<html><head><style type="text/css"><!-- DIV {margin:0px;} --></style></head><body><div style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12pt"><div>I am a VW lover and owned a bus for a few years. I now have a wonderful bug.<br><br>A great place to look for VWs is <a href="http://www.thesamba.com/vw/"><span class="cgSelectable">http://www.thesamba.com/vw/</span></a><br><br>Or you could always get a new one in Brazil :-)<br><br>Leslie Zolman<br><a href="http://www.thesamba.com/vw/"><span class="cgSelectable"></span></a></div><div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br><div style="font-family: times new roman,new york,times,serif; font-size: 12pt;"><font face="Tahoma" size="2"><hr size="1"><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">From:</span></b> Jim McAndrew <jim@loc8.us><br><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">To:</span></b> Eric Wolf <ebwolf@gmail.com><br><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Cc:</span></b>
talk-us@openstreetmap.org<br><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sent:</span></b> Thu, August 26, 2010 3:07:04 PM<br><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Subject:</span></b> Re: [Talk-us] GeoBus Discussion<br></font><br> I am planning on another phone meeting tonight at 8:00pm:<br><br>Thursday August 26, 2010<br> 8:00PM EDT<br>Call in number: 218-486-3891 x663610833<br><br>I will try to get the minutes into this email as soon as the conversation is over, so we can keep the discussion going here.<br><br>Katie had some good questions, so I'm going to try to answer them here:<br> <br><br><blockquote style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;" class="gmail_quote"><div style="text-align: left;"> When do you think this would happen? Duration? Would anyone really be available for the entire duration? or just portions?<br></div></blockquote><div>I think the "Bus" will be a symbol of the project,
and will be flexible enough that it can do a month long trip, but also be used for smaller trips. <br> </div><blockquote style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;" class="gmail_quote"><div style="text-align: left;"><br>Agree with the concerns over costs and burden of maintenance. Do we really want to maintain something in the long-term? What about renting a vehicle? Considering the costs of ownership, perhaps this might be a better option? <br></div></blockquote><div>Having a "Bus" as a marking symbol is the way we want to go. Eric Wolf has some good information on VW buses. A lot of it is kind of scary. We did discuss renting a van for a short time. I'm not sure of how that would work, but it's not a bad idea.<br> </div><blockquote style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;" class="gmail_quote"><div
style="text-align: left;"><br>Also, what about taking Amtrak across the country? (always been interested in doing this) Amtrak offers unlimited passes for 15 days, 30 days, or 45 days of travel. They also have good group specials and perhaps we could lower the costs.<br></div></blockquote><div>I had a roommate in college that did this one summer, he had some great stories. <br></div><blockquote style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;" class="gmail_quote"> <div style="text-align: left;"><br> I would also be happy doing car trips at a smaller scale, doing outreach at universities and engaging people, (e.g. ambassadors, trainers) and scheduling things during weekends.<br><br>In reality, not sure how much vacation time I would have for this anyway, versus other ways of spending vacation time. <br></div></blockquote><div>That is a major problem with it, and people would probably each
only do a short stint on the bus. <br> </div> <br>I'll keep these in mind for the discussion tonight, and I hope to talk to some of you there! I'll be back with the meeting minutes before tomorrow.<br><br>--<br>Jim McAndrew<br><br><br><div class="gmail_quote"> On Tue, Aug 24, 2010 at 1:23 PM, Eric Wolf <span dir="ltr"><<a rel="nofollow" ymailto="mailto:ebwolf@gmail.com" target="_blank" href="mailto:ebwolf@gmail.com">ebwolf@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;"> Just to jump in here... As a former owner of a '74 VW Bus, I can tell you that there are serious positives and negatives to going that route.<br><br>First, the positives:<br><br>1. If you can find someone not wanting to rape you, they can be purchased fairly cheap ~ $2500 for a decent camper. However, decent doesn't mean the same thing here as it would for any newer
vehicle. That means:<br> a. Engine runs well enough to get it home.<br> b. Minimal rust through (straight frame, no undercarriage rust)<br> c. Interior isn't hideously gross (and I'm not just talking 70s plaid gross)<br><br>2. They get pretty good gas mileage (~ 20mpg) and are fun to drive once you get used to it. They are amazingly easy to parallel park! Very short wheel-base.<br> <br>3. Style + Substance - better than a schoolbus<br><br>4. There is a great network of people to help you WHEN you break down:<br><span> <a target="_blank" href="http://www.type2.com/rescue/">http://www.type2.com/rescue/</a></span><br> <br>5. You will be a decent mechanic after owning one<br> <br>Second, the negatives:<br><br>1. 90% of the buses for sale now are in the "rape" category. I'm talking $11,000 for a vehicle with 150K miles?!? If you want a classic 21-window, you'll spend at least $5K for a rolling
body and no engine.<br> <br>2. Be sure to clean it thoroughly. If you have a friend in the police department, ask them if you can have a drug dog check it for you. There are about a billion places to hide (or lose) drugs in a VW bus. You don't want to get pulled over by an over-zealous redneck cop and then find out there's a kilo of cocaine in some hidden corner.<br> <br>3. You get good gas mileage because you won't be going fast. The semis will be blowing past you. It will be life in the slow lane.<br><br>4. You will be a decent mechanic after owning one because you will do repairs on the side of the road. I always had the necessary tools with me in the bus to remove the engine on the side of the road. Fortunately, I only ever had to do this in my driveway.<br> <br><span><a target="_blank" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/ebwolf/269029370/">http://www.flickr.com/photos/ebwolf/269029370/</a></span><br><br>-Eric<br> <br><br><br
clear="all">-=--=---=----=----=---=--=-=--=---=----=---=--=-=-<br> Eric B. Wolf 720-334-7734<br> <br><br><br> <br><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div class="im">On Sun, Aug 22, 2010 at 1:20 PM, Jim McAndrew <span dir="ltr"><<a rel="nofollow" ymailto="mailto:jim@loc8.us" target="_blank" href="mailto:jim@loc8.us">jim@loc8.us</a>></span> wrote:<br></div><div><div></div><div class="h5"> <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;"> Blars,<br><br>I do realize that the telephone format is inconvenient to a lot of people, especially considering time zones and availability. It is a good suggestion to move it to an email list.<br><br>As far as the amount of work involved, we know that getting an old school bus is expensive and won't be easy. The mileage, insurance, and
fuel cost are all concerns to us. Thea Clay is currently in the process of pricing the total cost of ownership for different vehicles, and we think that a VW bus will probably be the best solution for this idea.<br> <br>If you would like, I can send you the meeting minutes from last week's meeting.<br><br>--<br><font color="#888888">Jim McAndrew</font><div><div></div><div><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Sun, Aug 22, 2010 at 1:28 PM, Blars Blarson <span dir="ltr"><<a rel="nofollow" ymailto="mailto:openstreetmap-talk-us@scd.debian.net" target="_blank" href="mailto:openstreetmap-talk-us@scd.debian.net">openstreetmap-talk-us@scd.debian.net</a>></span> wrote:<br> <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;"><div>In article <<a rel="nofollow" ymailto="mailto:AANLkTinHg331nOZJxJHKwCeG2va%2BgnBCErhTZXm7pY_q@mail.gmail.com" target="_blank"
href="mailto:AANLkTinHg331nOZJxJHKwCeG2va%2BgnBCErhTZXm7pY_q@mail.gmail.com">AANLkTinHg331nOZJxJHKwCeG2va+gnBCErhTZXm7pY_q@mail.gmail.com</a>> <a rel="nofollow" ymailto="mailto:jim@loc8.us" target="_blank" href="mailto:jim@loc8.us">jim@loc8.us</a> writes:<br> <br> >Tomorrow (Thursday) night at 8pm EST, we are going to have a meeting to<br> >discuss the GeoBus.<br> <br> </div>You should realize by making it a phone discussion, you are excluding<br> some people. I'm much more likely to participate in an email or IRC<br> discussion.<br> <br> <br> <br> I think you are underestimating the amount of work involved in such a<br> conversion. Used busses (school, local or long distance) tend to be<br> very high mileage and need a lot of maintenance. I think a used RV<br> should also be considered, they tend to have maintenance issues from<br> lack of use. Also, the bus is more likely to need a commercial<br> drivers
licence.<br> <font color="#888888"><br> <br> --<br> Blars Blarson <a rel="nofollow" ymailto="mailto:blarson@scd.debian.net" target="_blank" href="mailto:blarson@scd.debian.net">blarson@scd.debian.net</a><br> <br> With Microsoft, failure is not an option. It is a standard feature.<br> </font><div><div></div><div><br> _______________________________________________<br> Talk-us mailing list<br> <a rel="nofollow" ymailto="mailto:Talk-us@openstreetmap.org" target="_blank" href="mailto:Talk-us@openstreetmap.org">Talk-us@openstreetmap.org</a><br><span> <a target="_blank" href="http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-us">http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-us</a></span><br> </div></div></blockquote></div><br> </div></div><br>_______________________________________________<br> Talk-us mailing list<br> <a rel="nofollow" ymailto="mailto:Talk-us@openstreetmap.org" target="_blank"
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