds of happenings going on all over the country. We learned of a private party referred to as a regional burn. The regional burns are connected with the the Burning Man Project and we plan to attend the regional burn in florida named the Floridaafterburn.com. Volunteering at festivals is another a mazing activity to try. Volunteering makes it easier to get comfortable with the surroundings and provides an excellent platform for forming new friendships. They loved us at Ashefest and gave us laminate all access passes and we love them. The last night at this festivals, after most of the people had left, a staff dinner was held. We met the owner of deerfields, the festival grounds, all of the festival organizers, and one of the investors of the sweetwater brewing company - BEER! Life is good. Next, one of the festival organizers who by the name wendell invited us to stay with him and his family in union south caroline. He claimed to have more than enough space along with a loving amount of hospitality and so we took him up on his offer.

Union, South Carolina was relaxed with an emphasis of epic proportions. It was all good things: reading, video games, great food, excellent company, new movies (for us anyway), guitar playing, wood lathing, dented can store shopping, and quiet slow stillness that calms the restless traveler. In fact, after two weeks, it was too calm. We said our good byes, gave our gratitude, and hit the road jack... except i think we'll be back for more.

WE TRIED TO MAKE IT BUT WERE DIVERTED .:|:.

After brief discussion simplified by previous planning we set a course for the farm in tennessee. That excitement thing was in the air everywhere, the farm is legend. One of the first, largest and longest lasting hippie communes in america, the farm transmuted into an eco-village training center and sustainable research community to stay alive. This is what we are striving for and yearning to learn about. Suddenly and abruptly the storm blew in. Grey skies supported by vile chilled winds as we were re-fueling in knoxville tennessee. In front of a dumpster full of all of the oil we needed to get us to the farm and beyond, the realization, something we had been mentally avoiding, set in. Our cheap plastic hand pump we had been using to move oil was no longer going to cut it. The vegetable oil had corroded the seals to a point of failure. We were running low on money, waiting for funds from bobs stock sales to come in, and we would have to ordered a new pump. After banging our heads together it was agreed we could sit and wait at roth's cousin kene's house in owenton, kentucky.

Upon arrival we became aware that this bitty little kentucky town was more rural and relaxed than the small town we came from in the southern caroline. We were parked on the middle of three houses spread out on 250 or 350 acres. The other two houses were owned by my cousin's wife Candice's father and grandfather. What used to be tobacco fields were now just fields housing some cattle, weeds, old tobacco barns, and what ever else the rolling hills portion of kentucky has to offer including some coyote's. My cousin is a glass blower with a homemade glass blowing studio built into a little shed next to the house. We watched more movies, ate great food, i played the guitar and bob learned to blow glass. We had an adventure into lexington for a concert in the park where the town governor joined the banned on stage to play the drums for their last song. We went into bitty little town of owenton a few times, once for the small farmers market they had. We recieved advice on bread baking and soap making, an d learned that this years drought was devastating. One lady was speaking of cutting down tree's for her cows to eat because she had run out of what little hay she was able to grow. She said that the old timers years back had to do it once in her grandfather or great grandfathers generation. She was also feeding her bees a sugar water mixture because not enough flowers had bloomed this season to keep them alive. We took a trek to friendship indiana for the most gigantic flea market i have ever witnessed. The national mussel loader's association is located in friendship indiana and they have a huge week long meet every year. Over the years vendor's began showing up to sell their wares and the idea mushroomed into a week long flea market / camping event along with the trigger happy. amazing.

After two weeks of the rolling hill kentucky fields bobs stocks had been transferred to his bank account, we had ordered a new pump, and it had arrived. We said good byes and thanks you's as we left for the red river gorge in daniel boone national forest. This place is awe-inspiring, we only stayed for one night and my pictures do not do it justice. It is an incredible place.

My cousins dad, my uncle, also named Kene wanted us to come up to his home in madison indiana for a dinner / lunch thing. We also had him take us to the masonic lounge in town for a free pancake breakfast! Their was also a gigantic arts and crafts show that weekend.

PICKING UP OUR NEW BUS MATE AND HEADING SOUTH .:|:.

Janell requested a few extra days to chill in her hometown. We needed to see our friend Brian who moved up to ohio to stay with his mother and his grandparents from sarasota. He needed some fresh air, it was all cool. We did some site seeing, his mom fed us great food. We gave her some wheat grass juice. All good things. Then we went and picked up jane (janell).

Her parents were slightly concerned but everything was good once they saw Bernard. Bob and I also convinced them we were capable of holding things together. I mean come on, how many people do you know who are capable of putting a project like this into existence, "we got it covered," we told them. We had to help jane do some last minute packing, she was unprepared and rushed as her usually beautiful self. Tears were shed for her tiny little, cute and wiggly little boston terrier ruby and, we were off.

At some point my mother had phoned and asked for help. My parents were recently divorced and she had decided to move up to tennessee positioning herself closer to her brothers in indiana. She wanted our help unloading her uhaul at her new home in maryville, tennessee. Located slightly south of knoxville it seemed to be a nice area. We unloaded the uhaul, spent 2 nights, explored one day on our bikes and hit the road to meet our friend wes whom we had met at ashefest.

Oil was sparse in maryville, we knew where oil was in knoxville, it was on the way and the fill up went off without a hitch. Leaving knoxville was another story, Bernard had started to over heat. We needed a fan clutch. Knoxville should be the perfect place, it is a huge trucking and shipping hub but.... but, after several hours of calling and searching we learned our fan clutch had been discontinued and we could no longer by a replacement. Non of the local junk yards had anything compatible and so - quick road side fix courtesy of bob. Drill through the fan clutch, wrap it with some wire we fortunately had on the bus and it was good to go.

Wes lived in north eastern tennessee up - up over the mountains on a most beautiful piece of land. Backed by a river and home to some small mountain peak things it is the perfect spot to create so many things. Wes is having roads paved in preparation for his own festival venue. We took a rid in his four wheel drive up to the top of some peaks on his new roads. Helped him load up his music equipment and we were off to the Echo Project outside of Atlanta, Georgia. Another music festival.

The Echo Project had a good line up, a large center piece of environmental educational goodness, and a turn out of what seemed like college party kids which is unfortunately what the festival world is turning into. Weekend pseudo hippy party time where people can feel good about themselves and then return to there lives and do the same things. We had lots of fun though. We set up the bus next to wes's electronic music environment with a stage open to all full of neat gadgets that make unthinkable sounds all through night rounded off with a pair of large metal gongs. Sheila Shine was responsible for the booth concept which she named the circles of love. Our friend don juan whom we also met at ashefest was their with his ginormous tent providing a chilled relaxed atmosphere for campers to lounge in the shade.

Don invited us back to his little, "Picks Hideaway," in atlanta after the echo project to help him get ready for a reggae ron paul benefit his was having the following weekend. We took him up on his offer and followed him back to his place unaware we were entering a vortex that took us a week to escape. A great of flood of all sorts of people came through dons place that week and we made many new friends. The party was perfect and we went to hear the dali llama speak the following day. This was it though, we had to get out and get on with it.

BACK TO FLORIDA .:|:.

We were back in florida, we made it. We were accomplished and we felt good. We had made it to Maine and back. We made a stop in at the suannee river music camp for Magnolia Fest where we volunteered; riding around in golf carts, painting and hanging signs backstage, counting people at the vip and artist dining area, meeting musicians, showing musicians are bus, building fires, cooking food. All good things. Are friends from gainesville were there, Wes and Shiela made it along with a handful of our other new friends including Joe from ohio! After mag fest we stopped in gainesville where after a few nights in a parking lot next to our friends apartment complex we were asked to leave. We stopped back in sarasota for about 5 days to see our friends and check out Lee's house where we will park for the winter. We took off to Lakeland for the Florida Afterburn where we witnessed some huge fires, fire dancers, fire cannons and a gigantic metal fire breathing fish created by Johny Rock. Campers at this pri vate party are encouraged to set up theme camps, some examples are: the coffee shop with free delicious coffee 24 hours day, a giant trampoline camp, camp 840 not 420, a free open bar including bar tenders, a chili hut, breakfast camps, all kinds of camps. Our friends brianna and Ngiri from St. Pete came out and our friend Coby stopped in. Wes and Done Juan made it! Great times. Next we went back to the suannee river music camp for the Bear Creek Music festival where we were back with Wes's Electronic Music Environment and the Circles of Love. Don Juan had his tent set up in the main field in view of the stage. It was cold, we had fires, Johny Rock made it out with his giant fire breathing fish. We fed a bunch of people from our bus kitchen. And Wendell and Jenni and Dianna and Morgan made it down from south carolina along with their friend Wes. So much fun and then we came home. We have one adventure under our belt, we are better at finding and collecting oil. we know we can solve problems on t he fly, we have a better feel for meeting people, and we have an idea of the amount of information which exist that we know nothing about. Our next time out will be in the spring or early summer, we will go where ever we end up, and we will share what we learn.

THE END - p.s. I apologize for my writing. I need an editor. Please email any corrections or suggestions to roth@thelur.org