Test Drive

We took our first foray into the wilderness this weekend with the bus. Sort of a test drive to see how everything works, which, honestly has kind of worried me since we bought it for the ridiculously low price of $1,200, and we didn't bother to take it to a mechanic first and have it checked out, or really did anything more than turn on the lights and the engine and ran it though the gears to make sure they all worked.

For the test drive we decided to head out to our favorite hot springs located on the Idaho/Oregon border on the Owyhee River. Snively Hot Springs (http://www.idahohotsprings.com/destinations/snively/) is a 79 mile drive from where we are staying in Boise (each way) and I thought it would make the perfect test run. It's far enough out of town to make it a good test, but close enough that if things went wrong we would be able to call someone to come help us. Besides, it's a fucking hot springs and we can soak all day and night! Well, technically it closes at sundown, but I rarely pay attention to that kind of stuff, and so far I have been lucky in that I have never been caught. Besides, I honestly think stupid rules like "closed at night" need to be broken. Look at it this way: the hot springs is on public land and belongs to the public, the people that patrol said public land are "public servants" who are paid by the taxes we pay, therefore they work for US, and if we (the people who pay their salary) say that we want the hot springs open at night for us to use it, then that should be our right. Just because some other dumbasses came along at some point in history and abused that right and left the hot springs a mess, does not mean that we will do the same. That's like saying "oh sorry, you can't have a gun because at one time a serial killer used a gun." Fuck that. The hot springs belongs to us, which is why I have no problem breaking stupid rules like that. (End of rant.)


Anyway, Friday while I am sitting at work I was all the sudden like "Damn, I want to go to the hot springs." So I texted Candy and we decided to go ahead and just do it. (I love being spontaneous like that.) So we packed up the bus, grabbed some food to take along and hit the road.

Well ... almost.

The first problem we did discover was that a couple of warning buzzers would not stop going off. Buzzer #1 was by the back door, and is meant as a signal that the back door is locked (the back door can't be locked when the vehicle is moving. I'm thinking it's a safety issue if the school bus was full of children and the bus crashed, it has to be available as an emergency exit.) So Candy, being handy with a screwdriver (handy Candy ... lol) pulled the cover off the buzzer and disconnected it. Buzzer #2 was basically the same thing but located at the front of the bus. We did the same thing and disconnected it also. What worries me though is that neither buzzer was going off the first time I moved the bus, right after we bought it. Guess we will find out later on down the road if either of these is going to be an issue.

Once we got that all sorted out, we did finally hit the road. The buzzer thing might have been a blessing in disguise, because we ended up missing all the Friday night after-work, rush-hour traffic that is usually an issue between Boise and Nampa. We had a clear shot and didn't have to change lanes a bunch of times, which, if truth be told, was a big relief to me as I haven't really driven anything this big since my Air Force days when I used to haul Nukes, and that was damn near 30 years ago.

One thing we need to figure out is either how to make a gate that keeps our 100#+ dog, Sadie, from being right in my face when I am driving ... OR ... at the very least a shoulder pad and sleeve that I can wear to keep all the drool off my shoulder and arm.

We were very fortunate to have such a beautiful evening for the drive out there. The weather was a perfect 80 degrees, and there were just enough clouds in the sky to make for an awesome sunset.

We didn't make it to the hot springs until well after dark, which was a little bit hairy on some of those curvy back-hill, one-lane roads, but we made it without a hitch. Well, at least until we got there and I overshot the parking lot in the dark and had to back down the road about 50 yards in the dark.

Reminder to self ... fix the back up lights, and/or install a video backup system so I can see where the fuck I am backing up in the dark.

I would have taken more pics of the hot springs itself, but for one my camera is broken, and for two I wasn't about to take my phone down near the water and have it break also, so instead I'm just gonna post an old pic I have taken of the hot springs here, and if you have seen it before, just ignore it. (Taken last January.)

All-in-all it was a very successful weekend, although we had planned on staying until Sunday morning before we left to go back to town, we ended up leaving Saturday evening and driving halfway back to Boise because of all the damn flies that kept harassing us all weekend. That will teach us to park anywhere close to the outhouse!

The reason we only drove halfway back Saturday night is because we stopped at a truck stop and had dinner in the restaurant, and afterwards I was like "Fuck it. I'm full. I'm tired. We have a bed. Let's just sleep here." So we did.

We arrived back in Boise about 7am this morning, which was a good thing because we needed to back down the street where we are staying, and to do that we have to cross a busy thoroughfare that is usually packed with cars ... BY BACKING ACROSS THE ROAD. Proved to be no problem at 7am on a Sunday morning.

Well, that's it for now. Future plans include waiting til next payday (Oct. 5) so that we can buy wood flooring and install it.

The adventure continues ....

#skoolie #hotsprings #snively #testdrive #owyheeriver #offgridliving #schoolbus #idaho/oregon