I am a VW lover and owned a bus for a few years. I now have a wonderful bug.
A great place to look for VWs is http://www.thesamba.com/vw/
Or you could always get a new one in Brazil :-)
Leslie Zolman
From: Jim McAndrew j...@loc8.us
To: Eric Wolf ebw...@gmail.com
Cc: talk-us@openstreetmap.org
Sent: Thu, August 26, 2010 3:07:04 PM
Subject: Re: [Talk-us] GeoBus Discussion
I am planning on another phone meeting tonight at 8:00pm:
Thursday August 26, 2010
8:00PM EDT
Call in number: 218-486-3891 x663610833
I will try to get the minutes into this email as soon as the conversation is
over, so we can keep the discussion going here.
Katie had some good questions, so I'm going to try to answer them here:
When do you think this would happen? Duration? Would anyone really be
available for the entire duration? or just portions?
I think the Bus will be a symbol of the project, and will be flexible enough
that it can do a month long trip, but also be used for smaller trips.
Agree with the concerns over costs and burden of maintenance. Do we really
want to maintain something in the long-term? What about renting a vehicle?
Considering the costs of ownership, perhaps this might be a better option?
Having a Bus as a marking symbol is the way we want to go. Eric Wolf has
some
good information on VW buses. A lot of it is kind of scary. We did discuss
renting a van for a short time. I'm not sure of how that would work, but it's
not a bad idea.
Also, what about taking Amtrak across the country? (always been interested in
doing this) Amtrak offers unlimited passes for 15 days, 30 days, or 45 days
of
travel. They also have good group specials and perhaps we could lower the
costs.
I had a roommate in college that did this one summer, he had some great
stories.
I would also be happy doing car trips at a smaller scale, doing outreach at
universities and engaging people, (e.g. ambassadors, trainers) and scheduling
things during weekends.
In reality, not sure how much vacation time I would have for this anyway,
versus
other ways of spending vacation time.
That is a major problem with it, and people would probably each only do a short
stint on the bus.
I'll keep these in mind for the discussion tonight, and I hope to talk to some
of you there! I'll be back with the meeting minutes before tomorrow.
--
Jim McAndrew
On Tue, Aug 24, 2010 at 1:23 PM, Eric Wolf ebw...@gmail.com wrote:
Just to jump in here... As a former owner of a '74 VW Bus, I can tell you that
there are serious positives and negatives to going that route.
First, the positives:
1. If you can find someone not wanting to rape you, they can be purchased
fairly
cheap ~ $2500 for a decent camper. However, decent doesn't mean the same thing
here as it would for any newer vehicle. That means:
a. Engine runs well enough to get it home.
b. Minimal rust through (straight frame, no undercarriage rust)
c. Interior isn't hideously gross (and I'm not just talking 70s plaid gross)
2. They get pretty good gas mileage (~ 20mpg) and are fun to drive once you
get
used to it. They are amazingly easy to parallel park! Very short wheel-base.
3. Style + Substance - better than a schoolbus
4. There is a great network of people to help you WHEN you break down:
http://www.type2.com/rescue/
5. You will be a decent mechanic after owning one
Second, the negatives:
1. 90% of the buses for sale now are in the rape category. I'm talking
$11,000
for a vehicle with 150K miles?!? If you want a classic 21-window, you'll spend
at least $5K for a rolling body and no engine.
2. Be sure to clean it thoroughly. If you have a friend in the police
department, ask them if you can have a drug dog check it for you. There are
about a billion places to hide (or lose) drugs in a VW bus. You don't want to
get pulled over by an over-zealous redneck cop and then find out there's a
kilo
of cocaine in some hidden corner.
3. You get good gas mileage because you won't be going fast. The semis will be
blowing past you. It will be life in the slow lane.
4. You will be a decent mechanic after owning one because you will do repairs
on
the side of the road. I always had the necessary tools with me in the bus to
remove the engine on the side of the road. Fortunately, I only ever had to do
this in my driveway.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ebwolf/269029370/
-Eric
-=--=---===---=--=-=--=---==---=--=-=-
Eric B. Wolf 720-334-7734
On Sun, Aug 22, 2010 at 1:20 PM, Jim McAndrew j...@loc8.us wrote:
Blars,
I do realize that the telephone format is inconvenient to a lot of people,
especially considering time zones and availability. It is a good suggestion
to
move it to an email list.
As far as the amount of work involved, we know that getting an old school bus
is
expensive and won't be easy. The mileage, insurance, and fuel cost
