Despite what you may have read, life on the bus isn’t all fun and games. Sometimes you have to change filters in 100° heat (hi Mikey and Brian), sometimes you board the bus (poly-)saturated with grease after a fueling stop, and sometimes you have to ride the same bus with Andy when he’s forgotten to brush his teeth for a week (bleh). Like I said, not always our idea of a good time. And so we found ourselves in Grand Junction on the side of the road trying to change our brake pads.

Being the resourceful do-it-yourselfers we fancy ourselves to be, we’d gotten the appropriate socket-wrench head and, with the help of Brian’s “engineering stick” (a.k.a. a four-foot lead pipe), were struggling to loosen our lugnuts. Taking turns, the guys switched off jumping up and down on our homemade lever, rotating millimeters and sweating gallons.

Fortunately for us, Tom came to our aid. You see, in addition to being a helpful Samaritan, he also just happened to have spent seven years as a big-rig roadside mechanic changing out tires, among other things. He told us about his friend across town who was better equipped to deal with our situation, and so we found ourselves leaving D½ Ave. behind, headed for the residential part of Grand Junction, where we would meet a whole cast of characters and learn a great many life lessons, including:

Still, with their help, the day would’ve been much longer. Thank you guys!

And so we continued east through Colorado. Zabel got to relive his skibum days with his old roommate 'the Beav' while the rest of us put in some quality time with Nicholas Cage. After a quick interview with the Rocky Mountain News the following morning, we were off to Granby and my old camp, Camp Chief Ouray, to finish off our time in the mountains.

We ran into good friend Elliot Cooper almost as soon as we were there and commenced tossing the disc to pass the minutes until snacktime (mmm...chocolate milk). We spent the next hour or so giving tours of the bus, explaining the trip, and meeting the kids of CCO's Session 7.

After a rowdie dinner and impromptu Backstreet Boys song, we made our way to the barn for a wicky-wild-wild-wicky-wicky-wild-wild west dance, the best party we'd been to since '80s Night in Santa Barbara. We closed out the night with a late night hike up to the sage fields where we fell asleep under a meteor shower and woke up to the sun rising over the Continental Divide.

Thanks to Marty, Mary Ann, Cooper, Christy, Yurko, Paula, and everyone else back at camp for letting us hanging out. We had a blast!

- Forrest

With memories of shooting stars and camp love songs still in our heads, we left bright and early from Camp Chief Ouray. A short jaunt over the mountains took us to the Mile High City, where our first stop was the Whole Foods Store in Cherry Creek. In-Store Community Outreach Director Colleen gave a few of us a tour of their recycling and composting facilities, while others manned the bus at the store front to talk to interested customers about the Bus. It was the first time “since California” (that’s Bus terminology for an indeterminate amount of time, usually between one and three weeks) that we actually had shirts to sell, so that was exciting. After a couple busy hours and a quick refueling session, we were off to the Hanson household.

But first, Forrest declared, we had to stop at Bonnie Brae’s Ice Cream. Understand Forrest had been talking about Bonnie Brae’s since California (or maybe longer if that’s possible); needless to say, I had my doubts that the goods could live up to the hype. Ladies and gentlemen, I was wrong. Bonnie Brae’s and the Big Green Bus were joined in blissful harmony. We felt its loving embrace all the way through our 5k jog around the Hanson neighborhood led by Mitch “I ran a marathon, no big deal” Ermentrout. We wolfed down a delicious dinner at the Hanson household, and settled down in the evening for what would be our last night together in a while. What better way to spend it than watching Steve Martin and Eddie Murphy take on Hollywood in “Bowfinger.”

The next morning was bittersweet, as Lissa, Mitch, and Elliott had to leave us all for a couple weeks. Then the nine who remained realized the positive consequence of this loss… an extra 60 square feet of space on the Bus (“Gotcha suckas!”).

Most of the day was consumed in Bus upkeep, Rummikub, and DuffeyRolls. Later that afternoon, we headed to nearby Westland Park to meet with local members of the Dartmouth family, including our first interaction with incoming 2010’s. We also got to chat with a leading researcher involved in harvesting algae as a sustainable fuel, as well as a new convert to the veggie oil biz. That night we headed downtown to the 16 th Street Mall, where we “bumped into” some Camp Counselors from Chief Ouray (honestly, you didn’t fool anyone).

The next morning we bid the Hanson’s farewell and were off to the Boulder County Fair in Longmont. With the help of the DOE’s Natural Renewable Energies Laboratory, we secured a parking space in the Earth Discovery Zone, where the Big Green Bus was on display along with other vehicles running on alternative fuels. The fair was an opportunity to broaden our demographic to reach the ever growing llama population of Colorado, all of whom walked by our Bus at some point during the day. Other highlights included a set by Herman and the Hermits, Brian’s enrapturing experience at the cattle show, Viv and Mikey checking out the salsa tasting competition. By far, however, the biggest attraction at the fair must have been Roy, a ginormous steer parked directly across from the Bus. Guesses at his weight reached nearly 3000 lbs, raising the obvious question: in a Bus vs. Roy battle, who loses?

The children, probably.

- Andy