New Job, New Apartment, New city

So I was offered a very good position as sous chef of a restaurant in Philly.  It was to open July 1st, so Lynn and I talked it over and decided it was a good choice to make.  We set it up with my parents that we could put the bus in the backyard amongst a bit of trees and camp out until we found a place in the city.  We then packed up the house, and planned out how we would get our non running bus, and all our things to NJ.  Uhaul seemed to be the best choice we had.  We looked into having the bus shipped and having a moving company come to the house the cheapest way was to rent a uhaul and a car trailer.  We did that.  it was 500.00 plus gas for a uhaul packed to the gills and a trailer with a bus packed to its gills, then our car packed with records and two cats and Lynn driving it.  It was outrageously insane!  I could not believe how much the trailer kept jerking and almost stopping the truck at all speeds.  Being 2 mph or 20 it barely moved. The trailer felt like it was going to rip the whole back of the truck off.  It took us 12 hours to drive from Ohio to NJ.  It was the most nerve racking drive of both my and Lynn's lives.  But we eventually made it.

Ruby rested here on the trailer for 24 hours while we took all of our stuff to the uhaul self storage facility and returned then came back home to remove bus from the trailer, and replace the generator.  We have been waiting for about a month until we could fix it.  So the day after we got to NJ, Lynn, Luna, and I set off to replace the generator.  It was hella hot.  So we used an ez up to keep cool.  It took us about35 minutes to pop the motor out, then I skated down to the garage at the corner and they popped the generator bolt off, and replaced the fan on new generator for us.  Then back to the house.

So with the new generator in we went for a ride around the block.  All good!  So we went for it, cruised down to my buddy brads house to show him the bus for the first time.  We hung out and went home no problems in Ruby world.  So we have again a running driving Ruby.  We set out in the yard to find us a nice spot to park, and make our residence for a while.  Just behind the trees you can slightly see our Ruby.  

So we found a nice spot to keep our bus for the time being and ran an extension cord to the house to power our fan, and stereo, and laptop for dvd watching.  We were all set.  We had a few visitors come by and we took them for rides in the bus.  Lynn and I decided to go grocery shopping one day while it was slightly drizzling.  We stopped for windshield wipers, and then went to the grocery store.  We got our stuff and were back out in the bus.  About two minutes goes by, and the motor squeals.  We pulled over and opened the engine hatch.  It was of course the generator.  This new one was a used one.  It did not work out as well as we had hoped. The generator  bearings went bad, and so the generator is not charging.  We nursed ruby  back to the house.  In route losing the headlights, and so Ruby was once again undriveable.  I have to replace it again.  So now to decide what one to purchase and pull the motor again. ughh. We parked ruby in the spot you saw and stayed there until November 15th.  When we finally found our apartment.  Now the bus is sitting in the driveway covered by a few tarps awaiting the new year.  This leaves us at the present time. Ruby needs new steering, tires, front brakes, and suspension. First parts on the list will definitely be a generator, and a single vacuum advance distributor.  I am very excited to get Ruby running and we have a big summer planned for camping and finally yes finally we are going to camp in our bus not in our yard.  The last day we slept in the bus was November the 15th, and when we walked away with the bus empty we took this last picture.  

We spent 3 months in the bus, rain and shine and in through the cold.  It was incredible Lynn me and Luna in the bus Honestly it was great, I miss the bus.  Every day we spent in the bus made us love it even more.  It was a growing experience for us as a family.  I think we did great because we survived.  hahah.