So, I just know you’re all dying to get more info on the J2W2B story. (“All” being the half dozen or so people who read this pointless waste of bandwidth.) Well, I’m glad to say I have an update, and even some pics.

First off: Yes, I finally got around to telling my wife about the bus. To say that she was “not real keen” on the idea would be an understatement. But hey, I’m working on it. Time and patience can erode the hardest rock. Err, something like that. Mainly, I refuse to give up a free bus, so I’m going to keep hammering at the subject until she gives in.

I had the day off on Thursday, so I made a trip out to my uncle’s. Ostensibly, it was just to get out of town for a bit and go for a visit. But I had several ulterior motives.

Ulterior Motive #1: I own a 1976 Impala with a big block 454. Any of you out there who know about older cars will know that a car like that, with an engine like that, just needs to get out on the highway to stretch it’s legs every now and then. It has nothing to do with my own need to listen to the purr of a big block at highway speeds. I’m just thinking about the physical and mental well being of the car itself.

Ulterior Motive #2: My old man had accidentally given my uncle MY air rifle. It was in need of re-claiming. Even though it had been sitting out at my dad’s, unused, for the past 15 years, I wasn’t about to let go of my first real weapon. I think I would’ve been 7 when I got it. The bond between a boy and his air rifle is a strong bond indeed. My Uncle still has his old, poorly maintained and very beat up, Red Ryder BB Gun.

Ulterior Motive #3: I wanted to check out the bus, because I hadn’t actually seen the thing in a few years.

It’s a little rough around the edges, as it’s been parked out behind my uncle’s shed, untouched, for the past 5 or 6 years. I used my phone to snap a few pics of it, and I’m glad I did. After seeing the pics, my wife is starting to come around to the charm of the thing. Which surprised me a bit. It’s ratty and needs a helluva clean up. But I guess that 70′s pile carpet has a charm all of it’s own.

So, without any further ado, he’s afew of pics:

Don’t Fence Me In

From the other side

The Driver’s Seat – With Comfy Shag Dashboard

The Deluxe Dining Room

The Kitchen Needs Some Work

Long Shot of the Interior: The Master Bed is at the Back

The Biffy Even has Its Own Sink.

Pretty durn swank if you ask me. The exterior could really use a psychedelic floral paint job, but that’s a detail we can work on later.

Ok, so after Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday, my uncle Bob and I got to talking, trading old war stories. Somehow or another, the subject of the “Jimmy Jezus Water Walker Bus” came up.

The J2W2B is a 1972 Cardinal Coach 2/3 length school bus (halfway between a short bus and a full length) that had been fully camperized. My uncle had picked it up when he was raising rodeo stock (bucking horses, to be specific), and was spending a heckuva lot of time on the road, going from one rodeo to the next. He just found it easier to drive around in a portable hotel room with all his stuff in it, then constantly packing and unpacking.

Now, rodeo cowboys are renowned for turning a good phrase. At some point, after a year or two of various cowboys ribbing my uncle about his “Hippy Bus” – one gent commented – “Well ain’t that just a Jimmy Jezus Water Walker Bus.” And the name kinda stuck.

Now, my uncle brings up the subject of the J2W2B at Thanksgiving. He’s several years retired from raising rodeo stock, and the bus has essentially sat idle since then. In an off-hand kinda way, he asked if I wanted it.

“Well, gee, Bob, where the heck would I put it? We live in the inner city.”

Bob just shrugged, “You could keep it out at our place. Just transfer the title over to your name. You’d get more use out of it than I would.”

Well sheee-it. Put yourself in my shoes. Someone offers you a gen-u-ine hippy road trip bus, for free, and even offers to store it for you when not in use. What the heck would you do?

I’ll tell you what you’d do. You’d say “Yes SIR!” and shake on the deal. That’s exactly what you’d do.

Then, when you got home, you’d ruminate on the consequences of that hand shake. Specific consequence – how do you explain to your darling wife, that you’d acquired said bus?

5 days later, and I have yet to come up with an answer to that question. Fortunately, I’ve got all winter to come up with an answer to that question.