What An Adventure

Quick update, we didn't make it to The Barking kudu until just after midnight. The Short Bus blew the water pump and broke a blade on the fan. We figured out what we needed borrowed the Matador from the Hucklebucks who were following. Keep in mind all the people in the matador were from the short bus and all the tools were on the side of the interstate to work on the bus. That's when the matador started having issues. 9 miles away from the bus and a half mile from the parts store.

More on this story later reorganizing to head to bourban Street, as you can tell it's a gem.

Day 3 Newport, TN to Murphy, NC

Today was the day for Deals Gap and what is called the dragon's tail. 11 miles and 318 turns. Good thing is we were not given a challenge today just told to be safe and if we had any doubts don't even go on it. The organizers also said that this year has more cars with issues than in any previous year. We opted to help out Schwartz and his team with their blown header gasket and skip Deals Gap. Probably wouldn't have been the best thing for the Short Bus to go through anyway. We'll see what this night has in store for our party. Oh yeah we have to get another keg since this one is already floating.

Day 2 Harrisonburg to Newport, TN

I think by this point we were officially known as a good party spot. Our challenge for the day was getting 3 pictures of buildings with the town name on them from a list the organizers supplied. We decided it was best to drive the least amount of extra miles in this challenge. The mountains proved to be a little bit for the bus. Slowly made it up them without major issues but we had to back down the speed to between 55 and 60 to keep the temperature down. It ended up taking us 13 hours to get to the hotel. Some of that was due to our shopping in truck stops and whatnot but VA is still a long damn state in a short bus. The only thing that helped was drinking. We finished the keg which only had 2 beers left in it, several 40's of Miller Highlife and a 12 pack of Miller Highlife. Oh yeah by the time we hit the hotel paking lot the apple pie shots were almost gone and one of the vodka bottles was nearly gone. Good thing we were able to get a new keg during the end of our trip.

The hotel parking lot in Newport was split between the two sides of the hotel and the cops came by twice. We heard the manager was the one complaining. We were once again the last ones up with beer flowing.

I also hate to report that even though the stripper pole is a hit it still hasn't been used. Before we get any shit, it isn't for lack of trying. At one point we even tried to higher someone to come over and that didn't work. These small towns don't represent well in that area.

Day One Staten Island To Harrisonburg, VA

We woke up with the proper hangovers for the meeting. I actually heard someone say to a team that just arrived that morning how they would see the Short Bus in action later on in the night. I think people finally realized we know how to drink and have fun. Our challenges were getting pictures of different items. 3 Ford edges, A building with a presidents name on it, a license plate that had 2 words on it spelt out no abbreviations, a Ferrari, 6 different state trooper cars. We decided that since the Short Bus only gets 5 miles a gallon going out of our way for anything wasn't an option. By the end of the trip we only got 2 state trooper cars, nothing on the Ferrari and got lucky on the Ford edges since the Ford dealership picture had 2 parked out front that we didn't know about.

We pulled into the hotel and surprisingly were not the last ones to arrive. Even the girls at the counter commented on the AA Hates Us shirt and asked if we were part of the drinking team because that one was there favorite. We got all set up and started drinking again. More beer and shots. We got our new friend Schwartz all messed up since he is the one who donated the tap system to us. He was cursing all of us the next day when he was trying to fix his exhaust. We found out later he doesn't even remember walking from the parking lot to the hotel but did remember how much he liked the apple pie shots. Once again we were the last ones in the parking lot at the end of the night. We decided that everyone was going to need Red Bull Cola in the morning so we placed 4 cans on every car. The biggest casualty of the night was the Shotski. It slipped off the bus and fell breaking on shot glass and the other 5 fell off.

Night Zero In Staten Island, NY

Sorry for not updating our blog more. Drinking has really been getting in the way.

We finally got over to Staten Island on Sunday. We had issues with with the air lines for the train horn and had to stop at Lowe's to replace the broken line.We picked up the rest of our team and headed to the Staten Island Hotel. When we finally got there everyone cheered and let the train horn scream. Talking to everyone we heard that people wanted to see our Short Bus because they heard so much about it. We got the bus parked by the rest of the party and promptly tapped the half barrel. We had to lock up the tapper after locals and a bum started gathering and just helping themselves. Good thing we split the beer line in Birmingham so we could keep pouring on the inside of the bus. Eventually we out lasted everyone in the parking lot, no big surprise there. After decorating all the BABE Rally vehicles with Miller, Jager and Red Bull we called it a night.

Let's Go To Staten Island

Got up this morning and getting our stuff together and heading to Staten Island to check in.

For anyone who want to follow we will be updating our twitter site via phones on the road.

www.Twitter.com/TeamNADS

On The Road To Philly

We finally got all our shit packed and left Birmingham, AL at 10:00 CST Friday morning. The trip started well by exit 5 in GA we needed to stop for our first refill. Then it went down hill at the gas station when we realized one rear tire had a bulge in the sidewall. When Rick looked closer we found out the the inside rear tire was flat. 2 hours later and $471.16 later we were finally driving again. After our 2nd refill we started noticing a knocking in the front end of the short bus. At stop 3 we realized the sway arm mount on one side was broke. We tried to wrap a shirt around it to see if this was the knocking we heard. We soon realized this wasn't the noise. By stop 5 we noticed fluid leaking at the rear end. We stopped at truck stop service center and had the short bus looked at. We were informed that the front ball joints were bad, but as the mechanic said "They be OK for what you are trying to do, they rarely fall totally apart." The rear end look like extra fluid that came out of the rear end. The mechanic looked and the fluid level was still good.

Half way to the next gas stop we realized the alternator belt was loose. When we tightened the bolt it snapped. Luckily Rick had an extra bolt that worked. Our final challenge was somewhere in bumfuck Virginia late at night. We had to change the alternator belt because we couldn't adjust it to tighten anymore.

We finally made it to meet with Ed in Philly at 10:00 EST. 23 hours on the road to get here but we made it. Harper was a machine driving. He got it in his head that we were getting to Philly without stopping to sleep and we did!

We got out of the bus and had our first beer and broke in the shotski. 3 beers and 4 shots, an hour nap and it was off to the strip club. After supporting some students we went to a bar that had amazing cheesesteaks and ate some dinner. Let the fun begin!

Sorry not pictures from The Conshohocken Cultural Center (otherwise known as 7th Heaven or The Ballet.)

Additional Fun With The Shotski

The Shotski is complete. This little gem is going to be fun.

Fatboy Roadhouse 8222 W. Forest Home Ave. Milwaukee, WI

Thanks to Fatboy Roadhouse for their sponsorship. If you are in the Milwaukee, WI area go visit them and enjoy a cold beverage. They are located at 84th and Forest Home. Once we have their stuff on the bus we'll post pictures.

Follow Team NADS On Twitter

We will try to update our progress on Twitter during the trip.



www.twitter.com/TeamNADS

Newest Addition

We received a new addition for the short bus today.

Testing The Beer Tap

Memorial Day...why not test the beer tap system? We got a half barrel and took the short bus over to Harper's house and parked on the front lawn. We had a great day of grilling way to much food, drinking beer and shots. Best part is that the tap system works. Only down fall was running out of CO2 but we still managed to kill the keg with a pump tap.

Wrapping Things Up

Today we worked on the short bus for a couple of hours. We were able to get a bunch of the little things done. The keg container is partially insulated, spare tire is mounted under the bus, fixed the fuse on the front power outlet, tools for the trip are loaded, tach and temperature gages are installed and the extra pieces for the bed are cut. We also looked into an alternate route to travel on the way to New York.

Red Bull Gives Us Wings

Met with our friends at Red Bull today. Between the Red Bull, sugar-free Red Bull and Red Bull Cola we will have 44 cases for our trip. Yeah 44 frickin' cases. That's a lot of Red Bull!

Team NADS Receives Gift

Team NADS received an amazing gift today. Chris and Matt Langdon at Phoenix Promotional Products gave our team embroidered tshirts, polo shirts and hats. These guys are good friends of our and we appreciate all their support. Go check out their site http://www.langdonbros.com/

Most Important Item Is Working!

Today Karl was able to get Miller to look over our tap system. Everything is good. They hooked a keg up to it and the beer does flow! Also, Miller, Jager and Red Bull will be doing promotions at The Barking Kudu Thursday June 4th when the BABE Rally event stops in Birmingham over night.

Gutter Guards For The Front Grill

To protect the radiator from any object we decided a front grill needed to be fabricated. Luckily, Rick had some gutter guards that he never used. Those along with some tie wraps and we now have a chrome grill!

Raffle Winner Has Fun

Today was the day to take Carla, our raffle winner around Birmingham. The trip started at The Barking Kudu where we picked up Carla, Emily, Matt and Potter. Potter was not feeling well at all on the begining of this trip. Our first stop was at Jackson's. Mimosas with Magic, beer and food. Food is always good at the beginning of a trip like this. Then we were off to Billy's in Liberty Park. Our route took us onto the interstate where Ed hit a new land speed record, for the short bus, at 70 mph. (going downhill of course) While they had drinks at Billy's we realized the alternator belt broke. It took us some time to get it fixed since the first belt was not long enough. By the time we left there Potter had a couple of drinks and some food and was starting to talk. Then we were off to The Barking Kudu. More drinks and Mujtaba was making tacos. More food is always good. Our next stop was to Rouge Tavern, a bar in Birmingham that will be open soon but we were lucky enough to go see the inside. Great looking place! Then we stopped at The Brown Derby. Here we were able to convince more people to join the fun. With 4 more people we went to Metro Bistro. After drinks there we stopped by Dave's. At this point the fun was starting to catch up with people. It was decided that we drop the people back off at The Brown Derby and head back to The Barking Kudu where we started. All in all a great day and I hope everyone had fun. I know we did.

Todd

More Little Things Complete

I was able to get all but 1 seat belt working and back on top of the seats. All the seats are fastened back down to their frames. The bolts coming through the floor from mounting the train horn are ground off. The front lock system is in place. The air tank for the train horn seems to be filling from my small compressor.But best of all the stripper pole stage is finished and the pole is mounted in the bus again!

Slowly Things Are Getting Done

Rick and I were able to get some internal aux power put in the short bus yesterday. We now have 2 outlets in the front and 2 in the back. The disco ball has been mounted, the 2 rear speakers are mounted and we got a lock put on the back door. Soon the stripper pole stage will be complete, it is now completely stained and has 1 coat of polyurethane on it.

Unfortunately, it appears that the new alternator that was put in isn't working. Also, we still have to get a lock on the front door, get the beer tap system tuned in and get an easy way to fill the train horn air tank.

Update Since We've Been Drinking To Much

OK, we haven't done much, other than drinking lately. The train horn is mounted in the short bus. However, it does need some work on how we can fill it. For some reason the valve connection doesn't let us fill it?



Friday night we realized that the stripper pole stage wasn't high enough. The test run ended with the girl falling into the bench and window, don't worry she didn't break the bench or window.



Saturday night was the drawing for our raffle. The winner is well deserved, Carla must have bought 20 or more tickets. We will be taking her, Sturrock and their friends to a Barron's baseball game for Thirsty Thursday, how appropriate! Also, Saturday night we had to jump the short bus to get it to start again. So the new alternator we put in may not have been the issue.



The other night we charged the battery and disconnected the radio to see if that is where the problem is. It started the next day without any issues. We also got adventurous and took it onto the interstate for a couple of miles and hit a new land speed record, for the short bus, at 60 mph.

Preliminary Horn Hook Up

Last night we did a preliminary hook up of our "new" horn...and it actually worked! Now we just need to figure out mounting so we can do the final hook up. This one is going to be loud and fun!

The new alternator was installed and seems to be working good. Let's hope the short bus keeps starting.

Crucial Work and Cosmetic Work

So we got a crucial item fixed, then did some good cosmetic work. Landon and I replaced the broken strap that holds the gas tank on. Then decided it would be nice to have a table up by the front door. We made one on top of the heater. Don't worry it doesn't work so there is not going to be any fires. At least we hope! After that and because it bothered Landon we cleaned the light covers on the inside of the bus. We ended up finishing our day by make the stage to raise the stripper pole. When we put it together we realized it looked like a cheap version of a wooden floor. That's what you get when you make it out of three 2X4. Hey it will look good once it was stained and has some clear coat on it. We wrapped up the day by going for a drink.

When we tried to leave we realized the battery was dead again. We believe the alternator is bad and are going to have that replaced. Hopefully that fixes that problem.

Todd

Keg End Table

Landon and I boxed in the 55 gallon drum and CO2 tank for the tap system. Which happens to also make a great end table by the bench. Unfortunately when I left for work this morning I noticed something hanging from the rear end. One of the straps that holds the gas tank to the frame broke. Good thing I only put a half a tank of gas in last night.

Todd