Our bus will turn 51 years old this September. And we’ve become totally enamored with tracking down her history before she became our Zephyr.
We’ve found the GM delivery list and tracked down that she was ordered and in service to Citizen Auto Stage out of Nogales, Arizona. We knew that she was mainly a regional charter tour bus in the southwest her entire service life. We’ve been in touch with one of her mechanics from her service days and learned of her excursions transporting miners up tight mountain dirt switchback roads. We knew she retired out of service sometime in the mid-1980s, and later she was lovingly converted to a RV.
We’ve tried multiple attempts at contacting Citizen Auto Stage to find out more of her history, to no avail.
I’ve spent hours on Google image search trying to find any picture that might include a shot of a 4106 or GM bus serving parts of Arizona in hopes of catching a glimpse of her.
And then yesterday evening, this image popped up in our e-mail from a fellow bus nut:
“Can’t tell if this is your bus or not.” – Our bus angel
From the delivery list, we’re fairly confident ours was the only one delivered to Citizen Auto Stage directly from GM in 1961. We do know that at some future point in history, they acquired a couple other 4106s – probably transferred from other lines.
So it is quite likely – actually, almost entirely likely – that this picture above is OUR bus. In service as a passenger coach. In the early 60s.
We’re starring into history… while sitting inside of it. It’s eery. It’s fascinating. It’s overwhelmingly emotional to have such a visual link to her history.
When it hit me what I was looking at, I had goosebumps all over and tears forming in the corner of my eyes.
That’s our bus. That’s our home. That’s where she grew up on the road, where she spent her youth. This is her baby picture! Oh my gosh.. that’s OUR 4106. Not just another picture of another 4106. A reminder that our bus has a long history before us.
That’s OUR bus!!
(And gosh golly darn, do we wish she still had those magnificent swoopy windows!)
We also have a bus, ours is a 1966 GMC buffalo. One question, do you have power steering? We don’t and boy howdy, we need it! We love her though, ours is named “Big Hound”. Once you have a bus, nothing else compares!!!
Hi Tammie.. always a pleasure to hear from other bus folks 🙂
Zephyr has the original factory installed ‘power assist’.. which has been working out fine for us so far!
Will you be having a birthday party for Zephyr? Perhaps in Nogales, Arizona or Pontiac, Michigan?
-jbn
What a cool story and SOOOO cool you found the original of your bus.
Nina
That was the best story I have read all week, heck all month and just maybe all year! It’s kind of like a circle of life story but with a twist. And what makes it even cooler is that RJ, whom I suspect you probably don’t know in real life, connected with your quest and, this “stranger” gave you a gift that is probably one of the more meaningful gifts you will ever receive.
Awww.. .thanks Lisa. There is a lot of awesome serendipity to this story (and even more than we told above.)
Oh, gosh. . . what have I started!!
LOL!
Definitely something good, RJ 🙂 Thank you again for initiating this thread of serendipitous connections.
Those swoopy windows are even more swoopy (or swoopier?) on the 4104. It’s nice that Peninsula Glass still makes and supports both in exact replacement sizes for bolt-off-bolt-on installation. I have them and love them. They slide open and the screens are on the inside. PG is also very pleasant on the business end too.
Our windows are by Peninsula – probably the one thing we really wish the original converter had done is use the swoopy drop in replacements instead. Unfortunately, it would be a pretty major retrofit at this point, as everything is already re-framed and skinned.
Finding a bus with the original shaped windows was on our list, but when it comes down to buying a converted bus – it’s usually all about compromise 🙂 Otherwise, we’re very very happy with our girl. Maybe when we re-paint, we’ll have some sort of mock-treatment done?
As Cherie said – we are pretty sure our windows came from Peninsula Glass.
Though upgrading back to swoopy is not an option without gutting the bus, getting dual-pane window replacements might be worthwhile. The ones we have are single pane, and we are also missing one screen.
wow she is really pretty in the blue. I follow your site everyday. It’s a great blend of life and tech talk. Can’t wait till we get more info on running the air on battery. Have u looked into the fuel cells as a back up they seem to be up and coming here in Canada . There is a rental company using them in rentals as a back up to solar. If u ever get our way the first nite at our resort
( swan lake rec.com ) is on me. The cherries are just ripe this week. And summer is in full swing. Keep up the great blog.
Hi Rob.. thanks for following along. Really appreciate your comments!
Is your resort – http://www.swanlakerecresort.com/? If so, it looks gorgeous! BC sounds awfully tempting too. Hope we get up that way sometime, and thanks very kindly for your offer.
Chris is currently deep in research on new air conditioners that are more power efficient, so I’m sure he’ll at some point be putting together a big article on it. But in case you missed it, he did do an article on our boosting inverter – https://www.technomadia.com/2012/04/boosted-electrons-better-views/ – which talks a bit about how we run our AC off our lithium battery bank.
He says he’s done a bit of research into fuel cells, but didn’t find anything about practically using them in an RV. If you have any resources on that, would love to read more up on it.
All our best!
My husband and I were thrilled when we found your blog and we enjoy following your adventures!
We begin OUR full-time RV life in two weeks. It took us 18 months, but we sold our home in Arizona, most all of our belongings and our vehicles, we changed our state of residency and we have lined up our first “on the road” seasonal jobs. We purchased a Ford F450 Super Duty and a 40-foot fifth wheel.
We are young (in our mid 40s) and we decided that we wanted to experience something different in life. By profession, Jerry is a professional photographer and I am a graphic designer. While we may use those skills on the road, our plan is to work seasonal jobs wherever we are.
We love your bus…she sure is a beauty!
Check out our blog at cr8ingthelife.blogspot.com. Maybe down the road our paths will cross and we can meet for drinks or dinner.
Hey Kim and Jerry.. thanks for stopping by, and congrats on your upcoming adventure! Hopefully we will cross paths soon!
So, I’m taking it that the uber cute little blue trailer in your header picture on your blog isn’t your new 5th Wheel? 😀 (Or if it is.. we so want one too!!). We’ll get you guys added to our blog roll list, for sure.
Have you checked out http://www.creativecruiser.com yet? They’re friends of ours who are also pro-photographers and graphic designers on the road. Might be good folks for you guys to know as well.
Wow! Awesome story – and the picture is an awesome find.
Yes, the swoopy windows are great!
Thanks for stopping by, Phil!