“One Flew Over The Cuckoo Nest” Author bought a 1939 International Harvester school bus, already equipped with bunk beds, benches and a refrigerator. It was christened with a new destination sign that read, “FURTHER.”
At the wheel of the bus was Neal Cassady, the real-life hero of Jack Kerouac’s beat generation novel “On The Road.”
Can you imagine that? How cool….Authentic individuals, ok, wild and crazy but not cookie-cutter people…
Kesey’s first project for the “Pranksters” was to decorate the bus and it turned out to be a never-ending process, with sprayed-on yellow, blue and orange Day-Glo paint. Did they do it at the La Honda property? I don’t know. I hope so. I saw that cabin from the twisty-turney road once; the cabin was located at an “elbow” in the road–I think Kesey and his family had moved to Oregon by then–but empty or not the cabin still held great fascination for me…We had been exploring an old apple farm and enjoyed the trek to an incredible water fall….La Honda had it all…
Neal Cassady’s nickname was “Speed Limit” and he revved up the spray painted bus. It was a beautiful bus. Who wouldn’t want to get on board?
…To Be Continued…