Shortly after Blue was settled into his new parking spot, I left Idaho. I needed to move home and get away from some things out here and figure out what I was going to do next (apply for jobs, spend time with family, etc.). I looked into ways to get Blue out to Florida with me but nothing was really going to work- I was in a rush and didn't have time to get it to the shop to have a few necessary repairs made, and it would cost over $3,000 to have the bus shipped to Florida. With all that said, I decided it would be best to leave Blue tucked away in the storage lot while I went home and figured things out, which turned out to be a great decision because three months later, I was moving back to Idaho for a new job at Clearwater Fish Hatchery in Ahsahka, Idaho. On my trip from Florida to the hatchery, I stopped in Boise to say hello to Blue, start him up, and make sure everything was good to go with that. As always, he started like a champ and all seemed well so I said goodbye and headed up to get settled into the new job.
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| Dropping Blue off at the Bus Doctor |
After getting into the swing of things with work, I checked in with my Supervisor (the hatchery manager) to see if I would be able to park Blue at the hatchery and work on it in my free-time. Thankfully he said yes and was actually really excited about the project so I took a three day weekend and went down to Boise with one of my coworkers to take Blue to the shop and get everything squared away for moving up North. The awesome crew at
Western Mountain Bus and Auto Sales took care of a leak in the rear axle, replaced the brakes as they had been saturated by the leak, and event went ahead and attached my new wiper blades for me. As always, it was a pleasure leaving Blue in their hands and I highly recommend the shop to anyone and everyone. All said and done, it cost me about $500 for the repairs, with labor being the bulk of it. (I am planning to eventually learn to to basic maintenance and repairs on my own, but at least in the beginning stages when I am on more of a time crunch, I'm fine paying a little extra and letting the professionals take care of things).
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| Snow is a great look for Blue |
We drove back down the following weekend to pick up Blue and drive back to the Hatchery. It was a long and snowy drive, but it went over without any problems. At one point, visibility was minimal with how heavy the snow fall was, but I lucked out and ended up driving right behind the snowplow, which made the mountain roads much easier to navigate and made the train of cars behind me far more understanding of the slow uphill speed at which we were going. Once we got through the initial snowy area, it was clear skies through Riggins (Blue's prior homeland) and up through WhiteBird. WhiteBird hill, however, presented its own challenge with how incredible steep it is- Blue chugged along slow and steady like the big giant snail he is. After clearing the hill, it was back to white-out snowy conditions where I couldn't tell if we were driving on the road or the fields. Thankfully, Blue is a beast and was unphased by the thick covering of snow we were blazing a trail through.
After a long, long day of driving we arrived at the Hatchery just before sundown, got Blue tucked away between two of the storage sheds in the back, and I took a much needed nap.
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| Cheers to Bus Life!! |
