If you happened to be standing behind the firehouse in Rehoboth last Friday night (or any Friday night!) you would have seen a really HUGE luxury bus pull up with an incredibly diverse and happy group debarking.

It was the Rehobus, a new venture bringing Rehoboth visitors from downtown D.C. to Rehoboth—The Nation’s Summer Capital—on Friday evenings, and returning them to the official Nation’s Capital on Sunday nights.

The Rehobus is brainchild of four entrepreneurs, (two sets of partners) Till Bruett and Jim Nastus and David Salie and Mark Bromley.

They envisioned a coach transport from Washington, DC to Rehoboth Beach and back, departing Friday nights at 6:15 p.m. from Duplex Diner (enjoy happy hour first at 5:30 at the Departure Lounge) in Adams Morgan, or 6:45 p.m. departure from the New York Avenue Metro Station (Red line—M Street exit), and returning to the same spot from Rehoboth on Sunday evenings. Round trip tickets are $78, with an optional $8 dinner.

The web site, www.rehobus.com has the whole scoop, but I was able to track down David Salie and ask him some questions.

FJ: What were you doing when this idea came to you?

DS: Mark and I have been coming down to the beach for about ten years, and we often would face the prospect of one of us having to head home for work sooner than the other. We figured that there are many other couples and friends who face the same prospect at the end of their weekend—either compromise the departure time for one of you or spend Saturday and Sunday asking around for people who have spare room in their cars. Our good friends Till and Jim had been with us to the beach a lot, and Till talked to us about puttingtogether a business plan for the Rehobus.

FJ: In the course of the trips so far, what have you learned?

DS: More people want to relax, less people want to party! Everyone loves a good limerick. The straights are not intimidated by a busload of gays. And never forget the cranberry juice.

FJ: What’s the most amusing thing that has happened?

DS: Some of the phone calls that we’ve fielded. For example, the 90 year old woman who self-identified as a "very independent gal." She had a house in Bethany and wanted to know if we could figure out a way to get her there from where Rehobus drops off in Rehoboth Beach.

Other phone calls are from straight people who have seen the web site and then try to figure out ten different ways to ask (1) if it’s okay that they’re not gay (Yes!) and (2) whether people actually have sex on the bus. (No!)

One caller said, "I live in the suburbs and I’m not a lesbian." Okay...and so Till asked, "And are you okay with that?" To which the potential Rehobus passenger responded, "Yes, but I’m wondering whether I’d be comfortable on the bus."

"You mean," Till asked, "what you really want to ask is, is it a gay party bus with drag queens and cocktails?’"

"Well," she said, "I wouldn’t feel comfortable with that." Till assured her that about "half of our passengers have been straight."

"You mean ARE straight," she clarified

"Yes," Till said, "I believe they still are, even after riding with us."

FJ: Do most of the folks riding the bus have lodging in-town Rehoboth?

DS: Yes, although there are a few who want to get dropped off so that friends or relatives can pick them up and take them to Lewes or Bethany. But most are within a few blocks of our drop-off point behind the Rehoboth Beach Fire Station. We’ve just begun a pick-up and drop off in Dewey, and we’re starting to get more straight folks from down there.

FJ: Where are you advertising and how are you reaching people?

DS: We advertise in Metro Weekly and Letters, and we are spending a lot of time developing our web site to attract people to return, not just to buy tickets, but to visit our growing model gallery, read our "Beach Bitch" blog, and find out about discounts with our local partners. We’ve even fielded calls from people asking if we can recommend places to stay or restaurants!

But our best advertising has been word-of-mouth and a recent Washington Post article.

One of our passengers a few weeks ago was a stealth reporter from the Post. At the end of the trip he announced he was doing an article. We thought we would maybe get a paragraph in a longer piece about Rehoboth, but when the article came out last week, it was all about us! It was wonderful, and we’ve posted a link to it on our blog at www.rehobus.com. The reporter, Gary Lee, really capturedthe atmosphere on the bus. He said, "Rehobus aims to infuse the getting-to-the-beach experience with a dash of raciness, a dapple of camp and a splash of deluxe style." We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.

FJ: The web site is a hoot. How did you come up with the theme "Pray for traffic"?

DS: Our talented friend, John Phelan, who has been helping with our advertising, is our creative muse. He did a great job of talking with each of us to learn what we wanted the image of Rehobus to be. He came up with several logo ideas, and we selected the classic, retro-style, logo, which permeates our web site and helped crystallize the fun, beach-sexy, sophisticated style we aim for.

FJ: Give us a clue about some of the activities on Rehobus.

DS: On Friday nights we have contests on the bus to celebrate making it over the Bay Bridge and officially starting the weekend. Last week we challenged our passengers to come up with the best limerick that had the word "Rehoboth" or "Rehobus" in it, and we got some great entries that we’re putting up on our blog.

This week the contest was for the best tag line for the back of our T-shirts. We got some sassy slogans, so keep your eyes out for them on Rehobus.com.

FJ: What’s the most surprising result to come out of this venture?

DS: All the straights are coming aboard! The gay community definitely knows about us, but I think the gay beach-going season is just starting, so we have a surprising proportion ofstraights who are helping to spread the word.

Most of the straight people who have joined us like the idea of a fun gay bus—or at least

they pretend to when they talk to us! The other surprising point is thatour wacky marketing approach is working. We knew that if we just started a plain old bus service, we would never get any press. Boring! With our marketing to the gay community, we have a nice hook that gives people—and the media—something to remember us by. We’ve even had inquiries from reality TV production companies. There was a "missed connection" a few weeks ago on Craig’s list from a guy who met one of our passengers at Duplex Diner.

FJ: I realize that a lot of your riders have been guys, but women are welcome as well. Might there be hot girl models, too?

DS: Yes—please send us hot girl models! We met two very sexy lesbians a few weeks ago at the Frogg Pond and invited them to model for us—we’re planning on another shoot on the beach next month. Our current and future models will be featured on our web site, our advertisements and possibly a 2008 calendar. So send the girls our way—oh, and you don’t need to be gay to model! One of our current models is notgay...we’ll let you guess which one.

FJ: Okay, can we lesbians bring our dogs with us on the bus?

DS: We can take small dogs, about 15 pounds or less so long as they fit in a small carrier and can fit under the seat. But there’s no room for larger dogs—yet. Both Mark and I, as well as Till and Jim, have larger dogs, so we’re desperately looking for alternative transportation as well.

FJ: Do you serve cocktails? (just getting to the important stuff)?

DS: We can’t serve alcohol on the bus, but guests can go the ol’ BYOB road. We provide free cups and ice, and we sell soft drinks—known to some as "mixers"—for $2.We’ve partnered with the Duplex Diner in DC, and Eric Hirschfeld, the owner, has been a godsend. He sponsors a Departure Lounge happy hour before we leave—and you can order food on our website from the Duplex Diner. Lori’s Café works with us on the return, providing food options for our customers.

FJ: And videos? I guess the bus is like a traveling media room. Who selects the movies?

DS: Yeah, the entertainment options are pretty amazing. We can haveDirecTV, XM Radio, and a DVD going all at the same time. Our friends at AnywhereGoes have provided us with a clips tape of some fun scenes from Saturday Night Live, etc. and we usually take a vote on the selection of movies to show and which channel to watch on DirecTV.

The seats have headphone jacks and six channels to choose from, including XM Radio, so each passenger can choose to listen, watch, or sit in blissful silence.

FJ: So please tell me about stuff you want prospective riders to know, that I forgot to ask.

DS: Rehobus recycles! We are trying to green-up the footprint to the beach. We even load and unload in front of the recycling bins behind the Rehoboth Fire Station! We are also partnering with some local businesses to offer discounts to our passengers (just show your ticket). We’d love to do more of that to make the marketing of Rehobus a "two way street." We have also been supporters of a number of events, including Love, the HIV Vaccine Project, and others. We really want this to be a community business. Actually, we want to be part of many communities: gays, straights, Washington and Rehoboth.