In 1971, when gasoline was about 35 cents a gallon, our family sold everything we had, bought a 24-year-0ld old school bus and set out with our three children, aged four, ten and thirteen for a year's adventure in home schooling. There was no way to know in advance that some of the lessons would be hair-raising if not death-defying. We lost our brakes on a Mountain pass, went into a ditch at an Oregon camp site, popped out of gear on Lookout Mountain, broke a leaf spring in Pennsylvania, had to spend the night in a cotton field when the bus got a flat tire. In quieter moments, we played the piano, stoked up the potbelly stove, stroked the cat, wrote letters and poems by lamplight. The Thrilling Adventures of Number 18 is the log kept by the family as it held school in 14 states.