The Bus I have this friend named Ted. Ted has an old school bus all spray-painted and beat up looking. This in and of itself is not that big a matter. What makes this bus different is he attached the top half of a Volkswagon van on top of the bus. This bus has been around for around fifteen years or so and has looked about the same if not worse the whole time. See, Ted used to live in this bus.
It’s a project he has been working on for some time now. Numerous people have asked him why he won’t get rid of the ugly thing. His parents don’t ask him to, they tell him to get rid of it. I have wondered myself why he has a bus such as he does and why he bothers putting so much money into it.
I do notice a slight difference in Ted’s eyes when he is working on it though, so there must be something about it worth saving. Ted Jensen was born December 29, 1969 right here in Vancouver, Washington at the old Memorial Hospital (now a clinic I have been told. ) His parents are still alive and kicking along with his brother and sister. I met Ted as my neighbor when I first moved to my current home. He has a strong sense of whats right and fair, as I feel I do. This must be the biggest reason why I like Ted.
That and he would not intentionally hurt anybody without them deserving it completely. He may be a little headstrong at times, but he is very easy going most of the time. If I ever need anything, and I do mean anything, Ted is the guy I go to. If he does not already have it, or have access to the item or information I want, he can usually tell me who does. The year is 1986 and the location is a Grateful Dead concert.
As Ted was enjoying the festivities of such a concert he came across a vehicle that pulled him to examine it closer. It was an old school bus that had been rebuilt and remodeled into a motor home of sorts. Ted knew then that he had to have one and proceeded to investigate his options. As luck would have it one of his friends needed some cash flow for a lawyer and had a 1976 school bus for sale to get it.
This was the way Ted wanted to live, in a converted bus, and for four years he did just that. So began the life of the bus with Ted. A month after the bus was acquired another friend of his had a 1965 Volkswagon van to get rid of. The friend gave it to him and they immediately began getting it ready for major modification. The van was hauled up to the hills where Ted had chosen to set camp with the Bus. Ted had set up a hoist, way up in a few trees, so he could lift virtually anything he wanted off the ground.
After attaching the straps to the four corners of the van, they got out the torch and proceeded to cut the van in half right at the middle joint. After it was removed from its bottom, the top of the van was hoisted up on to the bus. Ted positioned it towards the back of the bus so that it was facing backwards. This was so he could open the vans back door (which still had good hydraulics to hold it open) when he was at a drive-in, party, or concert, he could have a little deck to walk out on.
Most of the vans features still work like the lights and the windshield wipers. The bus had no generator for electricity inside other than when the engine was running, but the alternator would only supply enough to run the buss original wiring and no more. Ted needed a power source. Conveniently located by a river was a barn that belonged to a local farmer.
The barn had power to it and was not far from the waters edge, which was exactly where the bus was
