July 26, 1996    

Are We Really? was invited to Ken Kesey's farm in Pleasant Hill, Oregon to ride the Bus to the Furthur Festival in Veneta, Oregon.   Babbs emphasized that "the word Furthur was their word, ours is Further".   The ride from the barn where the Bus resides to the concert site in Veneta, then back to the Bus barn is known as The Round Trip!    


 
Friday afternoon and night - Ken Kesey, Ken Babbs, George Walker, Roy Seabourn and Phil Deitz were busy tuning up the Bus for The Round Trip. The weather was Oregon Hot...90's in the daytime, 60's and 70's at night, no rain in sight. Most of the tune up took place at night to beat the heat.
 


  The following photos show the Bus as an "artwork-in-progress". On the left is Roy repainting the surface that was the image in the right photo. The Prankster consensus was that the area looked too "busy"... dark blue paint was applied over the "busy-ness" while masking the large green swirl resulting in a... better aesthetic!  

    Neal Cassady said... "never paint the tires, it makes the bus look junky"     The photo above is George applying the latest Prankster technique to the wheels - diffraction mylar! When light hits the mylar, multi-colors reflect into your eyes. All of the wheels have this material applied as well as many of the rivets in the hood and side panels.

 
Roy painting "WIPE" onto the floormat at the back entry of the Bus.       Besides "arting-up" the Bus, the Friday night tune up included checking the oil, boring and stroking the dipstick, adjusting the hydraulic floormats and cleaning the windows. The photos below show the hood and motor. Yes dear brother Sheriff... even the motor is painted dayglo!     The inside of the bus is as elaborately decorated as the outside!   The two photos above show the upper left and right corners of the inside of the Bus. The photo on the left shows a curved row of small black & white magazine photographs pasted onto the ceiling. The photos are of 1960's icons - Marilyn, Elvis, Ghandi Nixon, Kennedy, Martin Luther-King, Muhammed Ali. The photo on the right has an image of Wavy Gravy next to one of the many convex round mirrors that adorn the ceiling.
   

Ken Babbs... above on the ceiling is a large black & white photo of Kerouac.


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