Will we manage to Leave Arkansas??

Well, we were still in Arkansas!  We actually love the state, so why try and leave Arkansas?  Being travelers, we like to move around.  Being in one state for this long ….

Here’s the deal…

We travel in the bus… but we pull a vehicle also! From the start it was a 1991 Ford Ranger …  Zach also had a Dodge pickup that was parked at a friends house in Georgia. Only need one vehicle, so Zach had to make the decision on which truck to keep.  For many reasons, he chose the Dodge. 

So now comes the swap. Zach needed to sell the ranger and pick up the dodge, however that worked out. Well, it worked out perfectly that the friend who was housing the dodge, wanted to buy the Ranger.  

Solo Road Trip for Zach. Or was it ?

Nah, he took our dog Louie for the ride. He’s a good companion on the road. Or mostly he sleeps and ya talk to yourself, but he’s there for you to pull over and walk him. And stops on a road trip aren’t always bad!

Road Trippin’ It

So, 850ish miles one way. I didn’t envy him. I don’t mind road trips, but not by myself! 

He did it in 48 hours.

That gave me 48 hours to totally reorganize the under floor storage in the bus! It was just a mess! I bake a lot, I mean A LOT, so I have lots of supplies. I also really love to cook, so lots of stuff for that too.  I knew the one compartment was all on me, but the other 2 were Zach’s areas of WHAT THE ….???

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I got so much organized, that I did the entire front of the bus. Closet, above the bathroom, drawers, cabinets and under the floor. Once I got started, it was actually easy to organize! 

The first pic is completely done, and while there is room for improvement, I fit every baking and cooking need in that space. Everything in a findable location! Always a work in progress!

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Back to Zach and his 1600 mile marathon run in 2 days. All went well! He got back and he thought Jemma (our other dog) would be thrilled to see him, but it was Louie she was excited to see. She did zoomies for that boy

Spent some more time exploring Mt Ida when Zach got back! After that, we really didn’t have a game plan, so we didn’t rush leaving!  Looked at trails, did some geocaching, riding, hiking, walking, whatever! Just took in the scenery.

We tried to Leave Arkansas, really…

Then we tried to leave. And the bus wasn’t having it with pulling the dodge. It was just too heavy. Stop. Rethink. Couldn’t go far unless I drove the truck separately, which neither of us wanted.

We hightailed it back to the Alma area until we figured it out. Zach’s parents are close by, so why not park there and spend more time with them! 

Follow That Bus!

I ended up having to drive the truck behind him in the bus. Sounds easy enough, until he is struggling up a hill and I’m struggling because I’m driving a manual, up a hill, behind a bus 🙂

Zach ended up trading his truck for a teeny tiny car! 

It’s cute, and completely functional! The gas mileage is out of this world, and it’s super light! 

….Still In Arkansas….

Here’s the thing though – we were stuck in Arkansas until we could get all the vehicle stuff transferred from Oklahoma (where the car came from) to Florida (Zach’s residential state). So for a few weeks, we just did much of the same as the last time we were in the area. 
Revisited A to Z, same grocery stores, a bit boring.

Until I found this guy ~ in Fort Smith ~ not sure how we missed him the first time around, but I’m glad we came back!!

Now this is me sitting with “the little nut”, Check out the Big Nut here!

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Zach took the stationary time and made us a curtain for our most intrusive window. Intrusive by lights anyway, headlights, morning light, there was always something blinding us ! So he made adjustable curtains. We can have them all the way, halfway down, or all the way up! Genius !

They are also reversible so we can change up the pattern! And now we have a prototype for the other windows! 

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Guess what, he wasn’t done there!  He designed a yarn storage area for the brow.  It’s his yarn, by the way He knits hats, scarves, dog sweaters, and lots more!  Click here <   > to see his work!

There was a very fine line between the wall of the brow and the bed, so when it is in the driving position, it has to come up to about the shelf level.  That’s about 8″ of space

But it fits perfectly!

Ready to Leave Arkansas?

Here is the bed in the driving position, under the bed is the drivers seat, so it goes up enough for Zach to drive and me to sit next to him

 

Bed in the parked position.

 

 

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This concludes our time in Arkansas! Overall, we love the state!  The weather got a bit hot, but we were there in the middle of their hottest time of year!  Zach and I just needed to move on to a new state, so we hopped over to Oklahoma! 

Till Next Time….

Missed a few parts of the story?? Catch up here!!

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 

 

Our Journey up until now hadn’t included any events.  So Zach signed up for an EUC Event called Amped Electric Games in Bentonville, Arkansas. 

We had about a month to get there, so here is what we did from Springfield, Missouri to Bentonville, Arkansas!

Our first stop was to see Zach’s parents in Arkansas.  We parked close by to them and a bunch of other things we could see while we were there. 

We visited this little town, Alma, hoping to find the World’s Largest Spinach Can, but unfortunately it had been painted over. I didn’t find an explanation as to why it was painted over, or that it even had been painted over.  So I’m glad we stopped by!

But we did find this gem of a park 🙂 

  

Popeye’s Garden

Check out all of our pics HERE

While we were in Popeye’s Garden, we noticed this across the street, so we needed to investigate.  

 

Turns out it is a memorial to Henry D Humphrey.  He was on Patrol as the Town Marshall overnight when he was shot and killed by Bonnie & Clyde.

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We spent a good amount of time in Alma while we were in the area.  Checking out the local stores and stuff.  We found a super awesome supply, craft, hardware, pretty much a little bit of everything store called A To Z.  And they are not lying, they have everything from A to Z !!

 

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Just outside of Alma, in Fort Smith, Arkansas, is this cute little guy.

 

The World’s Largest Christmas Pickle!  The water tower next to it was painted really pretty as well

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From here we headed to Bentonville!  It was a week away from Amped Electric Games and Zach was itching to get into the area to check out the trails.  So we headed over that way early.  I had plenty planned for us around the area, and I knew he would spend a few hours (daily) on his wheel. 

Until Next Time….

I thought it would be a great time to show you what the inside of the bus looks like.  This is how we travel full time, and live a very normal life. Just a little Picture Tour of the Bus!!

 

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This is the split view from front to back.  Under the bed is the driver’s area.  The bed raises and lowers with the front lift of a fifth wheel. SLOWLY (4ish minutes start to finish) So when we are stationary, it is down just about to the seats (they fold down, so pretty low)

I’m sure at this point in proofreading Zach will tell me just how far it is from the floor of the bus (and that won’t give an accurate description  because the floor we walk on isn’t the floor of the bus 😕 Confused yet? ~ I’ll get to that) BUT, the driver’s seat is in the original bus position, my seat was added in and does fancy stuff like swivels from the window to next to Zach) 

Edited to add before publishing ~ Zach said that between the bottom of the bed and the raised floor is 28″.  The raised floor has the grey carpet runner on it ! 

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I consider this my “Kitchen Side”  Full size gas range (yup, FULL SIZE!!).    The Iceco was our refrigerator/freezer until we got an early Christmas Gift of an upright freezer.  That part of the build is a little further down 🙂  And lots of countertop space.  I’ve since put a few coats of Polycrylic on the tops, and we plan to replace them with something like butcher block.  Another on the list project. 🙂

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 Our Bath and another kitchen area.  Plants are easy enough to pop out when we need to shower.  Some even stay in there since the shower head is on the ceiling.  The tub is partially sunken into the floor to give plenty of head room.  The cauldron is our sink, and while the faucet looks amazing, it’s not particularly functional for us.  The sprayer really loves to SPRAY :/  So that will be changed out at some point.   It’s on our list! 

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The back deck and shop area.  The deck area folds up against the bus during travel.   The back deck area is about to get a MAJOR renovation, but we have lots to do before that can begin!

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Let’s talk about this range!  It’s full size.  That’s not common for a Skoolie.  But I’m so glad Zach decided he needed this in his life.  Because now I do a good portion of the cooking and all of the baking, and it certainly makes my life easier!!   It’s a gas range, so that presents some challenges for me since it has been a LOT of years since I cooked with gas.   Trial and error.  And Zach doesn’t mind being the taste tester 🙂

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So here is the Upright Freezer we were gifted early.  It’s the perfect size for our needs and the space we had for it.  The bed is not hindered from going lower than before (the dresser we had there was wider than the freezer, so it prevented the bed from going down another 6″).  This makes a big difference when getting out of bed! 

The amount of food in the freezer is what we had in the IceCo when we split it between fridge and freezer.  And it was jammed in there.  So we gained a lot of freezer space with this gift, plus doubled our refrigerator.  We converted the freezer side of the IceCo into a refirgerator (it’s as easy as adjusting the temp)

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“Storage for days” – Kyle Baker

He’s not wrong 🙂  There is a ton of storage under the floor.  The space is 94″ wide, 156″ long and 12″ deep.  There are 3 doors that pull up from the floor to access the space.  I call each one a compartment even though they are one continuous unit.

This is my pantry compartment. One of three storage compartments under the floor.  The middle one is random stuff, bedding and mason jars and gigantic community meal sized pots.  The third is mostly our batteries.  And our toaster, Vitamix and Instant Pot. 

And we have room to spare!  Lots of spare room!  This area just went through a major cleaning a few weeks back, so it’s been organized by me, which means if we need something, I generally remember exactly where it is!

 

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Can’t travel full time without a bathroom.  This has changed a bit (there are about 5 plants in there now 🙂 )

So this entire build is Zach’s vision and work.  When Zach and I met, it was mostly finished.  I’ve helped with the buttoning up of things.   And decorating (the plants were my contribution to our lives).  We’ve made improvements together, revamped things that didn’t work (because you don’t know what will work and what won’t until you are on the road!!)  and have ideas to make things more functional! 

We are currently in remodel mode!  Some major renovations coming!! 

St Louis was a lot of fun, we saw so many cool things, but we had been in Missouri for a minute.  Our usual “in one place” time frame is about a week, give or take depending on the situation.    Plus, Zach had an EUC event coming up in Bentonville, Arkansas in the beginning of September, so we needed to move it along.

Our first little stop was at a cute, HUGE Rocking Chair, the World’s 2nd Largest to be exact.   Check out the Chair Here!  We even brought our littlest kitty, Heddy, for a quick photo in her backpack (I know, she seems terrified, that’s just her normal look 😆 )

Our next stop was Springfield, Missouri for a few days to rest and recover from travel days.  We found lots of large things there.  The World’s 2nd Largest Fork is there.  Funny we keep finding all of the SECOND largest things.  But, this fork was huge !  Randomly placed in front of an office building of sorts, and no real explanation.  Strange.  But cool.  Check out the Fork Here!

So then we found some other strange things going on in Springfield, Missouri.   First of all, Kraft has a factory there.  With a HUGE Noodle (apparently this is not unique for Kraft factories, which just makes me want to go find them all).

And while this noodle is kind of strange, in the big things world, it’s not the strangest thing about this place.  Apparently there are underground CHEESE CAVES.  Wait, what?   Ok, in reality, it’s a huge underground (about 100 feet) warehouse.  And when I say huge, I mean 3.2 million square feet. 😯  It’s a cheese warehouse (I read 1.4 billion pounds of cheese 😮 but who knows), but it’s also home to 50 different companies, including Kraft, Pepsi and Vital Farms.  I’d be freezing, since the average temp down there is 62°F.   BRRRR!

Maybe that’s not strange, just a great way to utilize an old limestone quarry.  This is the Springfield Underground website, but it’s pretty lacking.   History section is nice 🙂   I read you can’t get in to the cheese warehouses, but that you can get into the Underground.   I guess the strangest part of this whole place is the lack of information I could find on it.  All outlets had the same few bits of info!   Next time, Springfield Underground, Next time!!

Back to places we actually went to (I should have talked to some locals about the underground place, drats!)

After the Fork, we found Springfield SculptureWalk!  I’m such a huge fan of outside art.  Things made out of other things, or themed art.  Like a town with a bunch of bears, or butterflies, or bison, decorated how the artist envisioned it.

Just a few from the Walk 🙂  There’s more here!!

We decided one morning to go for a walk through the local Japanese Garden and then have an early lunch.  Mizumoto Japanese Stroll Garden didn’t disappoint!  It was quiet and serene.   So unlike us, but so needed by us!  

Our last stop in Springfield was an amazing cavern.  Fantastic Caverns to be exact.  While most of our excursions run on the frugal side, this one cost a bit more, but really was worth it.   We got to ride through the cavern in a jeep-drawn tram. It is the only ride through cavern in America. Our tour guide was this quirky little lady who seemed to just love driving through those tiny little spaces talking about the cavern.  There were a few places where we needed to duck, but even that was funny! 

And from here we were heading to Arkansas!  Did we make any pit stops along the way?  World’s Largest something on the side of the road? 

Until Next Time….

Missed Part of the Story?  Catch Up Here!

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

 

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 🛣

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.  I absolutely succeeded.  I packed ALL of my clothes in that drawer and donated the rest.   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.   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 rearend 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.

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.   We got a little comfortable, and planned on heading out on the road after 3 months of being parked.  

We found some amazing trails to hike and ride through, cute shops, and met some great people!   We learned a lot about ourselves during this stay, so in the end, worth the stop.

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.   We have about a month to get there.   So we plan on putting our adventure into high gear and hitting some trails.   Either on foot, or on our electric toys.

Stay tuned for more of the journey!  Including a Skoolie Event and an EUC (Electric Unicycle) Event!   Should be interesting to see what we find to explore in the future!