Bus Update posted 09/08/09

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Bus Update from Rick Archie, chairperson of the bus committee... T17 Bus Committee, and other Troop 17 parents and friends of Boy Scouts.... Sorry to be such a pain in the rear over this. I have a computer now and not just my i phone for the past week! I was asked by Mr Duke and the T17 Committee to find us a newer bus. In my search for a bus, one has surfaced which i think would make our scouting program even stronger. Unfortunately as most of you know, we do not have enough money to buy it. The 2004 bus i test drove yesterday morning, 9/4/09, in Tulsa, OK was absolutely perfect for what we need. Yes, it is expensive, but if you divide the cost by 15 years, which this bus would easily last for, it is well worth it. The safety advances in the bus i drove, and the bus we have, which I bought 10 years ago are so far improved i could not believe it. Our scouts are worth every penny. I ask you to consider some way......any way......to make this purchase possible. Could someone loan us the money and we repay it back? Could we send out an emergency letter to the troop asking for a $200 donation per family? Could we manuever the upcoming bulb fund raiser to fund this instead of switzerland, then re route that money back later. Could we ask someone with deep pockets to front us some cash for a year.....could we put it on a credit card....and pay it back later....could we ask all our scout families for a $50 a year bus fee....surely one of you intelligent business men can figure out how to get us the difference between what we have ($22,000 raised one dollar at a time over the past several years) and $35,000. I went to the bus sales yard outside of tulsa ok at 8am and asked to spend an hour with their top mechanic. I asked for their most experienced person. I was directed to jason....who the second i saw him, i knew he was not the man i needed.... he was younger.....had smooth white hands. i then asked the owner of the co for their mechanic who had the roughest hands.....the most grease under the fingernails. they stared at me with a long pause....a minute passed..... i stared at them and repeated my request saying jason will not work. the owner paged dale. dale walked in w/ almost no teeth(4).....roughest hands i ever saw.....grease under his nails which would never come out.....older guy....the salesman gulped when i asked him if i could just talk to dale....and no i did not want the salesman to come on the test drive with me and dale....to test dale i asked him how long it would take him to overhaul a dt466 he said 17 hours(yes im serious he said 17 hours)....he was our man..... so dale and i went....he listened to what i said troop 17 needed and looked around the bus yard(im guessing, but they had over 100 buss there, i took pics) ...he showed me several buss but said if you really want a nice bus to last for a long time then this is it.....the 2004 which he did not know i had previously found.... i drove the heck out of it...dale told me what to do for more testing....i crawled underneath...it had some rust...but had been sandblasted and re undercoated...completely....i took pics of it inside outside and underneath.....it handled like a 40 foot lexus....yes im exaggerating...but it was darn close. The bus ran very well and was in first class condition. Speed was no issue....stamina on hills no issue....brakes, wow......smooth.....power....it needs nothing but paint to hide the yellow, eventually. it has been recently serviced, within the last week. Dale and i then test drove a flat nose bus, this one had 24 inch wheels....had plenty of ground clearance....has a dt466 our engine..has racks inside...has air bag suspension....has air brakes...had everything....had a/c....dale and i agreed this bus requires a more experienced type of driver....i could barely make it stay in my lane and i am no rookie at bluebird

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