Unintentional Vacation
Part 4
Monday, October 7 was the big day. We were going to bring the bus home from Charleston, and Elyse and I would properly become the proud parents of a 1996 New Flyer D35HF. We both got breakfast at the hotel, and then we got packed up to go. We were checked out of our hotel and ready to go by 10:30. The first thing that we did was head over to General Diesel, where we checked in with the guys there to verify that everything was good to go and check on any potential last minute issues, as well as transfer our remaining items to the bus. Everything was good there, so we headed over to the airport to drop off the rental car and then pick up Tristan.
The 4Runner, back with Enterprise.
Enterprise’s maintenance notes about the vehicle based on my observations on the way down, written on the window with a paint pen.
With Tristan in our company, we booked a ride back to General Diesel in order to get things rolling. Arriving there, Tristan checked the bus over to make sure that all was well, rear-starting the bus and ensuring that everything was good. He was satisfied with what he saw, so after we said goodbye to the folks at General Diesel, we hit the road, with Tristan operating initially.
Tristan drives Biscuit on I-26.
Leaving General Diesel, the plan was to stop at CARTA for a photo-op, and then continue through downtown and eventually to the Ravenel Bridge, take US 17 through Mount Pleasant and out to Myrtle Beach, and then cut back over to I-95, joining it at Florence. We would stop at Buc-ee’s, and then hit the freeway, taking 95 the rest of the way home, stopping at a truck wash somewhere along the way in order to get the exterior cleaned (Elyse also intended to clean the interior as we moved). We would drop Tristan off at his house, and then Elyse and I would take it the rest of the way to the storage facility up in Frederick, where the bus will live when we’re not using it (Montgomery County only has one place to store large vehicles, and it’s expensive, and it also had no openings when we inquired).
Everything looked good on the freeway from General Diesel to CARTA. Coming off of the highway exit ramp, we briefly got a check engine indication, but this went away on its own after a few seconds. I was willing to brush it off, considering that the mechanics had taken it for a 30-mile test drive prior to our visit that went perfectly, but nonetheless, it concerned me.
Not long after getting off the freeway, we made it to CARTA. We pulled into the driveway in front of their building, and we got our photos.
3426 stops in at CARTA for a few photos.
And then we headed out again, still with Tristan behind the wheel. As we continued, Tristan noticed that the bus wasn’t shifting beyond first or second gear, no matter his efforts. So we were puttering up the road at 15-20 miles per hour, which would not get us home in any reasonable amount of time. We ended up stopping in front of a Concentra Urgent Care facility on Dorchester Road, and set the road triangles out. Clearly, we had another issue going on that would prevent us from continuing.
Broken down again, this time on the side of Dorchester Road.
Elyse peels more of the wrap off from around the windows. Elyse and I started to wonder if Biscuit didn’t want to leave the Charleston area until she was fully rid of that wrap.
So once we were stopped and the triangles were out, Tristan and I called General Diesel again and explained what was going on. They sent a road mechanic over, who connected his laptop to the bus and then took a look underneath. He determined that it was an issue with the transmission sensor, and that it would need to go back to the shop. Tristan had a suggestion for the mechanic: have him ride in the bus with Elyse and me while I drove the bus in order to get a better idea of what the bus was doing, and then Tristan would drive the mechanic’s truck back. The mechanic accepted, and that was our arrangement going from the Concentra back to General Diesel. For this drive, we also cut out the brake retarder in order to give the bus any extra help that it could get. I had learned well from my bus driving days, and we managed to limp the bus back to General Diesel under its own power, albeit at a very slow speed, and hugging that curb lane the entire way.
When we turned onto Iron Rod Court and were about to turn into General Diesel’s property, Elyse noticed smoke coming out of the left rear wheel well. Okay. Pull over right there, stop, and take a look. As it turned out, we had a hot brake, caused by a stuck brake chamber. Lovely. Fortunately, we were just a few hundred feet shy of our destination, so after consultation with everyone, we did that last little bit on the stuck brake and parked it in front of their shop door. When we arrived, one of their guys was ready with a hose, and cooled that hot brake down in short order.
Biscuit is back at General Diesel.
That was the end of our bus adventure for the day. General Diesel was planning to let everything cool down overnight, and then take a look at it in the morning. Meanwhile, Tristan booked a flight back to Maryland, while I booked another rental car through Enterprise. Tristan had a previous commitment back home the following day, so he had to be back, while Elyse and I opted to stay in Charleston for a little while longer, just in case the issue was a quick fix and we could still bring the bus home. My deliberately making no plans after Monday was paying off, as we had flexibility. I ended up booking another room at the Tru, and everyone was good to go. All that was left to do after that was book a ride to the airport to drop Tristan off and get the rental car.
Elyse holds all of the bags and such that she carried off of Biscuit after we parked her.
Woomy, meanwhile, was none too pleased at the situation, shaking his fist while saying, “I don’t like that!”
At the airport, we all went down to the rental car counter, where I got my new ride. No more 4Runner for us. This time, they gave us a Jeep Grand Cherokee, which was a plug-in hybrid model. This was a very nice car, though I would never buy something like this for myself. The hybrid battery was fully discharged, and nothing that we could do short of just letting it sit and charge would make it go higher than 1%. But the car still ran just fine, i.e. with a discharged battery, it was more or less just a regular gas car, so all was well. After we got the rental car all settled, we said thank you and goodbye to Tristan, who left to go catch his flight back home. One thing that we noticed was that whenever the rental car was running on the electric motor, it made this ethereal-sounding hum. My understanding is that this sound was intentionally added in order to alert people that a vehicle is moving, and that otherwise, the electric components of these cars can operate completely silently.
Our rental car, photographed here when we returned it to the Enterprise location in Gaithersburg after our trip was over.
After leaving the airport, we went back to the Walmart that we had visited the day before, because Elyse needed pants. A police car was sitting outside again, and once again blocking the fire exit. I had planned to get a close-up photo of its blocking the fire exit on the way out, however, the police car had departed by the time that we left.
Flags down the grocery action alley at Walmart. With that many flags lining the aisle, all I could think was, “Murrica!”
Leaving the Walmart, we first dipped into a Starbucks so that Elyse could get a cup of coffee, and then we went to a nearby Culver’s (the same one that we visited in September) for a meal.
We finished up at Culver’s just before 8:00. As far as we were concerned, the night was still young. I hadn’t planned this evening out (because in a perfect world, we would have been well on our way home with the bus by this point), but Elyse knew exactly what she wanted to do: Folly Beach. Fair enough, I suppose. I wouldn’t mind another trip out to Folly Beach, and Elyse hadn’t seen it since April.
The drive out to Folly Beach was pretty uneventful. We then parked in front of a row of gift shops and wandered around a bit.
Signage in one of the gift shops that indicated to me that this store has a problem with theft of small items, asking customers to bring items to the register rather than carry them around while shopping.
“Ring for a beer” bells. Reminded me of the “Drink Please” bell from the O’Face episode of Bar Rescue.
Two pigs doing it on a shot glass. G-R-O-C-E gross.
A common theme with these various gift shops was their carrying of a lot of right-wing merchandise. One gift shop had a whole wall of pro-Trump t-shirts, using imagery from the assassination attempt that had occurred the previous July.
In keeping with the right-wing theme, there was also anti-Biden merchandise for sale along with the pro-Trump merchandise.
At the last gift shop that we visited, it was close to their closing time. The girl working that store was super nice, while by that point, I was starting to run out of patience for gift shops, and Elyse wouldn’t get the hint that they were trying to close and that I wanted to move on, and the girl didn’t pick up on my not-so-subtle hints. The conversation started with my asking her, “You’re closing now, right?” She said that we were fine, which enabled Elyse to continue looking around. I was like, “You know, it’s okay to kick us out,” and she still insisted that we were fine. I even said, “You’re closing now. Please, kick us out.” She wouldn’t do it. Somehow, I got Elyse out of the door, and that was the end of the gift shops.
We also took a walk down the pier, where I got some night shots with my phone.
South Carolina DOT cover on a manhole over a storm drain.
Not bad, I suppose. And that was our night. From there, we stopped at a random building on the way back from Folly Beach so that Elyse could film the elevator there, and then we stopped at a Spinx convenience store in order to get something quick to eat. We then checked back into the Tru in North Charleston, where the lady working the front desk was surprised to see us again. But such is what happens when your bus doesn’t make it and you decide to just extend the trip.