30 Cents A Day

Okay, it's another rambling post from this olelongrooffan. But this time instead rambling all over the place, this one is about my olestationbus.

You Counters remember my olestationbus, don't ya?

It is a 1963 Ford Falcon Station Bus built in Lorainne, Ohio in October, 1962 and adorned in Corinthian White paint.
It sports 13" tires powered by a 170 cubic inch inline six cylinder, an engine utilized by Ford Motor Company from the early '50's through 1974.

My relationship with my olestationbus began two years, one month, and one week ago.

This olelongrooffan, after having spent a memorable couple weeks with my fantastic relatives in the Ozarks, well, I was Jones-ing them about all the cool stuff they have, as well as the Kid and his cool old CJ5, was surfing around ebay looking for something cool.

It was during the third week in July, 2008 that I stumbled upon the olestationbus at auction out in San Antonio, Texas. This olelongrooffan, who has to get all of his automotive purchases approved by thejeepjunkie, promptly called thejeepjunkie directed him to that auction and asked if it could be acquired for two grand can I get? Please? Please?
Well Counters, he approved that purchase and just a week or so later, this olelongrooffan had his fat *ss sitting in the back of a Lincoln Town Car heading to the airport down in MickeyMouseLand to catch a flight to The Lone Star State to drive my new longroof home to The Birthplace of Speed.
And while that adventure was not as much fun as my On The Road, By The Numbers experience a few weeks prior, this olelongrooffan was still able to Celebrate Life on that road trip and even consumed a couple "Tommy Lee" sandwiches and a Diet Coke or two while updating my On The Road, In The olestationbus series of blogs.

I have to tell you, this olelongrooffan sure enjoyed my adventures with my olestationbus. I am thrilled thejeepjunkie was able to get it a Shiny New Coat after my adventures with Manuel Labor right at a year ago.
And a chuckle is emitted every time I think about my olestationbus and its Lug Nutz.
And fondly remember its time as a jeep parts warehouse and visiting with the, sadly no longer with us, Original Jeep Junkie, Grandpa George in his field of dreams.
I also appreciate having family around to come to the rescue of this sorry *ss olelongrooffan more than once.
And the memories of the times at Belaire Plaza with the Kid and thejeepjunkie will last this olelongrooffan the rest of my life.
Nestled closely with the Kid's CJ5 down under the big bridge fishing, swapping stories and watching hoons from Georgia on vacation.
And, while you Counters might have, this olelongrooffan will always fondly reminise about my adventures chasing ckickadees down
on The World's Most Famous Beach.
Well, I am confident you can digest the past tense mood of this post.

The reason for this is that this olelongrooffan sold my olestationbus on Craigslist on Saturday.

Yeah Counters, after 757 days of ownership, the olestationbus has moved on to find continued adventures with a new owner.

Now, just a little background.

Hold on, thejeepjunkie just called and needs something this olelongrooffan has around the Taj Mahal and I'm heading over to bring it to him. I get some images for ya. Be back soon.

Okay, I'm back. A blog about that will be available shortly.

If You Have Been Counting Along With Me, you know this olelongrooffan's home, the Taj Mahal, is located less than two blocks from the Atlantic Coastline here in the Birthplace of Speed. As a result, rust is a commodity well known to this olelongrooffan. Since the olestationbus has gotten a Shiny New Coat with the newly painted wheels and the chrome hub caps, it has been a source of pride and joy for this olelongrooffan.

Recently however, I have noticed it was starting to regain some surface rust and on its nose, a small hole had rusted through the metal.

Well, reluctantly, this olelongrooffan decided to put my olestationbus on that ever wonderful website known as Craigslist.

It had previously been listed on Craigslist with no success so I dropped the price and listed it again, just over a month ago.

I had not had anyone email or call me about it until Friday evening when I received an email from the ultimate buyer and we struck a deal. The new buyer wanted to come up from Melbourne, Florida (about 90 minutes south of here) on Saturday afternoon to look it over. I told him fine and that Benjamins were required to cut a deal. No problem and what about delivery. I mentioned I could meet him about half way there for a certain price and he countered with a larger number to deliver it to Melbourne. No problem was my response and we signed off.
Lo and behold, Saturday afternoon Nick, with his Mom and wife in tow, shows up and turns over several Benjamins to confirm the olestationbus was really to be his and we were set.

So they take off and this olelongrooffan calls thejeepjunkie and the conversation goes something like this:

Hey jeepjunkie, whatcha doing?

Just cleaning under the lid of my washing machine. You?

Wondering if you are up for a road trip to Melbourne this afternoon?

Why in the h*ll would I want to go to Melbourne except for one of Taylor's ball games?

To shuttle this olelongrooffan's sorry *ss home from the new home of my olestationbus.

You sold it?

Yea and got pretty near what I wanted out of it.

Longroof, are you going to drive it down?

Yeah, don't really want to but I guess I can leave a couple hours before you and head down US 1 and we should get there about the same time.

You want to trailer it down instead?

H*ll yeah, jeepjunkie, that roadtrip would certainly be blog worthy.

longroof, let me make a couple phone calls and I'll get back with you.

So thejeepjunkie calls the guy who drives one of these and also owns The Big Red Truck

then he calls the guy who drives one of these and also owns a cherry flatbed car hauling trailer.
A few minutes later, thejeepjunkie calls me and tells me to meet him in the Walmart parking lot at Beville and Nova road. "I'll get the truck and the trailer is located three blocks from that Walmart. That way we don't need to double back to pick your olestationbus up," he commented.

See ya then jeepjunkie.

So, at the appointed hour, after google mapping our destination, packing a cooler filled with our favorite carbonated beverages and making sure my el cheapo 28 dollar ebay digital camera was in operating condition, this olelongrooffan jumped in my olestationbus for the 25 minute drive down to that WallyWorld.
Our original plan was for thejeepjunkie to stop and pick me up and we would go get the trailer together.

As is usual in typical Lee Boys fashion, plans are always subject to change.

While this olelongrooffan thought he had another 25-30 miles of gas left in that gaugeless fuel tank, my olestationbus proved me wrong.

Well, I was able to coast into that WallyWorld parking lot and find a cozy resting space.

I called thejeepjunkie to apprise him of matters, grabbed that plastic red tank from the rear cargo area and hoofed it over to the corner gas station for five dollars worth of petrol.

I returned to the olestationbus started to pour the gas into the tank and realized this, never before used by me, gas can had a broken collar and as much gas was pouring out on to the macadam parking lot as was going into the tank. Eventually, I got about two thirds of the contents of that can into my olestationbus and got in to fire it up.

Normally when the olestationbus is warmed up, it takes awhile to crank back up. In this case it wasn't starting at all. I popped the doghouse cover to see if there was any fuel in the carb and noticed one of the radiator hoses had come loose.

Holy Cr*p Batman!

I promptly called thejeepjunkie to twitter an update as this olelongrooffan was heading into the horror of horrors that is Walmart, to buy a screwdriver (ended up with a set), some coolant and a new gas can as one was included with the sale of my olestationbus. thejeepjunkie said no worries, get it running, I'll go get the trailer and come on back for you.

And I got it running and thejeepjunkie got the trailer.

Upon driving up he asked "Is it running?"

Yep.

Good let's get it on this ultra deluxe trailer.
And we did.

And we set off for the Eisenhour Highway System and got southbound and down.

After getting thejeepjunkie and this olelongrooffan a cold sodie pop, I noticed we were cruising at almost 80 miles per hour.

"Sh*t dude," I exclaimed! "We are almost going 80!"

No worries longroof. This Big Red Truck can handle it. I just hope the windshield of your olestation bus doesn't blow out.

This has got to be the fastest speed your olestationbus has ever been!!
And we laughed for about 10 miles!!
He then looks over at me and says, "H*ll, this is probably the fastest speed YOU'VE been in ten years."

And we got a laugh for another ten miles.

And yes, we hit the ubiquitous Florida summertime thunder storm.

Four different times.
As we were driving through "Historic Downtown" Melbourne, thejeepjunkie spotted this bell outside a church and briefly pondered grabbing it for a certain farm or impliment filled backyard up in the Ozarks.

We decided to pass. As this olelongrooffan pointed out, "If I'm going to hell, it is gonna be for stealing a billion dollars, not an old bell no matter how cool it is." thejeepjunkie agreed.

So we got to the new home of my olestationbus and this olelongrooffan climbed into the driver's seat of that cab forward creation and cranked that massive 170 cubic inch motor over.

Well not really, it turns out I hadn't really gotten as much gas in it as I had thought and it was Out Of Gas.

The Honest To God Truth!

So I turn to the new owner and ask if he has any gas. Nope. He then mentions he'll go get some. I pull that virgin gas can from the cargo area and start to walk to his car. He says, "Don't worry I'll get it. After all, I'm going to be using it."

So I started walking around my olestationbus looking at it for one last time and reminising about the blast it has been to own.

I noticed that small rust hole on the nose
did not fare well under the onslaught of near 80 mile per hour winds.
And that San Antonio, Texas Pep Boy acquired stick on driver's side mirror
was totally AWOL and its current location will never be known by this olelongrooffan.
thejeepjunkie did manage to get the final image of me and my olelongrooffan while Nick was out getting gasoline for it.
He returned and I gassed it up and started it up and removed it from that mack daddy trailer.

Just after Nick handed me the remainder of the Benjamins to finalize this transaction, this olelongrooffan got an image of the happy new owner of my olestationbus.
thejeepjunkie and this olelongrooffan beat it the h*ll out of there and returned the borrowed vehicles and got back to the Taj Mahal around ten o'clock on Saturday evening elated but totally exhausted.

thejeepjunkie had himself one of those beverages he likes so much while this olelongrooffan iced down some of my favorite beverage and we congratulated each other on a job well done.

Now I am certain You Counters Out There are wondering what the title of this post is referring to.

Well, it is like this. If you take what this olelongrooffan had invested in my old olestationbus and deducted the sale price of it from that total, the amount equals $227.26. I owned it for 757 days.

That means, Counters, this olelongrooffan drove my old olestationbus for 30 cents a day.

Overall, a d*mn fine investment that allows this olelongrooffan to really

Celebrate Life.