the slow boat to New Orleans

I left Austin Sunday evening with the bus running perfectly on diesel, an improved coolant wrap on the veggie filter and a broken rib (i think).

I'm going to run on diesel until I get the veggie tank cleaned out and the oil refiltered. I think I've been using poorly filtered oil to often to save time and that may have contributed to the injectors gluing themselves shut.

Friday night MK, Rene & Jim and I went out scamming free beer from the multitude of free parties at the South By SouthWest festival. 12 hours later on the bicycle ride home. MK's chain got tangled in the glow stick now wrapped around her wheel and it broke her derailer. While trying to give her a push from behind so that she could keep rolling down the road... I decided to tackle the concrete. Initially I was very worried about my shoulder which now appears to be fine. My ribs however have gotten more painful each day and today I was gifted a few Vicadins. yeah!

I decided to take a short side trip to hang out with a guy that I owe a lot of sleepful nights to. Marcus was my first DVD club subscriber and kicked in a fair chunk of change to fix my injectors. WHY? Well for 1) he and his significant other are currently on their first RV working road trip because they've been inspired by my travels; and for 2) they think what I'm doing is important... So, I thought I should meet these people. '~)

The Bus is Being Held for Ransom

The bus was found to be harboring 3 completely useless fuel injectors and 1 that still worked. This was likely due to using poorly filtered oil and allowing it settle in the tank for a month while we were in Slab City. I'll be draining and refiltering the oil left in the tank before using it.

It's fixed up and ready to go as soon as I Pay Da Man 2,100. Online Donations and Pledges are at 1,500. I should be back on the road Tuesday or Wednesday depending on when the money clears and when I get paid again.

Courage

I finally got the courage to take the bus in to the shop. I'm sitting here in the parking lot waiting for them to look at it... maybe not until tomorrow. The guy that worked on before has moved to another location. They're going to give me their best "out of the box" thinker.