By You know how when people see a celebrity all rational sensibilities go out the window? They try to forcibly meet this person. It can get weird. People act the same when they see a school bus conversion in the parking lot, while driving, in the middle of nowhere, pretty much anywhere. We thought it’d be fun to share a few of our thoughts on that.
It’s cool sometimes to see people looking at your bus, it makes you proud that you’ve done something so mesmerising to so many. But it does have its downsides too.
What some people don’t think about is that while yes it is a bus, and yes it is fun and somewhat unique, it is also a home.
Privacy is hard in bus with so many windows. Curtains help, but even that sometimes doesn’t discourage the peepers. You would think this wouldn’t need to be said but, if the shades or curtains are up, they most likely don’t want company.
A tip we can give is to see if you can find a social account for the bus owner. Many of the bus and van conversion builders are putting their social media account handles on the outside of their rigs. We did. Use them to send a message to the owners. If you can’t find them online, and they do not have social media tags on their rig, it will take a little more to get in contact or maybe just leave them be.
This happened to us a few days ago. A short blue bus pulled in late at a Walmart we were staying at for the night. The next day they had left us a message on a YouTube video of ours.
Just like that, send a message like “Hey, just saw your bus. Looks so cool. If you have a minute I would really like to meet up and talk, if you need some local recommendations or anything maybe I can help.” Something like that. Be upfront if you would like to see inside or come in, but please do not be offended if the owner declines.
Another thing people forget is that life still goes on, even for us. We still have some of the same stresses as everyone else. Our house is our house, and we drive it around. It’s not always Instaperfect, and neither are we. Sometimes we have bed head at 3 in the afternoon or are elbow deep in a repair. We all have days where adulting is too much and peopleing is way too hard.
These are just our thoughts and we do not speak for anyone else. I know some may be upset by this, I want you to know this isn’t said to be mean or to discourage you from trying to meet up with your favorite skoolie builder, we just want it to be the best experience possible for everyone.
If you’d like to follow our journey we regularly (okay, obsessively) post on Instagram @SlothHighFive.
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