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At least we had a bus
Sometime around 2017 I tried to help a friend sell a schoolbus he’d acquired. I didn’t succeed, but I suggested to him that if he ever wanted to part with the bus would he please offer me the first right to refuse.
In 2019 the friend called and offered the somewhat retrofitted schoolbus in trade for a season of lawncuts on his property. This would be a great trade and indeed an offer that I didn’t refuse. We placed the bus on the side of our house, mostly out of view of our neighbors. We had no designs on traveling with the bus, becoming “skoolies” but we knew it could play into our plans somehow down the road.
In early 2021 after our house sold very quickly we were suddenly facing an odd sort of homelessness. Without already having another property, we occupied the home of our closest and very gracious relative out of state while we continued our search. Our goal was to put our equity toward the purchase of a smaller home, and have no mortgage. We searched extensively and when we found nothing within our budget, and a very small inventory of homes, we decided to expand our search to just land. Even land was scarce but we found and purchased a property we loved, 21 acres on a mountain plateau, with springs. We hired a contractor to build a new road onto the property and then transported the bus there. We then brought ourselves and our stuff and began nesting onto the mountain, at first in a tent. Our belongings were strewn all over. We purchased a shipping container to do just that, contain, as we were also maintaining storage in two other locations. At this point we were out of money, and without a source of income. We both found jobs nearby, and began the painstakingly slow and often painful process of reinvention.
From the moment we made the trade, Liz and I joked that we’d never be homeless because at least we had a bus. It makes me reflect on other trades I’ve made that have changed the trajectory of my life, and what I’ve been willing to trade for the things I’ve wanted the most.
jw
