Where Are They Now? - Greg

The last we heard of Greg's 1951 White bus, it was nestled along side his home in Eugene, serving as a guest house, and bug-out shelter from the stresses of family life.

After his marriage and the birth of his daughter, Greg's spouse accepted a job in Tacoma, and the family uprooted and moved to Washington State. Among the possessions greg sold off were is beloved 1964 Chevy Nova, lots of tools, and his bus.

In placing the ad for the sale of the bus, Greg consulted me on the asking price, and I took a number of interior photos to send to prospective purchasers, eventually selling it to a young couple who intended to move it to Missouri. They put a lot of time and money into the bus, having the brake system completely rebuilt by a truck service shop, six new tires, engine parts, etc. Greg and I assisted them as much as possible in getting the bus ready for a road trip, and the husband made a solo trip to Oregon pick up the bus.

Stephen set off in December to cross the country to deliver his new bus to it's home. He got as far as Ontario, Oregon when the bus started to miss. We never quite it figured out, but it seemed like a simple problem.

We never did understand what the problem with the engine was. Greg always kept it loosened up, running it often. It always started right up. The carb had been replaced with a Quadrajet, so there was plenty of fuel to move the bus around. The only thing we know for sure was that the buyer (Stephen) said he was not able to find the proper spark plugs, and had "found some that worked", although the plug in #6 cylinder kept getting it's gap closed, presumably by the top of the piston hitting it a tiny bit.

When the bus "broke down" in Ontario, Stephen said he looked in the cylinder and found "valve spring pieces", which is simply impossible. Greg and I both encouraged him to pull the head off (flat head engines are easy) and have a look inside, but he seemed certain that the engine was destroyed.

Stephen insisted that it was major engine damage and stored the bus in a self-store lot. We heard stories from him of purchasing a diesel bus and transplanting the engine into the White, but nothing was ever done.

It all seemed really odd, to fly serveal times to Oregon and back, pay for the bus, put all that money into it to get it ready for the trip, to leave at the beginning of winter, when the roads were about as bad as they could be, and then to abandon the bus without even a weak effort to find out what was wrong, if anything.

Now, here's where it starts to get weird:

A couple of years later, the state decided to redo the overpass and bridge at the interchange where the storage lot was. Reports were that the storage lot had been emptied, and the fencing taken down, but the bus had been abandoned when the yard emptied, and the road building crews built the new asphalt almost right up to where the bus was sitting. Eventually, the bus disappeared, and the story appeared to come to an end.

Some years after that, Greg got a call from someone who had been storing the bus and who wanted to know if he'd be willing to sign a title for it, as the buyer had abandoned it without ever changing ownership.

So, somewhere near Ontario, Greg's bus, with all those new parts and a nice, cozy house on the back, is sitting on someone's property. That is unless it has been made road worthy and is out traveling somewhere....

Thanks to the Nomadicista Forum for research material for this post