Oh the Adventures!

My, oh My! We are home safe and soundly from our first big adventure. All good stories start at the beginning and that my friends is where I shall start.

Our first big festival was Mountain Stomp, a great little family festival with amazing music, beautiful people and peaceful surroundings. Up about an hour out of Corvallis is a little town called Tidewater. And in that town lies 'Prindel Creek Farms', an oasis to young and old hippies alike. We set up out booth with our friends the Hudoskos, in front of their bus 'Big Papa'. It was a great experience. We made some great friends and made enough skrilla to support our family. What more could a girl ask for? Nothing. Sadly as we were leaving or rather attempting to leave, the bus wasn't ready to leave yet. So there we sat for 3 days trying and trying and trying to get the old girl to take us down to Oregon Country Fair. During these 3 days I sprained my ankle, learned about waterfalls, and finally understood 'ask and you shall receive'. So there the bus sat in the loveliest field not moving anywhere, so we hopped onto Big Papa and off to fair we went.

We camped at QUIET CAMP! And I have to write it like that because one cannot just say QUIET CAMP! one must scream QUIET CAMP!. So we camped at QUIET CAMP! with about 50 of our nearest and dearest friends and family. It was amazing. Parker played with NIAYH on Saturday night and he was great. The land owners were awesome, and they were so impressed with the amount of people we brought out to their camp. They want our group to through a little festival there possibly next year. After fair we went back to the bus and after 2 days we decided the best thing was to call the tow truck. BUT! The bus is now fixed and ready to go out to the next adventure.

Next festival we are going out to is called Faerieworlds Festival. I totally lucked out and got a great booth spot. I have a really good feeling about this one... I can't wait to tell you all about it.

Love you all. Remember, ask and you shall receive. Because even when your cup feels empty, there is someone waiting to fill it.

Almost outta here!

First off... I kinda suck at keeping up with this whole blog thing. But I am promise to get better at it. This is our last weekend at home for a while. Saturday is my birthday, woohoo! and then next weekend Mountain Stomp. We have been working hard at getting product ready and preparing the bus and it's veggie oil system. I have been pumping out sweater, hats and pouches. Parker has been adding most important items to the bus. And Phoenix is doing his best to distract us with his adorable-ness.
We have been staying still in Tigard which has worked out very nicely. Plus we have had another bus family staying with us. Molly, Rosko, Dukkie, River and Marley have been staying with us for about 3 weeks now. It's been great. They have rockhounds and jewelry makers, and we all plan to go to the same festies. It's an awesome sense of community and family with them. I can't wait to see where we will all go together.
From Mountain Stomp we are heading to Oregon Country Fair! I am so excited! GET ON THE BUS!

Ps... If you want to check out my etsy. The site is www.etsy.com/store/missgypsybuttons

Famous?

So turns out this little blog of mine has made the news. What a crazy world. We have been written up in the Oregonian as blog of the week. (http://www.oregonlive.com/beaverton/index.ssf/2010/04/beaverton_bloggers_plan_to_hit_the_road_in_renovated_school_bus.html ) Which is very cool. I hope there are some new folks following out adventures. If you reading this, HI! My name is Alyssa and I so happy to meet you, I know we will be great friends. So we are parked in Tigard right now, we are living in the RV parking of these super nice guys. Last night Parker walked past the house and they invited him in to play alittle music, and 3 hours later they all decide they are playing a show next month. Music is truly the great equalizer.
Yesterday we went to a great Earth Day celebration put on by City Repair. It was fantastic. March Forth Marching Band, Saratone and the Earth Gospel Choir, Nuestro, Medicine for the People, and so many other cool things. At one point Parker looked at me with this huge smile and said "this is it, this is the kick off of festival season". Wow, I am so excited for the summer. I can't even explain it. I just heard about a new festie called 'Soak', it's a regional Portland Burner event. I can't wait.
I had an idea a few days ago that I am really hoping works out. I am going to write a letter to a couple solar panel companies and tell them that if they give us a solar panel set up, we will give them free advertising on the bus. I think it's a good deal, we will be traveling all year long to festies, events, just through the country in a giant schoolbus. If you saw a 'SOLAR WORLD' sticker on the side of that said bus, you would probably ask questions. Imagine: Solar powered, Veggie driven, hydrogen boosted HOME!... we are literally taking over the world.

OH... one more thing...

Our friend Travis has a blog all about green and substainable living. He made alittle video about the construction of the bus. It's really a good video, you can see the bus at the halfway mark. There is also a video of our friend Val talking about his van living philosophy. Check them out.

http://diydamnit.blogspot.com/

Our video is a couple down, and Val's is at the bottom.

We are moved in!

After much hard work, late nights, and our amazing friends helping us we are completely out of the apartment and in the bus. Currently parked in Tigard, but after June the world is our new home. I was worried I would feel scared, nervous, and regretful. All I feel is understanding, love, and peace. Finally a sense of peace. All of the work and worry, now restful peace.

Here is the list of things that have been completed.
1. The kitchen, sink is in and both cabinets are complete.
2. Bedroom wall is complete.
3. Walls painted.
4. Floors done.

Here are things we still need to work on.
1. Veggie Oil filter system
2. Roof rack
3. Wood stove welding
4. Organizing

Pictures are soon to come!

Meet Johnathan

In November of 2009, Parker and I bought a 1987 Ford Bluebird Schoolbus. For the last couple months we have been ripping him apart and putting it back together to make a rolling home. In exactly one month we will be living in it full time. It's alittle crazy, it's very exciting and most of all it's what we feel like we need to do. Not just for ourselves but for our son. Most people would consider living on a bus alittle foolish, but we believe that it is going to be the best way to raise our little man the best way. More on that later for now, here is a few details on the bus.
The bus hails from New York City. It has was a wheelchair bus, so it has a HUGE freaking door on the side. Boom. It runs on veggie oil, which is obviously a big bonus. The girl that we bought it from had been living in it for 2 years, and I am pretty sure she didn't really know what she had. We got it for a steal of a deal. As of right now we have ripped out the old floor and put in the new. We have also cleaned and painted the inside. Next step in putting in the wall for the bedroom and then the kitchen and then the woodstove. Which is like 200 freaking pounds. We have gotten tons of help from our amazing friends and we feel really blessed.
Our plan is to start traveling in the beginning of July and see where the wind takes us. My hopes that this blog will inspire others to follow their hearts and do what feels most natural. For us, that means to explore. We love you and hope that you too will GET ON THE BUS!