Our Lifetime Of Memories On the Road: Erin and Mike

We love to travel and always talk about making our vacations lasting. Weekend getaways or a few weeks of vacationing a year just wasn’t enough for us! We were working full-time jobs and renovating homes on the side. After a bit of research and inspiration from other travelers, we started saving and made the plans to build our own skoolie, aka a school bus. We wanted a home that would be large enough to live comfortably, yet small enough to get around. We got married in 2017 and decided on a year-long “honeymoon” in 2018. That year turned into 10 months, then ultimately 8 months, but I’ll explain that later.

Our Short But Sweet Adventures On The Road

As I mentioned before, we both worked full time while also renovating homes. Mike worked as a financial analyst and I (Erin) worked as a phlebotomist. Our experience renovating the two homes we flipped gave us the skills we needed to convert a school bus. Now that we are stationary again, I am looking for full-time employment and Mike is going to try flipping full time.

We traveled A LOT in our 8 months on the road. 21 states and 2 Canadian Provinces. We especially loved being able to visit so many National Parks. Glacier had to be our absolute favorite!

Renovations, Repairs, and RVing Galor

The bus went through a few rounds of renovations. We were so anxious to start using it; we took it out on its first summer when it only had a bed and a 5-gallon bucket under the sink. We did more than just cosmetic things, we created a home. Looking at it now it’s crazy how far its come. Now that we are selling it, it’s in its best condition! Fully stocked and ready to roll for its next owners and their journey!

When we first started planning our travels I was using Pinterest and Tripadvisor to find destinations. Those sites lacked information. The absolute BEST app we’ve found for finding camp spots is Campendium. They have everything: campgrounds, BLM land, Walmarts, you name it! They’re all conveniently mapped out and can be filtered by all sorts of categories. Again, the BEST!

We got off to a bit of a rough start with some engine component failures in our Skoolie. We made sure to research on what we were buying, but even after a thorough inspection by the dealership we had some repairs to do early on. This really ate into our budget and is one of the reasons our year-long vacation was cut short. As for repairs, they are all part of life on the road. The best thing you can do is keep a positive attitude about the things you cannot control. The more you plan for them, the less of a hassle they will be.

So Long Full-Timing

We have ended our 8-month journey and are now settled into a rental home. The bus is currently up for sale. It’s definitely sad to see it go, but we will hold on to the memories we made in it for the rest of our lives. We plan to continue to travel. Back to weekend getaways and a few weeks of vacation a year. It’s been a wonderful experience to have lived on the road these last 8 months.