Photos by David Harrison | The Roanoke Times

Americans United for Change, a Washington DC-based liberal group, will drive the Bush Legacy Bus coast to coast this summer. The bus is being outfitted by Star City Coachworks, of Vinton.

Steve Bowler, in green, works on the bus while Paul Neaville, in red, shows some visitors around the bus' interior.

President George Bush -- or at least a six-foot-tall cutout of his face -- was at Star City Coachworks in Vinton Saturday.

The cutout was plastered on the side of a bus that will spend the summer traveling across the country in advance of November's election. A Washington, D.C.-based liberal group known as Americans United for Change will drive it coast to coast to point out what it considers the Bush Administration's most egregious missteps. The Vinton company is outfitting the bus for the ride, set to begin Tuesday.

"We want to remind everybody just how many bad things have happened in the last eight years," said Paul Neaville, a consultant for Americans United for Change.

Inside the bus, seats have been stripped away to make way for exhibits on the Iraq war, Hurricane Katrina, gas prices and the economy. A small door in the back led to a surprisingly plush office with tan-colored leather couches, two flat-screen televisions, a pouch for four remote controls and enough electronics to fend off boredom in even the most remote locations. The two staff members on the trip, it seems, will live like political activists in the front of the bus and rock stars in the back.

Adam Caldwell, vice president of Coachworks, said his company put in close to $45,000 of work on the bus. Neaville said the entire project has a $1 million budget.

"It's a little traveling office, basically," he said. "It's a little more complicated because it's on wheels."

Caldwell said the company works on buses for a number of bands and their crews.

"We're on our fourth one for Toby Keith," he said.

Caldwell demurred when asked whether he shares the political sentiments that his team has plastered on the Bush bus.

"Don't really have an opinion on that," he said.