Modern Vespa

...I'm bored out of my skull, so I may be posting some fairly stupid things here over the next several hours as I ride along and stare out the window at hundreds of miles of South Dakota brown winter prairie.

I am a bus driver...oh, excuse ME....a 'Motorcoachman', but I'm being sent 350 miles Eastward to Sioux Falls today as a passenger on a regular scheduled Jefferson Lines bus to pick up a recently purchased bus and drive it back to company headquarters in Spearfish, SD.

I have the option of getting a hotel room tonight at the far end and returning tomorrow, or driving back tonight, probably getting home around 1:00 AM tomorrow morning. As it is right now, I prefer the latter.

If I am forced to make any further desperation posts, I shall do my best to include some reference to motorized Piaggio products.

Thank you for your patience and understanding during this difficult time.

As a retired airline pilot, I have done my share of deadheading around the country. At least you have the bus to yourself and nobody trying to talk your ear off.

Relax, enjoy the trip and drive safe. Don't let get-home-itis get the better of you.

All together now, the wheels on the Bus go round and round, round and round, round and round, the wheels on the Bus go round and round ALL DAY LONG Hang on in there JB were all here for you.😉👍

Geeze sometimes surprise myself.

My possible get-home-itis is fueled by a desire to avoid a forecasted dose of winter in the eastern part of the state in the form of a couple inches of new snow, which isn't a lot, but enough to cause problems out on the open interstate.

And yes, deadheading one way and solo back with an empty bus is, as they say, easy money, stopping wherever I need or want to for food, coffee, 'nature calls' etc. is always a plus. If I become too fatigued, I also have the luxury of just pulling over someplace and taking a snooze.

Shoulda' brought your trombone.

I have the website of Jefferson Lines open on the page bus stops in South Dakota.
Sioux Falls is there and so is Spearhead.

But it is not clear to me how this travelling works.
It says bus stops at Sioux Falls M - Su at 9:30 AM-1 PM. Then again M - Su at
6 PM-8 PM.

Does it mean there are 4 busses per day stopping at Sioux Falls? And how can you find out where they are going?

Man, I really miss Jet Peddler.

It's always good to be on the receiving end of cheerful encouragement from my UK buddies (mates?).

Did I ever mention the English breakfast we had one morning in York a while back? It was good, but a bit odd with the tomatoes and beans. I think that, if I recall correctly, it was called something like 'Bangers & Beans', does that sound right? Regardless, it was a load.

And you are right JB lots of brown scenery in the foreground, lots of brown scenery in the background, lots and lots of brown scenery, GREAT

Cant you play spot the Yellow Truck with the driver. 🚚🚛🚚🚛🚚🚛

Yup, can have harsh consequence's on the lower digestive tract, I am defiantly not a lover of a lot of beans Bangers, the good old British Sausages

I thought that there were only two busses going to Sioux Falls per day, at least from the western direction, but there must be more that connect coming from the east or from Minneapolis.

The Fish and Chips were a bit of a treat...but not as immediately recognizable as some of our fried delicacies...

Made a quick roll through at Wall, South Dakota, but no passengers to board there, so off we went, but not before I snapped a quick shot of the giant 'See-Ment' dinosaur at the east side of town, alongside the highway.

For years and years It used to have red light bulbs in its eye sockets that were turned on at night, but they've been burned out for at least five years, and the cheap lazy bastards never bothered to fix them.

Staring out the bus side window at pretty much nothing, and letting the mind drift back to the home garage and my forlorn and seemingly orphaned GTS300, STILL marooned up on my table lift awaiting it's 6000+ mile valve clearance check. It's only been sitting up there for several months now, so I guess it isn't too bad. I don't know why I don't just go out there and get it done and over with, it's not like it's Rocket science or anything, but there it is.

I'm from a fishing town, Its part of our diet, but I think I would pass on the deep fried four legged thingy with a crispy tail delicacy no offence

I'm not really a sticker type of person, but I do have several that are pretty nice, and I was going to post an image of them sooner or later, so this is as good of a time as any, I think.

My favorite is the circular Sturgis Coffee one with the old style cafe racer on it.

The Pump House sticker and embroidered patch are from the Deadwood coffee shop/deli I haunt with my bikes five times or more per week during the riding season.

The matchbook is from Bob's Java Hut, a motorcycle-centric coffee shop in South Minneapolis that was popular years ago. I don't know if it's still there. We moved out of Minnesota in 1993, and the matchbook is from some years before that.

The 'tin star' is my Official Riders In The Sky Saddle Pals deputy badge, which I bought at a concert the super retro western swing band performed here a decade or two ago.

The other sticker is from a Piaggio dealership we visited three or four months ago in Tulsa. OK.

I spoke with my mom in central Wisconsin earlier today. She is shoveling snow throughout the day in short 10-minute shifts, because it's "heart attack" snow.

Be careful on the roads

Thank you. We should be ok....should.

Get your mom one of these, only a bigger, better, one. If my dad had used one of these back in the winter of 1977, he might have stayed around longer than he did.

I can see that the storm is pounding Iowa and Wisconsin right now. Snow isn't predicted for Sioux Falls before AM tomorrow. If I bug out of there early tonight, I should be well west of that mess.

JBlack,

I enjoy following your adventures. So, you are dead heading a bus to make a few shuckles. You continue to be the man of la mancha. Keep all that snow out West and out of Minnesota.

Bob Copeland

She has a 4x4 heavy duty pickup with a plow attachment on the front to clear her 1/4 mile 5/32 mile long driveway. The shoveling is only for the path from the back door of the house to the truck. She might have a snow blower around, but I also know she likes the physical exercise.

190 miles 'in' at the Coffee Cup truck stop at Vivian, SD. The driver filled up with diesel while the seven or eight passengers scrounged the store for 'road food', and I was no exception.

No Corn Nuts or Slim Jim?

A driveway a 1/4 of a mile long over here that's called a road [quote="monogodo"]
She has a 4x4 heavy duty pickup with a plow attachment on the front to clear her 1/4 mile long driveway.

From the videos I've seen of UK roads by Stewart Fillingham, they're all relatively narrow and have pretty stone walls (fences?) lining both sides with very contented looking sheep in green roadside pastures.

Is this not universally typical of England?

Did you know that Corn Nuts are 'sourced' from only the male plants?

Well here in the UK its time for turning in, by the time mornings here you should be well under way home, safe journey JB drive careful as everybody on MV.c needs a regular injection of J Backlunds wit and humor 😉👍

Update!

Crossing the Missouri River at Chamberlain, SD.

Couldn't help but notice you have lovely nails John, 💅💅😂😂

Just checked Google JB as bored and Bob's Java Hut is still in Minneapolis.
Bored again now I have finished extending my ignition switch lead so off to bed.
Good night from sunny Ceredigion Wales.

Yes, I googled it too, looked at a lot of photo images of it,m and happily, it looks like it's still a biker hangout. And by 'biker hangout' I don't mean like a 1% club house, mostly Japanese and European machines. I am heartened!

Almost there!

In the 'new' bus, rolling home. 380 miles to get the bus back to Spearfish, then 45 back to home.

Happily, they had the busses running and warmed up for us when we got here, so it's a few minutes of paperwork and a bit of familiarization, and it's off I go.

Gonna be a long day!

Damn, don't be obvious about it....but I saw a mugshot, in the Wichita post office, of that grumpy guy seated behind you.
Felons are easy to spot.....
O.S.

Got to breathe in that "new bus" smell! Ahhhh!

It's a baby in the 'bus world'...only 209,805.7 miles on it as of right now, midnight (mountain time), and barely 150 miles to go.

Rest area on I-90 West, Wasta, South Dakota. I didn't need rest, but had to stop for a couple minutes to enter my midnight location and vehicle mileage for the driver's log day change.

2:00 AM, 'new' bus delivered and parked at Spearfish, SD.

Now I can drive the F-150 another 40 minutes to home, then end my day, which started at 6:30 AM Tuesday morning and won't officially end until 2:45 AM Wednesday morning.

Maybe your buses are much better than UK buses and super insulated. But ive got to ask, if its cold, why did you pick a window seat when the bus is pretty much empty?

Hope you are home safe and well JB its morning here in the UK as I catch up on your adventure it comes to mind what part of this post made reference to motorized Piaggio products.

I would of sent that brekkie back and told them to bin the tinned tomatoes and replace with a couple of slices of Black Pudding.

Oops, my bad, I just measured it on Google Maps, and discovered that the driveway is actually 5/32 mile long. All I remembered of it was that it sucked having to walk to the end of it to catch the bus to school in the winter, and it seemed really long at the time.

She lives on a 60-acre farm, consisting of three 20-acre parcels, and the house is on the center of the right side of one of the parcels.