WE FIND A BUS
With the decision made to do the trip, one way or another, the next thing was to decide on the best vehicle. We did a tonne of research, and decided, especially as we were bringing kids along, we need to do it in comfort. We went to every RV and caravan outlet we could find, went to all the caravan shows, read all the magazines we could get our hands on, but in the end, kept coming back to the bus idea.
We looked high and low for a bus, already converted into a motorhome. Some units we saw were ideal, but the motor was shot, others had a great motor but not the right layout for us. Then, there was the costs, some that were ideal were way out of our price range. In the end, we decided that to really get what we were after, we would have to do it ourselves. We have renovated plenty of houses,
How hard could it be?
So with a fading memory of the fact we sort of liked camping, the mechanical skill of a squirrel and absolutely no experience in motor home building, we went looking for an old bus. We searched half the country for the right one, and in the end we found the right bus just on our door step. I made a call to a local bus company and got onto Bob.
Bob was a straight shooter and straight to the point. He told me about a bus he had that he had just finished doing up, it had just completed 25 years of service and he had just fully rebuilt the engine. We went out to have a look at the bus. This was our second ‘ah ha’ moment. Michelle and I both knew this was the bus for us. And, as it turns out, Bob is a legend, and his knowledge and after market advice has been invaluable.
Honky arrives home.
There we were, a few weeks later, we had an old school bus in our driveway. I still had no idea how I was going to convert this thing into a motorhome, but I was ready to give it a go.
The first thing we had to do according to our daughter was to name it. Then, without hesitation she announced that it would be called ‘Honky’
To this day, we still have no idea why, but it stuck, and to this day, ‘Honky’ it is, and to this day, I wonder why I didn’t try to talk her out of it mainly because I have lost count of how many ‘honks’ we have received while driving along.
The Whole Honky Story
1. THE BEGINNING WITH HONKY THE BUS
