Sahelanthropus tchadensis, whose type fossil is a skull named Toumaï, lived 6 or 7 million years ago.
At some point in the past several thousand years, wind erosion exposed his skull on the desert surface. Nomads passing by found some (unrelated) long bones nearby, and guessing these bones to belong to Toumaï, arranged them with his skull in a reburial.
Then sometime in the past 1,000 years, after Islam had reached that part of Africa, Muslims found his skull exposed on the surface again and reburied him facing Mecca, no doubt with appropriate prayers as an act of charity for a poor soul who’d died alone in the desert. A few decades ago, scientists found Toumaï exposed at the surface again in his Islamic grave.
There was (and still is) a pizza restaurant/pub in Iowa City called the Wig & Pen, and at least when I was in school there in the early 1990s, they had a double-decker bus that could be rented for parties and the like, and of course it was a staple on the weekends for people who didn’t want to drive after drinking.
That is, until a couple years after I graduated, when a driver somehow ignored a bridge warning, and literally sheared off the top level. Had anyone been up there, they would have met the same fate. ISTR that they did have another bus later on, but the restaurant’s website does not mention it now. (Probably due to skyrocketing liability costs.)
Maybe so; but it’s a big enough rock to accommodate Bus Geeks R Us as well. They thought it was well worth while to emphasize that TPN 103S had been been designed to be used as both conventional bus and open top. This is one of several photo sets on display highlighting that. You’ll have to click and open to see the full photo:
@TriPolar , @Pardel-Lux - now I’ve learned something - those are foldback roofs? Cool.
Pretty much what you’d expect. Many, many bus enthusiasts and a lot of buses. Here’s the same rally from 2021 (2022 not posted yet). https://worthingbusrally.co.uk/2021-photos/
Ahem - a moment of distancing. I’d just like to point out that I explained:
To be completely fair I think I should apologise because I see you are talking about convertible buses not open top buses. They are different things and so I see you have a big rock and are standing atop it seeing things that I do not.
It seems to me the red bus is a mess, you can see the red folded plastic tarp in the front and the back part. Looks like a fair weather bus to me. The yellow bus is a foldback. They can be folded real quick: I had a distant acquaintance who worked on one in as a guide, he mentioned they kept them open until it literally started to rain, because when closed the experience (and the tip, it seems) is much worse. The green bus looks similar to the yellow one, but without the side glass windows. Guess that can be “converted” to the winter version.
Normal buses in Berlin are often double deckers, BTW. It depends on the line. So these tourist buses fit perfectly. In cities without double decker buses, i.e. most of them, I think they look just like tourist traps.
And if a double-decker bus Crashes into us To die by your side Is such a heavenly way to die And if a ten ton truck Kills the both of us To die by your side Well the pleasure and the privilege is mine
This has happened countless times at the underpass where Memorial Drive goes under Massachusetts Avenue near MIT.
There are plenty of warning signs and flashing lights, but people who still don’t pay attention, or don’t realize the true height of the truck they’re driving (U-Haul drivers are the worst offenders) keep getting caught.
The same thing happens on the other side of the river in Boston, where people on Storrow Drive get surprised at Charles Circle, a phenomenon that has been blessed with the name “Storrowing”.
