The Trip of a Lifetime
This is my journey of buying an old school bus and turning it into a house on wheels.
How it started
When I was 18, I made a pretty crazy decision, I spent every dollar I had on an old school bus. I had no real plan, no extra money, and barely any tools. Just an idea: turn it into a camper (a “skoolie”) and drive it across the country with my friends after graduation. It started right after Christmas in 2023. A guy named Steve told me he was selling an old bus. I knew I couldn’t really afford it, but I went to check it out anyway. Somehow, we agreed on $2,000. I went to the bank, took out everything I had, and bought it. Just like that, I was broke but I had a bus. At first, I didn’t even have a place to keep it. Steve let me leave it at the church for a bit, and then my friend Ian said I could move it to his family’s farm. That’s where the real work started. I told Ian and two of my other friends about my plan, and they were all in right away. We stripped the inside of the bus completely, just metal walls and a bad floor left. Then we argued a little about what we wanted inside. Some of us wanted more space, others wanted more comfort. We ended up agreeing on bunk beds and a bathroom in the back, and a kitchen and hangout area in the front.
Remodeling
The biggest problem was money. We didn’t have much of it. So, we started asking for help and advice from anyone who knew what they were doing. Luckily, we all had some skills. I worked in a granite shop, one friend was an electrician, one did HVAC, and one did remodeling. We used what we knew and figured out the rest as we went. For about four months, we worked on the bus almost every night, around three hours a day. At the same time, I was going to school, working, and playing lacrosse. It was exhausting. There were definitely times where I thought we wouldn’t finish in time, but I didn’t want to quit. Slowly, it all came together. We built beds, countertops, a kitchen, and got the electrical and air systems working. As we got closer to graduation, people in my town started hearing about what we were doing. Some local businesses and people even donated money and supplies to help us finish. We also started posting videos online, and people actually started following along. After we graduated, we didn’t wait, we just left. Four of us, one bus, and no real plan. We just started driving west.
The Trip
Our first big stop was Colorado Springs. Seeing the mountains for the first time was insane. From there, we went to Utah. Driving through the mountains in that bus was tough, it was super slow going uphill and kind of scary going downhill with the brakes heating up. But we made it. We went to Zion National Park, the Grand Canyon, and even stopped in Las Vegas for a night (which, honestly, wasn’t the best idea at 18). Then we made a long, brutal 14-hour drive to Yosemite. We got there at 4 a.m., but waking up there made it worth it. It was one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen. After that, we went to San Francisco, drove across the Golden Gate Bridge, and ended up in the Redwoods. That was our last big stop before heading home. The whole trip lasted 23 days, and we drove about 7,200 miles. By the end, we were almost completely out of money—but it didn’t matter. That trip taught me a lot. It showed me how big the world really is and how different life can be in other places. It also taught me to keep going even when things feel impossible, and that it’s okay to ask for help. Honestly, it was the best experience of my life, and it all started with a risky decision and an old school bus.