Some instinct told me to get a school bus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And then I promptly rejected the idea (because who does that?!), and we spent a few weeks researching and examining travel trailers like normal people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We sold our car, a nice 2017 Subaru Outback (for probably far too low a price \u2013 it should have been more except for the fact that Zanj has developed the unfortunate habit of backing it up into stationary objects in our driveway). The grand plan was to use the resultant money to buy a beefy pickup truck, preferably a RAM 1500 with good towing capabilities, and put some of the boat savings to the travel trailer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The RAM 1500 was great. It really was. Brawny, agile and spacious. Especially the Longhorn Laramie. I\u2019m a little bit embarrassed to admit that I liked the (cheesy? are they cheesy?) leather buckles on all of the rear seat pockets. The only problem there was !nding one with a su$cient towing capacity \u2013 I was really hoping to find one with the ability to haul 9000+ pounds without having to buckle under and get a RAM 2500. Who knew that the towing capacities were so varied? In a short week I became an expert on all things RAM\u2026 I was spouting out engine and axle ratio jargon like an old pro.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The real problem, though, was the travel trailers. They just seemed kind of\u2026 #accid. Rickety. Expensive cardboard boxes with #imsy plastic parts. Some of them were very cleverly set up, with bunk beds and cute little tables for kids to do homeschool on, with big rear windows and attractive entertainment centers, but\u2026 they just weren\u2019t Bosse Brigade Adventure style. They just didn\u2019t have any substance. We looked at a bunch of used ones, and while those were easier on the pocket, they were even more dubious structurally. Spongy walls were the norm, not to mention some very scary carpet. Yuk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And then, in a certain Facebook group, I saw a skoolie. A 38 foot high-ceiling dognose, already converted. It had a good-natured silver and black face, an uncluttered interior, and was already registered in CA as a motorhome (this is a big deal). It was de!nitely too expensive. It wasn\u2019t the !rst time I\u2019d seen this bus. I\u2019d seen it a couple of weeks ago, looked at it longingly, and then it disappeared and I assumed it was gone. Fast forward, and as soon as we definitively decided we didn\u2019t want a travel trailer, the bus showed up again. Call that whatever you like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So we drove far up north to see it, and, to make a long story short, we bought it on the spot, with a discount in exchange for doing the last two weeks of work on its ourselves. It was missing some parts so we ordered them and made the 9 hour round trip once again the following weekend to pay for it, replace the missing parts, and drive it home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I spent all week trying to get insurance for it and having doors slammed in my face over and over. Many of the automatic web applications will kick you out as soon as you indicate that you are trying to insure a bus conversion. I called other agents, only to be told regrefully that they didn\u2019t deal with such things. I got my hopes up with the guy at National General who told me that insuring skoolies was no problem (liability only), but demanded a huge amount of information and detailed photos and then never got back to me, despite my calling him all week long. In the end, it was State Farm that came through after I called them in desperation on Friday afternoon \u2013 liability and comprehensive both, all set up in the space of a couple hours! Bless you, State Farm!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As anyone who has ever tried to pay for anything reasonably substantial in this country must know, giving people your money here is NOT EASY. Unless they will take a personal check; which, unfortunately, this seller did not wish to do. Can\u2019t say I blame him; I had the same hesitation when we sold the Subaru, but unfortunately, in the good old US of A, our options are somewhat limited. (Gone are the Swiss days when one could wire tens of thousands of CHF with a simple click of a mouse\u2026 and no fees!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We Apple paid. We Venmoed. We Zelled. We CashApped. We begged Capital One to raise our limit for just one day, but even though they !nally did, the cash machines (multiple cash machines) smugly refused to give us more than $500. We spent all afternoon alternating talking to the insurance lady with opening cash pay accounts, calling our banks, and driving all over town trying to find more accommodating ATM machines\u2026 to no avail. Also, it was SO FREAKING HOT. The kids had already wilted by late morning and spent the rest of the day squabbling in the car, watching Lost in Oz<\/em> and devouring all of the emergency snacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ultimately, as the sun sank behind the hills \u2013 exhausted, annoyed, and dripping with sweat, we wrote a check.And an elaborate Bill of Sale. And made a video.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was past dark by the time we !nally wobbled out of the driveway with our prize. The bus had an almost empty tank, semi-flat tires and was totally illegal as it was registered Non-Op and we hadn\u2019t been able to alert the DMV to the title change since it was so late in the day. Moreover, neither of us had ever driven a bus before and had no experience with diesel engines, air brakes, 30K pound vehicles, etc. \u2013 and it was supposed to rain! (We did have one working windshield wiper\u2026 one only).<\/p>\n\n\n\n We puttered along back roads (mostly uneventfully \u2013 never mind that cyclist!) to the nearest truck stop where we spent an hour fueling up the bus and trying to !gure out how to !ll up the tires to the proper levels. This bus has 6 wheels and so the back ones have a cute little hole so you can stick the air hose through in order to fill the inside\/hidden tires. Clever!<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was all very novel and exciting until I accidentally overturned an entire liter of milk into my lap while sitting in the front seat of my car. Then, suddenly, nothing was funny any more. It was 11pm, the kids were still bouncing off the walls, we were sticky with sweat and RX bars (not to mention milk), and the tire gauge stubbornly refused to read anything higher than 95 psi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Not knowing where to go, and not wanting to brave the 4.5 hour homeward journey in the dark, in an unfamiliar, technically unregistered, 30000 pound vehicle, with two super tired whiny kids and a lap full of milk, we ended up pulling into an empty Camping World parking lot and spending the night which is, apparently, totally legal. Who knew?! It was a little spooky, being the only living creatures at the end of a dead-end road in an enormous parking lot populated with what must have been over a thousand silent, empty RVs, but we were just grateful to roll out our sleeping bags, blow up our air mattresses, and collapse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We woke up early the next morning to a short, but massive thunder-and-lightning storm (the !rst I\u2019ve heard since being in CA) and a downpour. The kids spluttered out to the porta-potty (thank you, Camping World) and we took further back roads to Starbucks for breakfast. Mike\u2019s driving improved dramatically and the trip home was uneventful (aside from one misguided attempt to park at Starbucks in Vacaville). We didn\u2019t hit anybody and we avoided the cops \u2013 so I call it all a great success!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Some instinct told me to get a school bus. 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