So “Dharma 2000,” a 1983 MCI Mc9 bus, made its way to Lincoln. The interior was stripped out and much of the seating replaced with bunks. Other repairs and refurbishment were needed to get the bus roadworthy.

“We did a big garage sale and raised some money,” Neville said. “We were able to buy tires with that. We had a couple friends who are mechanics go through it and it’s running great. It's good to go.”

“A lot of people say we’re crazy taking the bus. We’re taking nine people. We never stay in hotels, and we’re not going to start staying in hotels now. We’d sleep in the van. People would go to bed early just to get a decent place to sleep.”

“If you didn’t, you were facing four or five days without sleep,” Dell said.

The bus will provide comfortable sleeping quarters at minimal cost.

“It costs $4 an hour to run,” Neville said. “That’s $4 an hour for hotel for all of us. It gets 7.5 miles per gallon and it’s diesel. The old van only got about 9 miles per gallon. So we’re only losing 1.5 miles per gallon.”