510,072,000 km²?......baaaa! That's nothin'!

 In 2009, a man by the name of Jose Martinez was trapped on a ride at Disneyland. Being disabled he was unable to extricate himself from the "goodbye room" on the ride and endured over 30 minutes of the song "It's a small world after all". Ever since last week I too have had the song rolling around in my head, but unlike Mr. Martinez I don't mind!
You see a few weeks ago I got a message on the blog from a gent in Montana, saying "Greetings! I owned your bus for fourteen years, and know a fair amount about its history...". Needless to say my interest was piqued. Turns out what I thought I knew of Fillmore's past wasn't quite the real history.
None the less I had a few emails back and forth with "Robert" and then a wonderful phone conversation. Although we both had slightly different end looks for 'our' clipper we share the common passion/desire to see it done up right. During our talk I learned of the clippers history, and some of the history of the company that Fillmore was originally manufactured for the Intermountain Transport Co. When we finally said our good byes Robert had generously offered to share his collection of history pertaining to Fillmore.

Tuesday it all showed up....

And what a collection it is.

A reproduction of the original company logo

An original return ticket from Butte to the ACM Co. smelter

Oh oh, this might cause some issues with the in laws, and 50% of my quartet for that matter. I guess I'll have to discount their share of the fuel.
There are pictures of Fillmore back in the early 90's , a period license plate from the fleet, bus route brochures and many many other treasures.

Last but definitely not least, Robert had a middle section of bumper, not originally from Fillmore himself but from a clipper. Test fit looks really promising, there are a few bends and dings in it but I'm hoping to find a blacksmith that might help me out with rectifying that.
I have on a few occasions had small world experiences, meeting a high school classmate on the streets of Amsterdam, showing up at a house party in a different country only to find neighbors of friends, and now getting in touch with another person with an obvious emotional attachment to something that I hold dear, all because of consulting "the oracle" - Dr. Google....ladies and gentlemen the earth is over 510,072,000 km²...but it truly is a small world after all.