Furthur

Furthur was a 1939 International Harvester school bus purchased by author Ken Kesey in 1964. The bus was stripped down and remodeled inside and out for a psychedelic excursion across the country with Kesey and his Merry Pranksters on board. The manifest, or destination sign, on the bus was painted to read "Further." When Kesey went to Mexico to avoid drug charges, the Pranksters took the bus down to see him, re-painting the manifest to read "Furthur" in a deliberately meek attempt at disguise. This latter spelling is the origin of the popularly mispelled name. Beat legend Neal Cassady was the driver of the famous bus on its original trip to New York for the opening of Kesey's new book, Sometimes a Great Notion. The trip was filmed by Kesey's friends and footage from the trip is now sold in two episodes on key-z.com as "Intrepid Traveller and His Merry Pranksters Leave in Search of A Kool Place". The bus is mentioned in the Grateful Dead song "That's It for the Other One" in the verse "the bus came by and I got on, that's when it all began...there was Cowboy Neal at the wheel of a bus to never-ever land". More can be read of Furthur's adventures in Tom Wolfe's book The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test. The original Furthur is currently biodegrading on Kesey's farm in Oregon.

Related Topics:
1939 - International Harvester - School bus - Ken Kesey - 1964 - Psychedelic - Merry Pranksters - Mexico - Neal Cassady - Sometimes a Great Notion - Grateful Dead - Tom Wolfe - The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test

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