The Fantastic Veggie Bus!

Hello everyone!!! I feel so far away out here without cell phone service! We are in Wisdom trying to get the hay put up. It has been wet though so it is not going as fast as everyone would like. The days do get long though so it is nice to have some half days even if it does slow us down. Chris is running the hoist that takes the hay up the beaverslide, I am on a wheelrake, and Ema is on a 4-wheeler. We spend a lot of time being very dirty! Greasy, I mean, and other generally grimy things. One of the 3 restaurants in town is saving all their grease to pick up on our way out. On the way here we developed a small pin size hole in the heater hoses that goes to the heater core in one of the filtering barrels that is kept in the "garage" or "filtration station" portion of our bus. Therefore it began leaking water into the barrel. We added more water before we realized what was going on. This forced the grease, because the barrel was full, to spill out onto the floor. The mess didn't get to big before we caught it but that is just one more reason to NEVER USE OLD HEATER HOSES! I miss everyone! And I can't wait till we have cell phone service again! ---tiff

Well, I called the Missoulian but because the city buses here run off biodiesel I couldn't seem to get the editor to hear that we don't run biodiesl but straight vegetable oil. Or maybe she just didn't find it that interesting. Either way regardless of the fact that lots of people recommended that we call the Missoulian, they didn't bite. Oh Well. If we get a chance to come back after haying we will call another alternative kind of paper here called the Independent and see what they think. We hopefully will also take the bus around town a little today so those that are interested can take a gander and ask some questions.
Tommorrow (sunday) we leave for Wisdom where we will be until the end of haying season. I know we won't have cell phone service and I have been unable to find a MSN dial-up access number for that town so I'm not sure about having any interenet access while we are there.
Yesterday we went to the Muesum of Mountain Flying, the SmokeJumper School, and this big hand carved carousel that goes fast and makes you fell giddy.
This town has to be filled with some of the friendlies people anywhere. It is hard to leave.
So tommorrow we will be crossing the continental divide again....go bus go!

After the reunion we spent 2 night in Hot Springs, MT soaking in well, the hot springs of course. We camped at the Symes Hotel and met so many wonderful people. We also got to see my Aunt and her sig. other play there in the evening. It was really a wonderful experience and we got lots of questions and excitment about the bus. One great lady even left 5 dollars in our bus with a note on it. She said she just wanted to give a little something toward this journey. I thought that was so sweet. It was half of the tips she had made that day. Don't worry though she doesn't work for only tips! :)
Now we are in Missouola again spending alot of time at the rivers and on our bicycles. It is so beautiful out here.
Soon we will call the Missoulian and see if they are interested in doing an article. After that we will be heading to Wisdom to work on a hay crew for 3 or 4 weeks.
I am so happy to say that the bus has just not missed a lick lately. As we crossed the Continental Divide, we kept a steady pace while Chris whispered sweet nothings to the engine and gently stroked the dash.
Ema seems to be entering her own skin these days. She is very relaxed and happy.
I have now figured out how to use this wonderful laptop that Gretchen lent to us, so as long as I have a phone jack, I can post. I never received the pics from the Bozeman photographer and I have not been able to get mine from my camera to this laptop. I will keep trying though!
We hope everyone is happy and healthy back home. We miss you!
tiff

We made it to Bigfork, MT and we have been at our family reunion this week. Our bus is running great and getting more attention than ever. I do believe news of our journey went out on an associated press type thing. A few people now have told us they have heard about us, or heard we were headed their way. If anyone knows of a place this news has gone out please contact me at Tiffscreations@hotmail.com
We are having such a wonderful time. We spent several days in Missoula prior to heading toward Bigfork, made some friends, and let our bus rest. The Bozeman newspaper did a great article on us and the photographer said he would email me some of the pics he took so I could post them. Hopefully that will happen. One of these days I will get a chance to sit down and work on this site a little more. I really need to get WI-FI or something like that. Having more access to the internet would be such a bonus in contacting people who are interested and being able to create more interest. If there are any internet companies out there that would like to sponsor a grassroots effort to raise awareness of alternative forms of fuel please feel free to contact us! :) It is so much fun to watch this journey unfold, to hear peoples amazement and those that are aware of alternative fuels, to feel their support and encouragement. There are a lot of people out there doing a lot of great things. We are so proud to be a part of a piece of the alternative energy movement. ----- Tiff

We left Rapid City, once again later in the day than we anticipated, and headed toward Devils Tower. Parking the bus at a Feed and Seed store, we took our car up the mountain to Devils Tower, Wy. Believe it our not, we almost didn't enter the park area because we were feeling cheap. That would have been a travesty for it was such a beautiful place. The smell of pine was so strong, I thought I was in heaven! It truly was a most impressive place that moved us all. Large boulders piled on top of each other at the foot of the tower as if they had just peeled right off leaving the tower behind. After realizing we could have missed this experience we decided to buy an annual National Parks Pass.
We ended that day is Gillette at Walmart of course. There were quite a few interested people there. We got grease at The Best Western and fixed yet another leak from an old hose. This is getting to be old hat to us! We stopped at the Little Bighorn National Monument on the way through. Another must see. Lots of people interested there too. Filled up on grease, cleaned the filter, and fixed breakfast for dinner. Did I tell you we are getting approx. 8.5 miles to the gallon. Pretty good for a vehicle that size.
Last night we stayed at a beautiful city park on the Yellowstone River in Columbus, Mt. And it was free! Now we are in Bozeman and I am at my Aunt and Uncles business borrowing their internet connection. We just got interviewed by the local TV and newspaper! Wowza! We felt like nervous stars! Chris got about 40 gallons from a grocery store here called Country Mart. Made for good newspaper and TV pics.
By the way, I keep trying to change what it says at the top but I cant get it to save it. Hmmmmm....so maybe one of these days it will look a little different. Stay tuned...

Tiff, Chris, Ema, and Jerry
(p.s. We achieved 65 coasting downhill today. Yippeee!)