I live in a school bus with my family and this is how we were quarantined together. We drive across the country taking in everything America has to offer while playing out the typical family routines in a 234 square foot converted bus. At first glance, it might appear that we are living some carefree existence without worry or agenda. The truth is, planned for this life for almost 2 years and we work every day to maintain it. For 2 years, we planned for the worst, the best, and everything in between. The transition from our cookie cutter, suburban neighborhood was slow and we thought we covered all of our bases when it came to crisis management. We had an emergency fund and the emergency fund had an emergency fund.
As we sold off all of our belongings, neither myself or my husband ever said, “Hey, what would we do if there was a global pandemic? What if we are quarantined for months at a time?” As prepared as we were, there would be no way for either of us to predict this version of 2020.
When the pandemic was announced, we watched the rest of America shift toward a lifestyle that reflected what we were already living; moree nature, more time together, more creating things. We realized that the choice to live in a school bus was one of the best things we could have done to prepare for the pandemic. We were already self-quarantined in some ways. We were parked on 5 acres out in the country with very few people around. Our children were already homeschooled so they didn’t transition from public school to home. We both work online; I manage social media for small businesses and he teaches English. More consults poured in as small business feared the worst (some of which happened) and more students signed up for classes as schools across the world closed down.
We saw on the news that my husband’s former employer was cutting pay and letting people go. I breathed a sigh of relief that we were not lying awake at night wondering if his job was safe or whether we would be able to pay the mortgage. This debt free, mortgage free life in a school bus was pandemic friendly.
While others tried to cope with canceled sporting events, piano practice, and family gatherings we realized that in some ways we were already self-isolating. We hike and kayak for fun. We explore river banks in search for arrowheads and rocks. We usually do these things with other people which was the only difference. We talked to friends who were reworking their household budget. We couldn’t live more frugally than we already were. Living in the bus means we have very few bills, especially if we are stationary. One of the biggest expenses to this lifestyle is filling up the massive fuel tank as we drive.
The biggest change was that we pushed back plans to leave Texas where we were parked when the national emergency was declared. We planned to head west to explore everything that New Mexico and Arizona had to offer. We were finally going to see the Grand Canyon and check several national parks off our list. We stayed and decided to wait this thing out where we were. Even that shift left us unphased. In the last year, bus life has tested us. It has forced us to be flexible and to live with the understanding that our plans might change 5 times in 10 minutes. We were in Texas for that very reason and it had proven to be a place where we felt at home and at peace. Staying there was more than okay.
We waited. Waiting looked like learning to hand wash laundry since we were no longer visiting laundromats. Pro tip: You really don’t need that much soap when you are hand washing clothes.
Being quarantined looked like learning to make homemade salsa in our tiny kitchen with recipes courtesy of TikTok and long phone calls with friends and family about the state of our world. We ordered groceries online and played Tetris with our grocery haul to utilize every square inch of our bus. We learned that we could tuck away 3 weeks worth of food if we planned it out just right. There were debates on how many chickens we could raise on a school bus if we really needed to, because everyone else was doing it. Despite living outside the box, there is still this inner desire to fall in line with the rest of society. The answer was zero, by the way. Zero chickens. Otherwise, life went on as normal for us. There were just less social interactions.
As reports came in of the loss of life, the loss of jobs, and businesses shutting down, I began feeling a heaviness and guilt. So many around us were suffering while we experienced so little shift in our own existence. Then, a friend reached out. She told me that she and her partner, a nomadic couple, found work in Washington and they were heading that way. In the midst of all the chaos, they found financial security, but she too felt guilty for her own provision. Hearing her heart made me realize that we chose to do the work that COVID-19 was now forcing others to do. We downsized and paid down debts that had been holding us in place. We aligned ourselves with choices that gave us freedom to choose to stay or go. We didn’t have to worry about losing our homes because we had already let go of traditional structures in favor of school buses that were paid for in full. We didn’t have to worry about losing our jobs, because we could move to whatever work might exist for us. So many people wouldn’t be in the position to accept these jobs, even if they had lost their own due to COVID-19. Through my friend’s fears, I recognized that I did not need to be apologetic for being accidentally prepared for quarantine and the shift in the economy.
Instead, I asked myself how we could use our decision to toss out the “normal” life we built to help others who were struggling during this time. So many people say we are brave for making this choice and others say they wish they could do it too. We don’t feel brave though. We just woke up one day and decided to do something different. We woke up and chose to chase dreams that we were ignoring in favor of continuing to live a life that wasn’t serving us well. Asking myself how I can share this isn’t new, but I felt a new sense of urgency to find new ways. It was a question I never needed to ask though. Being quarantined was forcing other people to look for new solutions and chase the dreams that once seemed crazy or far fetched.
Questions began to flood my inbox:
How did you build your bus? We are going to build one while we are quarantined! We hired someone to do the rough in and finished it ourselves while living in it.
How much did it cost to build your bus? Too much! It can be done cheaper.
My husband just lost his job and we need to do something different. Where did you get your bus? Nixa, Missouri
Do you know a great skoolie builder? I do, by the way. Phoenix Skool Buses in Texas!
How do you make money and travel? We have very few bills so we make far less money than ever before. We are also able to save more though. I help small businesses grow through social media, promote brands, and we have several smaller streams of income.
People found their way to me and I watched as they found encouragement in the fact that this out of the box lifestyle was working for us. I have always been grateful that we followed this dream. We have seen places in America we would have never seen. My husband’s 3 weeks of vacation a year has been traded in for living in vacation destinations. Our boys have seen things they had only read about in books. Quarantine made me even more grateful though. Not only did we feel prepared, but we were able to help others who found themselves hurting.
I’ve thought a lot about the fact that with life comes death and with death comes life. 2020 stormed in and presented us with so much loss as a whole. Still, I’ve watched so many new adventures being born from the pain. When I look back, our own journey into this nomadic lifestyle started because of our own negative experiences combined with our desire to travel. I didn’t know I was preparing for bigger things. My hope for my own life is that I remember this in the future. There will always be things that I just happened to be more prepared for in life and there will be things that others are more prepared to face than me. Instead of sitting in guilt or simply feeling grateful for where I am, I hope I can always find ways to help others get where they want to be. Being quarantined was not something we planned for, but this was an okay way to be quarantined.
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