The Big Blue Bus Next Door

December 15, 2023

A few days ago (December 9), we got a new neighbor for a few days. He pulled into site 1.

Bruce and I admired his RV, a converted school bus aka schoolie, while walking Nox.

Bruce was removing the burned out headlights bulb on the motorcycle later in the day. It was a fairly easy process, so once he was done, he spent more time looking up a replacement bulb than it took for him to remove the original bulb.

The weather was lovely, so I was sitting outside reading when Bruce came back out. I looked at the screws sitting on the patio and suggested since it was going to rain tomorrow, he should put them screws somewhere safe.

Bruce decided to put the headlight assembly back together to keep out the rain. As he was putting in the last screw, he dropped it. Finding the screw took both of us getting on our hands and knees, patting the ground. I even patted the ground under the motorcycle.

Bruce mentioned he wished he had a magnet, so I went inside and got a magnet off the fridge.

What do you know, it worked!!! While Bruce was running the magnet over the sand and grass, the screw hopped onto the magnet for a ride. Bruce was delighted and finished putting the headlight assembly together.

Bruce went inside and got his book and came back out. We both sat outside reading in the lovely weather. Our new neighbor came out with three or four gallon jugs to fill at his water spigot. Bruce waved and yelled out, “hi neighbor, nice RV!”

They got to talking and the neighbor was curious about what I had been doing stretching out underneath the motorcycle. So Bruce told the story of the screw.

Our new neighbor invited us over for drinks later in the day with his friend Kermitt, who works in the park.

That is how we meet W. Edward (Ed) Wendover, a retired newspaper reporter and editor, who now writes murder mysteries.

We had a lovely evening and got to hear some amazing stories from Ed and Kermitt. Kermitt is from Wales and has a lovely accent.

The inside of Ed’s bus was beautiful, with stunning woodwork. The seating was comfortable, with two cushioned chairs plus a table with seating.

When I first saw the outside of the bus, I thought he had painted the pictures on it. That wasn’t the case. Different artists from across the country painted different parts of the sides.

It rained all Sunday and Ed rolled out on Monday, so we didn’t get a chance to return his hospitality.

We headed out about the same time to run errands. One errand was stopping in at Walmart to pickup prescriptions. We laughed as we saw the big blue bus sitting in Walmart’s large vehicle parking.

We waved at Ed as we walked by. Ed got up, opened up the school bus doors, sat on the bus steps and talked to us for a while. He had stopped to get the New York Times to read and drink a cup of coffee before heading to Key West.

We wished him safe travels and that we hoped to meet on the road again.

I have since downloaded and started reading his second book, Murder by Lansing Kool-aid.