Maine

Author: admin Category: news

Thursday
Jul 5, 2007

Whiles we were in Bangladesh and Scott was very sick with Malaria, we met the Whittlesey family who took us in their house and pampered us for 4 month as Scott was recovering and we were going through all the stress of shipping the bus. They became like a second family. They now live in Maine and this is where we are, and after 7 years, it is still like being back within your family, and we are still being pampered.

Back in time, the festival in Charleston went well and after that Ron Hallam from “General Diesel” was true to his word. He offered us a great space to work on the bus and the use of his tools. Joe, a mechanic there, was with us when we needed advice, and within 10 days, the bus was fixed again.

We had met so many people in Charleston that it really felt like leaving friends when we finally went back on the road.

On the way to Maine, we went through Charlotte and stayed 3 days with Vic Rabb, probably one of the only person that sells parts for British double Decker bus in USA, and he helped us getting a few bits www.usbusco.com

In Pennsylvania, we stopped one night at Mark’s house who is rebuilding a Gardner engine and has a very useful website on British bus www.britishbusclub.org

We then drove nonstop as David and Regine had organized us a show for the 4^th of July. We arrived on the 3^rd in the evening, totally exhausted but so happy to be here.

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The Sprockets in the News!

Author: admin Category: news

Wednesday
Jun 20, 2007

Just spotted this on the web – It’s a nice article about us posted in the Charlston. http://www.charleston.net/news/2007/may/30/its_real_balancing_act/

Plus and another piece in the Spoleto Today Blog with a brillant short video about us as well. Thank you Dan!

Charleston

Author: admin Category: news

Thursday
Jun 7, 2007

We left Wood’s house on the 13th of May and our friend Fletcher Crossman (www.fletchercrossman.com) had the opening of his Art exhibition at 6:00pm on the 18th in Charleston (about 1200 miles away), we really wanted to be there for that ,which at the speed of the bus, didn’t leave us much time.
Although we were mostly driving, crossing Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia, we had fun being on the small back roads (the minimum speed on the interstate is 45 miles an hour).
Unfortunately in Mississippi, we started hearing the dreaded banging sound again and we knew that at least one of the bearing had gone again. Because of the time factor we decided to keep going, babying the engine all the way and feeding it with oil addictive.
Then just as we were about to cross the border into Alabama, an other louder banging sound came and the bus started checking at each turn of the wheel, so we stopped in Heidelberg and were very lucky to meet Nelson from ” Heidelberg Service Centre” that helped us for 4 to 5 hours. The nuts of one the back wheels had been loose and 3 of them had snapped so we had to take off the drum and swap them around. Nelson didn’t want any payment at the end and only said ” remember, good people always meet again” (well! We hope to meet him again)
We had one very bad experience in Cordele, GA, in a Pilot Travel Centre, where the cashier, Deborah, insisted that we stole the $20 Diesel that we had prepaid. She called the Police and for some unknown reason was lying to him and told him that we had been hanging around the pump for 30min before entering the shop. We were shocked especially as we had only stopped there because it seems very cheap so we decided to fill the tank that was already nearly full. The manager finally came out and ask to the policeman to drop the affair and let us go. Scott was angry at Deborah for days after that and made a song about her.

We just made it in time for Fletch opening, and as we pulled the bus over to park, the tire burst, but it didn’t matter anymore, we had arrived and could go and enjoy our friend’s night and deal with the tire the next day.

A few days later as we were doing a show at the Buist Academy, we invited the organizers of the Picollo Spoletto for them to see what we had to offer. They really liked the show and also, it was very late, they worked hard to make it possible.

So , there we are, in Marion Square, performing our show 5 days a week until the 10th of June, and meeting lots of really nice people.
The Post and Courier has done a article on us where they talked about our engine being sick and one morning I found a card on the bus from ” General Diesel” and on the back of it, the president Ron Hallam, had wrote that he could help us to fix our engine. I called him and he seems very nice, so on Monday after the Festival we will drive the bus to his garage and see if we can fix it in time to make the next festival which is in Kingston, Ontario, Canada.

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Texas, Wood’s House

Author: admin Category: news

Monday
May 21, 2007

Here we are, back at Wood’s house, our friend, in Huntsville, Texas.But this time around, with the bus and in much better spirits. For all those people we’ve met along the way, that told us that it would be very difficult to bring the bus into the States,I am so happy to let them know: They were wrong.

Back in time, We really enjoyed our stops along the Pacific coast of Mexico, where we met lots of nice people and did some rewarding shows, untill we came into Semana Santa (Easter holliday). The coast, then, filled up with hollidayers, so much, that you couldn’t see the beach. Althought it was fun to be around, the shows became very tiring as the atmosphere was rowdy.

We did met up with a very nice familly in Ricon de los Guayabitos , Cynthia, Emilie, Ana, Valerie and Martin. It is in their huge garden by the beach that we spent 10 days emptying, cleaning and repainting the bus. That last bit, ” the repainting” was once again “Thanks” to Resene from New Zealand that sent us by DHL to Puerto Vallarta over 30 litres of their amaizing paint(Whiles we were in New Zealand, 5 years back,they already gave us as much to repaint the bus). With the bus looking at his best, and after saying goodby to our friends that so nicely looked after us, we drove to Zacatecas.

We stayed 3 days at ” Servicio Internacional” garage with our heroes mechanics, Francisco and Martin, where whiles they worked on differents bits of the engine, we kept fixing belly boxes, windows and painted a few more stars. We also, finally, put an oppening window on the upstairs bedroom, one we took from an old school bus and did a wooden frame to fit it in.

In Saltillo we met Juan, an electrician, who helped us fixing indicators lights, Brake lights, whippers ect… After 2 days we went back on the road and a straight drive to Laredo. The customs at the border were very friendly and in we were. The drive to Wood’s house was not only a beautifull one but a very pleasurable one, with smoth asphalte(very different from Mexico), which was equally nice for driver and passengers alike.

We did get stop by the police on the first night and very politely asked to pull over until the morning, as we were driving too slow with too little light on our tailgate.

Our next plans from here are the Spoleto festival in Charleston from the 22nd of May to the 10th of June and Kingston Festival in Ontario, Canada from the 12th to the 15th of July.

texas

Author: admin Category: news

Friday
May 11, 2007

Here we are, back at Wood's house, our friend, in
Huntsville, Texas.But this time around, with the bus
and in much better spirits.
For all those people we've met along the way, that
told us that it would be very difficult to bring the
bus into the States,I am so happy to let them know:
They were wrong.
Back in time, We really enjoyed our stops along the
Pacific coast of Mexico, where we met lots of nice
people and did some rewarding shows, untill we came
into Semana Santa (Easter holliday). The coast, then,
filled up with hollidayers, so much, that you couldn't
see the sand on the beach. Althought it was fun to be
around, the shows became very tiring as the atmosphere
was rowdy.
We did met up with a very nice familly in Ricon de los
Guayabitos , Cynthia, Emilie, Ana, Valerie and Martin.
It is in their huge garden by the beach that we spent
10 days emptying, cleaning and repainting the bus.
That last bit, " the repainting" was once again
"Thanks" to Resene from New Zealand that sent us by
DHL to Puerto Vallarta over 30 litres of their
amaizing paint(Whiles we were in New Zealand, 5 years
back,they already gave us as much to repaint the bus).
With the bus looking at his best, and after saying
goodby to our friends that so nicely looked after us,
we drove to Zacatecas.
We stayed 3 days at " Servicio Internacional" garage
with our heroes mechanics, Francisco and Martin, where
whiles they worked on differents bits of the engine,
we kept fixing belly boxes, windows and painted a few
more stars. We also, finally, put an oppening window
on the upstairs bedroom, one we took from an old
school bus and did a wooden frame to fit it in.
In Saltillo we met Juan, an electrician, who helped us
fixing indicators lights, Brake lights, whippers
ect… After 2 days we went back on the road and a
straight drive to Laredo.
The customs at the border were very friendly and in we
were.
The drive to Wood's house was not only a beautifull
one but a very pleasurable one, with smoth
asphalte(very different from Mexico), which was
equally nice for driver and passengers alike. We did
get stop by the police on the first night and very
politely were asked to pull over untill the morning,
as we were driving too slow with too little light on
our tailgate.
Our next plans from here are the Spoleto festival in
Charleston from the 22nd of May to the 10th of June
and Kingston Festival in Ontario, Canada from the 12th
to the 15th of July.

____________________________________________________________________________________
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Up North

Author: admin Category: news

Saturday
Mar 10, 2007

Whiles we were in Playa del Carmen,, we finally decided that it was time to go and visit Cuba. We had been talking about Cuba since about two years, so what a better time than now being so close by.

So on the 15th of January we hoped on a plane with our new Mexican tricycle and our small show, ready for a trip in Cuba(or mor to the point, la Havanna, as we didn’t have enough cash to visit further afield). Althought we managed to do 5 performances in 10 days( 2 streets shows, 2 free shows and 1 paid gig), we wont really impressed with the situation there.

We met much more unhappy cubans than happy one and I was left with the impression that all wanted to escape their country in surch for freedom. The best thing that happened to us there was meeting “la Giganteria”, a group of street artists.

Anyway we survived the 10 days and were really happy to be back on Mexican ground, but it is the only country we visited so far that left me with a feeling of sadness, and it took me longer than 3 days to get over it.

Now, beginning of March, we are on our way up on the Pacific coast. 3 weeks ago, I hurt my back after a successfull weekend in Puerto Escondido, performing in Zicatela in front of bar “la Flayita”. I would love to invent a very glamerous story about how I hurt myself, but I am afraid the truth was only the rope holding my hammac (where I was happilly reading and drinking my beer) that let me down ( on a concret floor).

In the last 3 weeks we have been beach hoping as I couldnt do much. Scott had been the only driver on board and tried to reach an average of 150km a day.

Tonight will then be our first show since then. We are now in a little village North of Manzanillo called la Manzanilla. We have been there for the last week, practising slowly, and getting back in shape.

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engine broke down

Author: admin Category: news

Friday
Nov 24, 2006

After leaving the big town of Mexico ciudad, it was a pleasure bumbling on the road and doing street show in small plazas. As usual the response of the audience was very good.

Then started the Festival season. Our first one was the Cervantino where we were really well looked after by two little cafes, Las Leyendas and El Midi on la plazuela San Fernando, They have made the festival a very agreeable place to be.

It is on the way to the Street Festival of Zacatecas that our nightmare started by a metal banging sound in our engine. We drove very slowly the last 150 km to Zacatecas and made it in time to start our shows. Then when our contract was accomplished we brought the bus to the garage Servicio International in la Col. Buenos Aires where Francisco and Martin took the matter in hand.

We then booked a cheap hotel (During the festival, they had booked us in a 5 stars hotel )and after 3 days, realized that we wont have our bus back in time to go to the next Festival, Monterrey. It was to start on the 8^th of November and it was by then the 25^th of October. Before arriving in Monterrey, 460km from Zacatecas, we had to go to Texas(a further 220km) to renew our Mexican visas (that were about to run out) and work out how we would take the rig and the rest of the show equipment to Monterrey.

We arrived in Texas on the 27^th and spent a week in our friend Woods house between San Antonio and Houston. We were most of the time on the phone and Internet trying to work out how we would fix our engine.

On the 6^th, early in the morning, Wood drove us the 10 hours to the border .Spent the night on the Mexican side and the next morning, after saying good by to our friend Wood, we left for Monterrey where we had a room in another five stars hotel booked for us by the festival. Left Jo and Theo there and at midnight Scott and me were on a bus to Zacatecas where we arrived at 7am. Went to the garage, pick up the rig and the rest of our equipment and back in a bus at 2pm to arrive at 8pm in Monterrey.

Our life at that point had the funny side of changing from 5 stars hotels to really cheap one and struggling on the bus with our 200kg of equipment.

On the 13^th, at 8pm after a very long journey on a cheap bus that agreed to take our equipment on board, we were back in Zacatecas, stuck at the bus station with those very same 200kg. No transport, no place to go

We finally decided to leave the rig in the luggage storage and took two taxis with the rest of the stuff to the very same cheap but friendly Zamora hotel .

The next day Francisco helped us get the rig back from the station and we were back in square one: same cheap hotel, bus broken down, but at least the visa run was done and Monterrey was done (hey that two worry less).

We finally ask Francisco if whiles waiting, we could live in our bus and that was accepted.

On Thursday 16^th of Novembre, we were back in our home, giving endless phone call to Paul Gardner and Roger Harrison, all really helpful.

On Saturday 18th, Francisco found a place that could refill the two bad bearings with the same bland metal and had them regrounded to mesure.That night they worked untill 11pm and when we finally turn the engine on, no banging . I do no think that even Francisco or Martin could understand or see how much we loved them at this point and how happy we were.

We are now on the 24th of Nov taking part in the mexican Juggling convention in Puebla and living in our bus. So far we drove 800km, went up a hill of 3000m and slept at minus 2 with our recently fixed engine and still no banging so we are again a really happy familly

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We are now in the very big city of Mexico

Author: admin Category: news

Monday
Jul 17, 2006

Thanks to the independent group of Intercambio International de Arte popular (cienfuegos_rebelde@yahoo.com.mx) we were able to park the bus outside Dona Luz house which is looking very well after us. Theo has made lots of friend in the area and the first thing we noticed here is the solidarity between the habitants of the area Cd.Netzahualcoyolt.

We then decided to organize a little tour of this area. During 5 ends of week we will close principal streets and will present our show with the hat.

Thanks to the various group of artist that we met here, the training space is not missing. Like often during our travel we are very disappointed with the little interest given to us by the French Alliance which are suppose to promote French show abroad.

Because Mexico is so big and that we really want to see it all we are now trying to obtain Artist visas for a year extendable. If we do get them it will be thanks to the various groups of modern circus and the various festivals of Art in the country that very kindly sent us some letters of support.

We are now in a little town called Tulum

Author: admin Category: news

Monday
Mar 20, 2006

We are now in a little town called Tulum (or rather near it) on the beach in the Caraibes. It is very beatifull around here. Along the way we ve met up with a Canadian familly that travel in their school bus every winter with their 5 kids and a French couple in their tent with their 3 kids and a Danish familly with their 3 kids who travel in their Mercedes van. We are all parked together and eat our meal together like a small comunity and it s very nice, especially for Scott and me who havent met anyone travelling in buses for ages.

Tomorrow we will do the street here in the center of Tulum as the casa de la cultura is organising a small street festival, it will be with the hat so we dont expect much financially but I feel it is important that the local people get a chance to see our show if they want to rather than just the tourist.

Mexico!

Author: admin Category: news

Sunday
Feb 12, 2006

I am very happy to say that since the day before yesterday we are in Mexico. Its very exiting and I am loving it.

The best is our temporal permit for the bus is valid 10 years, ten years… can you beleive it? Which of course means that if we feel like it we may stay ten years

We are now in the departement of Chiapas and its beatifull, granted it has been a tiring drive through all the moutains, especially as I have done most of it whiles Scott has been cycling around – keeping him fit. We are feeding ourselves of tortilla de harina de trigo and salad, cheese and guacamole, i love it. The peoples are so far really friendly and the countryside beautifull. Who knows, maybe I will found my nest at last