Snug as a bug in a bus

By JIM EAGLES

The first morning of our AdventureBus holiday in the United States I woke to the vision of a large pair of male feet clad in tan-coloured woollen socks a few centimetres from my nose. Turning away in search of fresher air I found myself staring instead at the early morning sunlight highlighting the magnificent 1000m red sandstone cliffs of Zion Canyon National Park.

That, in essence, sums up AdventureBus' two-week Best of the National Parks tour.

It is a cheap and entertaining way of seeing an array of the magnificent scenery the US national park system has to offer. But it also has its moments of mild discomfort and minor frustration.

The essence of the AdventureBus concept is that the tour party - in our case 22-strong - lives, sleeps and travels in a remodelled 50-year-old Greyhound bus.

The bus is the brainchild of Kyle Lapp, a laidback, 30-something Californian who was also the driver and tour leader on our trip.

About four years ago, after a 12-year career as a DJ, Kyle realised he no longer liked the music he had to play - "it was about the time the boy bands came on the scene" - and he looked for something more enjoyable to do.

He decided on Adventurebus, partly modelled on operations like Magic Bus and Green Tortoise, so he would have a reason to visit his favourite places and meet interesting people.

Acquiring a classic Greyhound bus, he stripped out the interior and, with rough but effective carpentry, remodelled it.

Today, instead of seats, it has benches about a metre wide down both sides, with rubber squabs on top for passengers to sit on during the day, and storage space for luggage underneath.

Come bedtime, plywood sheets are put across the aisle and covered with rubber squabs, turning the entire bus into a giant bed (when the bus stays put overnight you haul the squabs out and sleep under the stars).

Whereas on many trips you spend much of the day travelling between destinations, on the Adventurebus the long journeys are done at night, with passengers sleeping - or trying to - while lying packed like sardines, top-and-tail to save room, the length of the bus.

There are no changing rooms, toilets, showers or facilities of that sort on the bus, so it is not exactly a trip for anyone who puts a high priority on privacy, modesty or regular washing. After a few days most people find it much easier to sleep in their underwear and maybe a T-shirt, to hold off changing clothes until the next shower stop. You take comfort in the thought that you may be a bit ripe but so is everyone else.

It's also a good idea to avoid drinking too much towards bedtime - to avoid the trials of a midnight toilet stop.

That involves easing out of your sleeping bag, dressing, finding your torch, picking your way down the row of tightly packed recumbent figures, usually standing on at least one and tripping over another, and persuading the driver to stop at the next petrol station.

Fortunately, American petrol station operators seem more hospitable than their counterparts in New Zealand, who usually keep the toilets locked and reserve the key for paying customers. In fact, US businesses generally are amazingly tolerant of scruffy interlopers using their washrooms, showers and swimming pools.

We all became adept at finding toilets, showers and pools at hotels, motels, lodges, supermarkets and service stations, and were fairly brazen about using them. Some camping grounds at which the bus stops have full facilities, but somehow washing legitimately is not as much fun.

The pool at the Luxor in Las Vegas is particularly recommended ... and the washrooms are palatial, too.

The big advantage of the AdventureBus system is that it not only makes for a cheap trip, it also makes it possible to pack in an extraordinary amount of time walking, climbing, cycling, kayaking, swimming and relaxing in the forests and deserts, mountains and canyons, rivers and lakes of the southwest US.

Our tour embraced eight states and included Zion National Park, Bryce National Park, Yellowstone National Park, Grand Tetons National Park, Dinosaur National Park, Flaming Gorge Recreation Area, Arches National Park, Canyonlands National Park, the mountain biking capital of the world in Moab, Mexican Hat and the Valley of the Gods, Monument Valley and Lake Powell, the Grand Canyon and, just by way of contrast, two nights in Las Vegas.

We were able to spend at least a full day in most of those places allowing time for a proper look round.

At each spot our leader provided maps and offered useful advice on the tramping options and what to look for.



Spending two weeks in the extremely close company of a group of - mostly - young Americans provides fascinating viewing of your own soap opera (and starring in one, as we discovered when fellow travellers started copying our way of using the knife and fork, saying we looked "sooooooooo sophisticated.").

I could not believe my eyes when the thirtysomething with fading film-star good looks who slept next to me - he of the early morning socks - unpacked his supply of cosmetics and proceeded to give himself a daily rub all over with oil of Olay. "In my next life," he said, not entirely in jest, "I want to come back as a male supermodel who dies aged 28 when his looks are at their peak."

Equally fascinating was the snacking. Every time the bus stopped, for petrol or toilets, the young Americans leaped off and raced for the nearest store to stock up on a soda, snacks and candies. "Hey, we only eat this stuff when we're on holiday," claimed Vicki, a wisecracking New Yorker with a fund of funny stories. "The rest of the time we're so healthy it makes me sick. You want to try some of these ... ?"

Thanks to their generosity I am now familiar with the prolific American junk food industry.

And thanks to the openness of these young Americans I also know a lot more about some of them than I really needed to know.

We had been on the bus only one day when a hard-drinking, chain-smoking , planet-loving vegetarian poured out the intimate details of her turbulent life. She was not the last.

On the other hand, my American companions seemed marvellously positive about the present and confident about the future.

One young man from Minnesota had just completed a history degree and had no idea what he wanted to be but was confident of finding a job. He had a huge student debt but felt that the money spent on fees was a terrific investment.

That attitude made a refreshing difference to the complaining which is the public face of the New Zealand university system ... and it all added to the fun.

Suffice to say that each of our companions on the bus was a fascinating character - as fascinating as the astounding scenery - and a key ingredient that makes AdventureBus such an interesting way to travel.

Adventure Planet