Hi Ray,

I want you to know I appreciate your telling me your honest feelings..

Now I'm going to tell you mine...Don't think for one minute that I'll ever give up on the Dream I've had since I was in my teens...

I've driven hundreds of MCI's...!!! and much older junks at H.A.M.L. bus co. in New Brunswick, NJ for Rutgers & 4 other colleges located there...Campus Bus...but it has been since 83 when I retired because Lincoln Transit went out of business overnight and some 60 drivers went to work with our days runs in our hands, to find the doors to the terminal locked..I was the only woman driver Lincoln Transit ever had in 50 yrs. of business..

Two days later we were called in to get our pay checks..and John Bishop who was my boss, and had given me the worst busses and the worst runs he could possibly give me trying to discourage me and induce me to quit..

John got up from behind his desk after he'd handed me my last pay envelope..He came around to me...put his arm around my shoulders and walked me to the door...on the way he told me he wanted me to know he'd treated me the way he had because he had to..and now he wanted me to know I was a good a driver as any he had and he was proud to have known me..It made up for all the very many tough hours I put in at the garage with other drivers who almost hated me because I was even there..but once I got behind the wheel of my bus for the day...it was worth all the harrassment I had to tolerate..busses with no power steering..!! busses that had been left outside the garage all night in a snow storm with the driver window open and snow on the seat and dash that I had to sweep away before I could put my cushion down, start it and pray my air came up..!! Much more but you get the idea...I never quit..!! and I won't now..!! I've owned 4 Class A. RV's alone since my husband died ten yrs. ago...and 10 more prior to that .....

I've been able to do nothing but think about every aspect of that Lady since I got back into my car and headed back to NJ..

It was sooooo beautiful...I had to pull over several times until I could stop crying...but that's normal for a woman..and I am all woman..There's no tough guy thinker in me..I consider myself a Lady...I just love to drive..and I miss driving my busses every single day..

The Lady was sooo beautiful I thought it was too beautiful for me..I felt out of place in it..I wished I could be alone in it for awhile...to just take it all in and kind of think of what it would be like doing dishes in that sink, washing clothes in that washer, eating at that table, sleeping in that bed..dressing in that bathroom...sitting behind that wheel and moving down the road...!!!!!!!.sooo beautiful...Not my Dream..but much much more than I'd ever imagined..I was soooo intimidated..when I came down those stairs leaving the bus, Max was at the bottom on the pavement of the warehouse looking at me and I felt like a tiny little old lady..and I saw in his eyes that he saw the same...well maybe I am old but I have all my marbles and I can back my 37 footer out my drive way as easy as if it were my Cavalier..and head down the road for Fl..more comfortable now than I did 30 yrs. ago with out the experience I have behind me today...

I've driven 3 Prevosts, none seemed high like this bus...the height concerned me in NONE of them..and I had the same feeling I've had about all the busses I've driven...None intimidated me...hi hats or fishbowls...all the same to me..I just wanted to keep on going until I got tired...but they didn't have the mirrored ceilings..and all that luxury..that was overwhelming me..

Then too, when Max opened the Warehouse doors we had to walk at least double the length of the bus to get to it...It was big enough to hold a plane..made me think of the dirigible hanger in Lakehurst, NJ..I've taken bus loads there on tour..Course it wasn't that big but it made me think of it..and it was dark in there..what little light there was wasn't much...and I didn't notice where it was coming from..

Then we reached the bus door and when Max opened it... it was pitch black inside the coach...until he turned the lights on we couldn't see a thing..so here I am in this bus like it will be at night the very first time I see it, and it's like nothing I've ever seen before in my life...then after exploring and Max showing me cupboards, closets, etc..my eyes are trying to see everywhere..at once..and a lot of the areas are still dark, all of it so brand new to me...

Then I sat down behind that wheel...and I cannot express my feelings...but they were no different than when at the wheel of the Country Coach in Titusville when I thought it was mine...exhilerting...!! Ya gotta love it to know where I'm coming from..

It's nothing like the other 3 Prevost's I've driven for only a few miles trying them out...buying one, all but signing the final papers at B.O.A. in an hour... partially moved into it..a 92 Country Coach and the dealer last minute telling me he'd made a 3 Thousand Dollar error in his figures.!!!.He knew I had to have that much left...after the buy...for travel..I saw thru him and I just took what I'd moved into the coach, put it back in my own..and left..This is what happens to women shopping alone...not just me...most of us..Several hundred miles up the road to NJ..he called me on my cell phone to come back for the bus..I said if he'd pay for the gas I'd used..I would...but he couldn't do that and I didn't go back...How I've wished a thousand times that I had...I'd have had the bus I'd have been content with over 2 yrs. now...
The Lady may be too much for me..but the Country Coach isn't...

Maybe if I handn't been so tired and hungry and it raining off and on all the way to Max's.. feeling and looking disheveled from the neat hairdo all askew..from the wind and rain...

If the bus had been outside in daylight it might not have looked sooo huge to me...I don't know...Also there was a very steep hill up to the flat area where two huge warehouses were plus several Tractor Trailers with blazing pictures of Drag Racing Cars painted on them...I thought I wouldn't want to be bringing the Dolphin up or down that incline..and now I'm having to go in this dark warehouse alone with a strange man, although I wasn't in the least concerned about any ulterior motives I was just plain nervous..on top of being hungry and very tired after 5 or more hours driving my little Cavalier Convertible up to Buffalo...with it raining off and on trying hard not to miss any of the tricky turns getting from one interstate to another and finally Rt. 15 to now look for Market St..that I didn't ever find..going in and out of 3 restaurants, a motel, and stopping several people walking to ask questions, hoping to find Max's location after the Garage where I made several phone calls to Steve Katz's number that never did answer...then finally going into a pub where I saw young people's pick up trucks parked outside..and getting lucky...because they were pretty sure they knew who it was I was looking for..I was about ready to give up...I'd never have found Max without them..!!! It was close to 4:00 P.M. when I drove up Max's hill...and I'd left my house at 9:A.M. !!!

After I left Max..telling him it was too much for me to take on...He indicated No problem..I had the problem...for days it's all I've been able to think about...I do know the Lady's too much for me...but the Country Coach is NOT..!!! I was never intimidated when I got behind the wheel of anyone of them..Maybe after I sell my house I'd even trade a Country Coach in on a Lady...if I live that long...but know this I will find a 90 or so Country Coach or one like it...maybe even a little older so I can have money enough to buy the mobile home in Fl..that I already know about and that would allow me to put my house on the market...and park my Bus on that property free...with taxes under 500 a yr...compared to the taxes I now pay of close to 5,000 a yr...

That trip took me over 13 hours..because it was pouring rain driving home most of the way trying to back track the Map Quest Print Out...Impossible..and delays on the interstates as the traffic was heavy with people trying to get home from work...so somehow I wound up in Washington...Pa..had to be because I hadn't crossed anybridges and you have to cross a bridge to get back into NJ..I finally found myself in Phila. proper...and a gas station attendant told me I was very near the Betsy Ross Bridge...I found that easily with his directions...and it brought me out at exit 4 on the NJ Tnpk...From there I knew my way home...arrived home at 11:30 P.M. never so exhaused in countless years...

Wanna laugh..Steve has another bus on his Website that I could handle...but would you want to deal with this man after what he's put me through..

Do you understand how I feel any better now..I hope so..

Hugs Always Viv..


Quote Originally Posted by Ray Davis View Post
HI Viv,

I hesitated in even writing this post, but you seemed as someone so determined to "live your dream", yet when you found a pretty great bus, you gave up on it really easily? I don't know, I'm going by memory here, but I thought you described a beautiful bus, but ..... (the but being the three things above).


Ray