lost my ass

Looks bad. All bad. And there's no getting away from that. Moments before this photo was taken, I had to make a difficult dicision. Should I drive backward and hope to minimize the damage with the potential of further desctruction on the side of the vehicle? Or should I just pull forward knowing that the back would be ripped off completely. I decided that we should move forward, have a clean break, move the vehicle and prop the back back up against the rock and await some kindly passer-by. Shortly after this photo was snapped, I crawled up the rest of what remained of the ladder to assess the damage on the roof and figure out how to remove the backside. I half-conciously rummaged through the tools for a wire cutter to remove all the cables running to the lights and such. I then had to forcibly rip off the other side of the ladder as there were no visible screws, only a silicone mess. Fortunately I was full of adreneline and ripped it off after a few minutes of jarring activity.

The officers that eventually arrived on scene were of immense help. Friendly as all get-out. I thought they were going to offer me apple pie and ice cream. They called up a tow truck to bring the back of the bus and we got an escort from the front and rear by the park ranger and police officer all the way to the campground. Although they'd said they'd seen all kinds of crazy stuff happen at this juncture in the road, they'd never seen anything like this. Never.

We settled into a freaky Flinstones themed campground, fired up the grill, and cracked a bottle. I then walked down the road, found a payphone, and called my insurance company to file a claim. I ended up laying down in the back which has been aptly named "the womb" because it's just so comfortable and I get the best night sleep every night I'm in there. I just kept muttering "my bus has no ass". I needed to dedicate some time to let the situation settle in. I got a good look at the damage and started becoming optomistic that we'd be able to repair it and the insurance would cover it all.

I couldn't fall asleep until about 7 or so and was awakened by Brian, our tow truck guy, at 9:30 and I handed him a list of numbers for potential repair shops that I'd looked up online the night before. I had to snap into it on the quick as I knew I had a wild day ahead of me. It was looking bleak. The first few calls ended up saying "We might be able to take a look at it sometime next week". Unacceptable. We lucked out and got through to the premier RV repair company in the area that said we could bring it in and they could start work the same day. I had a few minutes to prepare everything for a long drive without a rear end, then run up to the Check-in office to see if I could get some sympathy and bypass spending $30-$40 for an emergency lay-over. The owner was very kind as I described the situation and waived us off with a smile and best wishings.

We had the tow man, Brian's father, follow us for the hour plus drive as I had no brake lights or turn signals. When we arrived on scene, the mechanics and fabricators came out laughing. Again.. they hadn't seen anything like it and weren't really sure how to tackle the situation but were sure they could get it done. From the preceeding phone call they were under the impression that the damage was far less serious. We spent the entire day at the shop. I ran around talking to the crew, reviewing options, and I even came up with a long list of other work that needed done and could be sorted at the same time. When we roll out, we'll have a fresh ass, our solar panels will finally be mounted, and we'll be better off in the end. I'm so glad that we ended up in the hands of such capable and friendly folks. I'm supremely confident in the competence of the crew. It'll all work out.

The downside is that we're stuck, once again, in Rapid City. We had a ball last night downtown and I managed to get an incredible sympathy rate on our room for the week. We have a nice room and are rolling with it. Des and Wes are on the grind daily making money. I'm in the room, beating the heat, and banging out beats. I brought enough equipment to keep working. It's funny that I'm more productive now than we were on the bus. I've been looking forward to a time to be in a stable place for a week or so. I would've liked to to have all the gear but this is ok.

If all works out, we'll be on the road again this coming Friday heading towards Colorado via Wyoming. Wish us luck.