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How Do You Stop a Bus with No Brakes? Justine Can Tell you · Her Journey Her Way

• Rita Gardner: What do you do? You're on the highway outside New Haven at night. It's raining. You push the brake pedal all the way to the floor and you're still rolling. There's nowhere to pull over because nowhere in a city fits a bus. You're 70 miles from your brother's house. I have some of the coolest friends on the planet. They left the comfort of their home, got out on the road, took the trips most people only talk about. I'm Rita and this is Her Journey Her Way. A She Travel Simple podcast. I've spent most of my adult life traveling. Here's what I learned. The places are beautiful, the people are better. Every one of my friends has a story, and every one of them knows something you're gonna want to know. That's what this is. Their stories, their lessons, their way. If you were to ask anybody on a road trip what their biggest fear is, most likely they're gonna say breakdowns. Everyone is afraid of breaking down. Whether it's in your driveway, on the highway, or in a parking lot, breakdowns are not fun. Today's guest is Justine, and she is a very good friend of mine. And I have had her come here to talk to you about her breakdowns because Well, in the last five years since she's had her bus, she's had her share of breakdowns and she's got some wild stories to tell about them. So Justine, why don't you ⁓ give us a quick rundown of when you got your bus, the type of bus it is, and how your first adventure started. I have a Chevy 5500 Duramax Zodiac. Or Savannah, depending on the mechanic you ask. It's hard to identify which ⁓ body it has or chassis, but the engine's a Duramax and that's pretty much what gives me the most problems. It's a very tiny engine and it's very hard to fix because it's so compact and it takes hours to take it apart just to get to certain aspects. I bought my bus in 2019 from a couple down in South Carolina. And I'll say that the repairs started pretty much at the gate. I w flew down, I bought it sight on scene, flew down to pick it up and before I even pulled it out of the parking space, the brake line f flew off the engine and brake fluid went all over the parking lot. I remember that 'cause you I asked you how your journey home was and you said ⁓ I'm sleeping at their house. Yeah. At least for that breakdown you had accommodations. Yeah. They were very sweet and very apologetic because it was obviously something they weren't aware of. And luckily it happened in their parking lot and they were they gave us their truck. They're like, go hang out. We'll, you know, get this fixed. And ⁓ that in itself was a that's when I met Freddie. The he looked like he stepped right out of the Everglades. And he is he was a great mechanic, but it was a Sunday. Cause you usually break down on a weekend, which is unfortunate. So he did fix it and we were on our way within twenty four hours. But ⁓ that is probably the most minor breakdown I think I might have had. So just to let everybody know, you are not a mechanic. Correct. You have not worked for a mechanic. Never. And ⁓ and it's fair to say that you are now much more versed in mechanics than you were when you bought the bus. Absolutely. Yes. I could probably take this engine apart. And I think I have assisted taking this engine apart on a couple occasions. You get this experience and then you get all the way home and you head out for some travels. Let's tell everybody your home is where? I live on Cape Cod. So I drove the bus from ⁓ I had a friend fly down with me because I didn't even know how big this bus was when I bought it. And I'm like, I don't know if I can even drive this home. I've never driven anything larger than a car. So I had a friend fly down. We drove it back to ⁓ Massachusetts and I did most of the driving and it was very easy to drive and I took it right to my mechanic there on Cape Cod because I was like, you need to look at everything in this engine and the chassis because I'm gonna be traveling in this full time with my daughter and I do not want this experience again. So you have your mechanic check the bus over and he gives you the thumbs up and you head out on a trip? Yeah, so ⁓ we were headed out. He had it all winter. I left it there and ⁓ we fixed, you know, what he thought was obvious and then w our plan was to Rent our house, move into the bus, and we were leaving July of twenty twenty. So that all happened barely. And we got in the bus and it seemed pretty good for a while. I don't think I had ⁓ a ton of breakdowns that first couple years, but one of the good ones was at the Georgia Tiny House Festival. And that was like kind of a cluster of breakdowns. It was at a tiny house festival ten years ago that we met and we would often frequent tiny house festivals together and at the tiny house festivals they line you up in a way that when the patrons come they can just go from one bus or one tiny house to another to tour it. And so when we were parked, Justine and I were next to each other and another set of friends were in front of me. So we had a line of friends and Yeah, that I can attest was a breakdown mania. Domino. A domino effect, literally. So do you wanna tell how that went? So it's encouraged at these tiny house festivals to start your bus the night before to make sure that you can get out because they have to, you know, turn over the location to another group of people the next day. So they wanna make sure that Everybody's cleared out by a certain time. So they're like, start your bus the day before, make sure it's running. Cause in the bus life, it's very common to break down. So this is like kind of something they want you to do to make sure that you're gonna get your bus out of there. So I don't know if we started our buses together, but we were like, all right, let's go start our buses. And then I tried to start mine at one start. And then I hear Rita. Mine won't start either. And then we're like, geez, and it's nighttime. So we're like, all right, we kind of recruit some people. Everybody starts to get wind of it around the circle, like, cause there's like 300 buses there. Well, in this ⁓ in this group, if you pop your hood, it's like it's like a magnet. Like a swarm of people will come over with flashlights. And toolboxes. Met mostly men thinking they're gonna save the day. Well, I don't know when the other two there was two other buses too that wouldn't start. So it was kind of like ⁓ Yeah, in our line there were there were the two of us and then the next people came up and they started their bus and it wouldn't start. And then the people in front of them said, I'm not even gonna try. They wouldn't even they just walked away. They just hoped it was gonna start the next morning. So we have like for the rest of the night, I feel like there was just men like swarming our buses with flashlights, trying to figure out what was wrong with them and to to no avail, like they learned nothing. And so the next morning we knew we had to get on it so we could get our buses out of there. And Rita's was a pretty simple fix, I think, like a fuel filter or something. Yeah, I changed some parts and and even though I still had an issue I I knew I could get h back home. And it's fortunate too in the bus community, there are mechanics or people that know enough about engines or diesels, know enough about engines that can help repair at least like minor things without having this tools that you need as, you know, for certain stuff. ⁓ but mine would not start and it was a primer issue and it was because my fuel filter housing diaphragm was just old. And so it was a pretty easy fix. However, it like just snowballed into this like, well, let's see if it this is the problem and this is the problem. So it was gonna take more than that day and we had to be out of there like at one o'clock in the afternoon. So I ended up having to have a friend chain my bus to his and pull me out of the event area into the exterior parking area so that we could fix this problem without interfering with the next event that was coming in, which was the Cherry Blossom Festival. ⁓ but fortunately, there was a giant parking lot. The people that own the ⁓ event space were s very kind and were like, sure, you know, stay as long as you need to to fix ⁓ the part. And there were also showers and bathrooms and like other campers on the grounds and another location so we had access to bathrooms and showers. And so it wasn't like a dire situation. So a bunch of us stayed like the next night in the parking lot, ⁓ troubleshooting my bus and their bus and to the point where we had to ⁓ two of them had to leave. And so me and my friend ⁓ ended up staying to really figure it out. Now he's not a mechanic and he YouTube'd the entire repair and figured out what part we needed and like dug out what we needed to pull out of the engine to get to that part. And then because we were on a time crunch, we couldn't get factory parts. So he just we had to find tubing. And that was like our biggest issue. We had to find something that mimicked the factory tubing. Now you can't just go to O'Reilly's and get parts for a bus or a diesel engine that's that size, like a truck, because they only basel basically have stuff for cars. So that stumped him. He's like, now what do I do? I'm like, he's so smart, but that stumped him. I'm like, well why don't we just call a truck repair place and ask him where they get their parts. And he's like, okay. So I called just a random truck repair place. I said, Where do you get your parts? He says, ⁓ this warehouse down the street, blah, blah, blah. Gives me the name. And we just drive over there and get exactly what we need because you cannot get I think we need like inch and a half tubing or inch tubing. They don't they sell like up to like, I don't know, half inch, three quarter inch for cars. It's totally different size. For the fuel to run through. ⁓ and so we got everything we needed and they'll sell to the public, which is great. So you don't have to, you know, worry about getting parts if you can fix this yourself. Then we ordered the other parts we needed off the internet. Fortunately he had a friend in the area that they could deliver them to. But that's like a that's like a tough thing because you have to have a place to have parts delivered to 'cause you're like literally in a parking lot and you know, who's gonna deliver to a parking lot? That's true. Even when I've ordered parts, they will say, Well, we'll deliver them, but we're not gonna deliver ⁓ to your house. We need to deliver them to a business. Mm-hmm. So even though I was ordering the parts for my bus, I would have to have it delivered to my mechanic and then go over there and say, ⁓ that package is for me. Recently I had a fuel tank delivered and it comes in a tractor trailer or a big box truck. And they said, Well, we have to have a forklift on the other end that can take it off. So there are gonna be some challenges. You can't just order it and expect it to be, you know, thrown on your front porch like Amazon does. The b the bonus of breaking down in your bus is it's your home. Like if you break down somewhere and you're in a safe area, you just stay there and you can either get a mobile mechanic out to fix it or you can, you know, rely on somebody that's knowledgeable enough to fix it that you're with already, which is great in these tiny house communities because well not necessarily tiny house communities, but bus communities. We all, you know, have enough knowledge now where we can least diagnose the problem and then potentially fix it or temporarily fix it so you can get to a mechanic. ⁓ but some people have completely just abandoned the whole towing to a mechanic and they just get mobile mechanics. So how long did you end up staying in this parking lot? I think we were in the parking lot for I wanna say three or four days. Like it got to the point where the people that owned the event space were like, ⁓ when are you leaving? And I'm like, We need to part. Like we had ordered a part to come overnight after we figured out what it was. And ⁓ it was a discrepancy between my home at my credit card address and the address it was being shipped to. And they canceled it. And so we didn't realize that until after like the ship time had passed. So we had to wait another twenty four hours to get this part. ⁓ and then we had to of course put it back in the bus. ⁓ so it was like three or four days. But during those three or four days, like I said, there was bathroom, showers. There's also beautiful hiking trails. So we like took advantage of it. We're like, we're gonna be stuck here, might as well. We would have, ⁓ we don't travel like savages. So we would have these like elaborate ditters. We'd have like tables set up with candles and tablecloths and ⁓ to the point where people would drive by and be like, What's going on over here? Is there a party? We're like, no, we're just having dinner. So although you had a pretty traumatic breakdown, it looks like you made the best of it. When you did get the repair finished, how certain were you that you were gonna be able to make it home? I know sometimes all we have to do is get it to start. And if you can get it to start, then you're good. In your instance, in your case, what was the deciding factor that, yeah, you're good to go? So it did start. Which is a bonus, but now you always have it in the back of your head that how am I gonna shut it off when I go to get fuel? How am I gonna shut it off if I need to stop for the night? And is it gonna start again? And ⁓ since we hadn't used factory parts except for the housing filter, like maybe the tubes won't hold, maybe our clamps won't hold, maybe the flow of the fuel isn't gonna be right because it's like we made our own loops instead of factory loops. You always have these things in the back of your head. So and I'm like twenty four hours from home. And you're alone. I was with my daughter. So technically, yeah. I mean yeah, I was alone. ⁓ but I think at that point I was heading out to Smith Lake, which is in Alabama. So I was going to an area where one of the guys had helped me fix part of it before he left, was gonna be out there. So I figured if I got out there, at least I'd have another backup, which is the beauty of the bus community. Like no matter where you go in the United States, you can put out a Facebook post or s and inevitably someone's gonna answer you within 10 minutes and someone's gonna be at your bus in half an hour, because there's that many of us. So that whole ⁓ dissatisfaction of knowing that and the comfort of knowing that these people like I was not abandoned at this tiny house festival. Like they were not gonna leave me alone until they fixed my bus, which is an amazing group of people. ⁓ and so I was pretty confident, but like from then on, you're like, always worried that your bus isn't gonna start. Like for like a year you get this like you finally like time, you know, heals wounds. But even still to this day, like I will get in my bus and I'll be like, I wonder if it's gonna start I know I hold my breath every time. Yeah, I'm not sure that that's a feeling that ever goes away. So this is a a type of breakdown that you had where You were already parked and it just wouldn't start. So tell us about your second breakdown. So or your next breakdown. Yeah, like I honestly I there have been so many that I just don't know what the next one is. But the next one I can like the big one that I can think of was ⁓ I was headed to the Smoky Mountains in the fall, October. And I was taking it I was coming by myself and it's not crazy far from where I live, but it's like probably a I always stop it in New Jersey because I have ⁓ relatives there that I can get an overnight in and then I would leave there and then head to the Smoky Mountains. So it was like a two day trip. So ⁓ I leave my house late because things take longer than you think always. And I head out to New Jersey for my first night stay. So I'm headed through Massachusetts. I'm headed through Connecticut. And now it's dark. I don't know why I left so late. Because it was dark out and it was raining. And I remember like in Connecticut at some point putting pressure on the brakes and I'm like, huh, they don't feel the same. But it didn't wasn't that alarming yet until I got closer to the bridge from New York to New Jersey and I started. we were in traffic. So there's a lot of like stop and go, stop and go. And I'm like, why my brakes feel so weird. And so it didn't occur to me, but I was leaking brake fluid. And fortunately, if you can't use your brakes in a bus, it doesn't speed up. Like you think like, ⁓ my God, I can't use my brakes. I'm never gonna stop. If you take your foot off the gas, it just automatically slows down. So it wasn't really occurring to me that my brakes weren't working until I had him to the floor and I'm like, I'm still rolling. And so I was like, ⁓ my God, my brakes are shot. And ⁓ it's raining out. It's nighttime. I'm 70 miles from my brother's house, ⁓ who I'm going to stay the night at. And ⁓ I was like, okay. I'm like I'm not. I'm in like New Haven, Connecticut, or somewhere like I'm not pulling over. Like this is crazy. There's no place to park a bus. I'm like in a city. Cause once you hit a certain area of Connecticut, like it's all like city driving until you get to the Jersey side. And I'm like, I can't I can't stop. So ⁓ like literally I can't stop. So I put it on cruise control. like thirty five to forty miles per hour and it's all flat roads and I figure, okay, I can make it to my brothers. There's no ⁓ no hills. I put my hazards on and I just kind of go. I just go into this low lane and I just go. And it's fine for a while because there's no traffic lights. It's just highway driving and it's easy. It's like one road pretty much the whole way. And I've premeditated this in my head. I'm like, I got this. This is fine. And ⁓ I get to the exit where I know there's gonna be a series of traffic lights on the highway. And now I'm like, okay, I have to time these lights. And I'm not saying the bus doesn't stop. It will stop, but it just takes a lot of effort. And I'm only going 35, 40 miles an hour. So I figure I'll just pull off on their shoulder if I, you know, think I'm gonna hit somebody. And there's not a lot of traffic at this point anyway. So I end up making it to my brother's house and shut the thing off in the driveway and I'm like, ⁓ my God, you would not believe what just happened. So you're laughing about it now, but tell us what you were feeling in that moment. I was like, okay. So if Rita hadn't said to me, like after the first few breakdowns, Justine, we need to change our mindset. We're going to break down. And from that day on, I was like, okay, this is normal. We're gonna break down. Once you normalize breaking down It's no longer a fear. So you just like it happens and you're like, ⁓ here we go again. And you just start fixing it in your head. Like, what can I do to fix it? How am I gonna troubleshoot this? And if you get scared, just pull over and just process what's happening. ⁓ it's also good that you have ⁓ like I have a really good roadside service. So that comforts me because if I ever do have to pull over and can't make it to like a safe place, then at least I know. They'll come and tow my truck somewhere and I don't have to worry about abandoning it on the side of the road and how the heck am I gonna get it where I need to get it. ⁓ but yeah, I don't think I think I was more like, ⁓ my God, here we go again. I'm like, I gotta get to this swarm. All my friends are there. I'm like, how long is this gonna take? That was more of my question. Like, not worried about it, just like, ⁓ my God, how long is this one gonna take? And it took a long time. Because brake lines in a truck either need to be factory ordered or custom made. Fortunately there was a place right down the street from where I was staying. They towed my bus to it. They evaluated it. They told me, okay, you need we're gonna do all the brake lines. I said, that's fine, because I don't ever want this to happen again. And they had two factory ones and two custom ones. So they're like, it's gonna take us two to three days to make the custom ones. I was like, okay, again. It was a weekend, so it took two to three days because of the weekend. And the unfortunate thing is that two of them were factory, and the guy never went to the shelf to make sure he had two on his shelf. He had one. So he gets the custom ones in, he starts to do the factory ones, and he says, ⁓ it's gonna be another three days. I'm like, No, it's not. I have mist I have an event to get to. It's not gonna be another three days. I'm like, you're gonna put the old one, one of the old ones, back on my bus and I'm gonna get the heck out of here. And so that's what happened. In case you have not listened to the other episodes, again, she is bringing up the schoolie swarm, which I think should be the first stop to anybody who's traveling, who's gonna go out on the road. You've gotta go to a schoolie swarm. You've got to meet the people and just see what it's all about. And you won't regret it. Those are your lifeline people. Like those are the people you need to know because they're the people that are gonna save you when you break down on the road. And not save you mechanically, save you like mentally too, right? Exactly. Like these are your people. They're like the most open minded community, caring people that I think I've ever met in my life. And they're just always willing to help you. And even like When I got like I had several other things happen on the way after the brakes got fixed. I blew a tire like somewhere in the mountains before I got there, which fortunately there's tire places everywhere. Like you wouldn't believe how many tire places are. You blow a tire, you're probably within four miles of a tire repair place, like inevitably. So you blow a tire, how d how does that feel to you? So I always fortunately blow a double axle tire. So it just makes this bang like you've like ran over a bottle or something, it's like pop. And it doesn't change the driving at all. Like you don't even feel it any difference. But now you're only riding on one tire on one side. So it's if you blow another one, then you're really screwed. But again, I just, you know, put my hazards on, thirty-five, forty miles an hour. I don't care who's beeping at me. Like, your safety comes first. Like if people are blowing by you and yelling no one ever does really, but like people do get road rage. Be like, listen, I'm gonna take care of me first. And I don't care if I'm going slow. You can go around me. And so I've got like and if you pull into a tire place, that's like it's usually a walk-in service. So I was back on the road in like 45 minutes. ⁓ and then like one more thing happened. Like I have this, ⁓ apparently had a sensor in my coolant because I'm j in the smoky mountains. Buses don't like mountains. And I'm riding and all of a sudden all this white smoke starts billowing out of my vents. And I'm like, ⁓ my God, what is it now? And I like your vents inside your heat and the air conditioning come out. So like all this white smoke, like opaque white smoke comes out. I'm like, ⁓ my God. And so I'm looking at my heater gauge and like it's an old bus. Half my gauges don't really work. So I'm like, what is it really reading? I pull into a truck stop. Like I always Google a truck stop or like a truck mechanic and I pull in and I just park and you cannot be shy. You just gotta walk in there, act stupid, and be like, I just need help. Like, what's your evaluation? So I walk to the desk and they're always ready. I mean, I'm a woman, they're men, they're usually willing to help. I don't know how r like reactive they'd be to a man going in there because they should probably know what they're doing. But I'll go in there and ask them, hey, like this is what's happening. What do you think? And they're always like, he's like, Well, how hot did it get? I was like, it got to like 200. He's like, That's nothing. Those buses get to 250 and they're not overheating. I was like, Okay, so I'm okay. He's like, Yeah. And so then I call my home mechanic and he's like I'm like, Am I okay? He's like, It's probably just ⁓ oil burning off your what ⁓ whatever I don't know, whatever. And he's like, I'm like, he's like, as long as it doesn't get to a certain temperature, you're fine. I'm like, okay, I'm fine, I guess. So I continue on my journey. ⁓ I I get to the last turn to the event, and my check engine light comes on. And when that happens, when you stop, it'll shut your engine off. So I'm at a stop sign, I'm on an incline, and I'm like, if I stop and this engine shuts off, I'm gonna start rolling backwards. So I have to literally stop it myself, put it into park, and then wait 30 seconds because if that's how long it takes for it to restart, start the engine again and like take that turn and hope to God there's no more turns or stops on the way. And I finally get to the event. And again, fortunately, our friend Rob is a mechanic. And so he evaluates, he's like, you just have a bad coolant sensor. And that's like the triggers the bus to have a check engine light on and shut it off. Nothing like major, but he takes this little paper clip, rigs it together so I can get home. And he like basically bypassed the the sensor so that he McGyvered it. He McGyvered it so that I could get home and not have and get it fixed then. Because unfortunately, you can't just replace a sensor. You have to replace the entire coolant tank. And the lines. So ⁓ Yeah. So that was a fun trip. But I got there and I spent I think I got there in time for the the Halloween parade. Yeah, we have ⁓ usually they're n nine days and so even though you planned on spending nine days there, you did make it for like the last five and Yeah. I think and you I think we were all cheering when you came in. I was. It was nighttime and they knew what I had just been through, or at least most of it. And they were like, She made it and that's a lot. That happens a lot in the bus pla in the bus community. Yeah. Yeah. We ⁓ we all know what it's like to break down or the fear we have when it breaks down, how much of a headache it is. Sometimes you just wanna scream, sometimes you wanna cry. And when you pull in and there's a group of people like just cheering you on it and they're just so happy that you're there, it really, it really, really helps you heal. Fills the soul. Fills the soul. And it's the whole reason you're on this journey. You're on this journey to meet these people and have a great week with them. And that's the whole reason we have these buses to like be able to transport ourselves to have these experiences. So you've had a lot of breakdowns and some of them have been pretty Traumatic, pretty memorable, but this is not your most memorable one, is it? So I was headed from Cape Cod to the upper peninsula of Michigan with my daughter and her friend. And we packed up the bus and headed out and got as far as Waterloo, New York. My check engine light comes on and knowing from experience, you better pull over. So I pull into a loves truck stop. always try to find a truck stop to pull in or at least a mechanic because if you don't if you aren't able to start your bus again, at least you're somewhere where somebody could fix it or you can leave it. So I pull into the loves, I pull out back to where the tractor trailers are. They have a garage back there. I shut it down. I go into the garage and I ask them if they can hook up their computer to see what's wrong with my bus. They're very happy to do so. And they come out and they tell me it's an injector. And I am like, okay, what does that mean? Can I drive? How far can I drive? He's like, You sh you can't drive with the pad injector. I was like, Okay. So what do I do? So now we're like, if we we have a couple choices. We can call them their mobile mechanic, because they can't get us in. They do like ⁓ big trucks. Call the mobile mechanic that they recommended. and spend the night there and see if he can fix it, which means we're gonna miss our trip because we're on, you know, we give ourselves a certain amount of time to get out there, spend time there and come back. So we decide after a couple hours, we're just gonna rent like where can we okay, where can we rent a car? So fortunately we're within 45 minutes of the Syracuse airport. ⁓ and I was like, all right, we'll just rent a car. So we look it up. Also like money, like is it feasible to like do any of this? Because you know, we're not like money's falling out of our pockets. So we end up deciding that we're just gonna rent a pickup truck. We're gonna put all our stuff we have all our camping gear anyway, because we have extra people with us and they weren't gonna stay in the bus. And we're going to continue our journey and we'll drive there and we'll just come back and deal with this. We've talked to the loves. They are happy to leave it there. We felt confident that was gonna be safe. And honestly, at this point, we didn't care if someone stole it. Like they're not gonna get anywhere with it. I get an Uber to the airport. I get the truck, we load it up, and I call the mobile mechanic. He says he'll come out tomorrow, take a look at it. I hide a key on it and we just keep going. We're like, screw it. Like, this is our vacation. We have three weeks. This is what we're doing. We're out of here. So we left. And the mobile mechanic calls. We already know what the problem is, and he needs to get parts. I need to vent Mom some money to get parts. So like there's where the risk starts because you've not met this man. You've only got a recommendation from the garage, which is a reputable truck stop, but you're having to give the money for parts and then eventually have to give them money for the repair, which we weren't gonna be back for three weeks. ⁓ we were doing a couple legs on this trip, so we weren't sure if we had a leg. pop back into New York and then go back, but we were like, no, we're just gonna let it ride for three weeks. So that's when everything started to go bad. Like the mobile mechanic said, like it took forever. He didn't know what he was doing. It was very clear because he said he had to call in somebody who knew diesel engines. I'm like, why on earth would a truck stop who'd who like works on diesel engines every day recommend a mobile mechanic that didn't know about diesel engines? So I was like, ⁓ gosh, here we go. So I'm like, you know what? I'm not gonna let this ruin my vacation. Like it's it's just an engine, it's just a truck. We already have transportation. And honestly, this pickup truck was like a dream to drive. Like when you're driving a bus, you're like and you're like bouncing around and it's like uncomfortable and your eyes are getting buggy because it's like not a smooth ride and like wind's blowing at you. But like this like twenty twenty-four brand new pickup truck was unbelievable. Like we should just travel like this all the time. So we went to our event, we went to a friend's house, we did our whole three week loop and we were insured that the bus was fixed. So I get back and it's nighttime and we're gonna be leaving the next day to get home. And I'm like, okay, I'm gonna start the bus. I start the bus and all of a sudden I hear a pop. And then I look outside and there's like fuel all over the parking lot. And I shut it off and I'm like, you know, a few curse words came out, and then I was like, he didn't fix the bus. It's not fixed. So I call him up and he's sleeping, and his wife ends up calling me back. And she says, I'll have him call you when I get up. And now so we're sitting there just waiting and waiting. And that's like the worst thing waiting. I don't know who this person is. I've never met him. He's n you know, he doesn't have a garage. And so I tell him what's going on. And he's like, Okay. I kind of think that we might have came back early to see what it was. Cause we went somewhere else. Or maybe I went home. I it's like of all this blur because this took like a month to get remedied. And so I kind of think we must one of the girls had to get home in time for you know, to start school. So I think we left the bus there again and ⁓ I had it I said, you know what? I don't wanna leave it at loves anymore. I'm gonna have it towed to your house. And I was assuming at this point he had like a place, like a garage or somewhere to fix it. And he said, Yeah, that's fine. He's like, you can have it towed there and I like, Okay, so again, I didn't go there. I just had it towed like I waited for the tow truck. He came He took it and then I went home and kept in touch with the mobile mechanic who was essentially fixing this problem. And like as I'm talking to him over the course of the week, he's like, you know, alluding to the fact that he like had to rig some stuff together and he might have broken something else. And I'm like, ⁓ God. So about a week later, maybe two weeks later, he says, Okay, it's definitely fixed. I was like, Okay. So I got there to pick it up. From your house, which is several. I have to like, yeah. Now I have to like it's in like Waterloo, New York. Yeah, I'm like guessing it's like four or three or four hours from my house. I have to go back out there and pick it up. And so I go back out there ⁓ and I bring a friend with me who's gonna help me drive it. And we get there and he's like, I'm taking it for a test drive before we go anywhere. And I was like, Okay. Well, we pull up to this house, which I'm not even gonna call it a house. It was a trailer. We pull up to this trailer that's like literally sitting in a swamp with a tarp over it. And then another trailer and there's like mosquitoes everywhere. You can't even get out of your car. And I'm like, ⁓ my God, who is fixing my bus? Like, who is this guy? And so he comes out and ⁓ he's nice enough and he seems to like he's very apologetic. He's a very nice person. He's just I just don't think he was knowledgeable enough to be fixing anybody's engine. And so My friend takes it for a test drive and he he texts me from like around the block. He's like, It's not fixed. He hadn't put the engine back together and he hadn't hooked up the turbo pipe. And so smoke was just blowing out and it wasn't going over thirty five miles an hour, which also alluded to it was the injector was still broken. So then when he diagnoses it and he says, You know you have another injector broken. I was like, ⁓ my God. How many injectors do I have? They're like seven or something. I'm like, what? It didn't even number. So you probably have eight. He's like, yeah, six or eight. I'm like, ⁓ my God. So I'm like, how often is this gonna happen? How much bad luck do I have? So in this instance, I was like, you know, we'll go, we have a we have a vehicle, we'll go, we'll get the part, you stay here, start taking the thing, breaking it down, because now you gotta break down the whole engine again to get to where the injectors are to put them in. And we'll go get the part and bring it back, saves you some time. So now we know we have to spend a night here. So we go do that. He fixes it. And like that night, like me and my friend are like, I don't have much faith in this guy. Like we need to go back there tomorrow morning. We need to say, Listen, we're just gonna tow it. We already like looked up places, mechanics in the area. We're like, we're just gonna tow it to a mechanic, blah, blah, blah. And so the next morning I pick up a dozen donuts and I bring him to his house because he looks like he needs to eat. He's living in shambles. And I say, Listen. You've done your due diligence. Like you've like, thank you for all your help, but we we're just gonna have this toad out of here and like it won't be your problem anymore. And he was like, No, no, no, no, no. I'm gonna fix it, I'm gonna fix it. And like, I don't know how we caved and we're like, all right, but like it's not gonna be today. So I gotta go back home and work and we're gonna have to come back here and pick it up again. So we left it. I don't know, like There's so much more to this man's life that's just a spiral. I don't even know if it's appropriate to say, but like I just felt bad for him. Like he needed the money. And I was like, okay, I'm going home, fix it. I'll be back in a week. Kept in touch with him for a week and went back there. And he had it he had it fixed enough where I could just get it the hell out of there. And I drove it to a a friend's house that was a lot closer to where it was broken down. And I Had a mobile mechanic come out. What had happened was he had broken one of the injector housings when he was trying to pull out the injector and he had just filled it with like gonk. Like he rigged it like old school and it just didn't hold up. And so I ended up having to replace the housing and the injector. And these were like $300 parts. Like it's not cheap. My friend's like, you gotta get your money back from him. I'm like, you know what? I'm not rich by any means, but this man needs the money more than I do. And I was like, it was like maybe I paid to overpaid him by like $500. I was like, he can just keep that money because he lives in a fly trap, like trailer that is sinking into the earth. I was like, and I was like, I'm good. So that was a lesson learned. Like, okay, you go to a loves, you go to a truck stop, you have to trust that they have a mobile mechanic on staff that is competent. This man was definitely not competent. So I don't even know what to tell you, like, to do in a situation like that because you're at the mercy of these people because you don't know what you're doing. So I guess lesson learned. Like you can get a good one, you can get a bad one. Because the next guy that fixed it was also a mobile mechanic and he was amazing. And he also like diagnosed some other issues that that were upcoming that I probably should get fixed and fixed them all. And now the bus runs great. I was tempted to call the loves and I probably should at this point to see if he's still their mobile mechanic. I didn't want to like stir up anything while this was all happening, like to get him in trouble. Maybe I can like do that because like he shouldn't be fixing anybody's truck. You're hysterical. You're hysterical. I do love that you are laughing about it now. You gave some advice earlier about what to do. How do you continue driving and using the bus knowing that you've had these Nightmares happen to you with breakdowns. Well, from the first get-ko, what I said in the beginning of the podcast when we picked up the bus and the brake line blew. And I remember being there with my friend and we were just sitting outside, like waiting for the mechanic to come and he's like, Why are you so calm? I'm like, Because it's an engine. It's not my daughter, it's not my family. Nobody's hurt. We're all safe. I'm like, it's just a vehicle. Like if you're gonna get stressed out over a vehicle. then this is not the life for you because you're gonna end up never wanting to do it again. And I've always had an outcome that was positive. So, you know, it's a vehicle, it's gonna get fixed. It's black and white. So as long as nobody's in danger, no one's getting hurt. ⁓ and like granted, a lot of these incidents, like losing your brakes, you could get killed in a road accident. But you just have to be smart about it. And so I'm just a calm person naturally. So it doesn't really faze me. And every time I get home, I'm like, ⁓ my God, I'm selling this thing. It's such an aggravation. And then I'm like, but I love it. And like I'm not gonna give up a community of people that are like my family now because of an engine. Like it just doesn't make sense. ⁓ that's that's really cool. One of the things I think about is You don't drive by a breakdown on a highway and they've been there for a month. You don't see that. Usually they get you out of there in a couple of days. So I always think like this isn't gonna last forever. It's gonna be a headache right now, but it won't last forever. I live by that. That's one of the things. But I like your idea. Like you're right, it's an engine. It's just it's just an engine. It it's not anybody you love. So any Yeah, it's not like you're not it's nothing that's it's not like an emergency. I mean, it may seem like an emergency, but it's not an emergency. Like even when I did break down certain times and I did have to spend the night somewhere, I just would call the local d police department and and be like, Listen, I'm here with my daughter. We're broken down. We're spending the night. We're safe right now. But could you just drive by some at some point during the night just to make sure that we're still safe? And 'cause there's no locking system on our doors. Like it's like you could pry that open with a crowbar, no problem. So we would just pile all our bikes in front of it and we're like, if they can get over that, we can get out the windows before they get to us. Like worst case, you'd pack it up, get it Uber to a hotel. Like, you know, there's just there's options and you just have to be calm, figure out what the best solution is. You know, you don't want to ruin your trip. You don't wanna like you don't want it to r to rule your life that you're breaking down. And I always like wonder why don't I worry about this when I just drive a car around? I never worry about my car breaking down. I always just worry about my bus breaking down. And so it's like the same thing. It's but like in the bus, you can just live in it. It doesn't really affect me anymore. It's like still, yeah, what's gonna happen this time? Or maybe nothing will happen. Like now I have enough mechanics up and down the East Coast, like I don't care. Throw it at me. You mentioned you had the bus towed and you had a really good roadside service. What do you have? I use good Sam. And only because I live in Massachusetts and Triple A does not offer R V roadside assistance in my state. And I love Good Sam. They have towed my bus, no questions asked, at least twice. And that's a pretty expensive tow. They cover my car and you can get tire option, which I wouldn't really recommend. Like like I said, tire shops are a dime a dozen. Yeah, they're great. So what would you say to a woman who says, I wanna drive or I wanna go on a road trip but I'm scared of breaking down? I would say get a newer van. They break down too. I know. Get something newer. Mine's a two thousand five. Like it's a beast. I wouldn't recommend getting anything super old. Take it to a mechanic, have them look everything over and like thoroughly, even the chassis, like, cause you know, there could be rust, whatever, but you know, there's a lot of vans out there right now that are like reliable and newer. And you know, if you can afford it, get as new as possible. Other than that, you're gonna have to just like deal with things that are just gonna go wrong, just like a car. Things get old. Yeah. Now you are throwing around a lot of mechanical words, chassis and injectors, but you didn't know all of these words from the start, right? No, like you could tell I knew the word injector, but didn't know what it what it did. I don't know what it does. Chassis, yeah. You you definitely learn the lingo. One of the pieces of pieces of advice I say to women who have a rig, whether it's a bus or a van or an RV, and you're gonna go out on the road, just take it to someone who can point out what the parts of your car are. So you don't have to know how to fix your engine, but if you can identify your engine, if you can identify your fuel pump or your exhaust, If you can transmission. Transmission. If you know the differences, and then if you are stuck on a road and you have to call somebody, you can say, I have fluid coming out of my transmission, or I have fluid coming out of this plastic container on the right hand side of my thing, and they'll say, That's okay. That's just your windshield washer fluid. You're going just you can keep going. So there's a lot of things that if you can know some basics and Then when you phone a friend and you tell them, then they can advise you whether you have to stay right where you are or if you can limp to a local place. And know the colors of your fluid. Like everything, like your coolant is a color, your windshi washer fluid is a color, your water leaks out sometimes. Everything has a smell and a color. And just take a like a white paper towel, dip it in it, smell it, and that's gonna be like helpful for whoever you call to say, okay, it's orange, it's green, it's blue, and this is what smells like. And then they're gonna or it's white. It could just be water. Sometimes water just leaks out of your cause it doesn't mean anything's wrong with it. It's just like perspiring. It's like, what do they call them? Sweating. Sweating. Yeah. The engine is just sweating. So yeah, it's very important to know all that. And honestly, like, I don't know if this is just geared to women, but a lot of men know nothing about Engines either. Like, so like it's really not just us. It's like you're you're not none of us are professional mechanics. Like, not even the mobile mechanics. Yeah, exactly. So, like, you just need to know the basic to get it. Like, do we need to get it towed? But like I was saying earlier, your friend's like, let's just get do mobile mechanics. Cause honestly, mobile mechanics, even though they sound like they'd be more expensive, are not. They have less overhead. They don't have a shop. They usually have every tool they need on a van and they can come to you. So you've saved the expense of towing if you don't have roadside service and you save the overhead of a shop. So they're not always more expensive at all. And they take, you know, Venmoat, credit card, cash, like so they're pretty easy. And they usually know what the hell they're doing, typically. Well, thank you so much, Justine, for sitting down and letting us know about all your breakdowns and how you've handled them and I hope that this is helpful to some of you out there. ⁓ maybe it'll get you out on the road. If you want to read more about mechanics and breakdowns and how to handle situations like this on the road, I do have a few blogs I've written over at she travels simple dot com. So you can head over there and check those out. Thanks for having me. ⁓ well thank you for sitting down and part two, I have a whole nother list. I yes. So that's the best thing about Justine is We have a lot of stories. We go way back. So I'm pretty sure you'll see her on a future podcast. So until then, take care and be safe.