Virginia Tech and Refueling

Monday, September 15, 2008

11:30 pm EDT - For the first time today we operated with our own stage. That is to say the stage under the bus. The great thing about using our stage is that it gave everyone something collective to do. Brian and Chad - two gentlemen from the bus whose job description has been somewhat vague - played the part of roadies along with me and our DJ, Aaron.

Being a roadie from my one day's experience, is a deeply satisfying experience. The pattern runs: lift, assemble, lift again, look for lost parts, stand around waiting for someone to find lost parts, lift again, finally assemble full, and then admire your work.

Sure, we missed some spots of velcro here and there and Aaron set up the DJ booth right next to the exhaust valve for the generator, but these are trees and I choose to see the forest.

Of course, we didn't actually use the stage once it was up. Our illustrious leader, Heather Smith, gave a few quick interviews with local press including a brief segment with the Roanoke Times

Then some devilishly handsome fellow encouraged Virginia Tech students to come register with the tried and true method of accidentally referring to them as UVA students and getting booed off stage.

Nick (the guy writing this) makes a complete jackass of himself.

After packing up the bus, reviving our asphyxiated DJ, and leaving the campus we hit the road to Richmond, where we had our first refueling of this gargantuan creature.

The Bus is 45 feet long, 12' 10" tall, and has a 300 gallon fuel tank. At current gas prices, a single refueling runs around $1000 and takes twenty minutes. While this monster guzzled up a month's rent in fuel costs, I paid a brief visit to Chaplain Bunny Gregory, the pastor of Trucking for Jesus.

Pastor Gregory and his wife are one of those weird, uniquely American couples transplanted from an earlier age. Subtract the truck and beard and the pastor would fit in some 19th century pastoral painting or a Norman Rockwell drawing.

"It takes about a year to get this thing around the country," he said. "We go west and about as far up as Redding, California and then turn around and come back."

We walked inside the truck. "It's about half church and half living quarters," he explained. "She's called Sheneda because 'she need a' lot of love."

"I've had 5,338 people accept the lord every night and day." The chapel smelled like lavender. The pastor pointed out the soap and bibles he has been given by well wishers.

"You ride around across the country and you see a lot of people walking... Doctor's from Germany and stuff like that." We walked back outside where the sun was setting. It seemed like an unusually specific group of people.

I got a picture of him as Gary, our bus driver, pulled up. "You also get a lot of walkers in the Appalachians. I've been doing this for 34 years now," he said, as if about to tell a story. "Well... anyway. You all have a good time out there on the road."