Entry# 3 Committing to the Project

Buying the Bus

After being shown around the five different Double Decker Buses on John’s property, I honed in on bus 246. This bus was bright red, had minimal decals to remove considering the other buses and started like a top! After discussing with John the street worthiness of the bus, I told John I would buy the bus with one requirement, he finds me a driver. Since the bus has airbrakes, I can not drive it. The bus also has no power steering and a very low gear pattern, so I needed a driver who had experience with a bus and the skills to successfully make the trip of the bus's career!

So John put together a call sheet of all the previous drivers in the area, and one by one went through the list offering the job. Meanwhile, I went back to Victoria to see just how easily I would be able to get the bus on the road. Hoping to get a better understanding of the legally of insuring the bus I went to ICBC. This ended up being a huge step backwards, as nobody in the office could make sense of my request and had a very hard time getting past the idea of my trip. I was told I would need a commercial vehicle number, commercial vehicle inspection, airbrakes inspection, pilot car, and some other hooplawe. This information was very discouraging as the thought of putting a vehicle from the 60s through a commercial vehicle inspection and expecting it to pass is ridiculous! Once I returned to John with this information, he informed me of a great loophole in the system. Simply move the bus on day permits, which includes insurance and somehow avoid all those other stipulations. Although this seems like a gaping hole in a system designed to insure road safety, it fit my needs just fine.

John also tells me that he has found a driver who drove bus 246 for years while it was in service as a tour bus in Victoria. John has set up that I will pick the driver, Doug, up in Victoria in the morning and then the two of us will drive to Sooke to get the bus. Doug will drive the bus and I will tail him in my pickup just incase something goes wrong. But before all that can take place, I need to make the official purchase of the bus and get it in my name. Unfortunately, John and I have gotten so carried away bullshitting that the time really gets away on us. By the time we arrive at the insurance broker they are literally closing the doors. We promise it will be a quick, easy, normal transaction to get us in the door. Once they allow us in and we sit down at the ladies desk we then tell her that its actually a fairly complex purchase and the day permits situation for insurance is alittle confusing. Fortunately, the Broker seems to know John and is willing to figure out the process with us. After about an hour in the insurance office, everything is all said and done, and the bus is in my name. Then it hits me, I have to get this huge unknown of a bus across two major mountain highways and a ferry. Whats more is I only have a day to do it, as my wildfire fighting contract in Northern BC starts in 2 days!