NJ Common Sense

By Alonzo Hosford

Lacking communication over pickup instructions, Flemington NJ Tea Party bus was beached 1 hour and 15 minutes on road delaying departure for the 9/12 DC Tea Party Rally. Swift action got the bus extricated in plenty of time to make the event.

Arriving early, 5:15 am, the driver of the chartered bus arranged by the Fleminton NJ Tea Party did not get the instruction not to enter the parking lot where riders would park there cars. Organizers worried that the entrance would not suit a bus and their prediction proved correct.

A few riders had arrived before the bus and I was one. As in all Tea Party activities you meet new patriots. This was no different as we stood near our cars making new acquaintances in the drizzly rain in the dark under parking lot lights.

The parking lot was a good 1000 feet back from the road down a dark entrance when we saw the lights of the bus and then heard the fateful sound of rubber spinning without traction.

Photo Story

As we  hurried towards the bus headlights down the drive thinking the unthinkable happened and it did. The bus was inextricably lodged with driver’s side caught on the driveway’s embankment border, actually flatting it into a muddy slide. The rear was tilted enough that the other side’s undercarriage was dug into the apex of the roadway. Moving forward the driver side wheels spun in the mud. Moving in reverse the other side’s wheels spun. So much for limited slip differential.

Early bus riders found wood along the road and used it to attempt a rescue only to be rewarded with the smell of burning rubber and wood. Meantime the many riders arrived and lined the road with their cars before the morning light. Their headlights shined in the light drizzle.

A muddy back road was found to the blocked parking lot and a decision was made to get the cars parked for safety and the optimism the bus would be freed. Riders drove their cars down a dirt road you might find on a farm with many large holes filled with water in a pitch black night. From SUVs to the tiniest of sub compacts slipped through the tree lined rutted path.

Eventually the State Police and a towing service arrived. With brute force the bus was dragged over the apex of the road surface and freed.

Riders already lined up along the unlit road with protest signs, chairs, ice chests, children and unbounded anticipation boarded within seconds of the freed bus.

Taking pictures I still had not unloaded my items from my car and made a mad rush back down the 1000 or so feet to get my belongings and was one of the last to board ahead of standby riders.

Standby riders stood in the drizzle and boarded finally about 6:30 am. It turned out the original reserved bus was substituted with a larger more posh bus, compliments of the bus company Transbridge.