Big Blue's Adoption Story

In early July I was driving back to Boise from my birthday trip up in Northern Idaho. When I was passing through Riggins, I drove by a park and sell lot where this beautiful blue bus was sitting. I almost missed it because I was so focused on getting home, but I caught a glimpse of it at the last second and turned around to check it out. It was unlocked so I spent some time climbing around inside and looking under the hood. The bus looked to be in great shape and it was the exact size I was looking for!

I figured it would be WAY out of my price range, but I took down the number on the for sale sign and figured I would give it a call when I got back into cell service just on the off-chance I was wrong.
Before I even started to unpack from the trip I called the number and was greeted by a guy named  Matt. Turns out, Matt owns a rafting company (Wild River Adventures) in Riggins and was selling the bus because he didn't have space for it, it was bigger than what he needed for running rafting trips, and he need the money to fix one of his other rigs. He gave me the scoop on the bus and told me that it was in pretty great shape with the exception of the fact that he was not sure how to get the on-board AC running. To my surprise, his asking price ($2,000) was well within what I was expecting to spend. I excitedly told him that I could be up there that weekend to check it out and (hopefully) take it off his hands.

I jumped right into calling the bank to figure out how to withdraw enough cash to pay for the bus with my bank not existing in Idaho, and researching insurance and info on registering and titling the bus so that I would be ready for the weekend. After I had gotten all of my ducks in a row, my boyfriend at the time drove me up to Riggins so that I would be able to drive the bus home without leaving my car stranded. When we arrived, Matt was incredibly friendly and took us down to the lot to officially meet the bus. He showed me how to start it, how to prime the air brakes and all the other little quirks the bus had before taking us for a ride. When it was time to turn around, he let me take the wheel to get a feel for it myself. I IMMEDIATELY ran over a bloated dead skunk. (To be fair, I had tried to avoid it but I was new to bus driving and my spatial awareness was not yet adjusted). I parked it across from the raft shop and Matt left me alone to have some time to look over the bus without him lurking over my shoulder. I crawled around underneath it to check for rust (there was none that I could see) and decided I was gonna go for it!

I ran across the street and asked Matt if he would take $1500 instead of the $2000 he was originally asking. He told me that another guy had offered that but was kind of a jerk, so he told him no, but that he was willing to let me have it for that price because I was nice and he was excited at the idea of what I had planned for the bus. I all but threw my money at Matt I was so excited. We got all of the paperwork taken care of and he sent me on my way.
I was now the proud new owner of a Big Blue Bus!

Getting Big Blue home was an adventure all in itself! Check back in for the next blog post to find out about what a time that was!