We Bought A School Bus

There is no better way to live life on the road than in a converted school bus. Why not an RV you ask? Because a skoolie has soul and because it can be converted any way you want for a lot less money. But before I get too far into blogging about our conversion process, I had better explain who "we" is.

Meet Steve.

I met Steve in August 2015. During one of our first conversations he said to me, "So many people are trapped by their lifestyles, their possessions, their families; they live to work. They have to work so hard to support themselves and often they are miserable. I don't get it."

His attitude piqued my interest. "Money isn't everything," I acknowledged, "but, it's right up there with oxygen.”

I was envious of people like Steve who weren’t tethered to the job security I had grown accustomed to. For most of my adult life I had been trapped in a paradigm I could not get out of—you know, the one that says you have to have a career, make money, and buy stuff you don’t need. Then, I hiked the Camino de Santiago in Spring 2015. After slogging a 12-pound rucksack for six weeks 500 miles across Spain, I realized I could do life differently. I only needed enough money to support the lifestyle I wanted to live. And, if I wanted to live small, perhaps I could work less and have more time for other things.

Since then, Steve and I have endured and on-again, off-again relationship as smooth as a dirt road in Costa Rica. But the one thing we have been sure of is getting the hell out of D.C. and traveling. Over the weeks and months we have been together, we have talked about our dreams of living on the road. But of course, our ideas about how this would be done varied greatly and varied from each other. I wanted to time travel back to the 60's and live like a weed smoking hippie in a Volkswagen bus. Steve wanted to double his conveyance into a motorcycle transporter; being a vintage motorcycle broker, this made complete sense. However, I was at odds with sleeping with fuel- and chemical-filled motorcycles. On the other hand, Steve was as willing to do life in a VWbus as I was willing to bathe with snakes.

We researched and discussed ideas, and checked out everything from the Airstream Basecamp to trailers to Sprinter vans and everything in between. Eventually we agreed that a new sprinter-type van was the best option and settled on the European designed Dodge Promaster. It was the pragmatic choice.

Then, one Saturday morning last month Steve said as he sipped coffee, scanning the web for motorcycles, "I've been thinking about what you said. The soul piece is missing. That's why you love the VWs. We need something with soul. It has to feel right."

I stared at him in hopeful awe. "I'm not sure buying a new van will answer that call, but I understand why it's appealing. Reliability a Volkswagen bus is not." I could see by the look on his face, he was not going to give into buying a Volkswagen bus, so I dismissed his comment.

Then, a few minutes later he piped up, "Well, what do you think about this?" turning his laptop to me.

"Whoa! That's awesome,” I said, scanning the images of a forest green school bus outfitted with wood paneling like an old woody.

During our numerous discussions of future van life, we had considered buying a school bus, but had repeatedly talked ourselves out of it for numerous reasons from lousy gas mileage to logistics to visions of being stranded in Deliverance with a flat tire. But then, there it was with all its charm—a sweet temptation with all the character, personality, and soul we were looking for.

“Email them. Let’s go see it."

As soon as we laid eyes on the 2000 Bluebird International, we knew she was going to be ours. Gorgeous from the word go, she was clean, mostly rust-free, and had been well taken care of. With only 39,000 miles and a strong 7.3 liter diesel turbo engine, we were utterly shocked when we learned she averaged 16 to 18 miles per gallon.

 

“I checked it myself, about nine times,” the seller said to us, “because I just couldn’t believe it.”

We bought her right then and there and the next day, we brought her home. To be continued...