Since we have been working on and living in our schoolie bus for the past year, we have been asked a variety of questions by many people. These questions range from how we find camping (which I already answered in this blog post) to where we go to the bathroom and shower.

We have been absolutely loving our time in the bus and feel that we have really gotten into a groove with this lifestyle. Having the opportunity to see new places and meet new people every day is something we wouldn’t trade for anything.

If you’re interested in reading other posts I have written about the bus, including posts about living in a small space with your significant other and avoiding burnout while traveling, you can find them here.

Where Do We Shower and Go To The Bathroom While Living In A Schoolie?

Obviously, when we stay in a campground or are parked at a friend’s house, we have access to a full bathroom. However, we are often boondocking or parking in places that do not have bathroom or shower access. The following will address what we do without those amenities.

So, we have a shower in the bus, as you’ll have seen in my schoolie-intro post. However, it’s MUCH better reserved for warm weather. When we are in cooler weather (or just want a warm shower), we head over to Planet Fitness. For those of you who don’t know, Planet fitness offers a black card membership that allows you and a guest to go to any planet fitness in the country for $25 per month! Pretty awesome.

As for using the bathroom, it’s pretty simple. We go to a lot of gas stations, rest stops, and McDonalds to use the bathroom. We make sure that we go before settling down for the evening and first thing in the morning. When we are out camping in the woods, we also (responsibly) make use of mother nature. We DO have a small casette toilet in the bus in case we need it at night or can’t find a bathroom, but we haven’t had to actually use it so far!

What Happens If We Get Sick While Traveling?

I think a lot of people fear getting sick while on the road. And that we have experienced it, it’s not too bad. A few weeks ago we were staying in Santa Fe and I could feel myself coming down with a sinus infection. My body was having a hard time getting used to the cold climate and I tend to get some springtime sinus congestion anyway.

Well, when I came down with a fever one morning, I knew that it had to have progressed into a full fledged sinus infection! I spent the next 24 hours straight with a fever ranging from 99 to 101.5 degrees and spent most of that time in bed sleeping. Jacob was able to find ways to entertain himself, but I was definitely down for the count. I used sinus medication and a neti pot religiously for a few days and was able to get over it.

Luckily, this sickness was pretty mild and just called for some rest and easy treatment. We do have health insurance if anything more serious came up. Luckily, we are both pretty healthy and tend to take action the moment we start to feel off.

What Is Your Fuel Economy In The Schoolie? Isn’t Gas Really Expensive?

Being a diesel engine, our bus gets better gas mileage than most of our gas-engine counterparts. We average about 12 mpg. Diesel is definitely very expensive, ranging from $3.75-$5 per gallon depending on the location. It definitely hurts a bit!

How Far Do You Travel Daily?

We prefer to travel about a maximum of about 150 miles per day on our travel days, but have driven one looong 250 mile day before. 150 miles takes us about 3 to 3.5 hours on average and allows us to have a full day outside of the driving period. By doing this, we have been able to see so much!

Where Are Your Favorite Places You’ve Seen So Far?

We have a list of places we have really liked and could potentially see ourselves living.

• Greater Portland Area, Maine. Beautiful nature, amazing people, very nice farmers, ocean. Portland is a great city.
• Pheonixville, PA. VERY cute downtown, access to farms, close to Philly and other cities.
• Asheville, NC. Mountains, amazing hikes, cute downtown, great vibes.
• Savannah, GA. Old world feel, so many parks, live oaks!!!, great food.
• Austin, TX. Good vibes, great parks, AMAZING farmers markets.
• Taos, NM. Beautiful, access to mountains and rivers, adobo everything, earthships, good food.

National Parks we have visited so far:

• Acadia (A MUST SEE)
• Everglades
• Big Bend (A MUST SEE)
• Carslbad Caverns
• White Sands
• Chaco Canyon (A MUST SEE)
• Mesa Verde

How Do We Make Money While On The Road?

Long story short, we aren’t! Jacob left his job in March of 2022 to complete the bus conversion and I was working remotely for a company until the project I was hired for began a year long hiatus in March 2023. I had been working with my company for 4 years and given my decreased hours (maximum 20/week) while traveling, it made sense to take a full break once the hiatus began.

Luckily, we had saved quite a nest egg before starting our road trip and should have enough money to last us until the fall when Jacob has a job opportunity in the metro-Detroit area.

Why Are We Traveling? How Long Are We Living In Our Schoolie?

Jacob and I moved back from Michigan from Seattle during the peak of the COVID shutdowns in August of 2020. In order to get back to Michigan, we took a month-long camping trip all around the Pacific Coast and Montana in our Jeep. We absolutely loved the experience and after moving back to Michigan and facing the COVID era high rent and home prices, we decided we wanted to travel more before settling in one place.

From there, we took our time finding a bus and beginning the process of outfitting it into a camper. Two years after moving back to Michigan we were married and setting out on our trip.

We have been living out of the bus since September 2022, which puts us at nearly 8 months! Granted, we spent almost 4 of those months at Steph’s house in Maine visiting and rebuilding the engine. We are planning to be traveling full time through August or September of this year, a whole year on the road!

Thanks for reading!

Hailey