THE BLUE BUS IS CALLING US

I lived in a bus. I can do anything! In fact, I have often missed it in the last 8 years that we've lived like unhippie Americans.
We bought it for $700, the Big Blue Bird Bus. In fact, Travis offered the guy $1,000 and he came back with, "I don't know...how bout $700." True story. Yes, it was a family friend as close as a brother, but still. Best deal of the century.
That Bus was solid...except the windows that had been shattered by young punks, back in the day, before we'd gotten it. We had been living in a Chevy van for the 9 previous months, before Bus Days began, and so we were totally upgrading. (Try putting on a pair of pants in a Chevy van. My poor 6ft. tall husband!)
We parked it in a beautiful spot on the Little Salmon River, in the lovely heart of Idaho. We rented the spot for $50 bucks a month. There was no power, no crapper, no sink. It was river water for dishes and potted water for making coffee. It was candles, purchased by the case from Stinker Station, and a propane stove. It was perfect.
We worked minimally and played all day long. We were 20, what can I say? It is the life I would recommend to any good hippie kid that wants to sun tan instead of slave away. It was like being retired. All we needed money for was refried beans, cheese, tortillas, tobacco, beer, and toilet paper.
Travis and I each worked for 3 days a week, cooking at restaurants on the opposite ends of town.
"We have better pizza than you guys," I'd say as I rolled a cheap cigarette.
"Whatever! You don't have the breakfast crowd. I make the best gravy in the state. That's what an old man told me last week." He'd reply opening the top on an Oly bottle.
We made enough money for our life style. We laughed at people that had mortgages and spent their time fighting about money. We kept our money in a box, just in case the bank got any funny ideas. "They want your fingerprint to open an account? I don't think so!"
This time in my life will NEVER be forgotten. We delivered our first baby, and conceived our second, in that Blue Bus. We drove it to Council Idaho to work on a construction job and saved money, in the box, for a chunk of land.
When we purchased our first two acres we decided to build a cabin. The Bus Days were about to end and we were ready after 5 years. The town was so happy that we were moving into a "normal" house that we scored some major gifts and free labor! I cannot count the times that folks approached me and said, "You will be so happy to get out of that bus! You won't ever go back. House living is just too good!"
I moved the last load of stuff out of the bus, on a spring day, and rubbed the counter top down for the last time, before making my way back up to the cabin to live in perfect bliss. And then it happened. I started to cry. I couldn't help it. I stayed down in that bus, just crying. And, I'm not really a cryer.
I knew they were probably right. I would be happier. I could shower and poop in my own house. I could store more things in the freezer than a tub of ice cream and 3 packs of deer steak.
But, still I cried. I was happy, but I was so sad to leave my bus. And this is just how I am.
I know that people said, behind our backs, "I can't believe that he drags his wife around in that thing!!" But, there's a little something they didn't know. That was MY bus. I LOVED that bus. You couldn't punch a hole in the wall. It had a story. It was a friendly, original, old dude with character. We had parties, fights, love, and sleepy Sunday mornings in that beautiful house of ours. And more importantly, no one else lived like we did. If tattoos were original, I would have one, of a bus, on my arm....but they are hip, so I don't.

When we first realized that I was the bus's biggest fan, it was Christmas Eve, 2001. We had decided to drive the bus out to Slate Creek, from it's spot on Squaw Creek Road. We loaded everything up into it's little cubby and we started up the Blue Beast, that actually emitted smoke that matched the paint job.
We rounded the first corner, about 1/4 mile out of the driveway, and it seized up! Just like that...it was dead. We climbed out, swearing, and agitated. There on the road, in a ten foot circumference around Big Blue, were bits and pieces of some strange material.
Travis grabbed up a tattered chunk of the "something" off of the ground and thrust it out towards me, "THIS is our clutch plate!!"
What did this mean to me? Well, by the look on his face, I knew it wasn't good for transportation if it was supposed to still be attached to our engine. Travis commenced swearing and marching around the bus like a man in war. I started to cry. And, I'm not much of a cryer....well, apparently, I am.
"I am so sick of this piece of $#!%.....I am getting a 5th wheel! I am taking this thing out to Bernie Greens junk yard!" He ranted on and on, full of understandable frustration. We had been down this road before....literally.
I stood up and wiped my eyes. I blew out a determined breath of new air. I climbed up into the driver's seat and started talking to myself, with that far away look, like One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.
"I know what I'll do. I'll get someone to work on it. I'll just call someone. Yeah. It'll be fine." I sat in there like that for a little while, with my hands on the steering wheel, having a 2-way/1-way conversation with myself.
Travis stood in the doorway watching me. "You really want to keep it?!"
"Yes, I LOVE this bus!" I breathed.
"You really DO love it, don't you?" He shook his head in disbelief.
And so he reassured me, right then and there, that he would fix it for me. We talked one of our friends into coming and towing us off of the road, as the traffic started stacking up behind us. Mind, you it was Christmas Eve! Our friend told us he would come tow it on one condition.....that we never called him again to move that Big Blue Bird! Done.
It didn't matter that people thought we were mental for living in that Bus. It didn't matter that I had no running water. Yes, it was hard sometimes, but that's what I loved about it. Still, everyone that came into our house said the same thing, "Wow! This is awesome! I didn't think it looked like this!"
And so it is when you love something. It shines with happy energy, no matter what it is. This is why whatever we choose to do, it will be golden. And it will be! I no longer feel the pressure that comes with unhippie American living. The three most important things in this life come with us wherever we go. They are 9, 7, and 2 years old! I am not afraid of what is ahead, because, I lived in a bus. I can do anything!