NEW ROAD TRIP ALBE'S BUS!!!
Well after almost a year in service we have retired the Albe's bus. She took us on almost 20,000 miles worth of trips and the only problem we really ever had with her was a few flat tires. The day we bought her we had to drive her home 150 miles in a huge blizzard and from then on we knew she could handle anything we threw at her. After last years Albe's Florida trip I knew that if we were going to do another trip like that again we were going to need a bigger bus so a few months ago I started shopping...
After doing a bunch of research I found that if we played our card right we could sell the old bus and be able to afford a new, larger, and nicer bus so we went to work. The old bus was sold and has found a new home in Mexico....yes...Mexico and from what I can tell is living a happy life. We starting shopping for a new bus and after a month or two of looking we found her at "Super Bus Mart" in Kankakee IL. I called up long time friend and Albe's rider Eric "Buddah" Horrell who happen to live a mile from the "Super Bus Mart" and had him go take the bus for a test drive. After his ok and a some haggling with the sales guy we decided to drive out to buy the bus and ride SCRAP Skate Park since we were in the area.
Buddah can manual better on his 400 lbs bike then on his 40 lbs bike
If you put one of Buddha's legs and one of Stewy's legs together you would get one normal sized leg.
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Dane Wild, Sparks, Stewy, Matt Carmickle and myself (Flip) drove to Buddah's late Wed night and woke up Thursday to pick up the new Albe's bus. On the way there we stopped to watch Buddah do flatland tricks on his 400 lb street bike motorcycle. It's pretty nuts what can be done on those things. When we got to the bus store we were SOOOO excited. There were sooo many buses it wasn't even funny. Big buses, small buses, pink buses, yellow buses, school buses, and even a few that looks JUST LIKE our old bus. The sales guys was too busy to help us right away so he sent us into the bus yard to look around. Every bus was unlocked and had the keys in them. Maybe it's just because of our love for buses but that made us pretty excited. At one point Dane and Stewy were in huge school buses that faced each other yelling at each other thought the loud speakers, Sparks and Carmickle were trying to find the best bus to build a smoking room in and Buddah and I checked out the new Albe's bus for any major problems. No problems were found so I scored permission and took it for a test drive. She was great. She only has 49,000 miles on it so it's pretty much new in our eyes. We all sat down in the new bus and plotted things out. We found that you can fit 12 people and 12 bikes in it and everybody would have their own plush seat. Without bikes in it we have seats for 15 people. Add a few bean bag chairs and a trailer and we could probably fit 20 people and 20 bikes.
Dane will probably never let anybody else drive this rig.
The inside of the new bus is pretty nice. Reminds me of an airplane. I think we need to get a plane next.
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We signed the papers and we were on our way to ride SCRAP. Pretty funny that the first hour we owned the bus it was already on it's way to the skatepark.
We arrived at scrap and were VERY pleased. The place looks great. Jimmy Walker and the SCRAP crew have made the place fun and up to date. They still have a good box and a vert ramp. If you are ever in the Chicago area go ride there. Tell Jimmy we sent you. After some stunting with the cool locals we had to cut the session short. Sparks hung up front wheel on a barspin to walltap and flip the bars to his chest. He couldn't breath for a good 15 mins and asked me to take him to the hospital. In most cases we have to MAKE sparks quit riding when he gets hurt so when he asks to go to the hospital you know something is wrong. After 2342342 x-rays the doctor said Sparks would live but he bruised his insides quite good and was told to stay off his bike for a month. We'll see how long it takes before Sparks doing death defying stunts again. I'm sure it won't be long.
Stewy look back over Scrap's box.
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Dane gave the foam pit / back flip thing a shot. He failed!!
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Jimmy Walker has spent more time in the rafters of Scrap than anybody. Jimmy said he wasn't any good at this trick just before we shot this photo. That's about 10 feet.
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I just got a new Canon 20D camera and have no idea how to use it yet so please forgive me on the shady photos. Once is learn a little more about it and get a flash shots like this SHOULD turn out a bit better. Sparks spent about 5 min warming up and then fired a double whip out first try. Click the photo to see it larger.
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Sorry I didn't get some good shots of any of the SCRAP locals. We'll be back soon though.
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After Sparks was released from the hospital we piled into the new bus and the Astro Van and headed home. We got back to Michigan at about 5:30 am. Dane had to wake up for school and I came to work running on about 2 hours sleep but it was worth it.
WE HAVE A NEW BUS FOR OUR TRIP IN MARCH.
WE GOT TO RIDE SCRAP.
SPARKS ISN'T DEAD.
Plans have started for our 3rd annual tour to Florida. Each year seems to get better and better so I can't wait for this one. Sun, Beaches, Bars, and BMX. Throw pizza in the mix and you can't ask for much more on a road trip.
If you are in Florida and want to meet up with us when we head down that way e-mail us at flip@albes.com We are always looking for cool places to ride, cool people to ride or get loose with, and of course places to stay. It looks like we'll be leaving this area March 10th. so we should be in Florida the following week.
check out the updates from our trip last year. Some of the photos and tales are great
March 2005 Albe's Florida trip:
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