The Adventure Begins

 

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton

We live on a bus full time. It is our whole home. We take our home with us everywhere we travel!

This has been a strange concept for many people.

That being said I’m sure most know, or have figured out by now, that David and I have been full-time living in a converted bus (RV) for the past handful of months!

We bought the bus from a couple of college friends last year, with hopes to travel more “in our own backyard” while being able to save on flights and hotels/Airbnb’s. David and I have traveled across country, overseas and beyond- but had not experienced much of the U.S. together. And while our families did well traveling with us both through the states growing up, there was much more we’d like to experience as adults.

After buying the bus, we wanted even more freedom. We made the decision to put our house for sale. Speed up time to earlier this year, after David received a job offer, we also received an offer on our house. We then quit our jobs and moved all of our belongings to Arkansas- where our new “homebase” would be. Long term plans were to work, while living in the bus and saving money- to then later build a house in Arkansas.

Then all of a sudden Covid-19 exploded. Mere hours after leaving Texas, with the last of our belongings in stow (three days before the closing date on our house) we found out the wife of the couple buying lost her job.. we were devastated, as I’m sure they were too, but we were willing to make things work with them. We extended our closing date and carried on. Then EVERYTHING seemingly started falling a part at rapid speed.

Without getting into much further detail- both of us suddenly without jobs, and with ongoing mortgage payments we didn’t expect to have to continue making- I accepted a travel nurse position in Colorado. We chose Colorado because we were familiar with the area, knew people living in the area, and hoped to get some skiing in. I was also able to make more here, as a travel nurse, than finding a permanent job elsewhere last minute. When I accepted this contract it was also before Covid-19 really became what it was- and before crisis contracts started opening up (although ill be honest- I don’t know if I could have done what those nurses did in places like New York- you all are the real hero’s!!).

We were then on the way to my first travel contract when all of the real closures start happening. Ski resorts- one of the main reasons we chose to go to Colorado- were closed down. Then two days after our arrival to Denver the shelter-in-place order was issued. State Parks- where we planned to do most of our parking- were closing. We didn’t have a place to stay anymore. It was pretty chaotic.

It’s was a long road, but we eventually found housing through the skoolie/road-life community grapevine. I started work, and now my contract is almost up here in Denver (that went by fast!), however our house still hasn’t sold. Thankfully due to Covid (crazy enough) we were able to put out mortgage payment into forbearance while we waited for it to sell. We wouldn’t have been able to make end meet otherwise.

After all that we’ve gone through so far, we are unsure now what our plans look like long term, but we still have visions for the future. We do know that this bus is now our home- and we think we will be spending many more months and maybe even years living in it. It’s crazy how plans change, but we know there is a reason and we will continue to have faith in the greater plan.

If you want to see more about our experience while living on a bus- click the link below or visit our traveling page @adventuringrobinsons on Instagram!