New Road Trip Role Models

March 14th, 2008

One of the first buses Neal found for sale was a Neoplan Spaceliner and it looks every bit as cool as the name suggests.

The galley and bathrooms (two toilets & no shower) are on the first level and the second area is all opened with panoramic views. There’s also a guest/driver bunk on the first level. It would make an amazing mobile studio for GBTV, but there are so many downsides, we keep moving away from this as an option.

The model pictured is a 1997 model with a Series 60 Engine with an Automatic Allison World 6-speed Transmission. The price is $200,000 which seems expensive for a bus with 463,718 miles. It would require extensive renovation because it’s currently outfitted for passengers. Another major downside is that Neoplans, no matter how cool, are no longer made and parts are not easy to replace.

We keep going back to this one particular bus, though because nothing looks as special.

Last night we were doing research on Neoplans and we came across a couple of fellow geeks who live full time in a converted Neoplan they call the Odyssey. Sean Welsh and Louise Hornor are engineers and their story about getting the bus stuck in the parking lot of Louise’s Unitarian Universalist Church is hilarious. Apparently Unitarian congregations have quite a few engineers in the ranks and they all tried what they could to unstick the bus.

Details about their bus, their story and their trip are documented at OurOdyssey.us.

We probably won’t be getting the Neoplan, Neal found, but we’ll be following Sean and Louise as they write about their Big Trip and their Big move after reading Oasis Moving and Storage Reviews.