The Bus Story

       You might be wondering how and why the heck my family lives on a bus. Believe it or not, the big school bus I call home actually started out as a food truck. 

       My father bought the bus in 2007 after being laid off from his full time construction job. When he was young, he and his buddies did about the same thing as I'm doing now, which is traveling around America on a converted school bus. Except his was painted with bright colors, and didn't have the top half of a 70's VW on it. His romance with school buses had already budded. That was a part of his decision to convert one into a food truck, but another part was that he and my mother wanted a business where they could give back in some way. So they decided that for every sandwich bought, they would donate a meal to a family in a third world country through the 'Meal for Meal' program.

      The food truck was called "Big Bear's Bus Cafe".(This name originated from when Dad worked at an Olive Garden in El Paso, Texas with my mom. One of the cooks would call him Oso Grande, you can guess what that means.) 

       All sorts of items were on the Bus Cafe menu, from smoothies, to pulled pork sandwiches, to grilled paninis, burritos, coffee, cheesecake, pretty much anything they knew how to cook well. They weren't master chefs or anything, but the food was petty good as I can recall. I was only 8 at the time, but I remember coming home from school and eating the yummiest chicken pesto sandwiches. 

      Our signature sandwich was the "Bikini Panini" - grilled chicken, mango chutney, grilled onions, curry powder, and cayenne pepper on italian bread, cooked in olive oil, and seared on a panini grill. We were even featured in a news article for it. 

     The bus was fun for my parents and for me, but it was clear that it wasn't a sustainable way to live. They were working too hard with too little pay - hardly enough to cover the living cost of two people, much less a family. So they shut it down and found work elsewhere. 

      Though the bus wasn't in use any more, we still kept it around. Even when we moved houses, we still found a way to keep her. I have a feeling dad had a secret plan to live in it someday, even if we didn't know about it. 

      After about 5 years of living full time in Fort Collins (taking the occasional small trip on the bus to visit family), we took a trip just for the sake of taking a trip. In summer 2015, we traveled up the coast of California, seeing the Redwoods, San Francisco, the Pacific North West, ect. At this time, the bus wasn't in the best condition. It still had some of the old kitchen parts from when she was a restaurant, and the words "Big Bear's Bus Cafe" were painted on the side along with a smiley bear holding a spatula. We just put a bed in it and made it a bit more livable. 

       But even when the bus was like that, the trip to California was arguably the best time of my life. The beauty of the coast and the trees,  the feeling of family and love, the freedom of it all, it was medicine for me. It was real.

       Without the Cali trip, we would never have moved onto the bus, because afterward, the idea of full time travel was in all of our minds. Mom and dad would always joke about them moving onto the bus after my sis and I were grown up. One of the times they had been talking about it, I asked them, 
"Why can't we just move onto the bus now?" I'm pretty sure Dad responded with,
 "Well, Why not?"

       From there, we started planning and discussing the idea non stop. After we all put out our needs for the living space (mine were my own room and a sizable living room area), we'd draw little blue prints of the design for the bus. We had the idea of not having a hallway, putting the living room in the back, all kinds of design ideas. 

       It soon became clear to us that the bus how it was wasn't really gonna be enough for a family of four on it's own. So after the discussing pop up tents, a whole other camper on top, and many ideas of way to get more space, one of us thought of putting another bus on top, to act as a loft. Only, not a school bus, a small VW bus. This space would be used to sleep in. My and my sisters bed. We all loved it and started searching immediately for the right VW. 

      Dad found the right one at a junk yard in our town. It didn't run and had missing parts, but it didn't matter - we only needed the top half. It was decided. An orange 73 VW bus, would be my bed. 

      My dad and his friends spent a coupe days at the junk yard. They put on some music and cut the thing in half with a Sawzall. Then they welded to the top of our school bus and the new bus was born. 

     There was still a lot of work to be done with the interior, though. Dad spent six months getting her to where she is now. Installing walls, couches, a kitchen, two bedrooms,and more.

     After a year of discussing, planning, brainstorming, building,and constructing the bus, she was done, and what a beauty she was. When it had flooring, curtains, recessed lighting, covers on the beds and all the small details of a house, it was incredible. The first time I walked into the complete version, I grinned so hard, and couldn't stop. I was amazed at what she'd turned into.
      
     The bus, for the first time, felt like home.     

Introduction

       Hi, I'm Charity, your favorite 14 year old traveler! Since my family and I live on a double-decker bus and travel around America since May 26, (and becuase this is a great way to earn 9th grade English roadschool credits) I (being forced by my mother) have decided to write a blog on my experiences living full time on the road. Entries will include details of places we go, people we meet, food we eat, what it's like to live on a bus, and my everyday random 14 year old thoughts. Stay updated for a fill in on my trip so far, (Colorado, Ohio, Maryland, Tennessee, Vermont and Maine).