12/30/10

The Life of a Gypsy

 I've always wanted to live in a refurbished bus.  

Borrowed from Dolly Rocker Girl.

When I was a kid, my dad had a thing for old school buses.  He was an ex-hippie with a yen for travel, and subsequently we've all got in the blood (all seven of us).  What can I say - we were born in the wrong era (after hitch-hiking became mostly illegal).

The first bus was your typical yellow school bus, previously owned by the Nazarene church of McMinnville, Oregon.  Dad gutted the seats, bolted brown metal bunk beds to the walls, and we were off.  It was our home away from home.  Four months of living en route to nowhere - our cross-country road-trip. 

A few years later, he bought the rusty white school bus.  He partitioned off the back half with a large piece of plywood, creating storage space for all our earthly belongings.   The front half became our living quarters for a week while we relocated from Oregon to Georgia. We spent the majority of that trip standing in front of open windows, waiting for the wind to blow us backwards onto the couch (this was either before the state-wide seat-buckle law, or before we cared - not sure which). 


Ever since then, I've had a thing for road-trips. 


No Idea To Whom This Belongs

I stumbled across this old photograph
while researching hitch-hikers.  
I'd like to have been there.



Borrowed from Kristen Drozdowski

... Or perhaps buy my own bus.  
Look at the amount of space inside this one ~
Imagine what you could do with it.



Borrowed from Trane DeVore

Creative, right?


Borrowed from Country Living.  The Junk Gypsies: Nashville or Bust!

. . . maybe someday. . .




10 comments:

  1. The last few bus photos are very inviting.

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  2. I agree. It could be awesome. . . if you could add a bathroom. I am not taking baths in the Starbucks sink ;)

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  3. I cant wait to show your post to my husband, he has always wanted a bus also and I would just think in my head how weird, but seeing some of these photos make me think what a GREAT idea! Weve been wanting one of the scooby Doo vans to travel (might be cheaper in gas and renovating) but a bus would be the best! If we did, I would make sure to get a hold of you, you could pretend you are a hitchhiker, we will pick ya up and have lunch. Hee hee, fun to wish.
    Go out and buy that bus ladaisi, just go do it and fill it with the toy critters you hate so it feels like a real home with a pest running around.

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  4. That second to the last one looks nice and cozy! I love the stories of your dad and the buses.

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  5. sarah janssen of walk slowly and happy foody lives in a bus off and on throughout the year. she travels the country, doing photography stints every now and again. the bus runs on veggie oil.

    i heard that her parents own coldstone so that would explain how the whole thing is funded, but seriously. that's awesome.

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  6. I think to live like a gypsy would be incredible! I love the photos, especially the last one! How creative!

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  7. We lived in a VW van for a year in the 80's traveling through Europe and Africa. I loved our van. I would like to relive that experience again, differently, but to have that freedom and adventure is appealing. Hugs Karen

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  8. We lived in a VW van for a year in the 80's traveling through Europe and Africa. I loved our van. I would like to relive that experience again, differently, but to have that freedom and adventure is appealing. Hugs Karen

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  9. I have been terrible behind in reading blogs since my house has not internet (now back at school I am rarely off it go figure)
    first - you should know is all it takes is one interesting title to get me to start reading your blogs and then I don't stop for a really long time. I've even re-read a few entertaining ones. You put them out at an impressive rate.

    Second - did you really travel across the country for four months in a gutted school bus? I have a new facet of respect with which to view your father.

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  10. Four months. Dad, Mom, Noah, and me. I think that was it at the time because I remember mom was pregnant with Stephie when we flew to Cali. Or something like that. (When you have this many siblings you remember them by other major events surrounding their birth. Thus Stephie gets my first time on a plane).

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( hippies always welcome )