ESA, the Outing Club, and the Bus

A little explanation:

ESA is the Episcopal School of Acadiana: a small, private school that tranquilly rests beneath the shade of live oaks amidst sugar cane fields in Cade, Louisiana. It currently consists of a lower, middle, and upper school.

The Bus belongs to the ESA Outing Club, an organization that takes students on a variety of outdoorsy adventures, including canoeing, kayaking, biking, hiking, and sometimes, when all things go wrong, gas station hopping. These range from weekend trips to nearby states to epic month long summer trips out west. The club is run by dad, thus him taking the bus.

Dad aka Mr. Tutwiler aka Cabell is the head of the English department and has been teaching at the school almost since its inception in 1979. Some of the basic facts about him, which all students know, which may or may not be true: He loves moon pies and RC Cola (HELLO FIRST ENDORSEMENTS!), once shot his television, and quite often dresses in drag for Halloween.

The BUS or bad news bears: I'm not entirely sure when the Outing Club got its grimy hands on this bus, but over the years there have been many transformations. However, I'll merely try to explain the bus as it exists today. The interior consists of three segments.

1) The front section still somewhat resembles a typical school bus with seats and a floor and a place for the driver. These seats only go about three rows deep. From this point to the back of the bus, all the seats have been removed.

2) The middle is an open area that is good for setting up a social seating zone with camping chairs, ice chests, and sofa cushions taken from unsuspecting parents. Here students can adequately play cards and make lunches.

3) The back is for storage and napping or prostrate reading. Some genius of engineering rigged up a wooden loft for these dual purposes. Below, the bus can be loaded from the back with all the gear necessary for the trip. Above, the wood is padded with gym mats and old moldy pillows for the passengers who lie at about window level.

Throughout, the bus is decorated with paintings by students, book shelves, and whatever other found objects that the members have decided are fitting.

Exterior: the top of the bus has been outfitted with a custom roof rack than can hold the major equipment that goes along on these trips, often canoes and rafts. The sides of the bus are painted as well (I see hand prints and western vistas when I close my eyes). Above all, the pride and joy of this bus is the cow skull strapped to the front grill.

For next time, a tale of bus function..........