Psychedelic rides are nothing new to the Grateful Dead or music festival scene. Whether VW microbuses or the original Further itself, bright rides are as common as trippy tunes. But Sugaree, a converted GMC school bus, puts a vivid new spin on the music festival RV / tour bus. Dad David McQuaid calls it their “schoolie conversion into our psychedelic hippie bus.”
Their tale begins as many heads’ do – one show. When they decided as a family to travel to Fare Thee Well in Chicago, David had a proposition: rent an RV or buy and old school bus and “convert it into a hippie bus.” No tough call there. They soon bought their ride and began the conversion.
“We bought a 1990 GMC school bus and converted it to an RV, painted it psychedelic…It’s got a master bedroom in the back with a purple chandelier, a bunk room for our three kids (18, 22 & 24), a full bathroom, kitchen and a den and living area that can sleep another two or three.”
Add some dayglo, tapestries, and Dead posters and Jerry pictures, and it’s like no glamper RoadtripMojo has ever witnessed. Here’s a video of their work in progress. Here’s their Pinterest.
Seven months later, the family – David, Kelly, Avery, Dylan, and Cassidy (yes, that Cassidy) – hit the road in their converted bus, driving from Dallas to the West Coast.
Their first summer out, the McQuaid’s logged 5,000 miles, going from Dallas>Tucson> San Diego>LA>Big Sur>San Francisco>Moab, UT>Crested Butte, and home. Since then, they’ve traveled about 30,000 miles, hitting shows and sites all over the country “and meeting some fantastic people. We can’t wait until next summer, when we will go do the East Coast.”
Listen to Staci Smith’s Strangers Stopping Strangers podcast with the McQuaid family to get the deep dive into their project of love. This follows their chance meeting the Dead and Company show last June in Saratoga Springs, New York. In her words, Staci calls Sugaree “gorgeous – and everything you could dream of for a painted touring bus- and the family within it – were as kind as they get.”
“We love sharing our beautiful Sugaree,” David McQuaid says. And we’re glad you do. Rock On, McQuaid Family. See you on down the road…