Another Update! (long overdue)

I am the worst blogger! I hate that there is so little time to do these things but in the world of Greyhound adoption, you are ALWAYS busy. It’s a 24x7 thing which we all love, for sure!

Back to the purpose of this post . . . what is the latest update you ask? Well, we purchased a bus to use to haul our Greyhounds from tracks to Atlanta and then to our prison programs and then back to Atlanta. Yep, it’s more like a shuttle bus you might ride from the parking lots at the airport to the airport. Actually, that is what it was previously used for - shuttling Delta international employees from area hotels to the airline terminal in Orlando. With the massive decrease in travel due to COVID-19, especially international travel, the need for the bus (and others within this company) is not so great these days hence it’s sale. The bus has a new engine and transmission and is physically in great shape. As Maren Morris sings in one of her songs, “the bones are good”. Ironically, that song came on the radio soon after we left the Orlando area in said bus, but I digress.

A trip with our Co-Chair (and good friend), Shae and myself is usually eventful. I mean most always eventful. We always have a blast though and manage to get through it without too many issues.

Case in point, this trip was no different. We left Atlanta on Saturday, October 3rd with a Greyhound passenger in the back of the SUV. She had been adopted by one of our current adopters who now lives in the Orlando area. It just happened to work out that we could deliver her in person! What a happy moment that was!! Congratulations Lady and Sharon, too!

After the handoff happened, I was to call the seller of the bus to let him know we had arrived and that we were on our way to his office to see and test drive the bus. Well, I hadn’t printed his contact info as I had it in emails on my phone . . . or I didn’t. Yes, for some reason the full Outlook folders on my desktop Outlook showed as empty on my iPhone. I reboolted my phone only to have the same results. And, yes, I had inadvertently left my laptop at home. We were screwed! I had spoken with the seller on my phone but there was no history beyond a certain date. Panic began to set in when my phone range. It was the seller! Yeppie, we were in luck. He texted me the address and we were on our way.

The test drive was successful and a quick look over is all it took. We said “yes” to the bus! We signed the necessary paperwork and then drove back to the hotel with our new (used) bus. We were thrilled to have that taken care of. Finally time to check in! Oh but before that I had to put one of my magnetic logo signs on the door! It was a proud moment.

After checking in, we decided to take a side trip to St. Petersburg to visit Derby Lane, grab dinner and watch a few dog races. It will probably be the last opportunity we will have to do that as the tracks in Florida are closing due to the implementation of Amendment 13. It drizzled and rained the entire way there, while we were there, and on the way back.

Oh, and off and on our company debit cards were being declined. Seems we didn’t let the bank know we were traveling so the fraud detection software kept pinging us setting of text alerts like there was no tomorrow. We were charged $100 at one gas station and we hadn’t even pumped a single drop of gas yet. Unnerving, to say the least. We did get that one straightened out as well as the issue with the cards being declined. What a fiasco!

The next morning we checked out and headed to the nearest Cracker Barrel to have breakfast before hitting the road back to Atlanta. Somehow Shae lost sight of me at the toll booth. Well, she thought she had sight of me but it was another white shuttle bus. She followed it for some time before realizing it wasn’t me at all. By that time she was stuck on that toll road for 5 miles before she could turn around and head back to the Cracker Barrel. She did finally arrive and we enjoyed our breakfast.

Then we were on the road again. We had a long trip back, although at that time we had no idea exactly how long! Unfortunately, we began experiencing engine issues. We had to continually stop and let the engine cool down. At the time we thought it was the turbo drive based on a Check Engine code (which now appears be an old outdated code) but it now is more likely to be transmission related. The transmission had recently been rebuilt, as recent as June! Obviously, the seller of the bus is pretty upset that we had so much trouble getting back. But it’s water under the bridge at this point. We’re hoping the work is under warranty.

The trip home took almost 12 hours! But we did make it home safely.

The bus will be looked at on Monday by another mechanic for a definitive diagnosis. We will go from there.

Oh, and then while this was going on, I was working to secure the tag and title and get the sales tax paid. Seems no one really knows what to do with a passenger bus that will no longer be used as a passenger bus but rather to haul Greyhounds in. I’m not sure we were issues the right tag but we’ll see. Insurance had the same problem but we did secure that and have emergency road service, too! Ha! You never know!

This experience has been, well, an experience for sure. I’ve never purchased a bus before but what I do know is that we are happy to have “Sandy” and will take good care of her as we safely haul Greyhounds from tracks to our program. She will do us well! Remember, “the bones are good”!

We couldn’t have done this without the many donors who made this monetarily possible for us. Thank you to each of you. The Greyhounds thank you, too!