Our “stuff” had started to govern our lives and we became consumed with the idea of finding a way to escape it. And from that, our dream of a great American road trip was birthed...

A Change of Pace

Gabriel and I were trapped on the hamster-wheel of life. We had become really disconnected in our marriage and knew that if we weren’t happy as a couple there was no way that we could grow a healthy and happy family. We needed change, badly.

One day I saw a YouTube video of Expedition Happiness and instantly knew we would rock the tiny-house-on-wheels lifestyle. Gabriel was a little skeptical at first. We knew that part of the change we were after involved a move to Northern California and it seemed like an American road trip was the perfect way to get there!

We had a family meeting where we went over the pros and cons of living on the bus versus renting a ‘normal’ house. We told the kids they would have less clothes and toys but that they would gain traveling and seeing the country through an epic American road trip. They were all on board with making the decision to move onto the school bus and we hit the road!

Getting Ready for Our American Road Trip: Building the Skoolie

We quickly hired a company to build out our school bus and within 6 months it was complete! We debated on redoing an RV but because there were many things that we wanted in a floor plan, we knew that a custom-designed school bus was the right decision for our family. 

The floor plan we laid out was different than any other bus that I had seen, which was the beauty in being able to design it ourselves. It was a fun process because it was like designing a house, except I could pick out the most expensive upgrades because we only needed a tiny amount of it! 

Besides the physical preparation of getting the Skoolie ready, we needed to get our business in order so that we could take it on the road with us! As digital marketing experts, Gabriel and I are lucky to have a line of work that doesn’t require a specific geographical location. The beauty of digital work is that since it is virtual, we can handle it all remotely. Check out our blog How To Make Money On The Road to learn more about how we managed to generate a sustainable income while traveling!

Getting Through Disappointment

Having someone else build the bus was tricky because we had to have faith that they were building it the way we wanted it, and we wouldn’t know until we picked it up to drive it home! There wasn’t much time for changes after that point and this ended up being one of our biggest mistakes. 

The company we hired was relatively new and there were a lot of mistakes that were made in the build that we didn’t know about until further down the line. If we were to do this whole journey over again, we would’ve definitely given ourselves more time to check out potential problems with the bus and have the company fix them before we drove away. 

When we got the bus back to Oklahoma, we realized that the right brake light and blinker were broken and the toilet and hot water were not connected. Not the ideal start to an American road trip! On top of that, the Skoolie had botched plumbing and a leaky roof! We got those things patched up enough to drive, but within hours we broke down on the side of the road! 

We ended up spending three days living in a diesel garage while they fixed the engine. While we were living on our skoolie in the repair shop, unbeknownst to us, our sewage tank filled to capacity and began to leak out into our living space! Somehow, though, nothing could dampen our excitement of traveling to California! This was all a part of the great American road trip. We were having issues and tackling new problems, but at least we were doing it together! 

Building Connection

The best thing about living on the bus was how connected our family became. We used to find ourselves all spending time in different rooms of the house, but on the bus the kids would read to each other in their bunks, go on biking adventures, and we’d all curl up together on the couch and watch movies.

Being in such a tiny space can be stressful, but we had so many more opportunities to talk things through and connect. If a kid had a rough day at school I could see it because they were only ever a few feet away. When we were in a big house, they would go off to the playroom and I would never know that anything was wrong.

Life became so much simpler. Stuff was not as important to us and we spent much more time outside and having fun experiences as a family. We became more in tune with our emotions and the emotions of the other members of our family. We were also able to use our time on the Skoolie to get out of debt and save money so that we could build our forever home.

The main struggle we faced was the difficulty of having friends over for dinner. We love to host other people but trying to add four more people to our already tiny space was tricky, so we found ourselves going out to dinner with our friends instead.

Our Biggest Lesson

People think that we must have been so brave to go on an  our own American road trip with four children, but we actually felt so blessed to have had this season in the Skoolie. It taught us so much about who we are and what is important to us as a family. The benefit of getting rid of all the other distractions in our lives has allowed us to focus on enjoying the small pleasures in life and choosing each other over our possessions.

If I could give any advice to someone wanting to switch up their life completely, I would just tell them to start! Do not waste time worrying about what other people will think or if everything is perfectly planned. We get so many emails and DM's from people who are miserable with their current life and want to do something similar and there is always a BUT (a well-paying job they can't leave, a family that disagrees, etc.). I say, if you are unhappy with where you are at, you are only ONE decision away from changing everything and you will find so much freedom when you start living your life the way YOU feel called to live it! 

Loving the idea of living on a skoolie or a great American road trip? Check out what life on the skoolie was like from the very beginning!