Well I’m back home again and by home I mean Canada. I had left Vancouver BC but didn’t want to return there so I came to Calgary where I’ve got a friend that I’m staying with. The trip home was an interesting one. I left Slab City by the Salton Sea on a Monday and was going to try to get to Vegas the same day. I took a short cut through Joshua Tree Park and while I was supposed to pay I didn’t bother because I was only passing through and didn’t see the sense in coughing up $20 in order to shave an hour off of my route. Good thing I didn’t get caught. I guess they don’t take kindly to that short of thing as there were some other people pulled over by park rangers on the side of the road looking very guilty and I doubt they were smuggling dope from Cali into Nevada.

From the town of Joshua Tree I took a 2 lane highway, the 247, and along the way I passed a lady who looked like she was having some problems so being the good VW cat that I am, I pulled over. Well being the daft VW cat that I can be sometimes too I didn’t quite understand that her problem was that she was stuck in the soft shoulder on the side of the road which is where I ended up. A few good sammaritans later and I was on my merry way again. One of the guys who stopped explained to his buddy in spanish that I had stopped to help but had gotten stuck myself. The guy laughed and said that while my heart was in the right place, my tires weren’t.

The 247 hooked me up with the 15 which took me on through the night as far as Baker where I was hit with those crazy Mojave winds. I pulled into a truck stop and spent the night surrounded by rigs that were also avoiding the wind. Next morning I rolled out of Baker and stopped at the top of a long hill at a small truck stop for a coffee. It was here that I saw the highest price I’ve ever seen for gas. They wanted 4.29 per gallon. No, that is not a typo.

I got into Vegas a cruised down the strip with my Frank Sinatra CD cranked up. Got a lot of smiles and waves from people. I had time to kill as I was meeting up with Eric later who was going to give me a hand with some timing issues that I was having. We hooked up later that night and I was able to meet his lovely family including a very inquisitive and curious daughter named Alex. She’s a real sweetheart and very much in love with busses. With the timing all straightened out I blew out of Vegas at around 9 that night and ended up being able to drive as far as the turn off for the Valley of Fire before having to pull over and get some sleep…at another truck stop.

The next day the 15 took me up to elevations of around 6000 ft and a freaking snowstorm! Shit…wasn’t I hanging out in nothing but shorts just two days ago? What a change. Awful weather took me into Salt Lake City and then, just beyond, it cleared up and I was geared and awake for a nice long night of driving. Until…BLOODY WIND!! Again I had to pull into a truck stop and spent the night cause I was getting chucked around so much.

I slept kind of late but rolled on anyway. That day I cruised through the eastern side of Idaho (french fry anyone?) and into Montana. I had a hell of a time with headwinds in Idaho and was crawling along at about 40 MPH. It was hard to tell but I was climbing as well and then, as the sun was setting I saw a herd of a few hundred elk and a sign saying Continental Divide, Welcome to Montana. For the folks that are from Idaho and Montana, you have incredibly beautiful states with everything from quaint valleys, to plains to high mountains. I can’t wait to get back.

After the long drive to the Continental Divide I started downwards and was very low on gas after fighting the headwinds so I pulled into a small town, Lima, to fill up. Sorry bud, powers out. No gas. 8:00 at night and there’s no way I’m sleeping here cause it’s fricking cold so I make a run for Dillon, the next big town, and hope that the bus is going to make it the 40 miles. I’m getting closer and getting confident. Then I see the Exxon sign. Now I normally wouldn’t buy at Exxon given their environmental record but at this point I would have bought gas from Sadams Petrol and Torture Emporium if I had to. So I see the sign, I turn off the highway and…and….putter putter poot. Damn. So close. Grab the jerry can and start walking. I’m not on the road 2 minutes when this monster 2007 Subaru pulls over and gives me a lift to the gas station and back again! Wow! I say to the guy, thanks for the lift in but you really didn’t have to drive me back out as well. “Are you kidding,” he said, “I sold a 71 bus just last year, you think I was gonna leave a VW brutha high and dry?”

Very cool. So that night I make it as fas as Butte and decide to crash there. It’s damn friggin cold too but I have a pile of blankets so I cover up in another truck stop and sleep like a baby until around 8. Time to roll, the last push into Calgary. Brush my teeth at the gas station, grab a coffee and….bus won’t start. Dude in a rig pulls over but he can’t figure it out so I call AAA. The guy from AAA comes out, hops out of his truck and yells, “Fucking classic!!!! You never see these around here!” Turns out he had bought a crew cab from a farmer for $200, tunes it up a bit, new plugs, flushed it and bam…started right up. He sold it on Ebay for $5500. Good deal. Anyway, he boosted the bus and that’s all it was, dead battery. Something is arcing somewhere because I didn’t leave anything on overnight.

My last day on the road was a long one but was uneventful. I did meet a dude at a rest stop who was traveling around the country teaching people that evolutionism and creationism work together. Nice enough guy for a religious fanatic. He asks if I’ll be on his travel blog with my bus. Sure. He gets out the camera and I introduce myself, “Hi, I’m Scott and this is my 1973 bus…Dante…the Hell Rider.” Should have seen the look on the guys face. As I was driving away Holy Wars from Megadeth came on. I love coincidence.

So I got into Calgary at around midnight, roughly 5 days since leaving Slab City, and was in dire need of a shower. I’ll be here for about 5 months and then I’m rolling again. This 3 and a half month run was a good one though and I really enjoyed the U.S. I have a whole new respect for America and the people that reside there whether they’re right wing, christian gun nuts or left wing, bleeding heart, pinko commies…I love em all and I love the country. I’m really looking forward to rolling down the center next time I head out and spending a goodly amount of time in Montana and Idaho. I’ve said it once but I’ll say it again, incredibly beautiful country and very, very kind and considerate people.

That all from me, apologies for the length of the tale but if you kept reading then you must have enjoyed some of it and if you didn’t and kept ready anyway then you’re as daft as I am. See yas!!

Scott and Dante the Snow Covered