Big Easy: How She Became Who She Is Today

Big Easy, at her very core, is a 1991 Chevy G30 Diesel Short Bus whom we acquired in the gorgeous Shenandoah Valley about 15 minutes from Harrisonburg, Virginia. She spent most of her life working in the local school district faithfully toting children to and from daily academic opportunities. After she retired, she lived an easy life with a local organic farmer until she decided she would like to spend some time traveling. After searching on craigslist for months, we decided that Big Easy was a perfect match and so we journeyed to the valley to meet her. It was love at first sight thus we took her home and lived happily ever after…. until all the work set in!

2/11 - Big Easy, when she first arrived at her new home in Richmond.

We knew from the beginning that Big Easy would require lots of work since she was a pretty old bus, but we also knew that diesel engines are strong, the body was in nice shape, and she ran great. There were some major changes to the bus herself that we would have to make in order for her to fit our project idea, some of which were easier than others. One of the only major problems we knew of at the beginning was that the wiring wasn’t working for some reason (the inside lights, speedometer, etc.). Neither Daniel nor I had any experience working with automobiles and even seasoned mechanics will tell you that wiring is a hassle, so we really had no idea what we were jumping in to. Being the hardworking, curious fellow that he is, though, Daniel started trying to clean up the wires right away. After a few days and some very heavy sighs of exhaustion, he figured it out and got everything working inside. It was an awesome first achievement that gave us the confidence to tackle even more problems should they arise (and of course, they did).

It was a mess that took quite a while (and a lot of dedication!) to figure out!

The next step for the bus was to install a second fuel tank and all of the related hook ups to keep our used vegetable oil in. It is possible to just put veggie oil in the diesel tank and run it with little to no changes, but most WVO connoisseurs advise against it. Veggie oil is much more viscous (thick, not fierce, in case your eyes read it wrong like I did the first time) than diesel fuel, so if it gets cold, it will potentially gel up and clog the injectors, which would be a very costly problem. Having a second tank allows us to heat up the oil before it gets injected into the engine. (If you are interested in seeing complete documentation of the setup, click here and scroll to the bottom). The process of installing the second tank brought a second problem to attention: the enormous tank was too big to fit under the bus and would have to go inside. While this threw me into a mass hysteria as I imagined what little extra space we had disappearing under a monstrous metallic box, Daniel kept his cool and devised a plan to build the tank into a large cabinet system where we could store lots of other things as well. Also, looking on the bright side, the tank will be fairly easy to pull out and work on if something goes wrong or leaks.

The veggie oil tank system, newly arrived from greasecar.com, before all of the hard work began!

After finishing the dual tank installation, Big Easy went through her third major surgery in our care. This change, though, was more for our amusement and pleasure than for practical purposes. After contemplating our lack of hang out space inside the bus, we decided that having a deck on top would be the perfect solution and got right to work. Using his welding skills, Daniel added bars across the top of the bus so the deck could be an even platform, screwed down some decking boards and voila: Big Easy gained a bit of height and an awesome hang out area. Daniel would have me tell you, though, that the deck does serve a practical purpose in that the solar panels will now have a flat surface to be bolted to. Oh and of course, dance parties.

The deck begins!

The bus-deck from a house-deck view!

In a few months, Big Easy went from being an average short bus with big dreams to a 100% working, environmentally conscious home on wheels with plenty of hangout space. The last change to Big Easy’s physical appearance will be pretty major, but completely aesthetic. She will be getting a complete makeover that will be a mixture of green themes and a showcase of Daniel’s art style. We can’t wait to get started and to show you how it turns out! Also, keep following for future posts about the interior design of Big Easy and how she got her name!

Introducing the Big Easy Journey

Got Waste Vegetable Oil?

Towards the end of September, Daniel and I will embark upon an indefinite quest in search of sustainable living on both the individual and community level. We will be riding out on our humble yet faithful steed, The Big Easy Bus. We hope to record our travels through film and written word so that all of our friends and family can follow along, offering input and hopefully even learning a thing or two about how to live “easy” in a time when money is tight. We hope that you will join our journey by reading along and offering your advice and opinions as we go.

Technically, we began this journey back in February when we acquired the bus and first started brainstorming, but we will actually start rolling at the end of September. We have two distinct, yet closely related, goals in mind for our travels: The first goal is to support a simple, sustainable life, with those two qualifications going hand in hand. We won’t be using unnecessary appliances like microwaves and TV’s. We won’t have bills or huge gas prices to pay because we will be using and recycling nature’s renewable resources. Whatever power we will need (mostly for a small fridge) is supplied by solar panels, and our bus is powered by waste vegetable oil (WVO) graciously taken from restaurants. And not only will we be supplying our own electrical power needs, we will also work to support our simple financial needs, the largest being food (since, sadly, we haven’t found a way to grow a garden on the bus deck). Sounds easy, right? Well we hope the answer to that is yes, although we do expect to work hard. We aim to do this by picking up side jobs using what skills we already possess (and who knows, maybe even learning some more!). A few ideas might be to sell artwork, paint a mural, seasonal work, or even writing an article about our research project for a local paper. These are things that we love to do, so not only will we be living simply, but happily too!

The research that we hope to write about ties into our journey’s second goal: documenting sustainable living all around the country. We want to see and learn what other people are doing to live simply and sustainably, on both the individual and community level. We want to meet people who make their own clothes from recycled and organic resources, or a community garden providing healthy, natural food to all those living nearby. This research is not only being done to satisfy our curiosity, but also to prove that living sustainably is cost effective, efficient, and healthy for communities. We want to give those people who don’t support research into sustainable technology or participate in community sustainability programs a reason to jump in and start. We will do this by interviewing people and organizations that are proving on a daily basis that environmentally friendly and self-sustaining initiatives are not only really awesome, but efficient and economical as well.

We will keep this blog updated about where we are, who we are talking to, and what we do and don’t find when it comes to work, sustainable initiatives, or even fun things to do. We will also be writing more in-depth posts about some of the things I briefly discussed above, like how we are living simply, the solar panels, or Big Easy herself. In fact, if you are super curious (which we love!) about Big Easy then you can click here to see her page on Skoolie.net which details all of the work we’ve done on her. Thanks for following along and we hope you enjoy the ride!