Los Padres National Forest Coordinates: 34.5149761, -119.8013448 As we headed south on Highway 1, we were finding less and less places to appropriately camp or park overnight. Fortunately, we found Los Padres National Forest. From Santa Barbara, we took California 154 into the mountains, which was a smooth, and easy uphill. We then took a right on East Camino Cielo. This is a curvy road but our 2-wheel drive short…
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18 Posts
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Electricity
Read moreElectricity is a long process from start to finish. This is an element of the skoolie build that needs to happen incrementally over time. We still hadn’t even put our battery bank together when we left Vermont in April. Once finally found some time to finish the process at a friend’s house in Greenville, South Carolina, we were ecstatic. We had been living in the bus with no electricity and…
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The Best Wild Camping Near Yellowstone
Read moreCaribou-Targhee National Forest Coordinates: 44.665063, -111.312903 We departed Yellowstone National Park through the Western entrance in search of phone service and camping. Immediately leaving the National Park is the town of West Yellowstone. It’s a good place to restock on things your’e low on, but mostly an overpriced tourist trap. Many of the campgrounds and KOA’s in the West Yellowstone area charge upwards of $100 a night for a cramped…
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Wilson State Park, KS
Read moreThis one is going to be short and sweet but we felt like we found a gem in Kansas and we wanted to share! If you’ve ever had to drive through Kansas, then you probably drove on I70 and you know what it’s like. Long stretches of straight, flat highway. Big, open land with barely any trees in sight. It’s a nightmare for those who want reprieve from the sun,…
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Allenspark, CO
Read moreCoordinates: 40°09’57.0″N 105°27’28.7″W As we left the stifling heat of Denver, we set our sights on finding a free camping spot closer to Rocky Mountain National Park. We have a self-sufficient rig, so we often look for wild camping that does not offer amenities (restrooms, water, electricity, etc). If you’re planning to visit the Rocky Mountain National Park this summer and can handle a night or two without amenities, we…
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How To Build a Skoolie Kitchen
Read moreWhen it came to the skoolie kitchen, we were hoping to get things moving faster. Due to a local cabinet sale and the fact that our kitchen is an even 6 feet, we decided to buy the cabinetry for this part of the build and retrofit it to the bus. We have not seen this method done in other skoolie kitchens (yet) but we’re very happy with the end product.…
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Our Disastrous Maiden Voyage
Read moreAfter completing the interior build of the bus, we were eager to head south as soon as possible for warmer weather. A warmer climate would allow us to finish our electrical setup in temperatures that are more battery-friendly. And we liked that we could sleep and live in the bus while we do it! So we left for our maiden voyage on Thursday, March 11, 2021. Little did we know,…
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Happy Holidays 2020
Read moreWelcome to 2021! Where We’re At Okay, yes. We gave into the trend and got matching onesie pajamas. I might have regretted it but then we played in the snow and took pictures and it was all immediately worth it. We tried to involve Brandy with a matching sweater but she’s unruly and has never been great at photoshoots. We have taken the last few weeks off from working on…
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How To Decide Between a Skoolie vs. Sprinter Van
Read moreIn this modern wave of vanlifers, it seems like a good idea to explain why we decided to buy a short school bus over a van. Price and space were the two main factors that swayed our decision and they both pointed us toward the school bus. Price Firstly and probably most importantly, vans are generally more expensive than school buses. When we were in the market, it was hard…
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The Best School Bus To Buy
Read moreWhen we entered the market to buy a school bus, we did a lot of research to figure out exactly what we were looking for. There were a lot of lifestyle and personal opinions to consider as well as objective facts that helped sway our decision to end up with a 2010 Chevy Duramax diesel short school bus. Here are some of the most important things to consider when buying…