He's king of the highway in Elvis' tour bus

GARDINER, Ore. - The back of the old bus sticks out next to the little white house along Highway 101 on the central Oregon coast. The black-and-silver exterior sets off the brightly colored "Elvis 3" license plate.

Believe what the plate says.

This bus was the rolling home of the king of rock 'n' roll in the last 20 months before he died in 1977. It carried Elvis Presley and his entourage throughout the country.

Presley hated flying. If he could, he took the bus. Those who traveled with him said he liked to unwind after concerts by driving the plush 1976 MCI bus, custom-built to his specifications for $160,000.

"Elvis loved this bus," says 59-year-old Bruce Buseman. "He really did."

And what was once Presley's pride and joy is now Buseman's. He grew up in the 1950s loving Presley's music but was more than a little resentful of the way girls threw themselves at the hip-shaking rocker.

He takes his show on the road

Now Buseman travels the highways in the bus with the private bedroom in back that Elvis and his girlfriends occupied.

Women have come on to him, he says, hoping for a ride - even with his wife, Lily, nearby. It's a little disconcerting, he says, for a strict Catholic and faithful husband.

Buseman got the bus in a trade nearly four years ago, coincidentally on the anniversary of the day Elvis was found dead at age 42.

At the time, Buseman was running a roadside sports museum near Bandon. But such collectibles were losing value because former stars were flooding the market with items.

When another museum owner, Jim Shmit of Redmond, Ore., offered to trade Buseman the Presley bus and a small fleet of other collector vehicles for his sports collection, Buseman agreed.

Buseman got a pink and black Elvis Cadillac and one of the surviving "Bluesmobiles" from "The Blues Brothers" movie, among other cars. But the Elvis bus was the jewel.

King's initials in the red carpet

It still had a red carpet with the initials "EP." And it still had nine sleeping berths in the middle of the bus, including the upper-right berth used by Presley when the bus was in motion. Buseman says Elvis slept in the back bedroom only when the vehicle was parked.

The 40-foot bus came with a gold mine of Presley memorabilia such as the monogrammed pillows from a couch at Graceland and his "Blue Suede Shoes" gold record.

Buseman has shown the bus in 30 states.

Buseman says he's probably spent more than he's made from the bus because of such costs as $200 oil changes and $450 tires. But when he's rolling down the road, with the original "Elvis on Tour" sign on the front, watching the double takes, "it's all worth it."

Is Elvis' spirit on board, too?

When the Busemans take the bus on the road, Elvis will be with them - on the stereo and in spirit, Buseman believes. He didn't use to believe in spirits, but he says some strange things have happened on the bus.

Like its propensity to break down when an Elvis impersonator is around. Or the time in Springfield, Mo., when a young woman with no money talked her way aboard while tours had been halted because the interior lights had stopped working.

"She came on board, and the lights came on," Buseman remembers.

"The whole time she was there, the lights were on. The moment she stepped off the lights went off."