On our journey in St Louis, MO, came about due to an incredible need to take a few days break from the drive. I practice slow rolling frequently, but Zach is a go-go-go kinda guy.
Our first stop was at Anheuser-Busch for a quick tour and tasting (we don’t drink, so we shared ours with others) It was a pretty entertaining tour, our tour guide was fun! We got bottles “off the line” to take home, but we just poured out the beer and kept the bottles to use as prop stations 🙂
Oh, and the pretzels were amazing! I’m a BIG fan of soft pretzels, so I’m super picky. I’d buy these again, even if it cost me $8 for those alone !! Check out more pics here (BEER)
Our next stop was The World’s Largest Chess Piece 😆 It was fairly close, so we stopped and took some quick pics! You can check them out here (CHESS)
And well from there we did one of my favorite things ~ we toured a CHOCOLATE FACTORY!!! We had the pleasure of touring Chocolate! Chocolate! Chocolate! The tour was awesome, our guide really did know his stuff, and the tasting was my favorite part! Check out more pics here (CHOCOLATE)
Whew! We were sightseeing freaks for a while there! OH WAIT, we weren’t done !
Our Journey in St Louis MO Continues!!
We headed over to Herbaria for a tour of their factory too! This was a very small shop that started in someone’s kitchen, so it was really nice to see a hometown store tour! The place smelled heavenly too 🙂 See more of our pics here (SOAP)
We were exhausted but had one more stop in mind. A repurpose store. It’s a thing. We need to stop. We can’t help ourselves. Especially when they turn out to be a hidden gem. We’ve come across a few, but this one was pretty cool too!
Check it out here ~ Refab ~ there are some pics, plus a link to their site! It’s pretty amazing in there!!
We called it quits in St Louis after our few days of sightseeing! It was fun and we found some really unique places to shop as well! But it was time to say “See ya, St Louis!”
Posted in Bus Life, Travel and tagged Bus Life, Travel by Nancy Lynn with no comments yet.
Bus Life & Internet Issues 🚫💻🚫
Bus Life & Internet Issues ! For the past 3+ months we have been traveling around the Midwest. And for me, that meant having very sketchy service, if any at all! So I’m going to do a catch up to our almost current location all in one post.
Back in August, we left The Mitten of Michigan and headed to the Upper Peninsula (UP).
~Check out Our Michigan Page to see what we were up to in The Mitten!~
Bus Life & Pet Woes
Unfortunately, one of our three cats (Scabbers) escaped the bus while it was running (a BIG no-no as this usually scares them from coming back). We tried for hours to get him. HOURS. Fortunately we had been in that location for a few months and had made some friends.
We weren’t going far the first night, in fact we just went about 15 miles away. So we left for the night to get the bus parked and secured, and headed back in the morning. Again, failing to catch him. This had been an ongoing issue with him since he got a rocky start on the road (he was traveling temporarily with someone else who left him behind) It took Zach a very, very long time to convince me to leave without Scabbers.
But we did.
And headed to the Skoolie UP event. We left our carrier, one of my sweatshirts, food, and his bowl. And the people we met while there were going to be there until the end of the season and were going to catch him for us.
IT TOOK THREE WEEKS!!!! It was the longest three weeks of our lives. I have had that cat since birth, and I was really missing him.
This cat is a unique dude. He plays with our dogs, Louie and Jemma. And I don’t mean he bats their tails when they walk by, I mean he BITES them, and then roughhouse right back!! It’s hilarious. He’s our CatDog. Here’s a little video of the “three dogs” at play 😆
Success!!
But they finally got him in our carrier. So We left the event early to go get him and get moving southwest. Our plans were to be in Arkansas in September, and we just wanted to get going.
We were so happy to see him. Tears were shed. Our other pets were happy to see him. Well, maybe not Heddy, his sister. She hissed at him when she saw him. Maybe she was yelling at him about taking off like that.
But we got him, so we left on our journey. First stop after we had our full house back was Kalamazoo to see some friends. While there we did bus work. Just a bunch of random things we had been talking about for a while. Zach replaced some parts on my seat and I made the bus more travel ready.
We also visited a lovely Arboretum (Leila Arboretum)
From there we stopped for an overnight in Hudson, Illinois.
While we were there, I was poking around for something to do. We had some down time, and I didn’t want to spend it in the bus. Well, The World’s Largest Square Knot popped up as being a few miles away. We went to go check it out, but to our disappointment, we found no knot, just a plaque.
But an idea was born. The World’s Largest …whatever.
World’s Largest Bus Life ?
A few weeks before this, Zach had gotten me an electric scooter. One that I could go off road with. Well, I took a pic of me on it and sent it to my 15 year old daughter. Who said I looked “TINY”.
Well.. my response was “My size is just a figment of your imagination, and I am, in fact, quite tiny. Like an Oompa Loompa” She had also just given me a pair of huge round glasses, white, with rose tinted lenses. So, The World’s Largest Journey began! (you can check that out here!)
And from Hudson we set our sights on St Louis , MO where we had a TON of stuff planned!! Stay tuned for that journey next week!
And maybe we can find a solution to bus life & internet issues!
Posted in Bus Life, Travel and tagged Bus Life, Travel by Nancy Lynn with no comments yet.
At some point in time, I lost control of the propagation stations, or lack thereof. But propagation stations ~ tiny space = imagination! There were random things with water in them pretty much everywhere. They fell over during travel because they were forgotten in the mix, we’ve knocked them over, the cats knocked them over. It was a watery mess a LOT of the time.
So Zach and I came up with some fixed stations that house more than one propagation at a time. We still have a few that are in random bottles, but most are just about ready for dirt, so moving them to a permanent prop station seems silly.
My goal is to have all my prop stations in a place where they don’t have to relocate during travel days. So they need to be attached to something.
It’s all a work in progress, but we’ve had success so far with these stations traveling well with water in them. I leave space at the top anyway, and never had a drop spill out.
So first up, is my Ice Cream Station. This one is my favorite It is almost exclusively filled with Hoya cuttings (Zach has a Hoya problem). The one sole difference is my Wandering Dude cutting! It was a candle holder (I wish I took before pics)
But even though I did not take before pics, I DID manage to find the exact same one online, and that is what this pic is!
I used ceramic ice cream cones that I found in a unique shop in Alma, Arkansas (A To Z Gifts & More). I only found 5, so I had to improvise with the last one (I call it the sundae cup)!
Cut one leg off completely. Cut the foot off the other leg and drilled a hole into a piece of wood to set the leg into. Then attached the piece of wood to the wall.
I also have this one that Zach created for me. We found 3 of the 4 glasses at one thrift store and the fourth at another!
Empty And Full
We found these trays at a thrift store for 50¢ for both (no clue what they are/were, someone thought an insert for an instapot, but i really don’t know!) I didn’t know what exactly to do with them, so I started with just the bottom for about a minute. Added the cut foam in so the plants had a place to prop themselves on while they were rooting in water. Then I got the idea to cut one of my walking sticks in a few pieces, used one piece to attach these 2 trays together. I used the other two pieces to make hanging herb drying racks (post to come later)
And just some random prop stations. These are the ones I still need to move. In the end, it’s a lot less than I had going on before. And I’ve stopped propping outdoor plants, so my needs are far less at the moment. I have all of my glassware, prop stations and all that stuff put away in totes. I’m sure I will use all of them in rotation again 😀
As always in bus life, it’s a work in progress. But I do have to say that with each change we make, our ready to travel time decreases. It no longer takes me an hour to prep the front of the bus! I’m down to about 15 minutes! Next on the chopping block is the awful overfilled bathtub during travel! When we travel for multiple days, it drives me batty
Posted in Bus Life, Gardening and tagged Bus Life, Gardening, Houseplants by Nancy Lynn with no comments yet.
This has been a rough gardening transition. I am usually great with houseplants, herbs, vegetables and everything. But Bus life has changed all that Not for the worse, just for the different. I need to learn new ways to acclimate my plants under various conditions.
When we left on this journey, I had 2 plants: a kalanchoe that a friend’s daughter had given me, and my beloved Hoya. The kalanchoe was a bit sad and my hoya was in dire straits. The hoya had holes in her leaves, and hadn’t done any kind of growing in a very long time. She was just sick.
Now we have an extensive garden, growing in size a few plants at a time. Some things have grown fantastically and some have grown into fantastic disasters. Cilantro and I are no longer speaking 😠
I KNOW we are asking a lot of our plants. When we are stationary, they are out in the sun (or shade, whichever they prefer) and have the wind blowing through them, and all is dandy. But then we travel, and they go into the back of the truck that is towed behind the bus. So life gets pretty dreary for them. We are switching out trucks in the near future, so upgrading the current one for our needs seems silly. But, when the switch happens, there will be a cap on the back of the truck that is hinged so the plants can get some sun, we will also have a grow light and mirrors available when the sun isn’t. It’s a truck, so I feel confident that soaking them down with a hose will do no harm.
We’ve learned what just doesn’t work, cilantro being #1 on that list! I cannot get that to NOT BOLT! So sad 
Here’s what is still surviving and thriving!
Geraniums
Begonias
Hoya Carnosa
This little girl has grown so much in the bus. She had horrible leaves on her, full of breaks and holes. And maybe there were 3 of them. They are currently sitting in water in propagation mode. Roots on it, just waiting for some new pretty leaves before I pluck the yucky ones off. I’m super excited that she is thriving now!!
Here’s what just doesn’t want to travel!!
Tomatoes
So here I got a vine of green cherry tomatoes that just refuse to turn red! I haven’t given up on them yet tho! And the little red guy is from my sad compact cherry tomato. The one with like 3 leaves left on it! And I pluck a snack from him every few days! And honestly, I have no idea what that tomato in the fourth picture is doing. Does it think it’s a Roma (We got it from a plant sale at a humane society and they had no idea what anything was!) Or does it think it’s a pepper because it was hanging out next to one in the truck?? No clue!
Peppers
Now we have had minimal success with peppers, I’m putting it in the unsuccessful category because we have gotten 3 peppers, from about 6 plants, so that’s a fail to me 🙁
Lettuce
We may have done this one in ourselves by not clipping it properly. ooops
Broccoli
Clearly not enough sun, we tried but having this one in the back of the truck made it REALLY stretch!! 🙁
Cauliflower
Seriously, growing all crazy, no sign of actual vegetable growth. And I’ve never grown it before, so there’s that 😐
We haven’t given up! We know this is a learning process and it will take some time for us to figure out which varieties of vegetables work best in our crazy conditions! We eat a lot of vegetables and would love to be able to grow our own! So back to basics. Back to gardening 101 
We plan on pulling what isn’t working and starting over with new varieties of vegetables and different ones altogether. I’d love to have a 100% success rate, but for now I’m willing to continue the search for the perfect plants to adapt to our environment!
Up next …Propagation Station Overhaul! This is a MESS!! I have prop stations everywhere inside. In jars, glass milk jugs, butter containers.
Posted in Bus Life, Gardening, Travel and tagged Bus Life, Gardening by Nancy Lynn with no comments yet.
The Journey Begins!! For most of my life, I felt like I was on a perpetual non-journey journey. Moving, but going nowhere. I have a fantastic Aunt that always says to step out on the way, and the way will appear.
Well…. Back in January, I met this really great guy at a mutual friends house.
He had come to stay in his Skoolie before an event .
We ended up going to the event together, and the way appeared 🛣
The Journey Begins … officially
We left on our Journey to Michigan on March 28th, 2022. Him in his bus, and me following in my SUV. I had to fit everything I was taking completely in that vehicle! That was a challenge, but in the end I donated a LOT, purged through boxes that had been boxed for years, and in the end it felt amazing to do!
⇓⇓ It all had to fit in THIS !! ⇓⇓
Our first stop was in Jessup, Georgia. We intended to stay a few days, but it turned into a week after we had to do a little cat rescue. We had to make the trek back to Florida (350+ miles 😕 ) to get my cat, who was left behind by another nomad.
Our next stop was Columbus, Georgia. During this time, we realized that me driving behind him wasn’t working. We were traveling together, yet apart, and it was costing us extra in gas at a time when gas prices suck!!! So Again, another “few day stop” that turned into a week+ to get a seat in the bus for me! But in Zach’s defense, he built me this amazing seat for the bus (along with the help of another member of the Skoolie community) .
Now earlier I joked about downsizing all I had into my SUV. Now I had to downsize into his already full bus! I challenged myself to one drawer in a medium sized dresser. And I absolutely succeeded. ALL of my clothes got packed in that drawer and the rest were donated. All of my kitchen items got donated since he has a fully equipped kitchen and a full size range. I have one under the bed storage tote for sentimental items.
Soooo much stuff!!
In the last 3 years I’ve gone from a 2800+ square foot house to sharing 200 square foot of living space. Was it easy? Heck no! I was sooooo attached to my junk at first. Storage unit after storage unit just to keep it. For no purpose. Because it’s all just stuff. So I packed my SUV and headed to the local Goodwill and brought in bins of stuff to them! It felt liberating! And to this day, there is not one thing that I said, “shoot, I wish I kept that!”
Okay, Maybe my lemon zester!! 😆
Finally headed out and made our way to Faulkville, Alabama. And yet again, a few days turned into a week. Bus upgrade to the rear end gearing took a little longer than anticipated, but in order to actually make it up the hills in Michigan, a change was definitely needed!
The next month sucked. Simply put, it sucked. Our stays were rough, our cats weren’t always safe outside the bus, noise levels were insane. We were bummed, because we made it to Michigan, but it was a complete letdown up until this point.
And it’s at that point that I realize “the journey begins” has taken on a whole new meaning! 😶 We were trying to morph two individual journeys into one tiny living environment!
It needed to be merged to become “Our Journey Begins”
We finally made it to what we thought was a safe haven, and it had been mostly good. Quiet, on the lake (kinda), and our animals were safe. We just stayed longer than we should have, got a little comfortable, and planned on heading out on the road after 3 months of being parked.
There were some amazing trails to hike and ride through, cute shops, and we met some great people! The Bear Store in Hale, Michigan was a favorite of ours!
Did we learn a lot during this stay? YES!!! … so in the end, worth the stop.
Gardening Journey Begins ?
We have an ENTIRE freaking garden, greenhouse included. So, now I’m going to have to work on keeping flowers, herbs and vegetables alive on the road. We stop for a while at most locations, but there are stretches of driving that take days.
We are heading to an event in the UP in Michigan. With about a month to get there, we plan on putting our adventure into high gear and hitting some trails. Either on foot, or on our electric toys.
With each new day, the journey begins again!! See where ours takes us. Including a Skoolie Event and an EUC (Electric Unicycle) Event! Should be interesting to see what we find to explore in the future!
Posted in Bus Life, Travel and tagged Bus Life, Travel by Nancy Lynn with no comments yet.