Gus the Bus and Us

37: The number of times Kaitlyn and I squealed in terror/adrenaline as we drove the truck for the first time to our first food drive pick-up.

I knew coming into this position that being an AmeriCorps*Vista would require a wide variety of skill sets. I fully expected to encourage people to apply for benefit programs, drive all around southwestern Ohio to train people to use the Ohio Benefit Bank, and generally work hard in our mission to eradicate poverty.

I did not realize that driving the Careening Van of Chaos was one of my obligations.

Keep in mind that this van is not really a van; it is a truck, about the size of a U-Haul, with no rearview mirror and no way to merge onto a highway without feeling a great deal of anxiety. It is a large, intimidating vehicle, one that fellow Vista Kaitlyn Baker and I now fondly refer to as "Gus the Bus." We chose to refer to it as a bus because no one around here can seem to come to an agreement about what it is. Said vehicle is pictured below:

Our mission was to pick up a barrel of food from a PGA tour in Maineville from a food drive they had been holding for the past week or so. Kaitlyn and I had been dreading this trip, our first time driving the truck that is just small enough that you don't need an extra license to operate it. We decided to split up the driving time; Kaitlyn would drive there, I would drive back. The first 20 minutes in the truck consisted of the two of us squealing as we drove over small, and not so small, bumps in the road.

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We finally arrived in Maineville, slightly shaken but otherwise unharmed. As we had no idea where to go to pick up the barrel, Kaitlyn parked the truck across two or three vacant parking spaces. We went inside the main building and asked the woman behind the desk where we could find the barrel of food from their food drive, and she pointed to a barrel near the front door. We thanked her and peeked inside, where we found exactly two products: a jar of peanut butter and a package of cookie mix. We decided to consult the lady behind the desk again.

"Is this it?"

"Yep!"

"Is there another barrel of food you wanted us to pick up?"

"No, that's all of it!"

"You're sure?"

"Yeah!"

"O...kay."

We didn't need the dolly we had brought along to lug out the food we were expecting, or the 10 banana boxes, or even the truck, really. We stored the groceries in a random box in Gus the Bus, anyway, and began to drive back to Shared Harvest. We weren't even on the highway, though, when we decided to call the person who had requested us to pick up the food, just in case. Sure enough, there was another barrel full of food in a closet that needed to go back to the warehouse. So we pulled into the nearest parking lot empty enough for us to turn around and drove back to get the other barrel, which ended up containing 130 pounds of food. Much better. Even though the dolly we had brought along had a flat wheel, so it was completely useless and we ended up carrying boxes of food back to the truck one by one.

Driving Gus the Bus was really intimidating at first, despite the constant stream of tips and reassurances Kaitlyn and I listened to prior to clamoring into the truck. But once we got used to being several meters higher than the rest of traffic and ignoring the hard stares from drivers speeding around us on the highway, we didn't mind it so much. And the next time we go on a delivery, we will have a much better idea of what to expect. I'm looking forward to the next adventure.

Lesson #1: Be sure to check that the dolly is fully functional before struggling to lift it into Gus the Bus.

Lesson #2: Don't be afraid to go five or 10 (or 15) miles below the speed limit.

Lesson #3: Always have a fellow Vista with you.