Sunday, March 10, 2013
Interior Photos
I just thought we'd share a few interior photos. Some of them are from before we bought the bus and some are from after.
Monday, March 4, 2013
Introduction :)
I am Donna. This blog will showcase my life with my ever-wonderful husband Adam and our desire for adventure.
Where to begin?
Well, Adam and I have always dreamed of leaving south Louisiana. We were both, unfortunately, raised here after our parents moved here before we were born. We both grew up in the same small town, but didn't meet until high school. Even that meeting was extremely brief. Life happened, I moved to north Louisiana for a while and Adam and I reconnected through the internet in May of 2007. I immediately traveled back to south Louisiana and never looked back. As we've grown together over the past 5+ years, so has our desire to travel and explore. In October of 2012, we took a belated honeymoon to Arkansas. After an extremely spiritual time in the mountains, we made a final decision to finally do something about feeling stuck here. From that point on, we decided to find some way to leave. Our original plan was to buy an RV and live a while in Arkansas while Adam and I found jobs to save up to buy some property. At the initial decision to leave this place, it seemed like a good enough idea. We were inspired in the mountains. We needed to feel that again, so we were going to do anything necessary to move there. Our first ideas were the Class A option, there was the truck and 5th wheel option, and finally we were thinking of renting a house for a while.
After months of deliberation and careful thinking about what we truly wanted, we decided we didn't want to settle in Arkansas just yet. We actually discovered the nomad lifestyle and that it actually is possible. Seasonal jobs, traveling the country, adventure, life lessons, new friendships, and spiritual fulfillment finally seemed within our grasps. We realized there was absolutely no reason to be dependent on a 9-5 corporate job to provide us with money. We realized the bank currently owns us because of our 30 year mortgage. We realized our stuff owns us by distracting us from personal relationships, costing us time to clean and organize it all, costing money to repair and maintain, and leaving us with less time to enjoy life. We cannot live like this any longer and decided change needed to happen as soon as possible. We are not rich. We do not have a huge nest egg. We will be working as we go to support our lifestyle and find true happiness.
We had fallen in love with the tiny house community and realized that a tiny home built on wheels may not be the best option for the amount of traveling we wanted. Just about this time, we decided on owning a converted school bus. This decision came around the beginning of February 2013. I spent a few days looking here and there. I wasn't in a rush because we knew we had to sell Adam's car to get the money for a bus. I was poking around, looking at converted buses for sale on tinyhouselistings.com, but not finding anything that I really fancied. One day I just did a search for converted buses for sale. The first website that came up was sellabus.com. I looked around and most buses were out of my price range completely. I did find one bus that stood out, though. It was a 1978 Bluebird school bus converted to be a replica of a 1988 Bluebird Wanderlodge. The ad even said willing to trade. I showed the bus's ad to Adam and he also fell in love. He emailed the bus owners and received a call back that night. They were actually very interested in doing an even trade for Adam's car.
A week and a half later, we drove 700+ miles each way to Oklahoma to pick up our 40' bus! It's been a dream come true. We're currently in the process of moving our household items into our bus, selling all of our unessential household items, paying off small debts, and finally selling the house. We will most likely stay at our current jobs some while longer to continue to save as we get rid of debts. Then we will be ready to hit the open road!
This blog is being put in place to capture our adventures, as a guide to friends and family, and to share lessons in travel and owning a converted school bus. I hope you enjoy reading and following our nomadic dream!
Where to begin?
Well, Adam and I have always dreamed of leaving south Louisiana. We were both, unfortunately, raised here after our parents moved here before we were born. We both grew up in the same small town, but didn't meet until high school. Even that meeting was extremely brief. Life happened, I moved to north Louisiana for a while and Adam and I reconnected through the internet in May of 2007. I immediately traveled back to south Louisiana and never looked back. As we've grown together over the past 5+ years, so has our desire to travel and explore. In October of 2012, we took a belated honeymoon to Arkansas. After an extremely spiritual time in the mountains, we made a final decision to finally do something about feeling stuck here. From that point on, we decided to find some way to leave. Our original plan was to buy an RV and live a while in Arkansas while Adam and I found jobs to save up to buy some property. At the initial decision to leave this place, it seemed like a good enough idea. We were inspired in the mountains. We needed to feel that again, so we were going to do anything necessary to move there. Our first ideas were the Class A option, there was the truck and 5th wheel option, and finally we were thinking of renting a house for a while.
After months of deliberation and careful thinking about what we truly wanted, we decided we didn't want to settle in Arkansas just yet. We actually discovered the nomad lifestyle and that it actually is possible. Seasonal jobs, traveling the country, adventure, life lessons, new friendships, and spiritual fulfillment finally seemed within our grasps. We realized there was absolutely no reason to be dependent on a 9-5 corporate job to provide us with money. We realized the bank currently owns us because of our 30 year mortgage. We realized our stuff owns us by distracting us from personal relationships, costing us time to clean and organize it all, costing money to repair and maintain, and leaving us with less time to enjoy life. We cannot live like this any longer and decided change needed to happen as soon as possible. We are not rich. We do not have a huge nest egg. We will be working as we go to support our lifestyle and find true happiness.
We had fallen in love with the tiny house community and realized that a tiny home built on wheels may not be the best option for the amount of traveling we wanted. Just about this time, we decided on owning a converted school bus. This decision came around the beginning of February 2013. I spent a few days looking here and there. I wasn't in a rush because we knew we had to sell Adam's car to get the money for a bus. I was poking around, looking at converted buses for sale on tinyhouselistings.com, but not finding anything that I really fancied. One day I just did a search for converted buses for sale. The first website that came up was sellabus.com. I looked around and most buses were out of my price range completely. I did find one bus that stood out, though. It was a 1978 Bluebird school bus converted to be a replica of a 1988 Bluebird Wanderlodge. The ad even said willing to trade. I showed the bus's ad to Adam and he also fell in love. He emailed the bus owners and received a call back that night. They were actually very interested in doing an even trade for Adam's car.
A week and a half later, we drove 700+ miles each way to Oklahoma to pick up our 40' bus! It's been a dream come true. We're currently in the process of moving our household items into our bus, selling all of our unessential household items, paying off small debts, and finally selling the house. We will most likely stay at our current jobs some while longer to continue to save as we get rid of debts. Then we will be ready to hit the open road!
This blog is being put in place to capture our adventures, as a guide to friends and family, and to share lessons in travel and owning a converted school bus. I hope you enjoy reading and following our nomadic dream!
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