A Couple of Really Big Things

I know, I know. It has been way too long since we updated our blog. And it that time, a lot has happened.

Really: A lot.

We are in Florida again.

Every winter of our van life, we’ve ended up here…. but each year’s been a whole different scene. Our first winter here, we tried to stealth around the state…. with middling success.

In our second winter, we rented a room near family and visited often.

And our third winter was spent living with my brother and hanging out daily with my mom. I also joined the local Gem and Mineral club.

This winter was different.

A Season of Sad

We arrived in Florida mid-December. My mom had just received a terrible cancer diagnosis, and we planned to spend what we thought would be a “six months to a year” enjoying her company, completing her family history project, and helping to care for her.

But by the time we arrived, she was already pretty ill. I was able to be present for her last few weeks, along with my brother and sister.

It was a sacred and terrible time. One I haven’t finished sorting through in my head. My thoughts are a jumble of appreciation, love and regret.

And then the whole extended family came down. We somehow managed to put together a meaningful memorial and a small funeral. We spent a few weeks together, feeling both our loss and our love.

We walked a lot, reminisced, karaoked, ate lots of amazing food. We also cleaned out my Mom’s apartment, which was painful and fraught.

I am an “orphan” now. Funny how that resonates… even when you are closing in on 60 years old. At this age, I’ve had too much experience with grief. And I can tell you, each death is a punch in the gut. And each holds an ocean of love and appreciation, along with the sorrow.

We are slowly moving on… at least emotionally. Physically, we are still in Florida. At first, we were busy with stuff: sorting through my mom’s apartment and large storage unit, trying to help manage all the (capital letters) Things That Must Be Done.

But we were also readying for another transition.

Feeling Cuspy (Again!)

Back in 2022 our world shifted. Our three kids were all off at college. Our house was in the process of changing hands.

We could feel our lives shifting and re-forming when our beloved van, Stevan, showed up on our doorstep. It was an exciting and antsy time.

We were on the cusp of a whole new thing. And we took to took to calling the feeling we had– gearing up to leap into an unknown future–“cuspy”. (If you’d like to check out some music to go with that cuspy feeling, we have a playlist.)

This year, “cuspy” was in the air. Ever since we saw the beautiful bus builds at last year’s Vanfest Liftoff, we had the glimmer of an idea: Why not build out a bus of our own…. a smallish one?

The idea grew. On the way to Florida this year, we pulled a Uey and stopped along the road to look at some derelict shuttle buses. Maybe….. we thought. Why not?

And all of a sudden, that glimmer became a loose plan. In short: Bus life is our next crazy brave step! Emphasis on the crazy, maybe.

But why not? We love the nomadic life and have zero desire to settle down permanently. Seeing as there’s no end in sight, why not expand a little?

In the last few months, this idea really took root. We became obsessed with the many bus builds on Facebook. We checked out a beautiful homemade Skoolie, but it felt too big. That giant diesel engine was intimidating!

And we visited local shuttle bus dealers to check out unconverted buses, too.

We came close to pulling the trigger on a beautiful, fully built out shuttle bus, but it was missing a “copilot seat” and we couldn’t find a safe way to add one.

Turns out small buses with copilot seats are the “unicorn” of the bus world. But we can be persistent every once in a while.

It took a lot of obsessive scouting to find our bus.

She’s a bit quirky: a former church bus that had been repurposed as a party bus. The front grill is emblazoned with the words “Wedding Crasher” and on the inside: 15 seats …. and a stripper pole!

She is older than Stevan, a 2009, 23 feet long and 8 1/2 feet tall with the same Ford 5.4L engine. We have big plans for our cute little bus, and a little trepidation.

But mostly high hopes.

A Big Job in a Small Amount of Time

So now, we have ourselves a big old blank slate and five weeks to build ourselves a new home on wheels. It is daunting and exhausting and already more expensive than we planned.

But it’s also super exciting. And kind of fun.

I am looking forward to a having a couch. And Dan is loving the idea of a tiny hot water heater for washing dishes.

Other than that, we aren’t adding many luxuries: no real toilet or shower. We will have a small gray water tank under the sink because: washing dishes inside (crazy, right?). And we’ll have a larger water tank and a slightly larger 12v fridge so that we can stay longer in one place.

Hopefully, our bus will allow us to keep doing what we love: venturing off the pavement to explore out of the way and wild places.

….with just a little more indoor space.

That’s the idea, anyway.

Right now, though, we are living at Lowe’s and attempting to complete our build before we leave Florida in mid March.

Or at least make it livable and continue building on the road.

If you want to see what we are up to, we’re posting a “Bus Build Diary” on Instagram and YouTube. Just like everything else, crazy/brave, their nothing fancy or polished, just quick little updates more or less daily.

A Lot of Change

So yeah, it’s been nonstop change here in Florida. Some of it awful, some exciting. And we’re sorry to take so long to update our blog.

Stevan, is has a brand new rebuilt transmission (we didn’t want to take any chances) and is going to a new home soon. We are already missing our big, gorgeous, travel buddy of a van. But we know his new driver will have many awesome adventures and that eases our sorrow. They are a perfect match.

And we will keep on keeping on the best we can, living the rambling life and– hopefully– doing a better job of documenting it more regularly here at Crazy Brave Adventure.