Grey Rabbit, also known as Grey Rabbit Camper Tours, was an American company based in the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Gov ...

that operated long-distance bus service from 1971 to 1983. It was one of a few small, long-distance bus companies established in the U.S. in the 1970s that specialized in inexpensive, no-frills, cross-country bus service using old secondhand buses and attracting

counterculture A counterculture is a culture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, sometimes diametrically opposed to mainstream cultural mores.Eric Donald Hirsch. ''The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy''. Ho ...

passengers. It was the first one, and was also the biggest, best-known, and "most successful" of them in its first several years. A ''

Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large na ...

'' columnist in 1978 referred to Grey Rabbit as "the granddaddy" of the five such "alternative" bus companies existing at that time, also known as "underground" bus companies and "

hippie A hippie, also spelled hippy, especially in British English, is someone associated with the counterculture of the 1960s, originally a youth movement that began in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to different countries around ...

bus" companies. It operated mainly in two areas: between California and the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (sometimes Cascadia, or simply abbreviated as PNW) is a geographic region in western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though ...

, and on a cross-country route between

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

and

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

Green Tortoise Green Tortoise Adventure Travel is an American long-distance tour bus service, tour bus company founded by Gardner Kent in mid-1973 and based in San Francisco, California. It provides tourism, tours in North America, mostly within the United State ...

, which was established in 1973 and named after Grey Rabbit, became Grey Rabbit's main competition in the small field, and eventually bought it out.

History

Founded in 1971 by Lester Rall (born c.1940) with a single Volkswagen bus, the service was originally known as the Traveling Magical Universe and operated only along the Pacific Coast. Rall eventually named the service Grey Rabbit, which one writer described as "a reference to the animal used as 'bait' in dog races, a wry allusion to all'srelationship with the

Greyhound The English Greyhound, or simply the Greyhound, is a breed of dog, a sighthound which has been bred for coursing, greyhound racing and hunting. Since the rise in large-scale adoption of retired racing Greyhounds, the breed has seen a resurgen ...

Bus Company". Another writer said the name was chosen so that it would appear "next to Greyhound in the phone book". In 1972, Rall acquired an old school bus and in 1973 three secondhand Greyhound buses. By that time, Grey Rabbit had established regular weekly cross-country service between

and

, with the New York trips subsequently being extended to

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the capital city, state capital and List of municipalities in Massachusetts, most populous city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financ ...

and regular service also operating between the

Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

and

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: * Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States * Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a port, seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the county seat, seat of King County, Washington, King County, Washington (state), Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in bo ...

and Vancouver, B.C., Canada. Within a few years, the company's fleet of buses had grown to 10. A handful of similar but smaller "alternative bus" companies were launched in the 1970s, based on Grey Rabbit's example, and they were sometimes collectively referred to as "Grey Rabbits". Typically operating without a commercial license and often with just a single bus, their names included The Lame Duck, Blue Goose, The Red Bus and the Iron Pony. All but Grey Rabbit and

were out of business by 1982. The buses that provided the service were old, secondhand

transit bus Transit may refer to: Arts and entertainment Film * ''Transit'' (1979 film), a 1979 Israeli film * ''Transit'' (2005 film), a film produced by MTV and Staying-Alive about four people in countries in the world * ''Transit'' (2006 film), a 2006 ...

es or highway coaches that were modified inside, with almost all passenger seats removed and replaced by beds. They lacked bathrooms. In 1977, the schedule included two San Francisco–New York–Boston trips per week in each direction, and the journey took three or four days. There were weekly departures from the Bay Area north to Vancouver, B.C. and south to

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wor ...

. As of 1977, the company had four ticket outlets in the Bay Area. In addition to its low fares, about half those of Greyhound, another feature that attracted some riders was the casual atmosphere found on the Grey Rabbit and other "hippie bus" lines of the 1970s, in which conversation and interaction between riders who were strangers before boarding was welcomed in a way not commonly seen on conventional long-distance bus services. PD-4104 in Green Tortoise service, Seattle 1984

PD-4104 in Green Tortoise service, Seattle 1984

For its first 10 years, Grey Rabbit operated without having a license from the

Interstate Commerce Commission The Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) was a regulatory agency in the United States created by the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887. The agency's original purpose was to regulate railroads (and later trucking) to ensure fair rates, to elimina ...

(ICC) permitting interstate operation—"in violation of the law, a sort of '

guerilla Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare in which small groups of combatants, such as paramilitary personnel, armed civilians, or irregulars, use military tactics including ambushes, sabotage, raids, petty warfare, hit-and-run tact ...

Greyhound'", a reporter for the ''

Eugene Register-Guard ''The Register-Guard'' is a daily newspaper in the northwestern United States, published in Eugene, Oregon. It was formed in a 1930 merger of two Eugene papers, the ''Eugene Daily Guard'' and the ''Morning Register''. The paper serves the Eugene- ...

'' wrote. In 1976, the ''

San Francisco Examiner The ''San Francisco Examiner'' is a newspaper distributed in and around San Francisco, California, and published since 1863. Once self-dubbed the "Monarch of the Dailies" by then-owner William Randolph Hearst, and flagship of the Hearst Corpora ...

'' wrote that Grey Rabbit "and five or six other alternative bus operators ... have kept a safe jump or two ahead of the Interstate Commerce Commission, local authorities and the bus companies – Greyhound and Trailways – who represent everything the Grey Rabbits and their passengers don't". The ''Register-Guard'' wrote that Rall employed various tactics to avoid trouble with authorities, such as "schooling passengers to say they were friends on an outing rather than riders on a for-hire bus" or "creating the Church of World Community Consciousness, selling the buses to the church, ordaining the drivers as 'ministers' and calling the fares 'donations'." The Church of World Community Consciousness was recognized only in

Oregon Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idah ...

. Chief competitor Green Tortoise was also operating without a license from the ICC at that time, doing so for its first seven years, until obtaining a license in 1981. In June 1981, the ICC granted Grey Rabbit a temporary permit, and Lester Rall was attempting to obtain a permanent one. Meanwhile, in 1981 the company was operating only between San Francisco and Seattle, no longer cross-country, and its fleet of buses numbered five, all about 25 years old. Grey Rabbit was based in

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and Emer ...

, at that time. Its fare for a trip between San Francisco and

Eugene Eugene may refer to: People and fictional characters * Eugene (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Eugene (actress) (born 1981), Kim Yoo-jin, South Korean actress and former member of the sin ...

was $35, which was only half the price that mainstream carriers

and Trailways were charging for the same trip at that time. The U.S. deregulation of airlines that was put into effect in the late 1970s led to major reductions in prices for air travel, and Grey Rabbit and similar companies were unable to compete, even for low-budget travelers. Keeping the elderly buses running was also an ongoing challenge. Grey Rabbit ceased operation in 1983, and was acquired by Green Tortoise, who also acquired the rights to the name (but did not use them).

History

See also

References

Further reading