On the Road in our School Bus, Tiny House Adventure

I braid one thin braid after the other and secure the ends in a rainbow of hair bands carefully selected and organized. The motions seem like right of passage and it is officially summer break.

We are on the tail end of a whirlwind road trip, moving down the highway at moderate speed.  We took the converted school bus we are currently living all the way to Niagra-on-the-Lake and back.We are rolling along, somewhere between the east and west boundaries of South Dakota.

We cooked dinner while the day darkened and the stars emerged in the sky.

We drove and drove and drove as we put the jagged peaks of the rocky mountains behind us and the landscape became flat then then the plains grew to hills and mountains and water.  The lush green of a deciduous forest, ferns and flowers all around us. 

Somewhere along the way our bus gained a name - meet Alice.

The dense vegetation broken by ponds dotting the landscape, the intermittent water become vast and we skirt the edge of first one Great Lake and then another.  

We drive more and sleep less than should be possible.

As we get close to our destination we pass through, in the middle of the night, a city with the population of 2.7 Montanas and thousands of cars flow around us on the highway.  The traffic, and lights, and tall building fade behind us and we pull into our destination and sleep. 

When we wake, we are surrounded by family we haven’t seen in years, the maximum density of vineyards and wineries possible, the overarching branches of large trees, and a vast view of water.

Activity filled days (and nights)fly by. There are things to see, and taste, moments to savor, and stories to share.

Much too soon we start our journey home.

We have a little more driving time, but had hoped for even more.  

To circumvent Chicago, we drive our bus into the belly of the last operating coal fired steamship, the S.S. Badger and take a ferry, labeled as a US Highway, across Lake Michigan.

We play bingo, and both the children win. They watch a movie. We stand on deck, in the warmth of the smoke stack and can see no land. We sneak into the dark room and curl up in reclining chairs to sleep a few minutes in the flicker of a screen, before we keep driving west.

  

Adam tries to sleep as I drive us down small state highways, through quaint, quiet towns, past farms, and finally across the Mississippi River.

We smooth out the wrinkled, worn pages of the road atlas.  It has lost its cover and was shiny and new just 10 days ago. We trace the final few days of our journey. Ivory, has a pass available to all fourth graders, for free entry to all the National Parks.  Our first destination is the Badlands, then Wind Cave, Yellowstone and finally back home. 

"Dangerous Cliff - Keep Left"

We stand in vast landscapes that defy reason - above ground. 

Betty, our on board Jack Metcalf original, thinks the Badlands are Bad Ass!

We find ourselves in an equally mystifying landscape - under ground. 

We drive over one, and then two mountain passes.  

Here we catch catch glimpses of the space between. 

We can see from the space above to the space below. 

At 1:30 in the morning Adam pulls the bus to the curb of our house (lot?). Exhausted, and in need of showers, the bus is put in park and we drag ourselves to the back and crawl under the covers.

We slam into the routine of real life.

Adam heads to work before 8.

I stop by the gym for a quick shower and head to a day of solid meetings.

Ivory’s braids stay.