| Unofficial history of Our Fitzjohn Roadrunner 1957-1958: Louis Yates buys the bus from Fitzjohn Co. empty for $60,000 because his original Travco was too small. Mr Yates converts it throughout including adding a solid copper holding tank. His one complaint was that the 4-speed Walkashier engine was too small and slow. At the same time, Seymore Johnson buys a sistership and converts it with a large array of electrical gadgets such as the generator which will turn on automatically when there is a drain on power, like when the refrigerator turns on. Also Custom Coach buys a third bus. Mr Yates came from a poor family and had his first pair of shoes when he was 16. When he found oil on his land, he soon learned how to spend his money. He had a standing order at the local car dealers to buy the latest color of Rolls produced each year. He had a private airplane sitting on his land. One day he called the car sales man to meet him at the field where the plane was parked. When he arrived, Mr Yates asked the salesman what he thought was wrong with the plane. Baffled, the salesman said he couldn�t find a thing wrong, but he�d have a mechanic over right away. Mr. Yates waived a hand. "No that�s not what I mean. Don�t you see? She�s lonesome. I want you to go get me another just like it, to sit next to her." The salesman basically called Mr. Yates crazy and shook his head. He asked him to hold out his hand, started handing out $100 bills, and said "Stop me when you think I�m not crazy". He explained that, "I grew up poor and always wore my brothers hand-me-downs. Now that I�ve got some money, I want to spend it my own way. Let my kids find their own money!" The salesman never again tried to talk Mr. Yates out of a prospective purchase. In 1971, we were parked for repairs in San Antonio in an out-of-the-way garage owned by Lee Pundt (FMCA F1390), the then president of the Lone Star Chapter, when a stranger strolled by, watched us for a minute, and drawled, "That�s a nice Fitzjohn!" My dad was hot an tired, and answered only, "thanks.", then it hit him. "How�d you know this was a Fitzjohn??" "Because I put in the copper water tanks into it." We had quite a conversation over coffee and beer that afternoon in the bus. 1958-1963: Mr. Yates sells the bus to an unknown man in California. During this time many changes were made. For example, the kitchen and bath switched places to their present configuration, and much of the electrical features were added. In addition, there is evidence that the coach had been left in storage for almost three years in which time the bus suffered water damage. In the lower compartments, there is still a water mark about three feet high. 1963-1964: It is unclear whether the bus was bought by Custom Coach and used by an older man, or the old man himself bough the coach and had custom coach work on it. It may also be possible that the work they did on it was done on nights and weekends, and was not really sanctioned by the company. It is definite, though, that Custom Coach took out a large double bed in the rear stateroom, and replaced it with the current bunk beds. They also installed the present Ford 534 gas powered truck engine. Custom Coach denies doing any work on the vehicle, but when we visited the founder of the company, Mr. Miles Elmers, he parked the coach expertly in his driveway, saying with satisfaction "now she�s home again!" At the 1992 FMCA National Convention Mr. Kirwood Elmers admitted that his father Miles did work on the coach in his large garage. 1964-1968: Alexander MacElvany was the next owner, purchasing the bus for $60,000. This gentleman was an architect who designed major ski areas. In his ownership, he added the Allison Automatic transmission. He never drove the bus himself, but had chauffers drive it for him. As a consequence, they never cared for it, except to add oil. One winter, the entire bus froze out, and later, the rear axle was ruined. One side note: the license plate was VT#1 for Vermont #1. 1970: Next, it was bought at an auction in Saratoga, New York by a company specializing in insuring valuable race horses. They traded a race horse and $7,500 to Lanau Monticello for the coach. The plan was to use the vehicle as a mobile office at the tracks, but rumor has it that the wives of the agents involved were not pleased with the possibilities inherent in a luxury motor home. Beautiful clients, and absent husbands. At any rate, the company either wanted yet more prestige, or they just didn�t know what they had in the "Land Cruiser", because the registration was changed from Fitzjohn to Mercedes. 1970 � 1992: We purchased it for $12,500 including a free fill-up of 149 gallons of gasoline. Since then, we�ve put approximately 500,000 miles on it. At one time it had a central vacuming system, a mobile telephone (before that age of cel-phones), and an airplane type heater below-decks. The reclining seats behind the drivers seat have been removed to accommodate the sofa on that side and the additional refrigerator, but the ones on the right still make greate co-pilot seating. We installed the screens on the sliding windows, and the curtains were made from a fellow bus-nut at an FMCA rally. We also installed a microwave and a better disposal system for the holding tank. From 1975-1978, we hauled 22 soccer players from the Metropolitan State College of Denver to various meets throughout the area. From 1976 to 1981 it served and the full-time home for my father and sister Karina. |