With visions of adventure and travelling with my family and expanding my photography across the country in the next few years we’ve made the big decision to buy a Blue Bird school bus and convert it into a traveling home (look up Skoolie). We are designing the interior to be a complete off-grid living space for myself, my wife Nicky and our two children, along with storage space for my photography and art show supplies. We are giving ourselves two years to build out the bus to travel for future photography explorations and adventure.
We located the perfect bus in Billings, Montana, and with a window of clear weather in the mid-west the week before Thanksgiving, we decided that it was now or never to close the deal on the bus and drive it back to Florida before winter storms sweep through the mid-west and through the northeast. So in a week’s notice, I changed my plans and booked a flight for Billings, Montana, where I met my brother who flew in from Erie, PA.
We had one afternoon to explore Billings and the surrounding area, and then it was time to begin the 2400-mile trek across the country from Montana to south Florida in 3 days in a 28’ school bus. We decided to take a trip to the town of Red Lodge at the base of the Beartooth mountain pass. Of course, we took the back roads to get the best experience of the Montana landscapes through the endless rolling plains on dirt roads.
On an early morning sunrise trip through the Badlands in late-November, we had the entire park to ourselves, seeing herds of buffalo, antelope, bighorn sheep and mule deer. It was a surreal moment to witness a lone bighorn sheep making his way through the grassy plains on the outskirts of Badlands.
We didn’t have to wait in lines of tourists along the way…only maybe for wildlife that were taking advantage of the serenity of the scenery.
We are so excited about the new adventures upon us. My wife will be documenting the whole school bus build out in her blog and we will continue to share the progress here!