Who are you and what is your backstory?

For me the journey into this lifestyle goes back about 15 years, the Marine Corps. In 2006 I joined the Marines at 20 years old. I had done a few semesters in community college, mostly visual art classes just to appease my military mother. “Start by going to college first and see how you like it. Don’t join the military,” my Mother would say. But I just couldn’t stand the monotony of school any longer. After a couple of semesters I walked into a recruiters office and enlisted on the spot. A few months later I was standing on yellow foot prints, and there was no turning back.

As a Marine I had the duty and privilege of telling the Marine Corps story as a Combat Cameraman. I got to travel around the world acquiring photo and video imagery in support of air, sea, and ground military operations. It was a pretty killer job if you ask me. I worked with some pretty incredible people, including foreign dignitaries, presidents, and war heroes.

In October, 2010 I was in a terrible car accident. Early one Sunday morning I was driving to barracks duty, north on I-95. I was stationed at Marine Corps Base Quantico and hadn’t even took a sip of my coffee when all of a sudden my car was making contact with an 18Wheeler. After a spin or two on the highway and rolling 400 feet across oncoming traffic; my car was stopped by a guard rail. Thankfully an oncoming car pulled over, helped me escape and called 911. I was rushed to the hospital and in and out of a bunch of machinery ,“it must be the Marine Forces around you, there’s nothing wrong.” The ER doctors concluded. Little did they know, I had several fractures, torn muscles, and ligaments. Sending me off to military doctors would be the end of my career.

 

We have been completely embraced by the amazing nomadic lifestyle and would recommend it for everyone. Like sticking with bus life, we are committed to bringing art supplies to veterans across America, advocate for Veteran Artists, and save lives through art supplies.

 

After many months of physical therapy, a couple of surgeries, and a stint in a mental institution; I was medically separated from the Marine Corps in 2016. Now what? I had made a plan to move to North Carolina with my family so I applied to art school. Little did I know that my life was continuing to fall apart and being pieced back together again all at the same time.

Like many veterans, transitioning out of military service is a pretty bumpy ride. For me this included an addiction to pain medication, opioids and lithium. Lithium is rarely prescribed for bi-polar disorder but in the military it’s their go to drug of choice. The thing about bi-polar disorder is it has the same symptoms sometimes as a traumatic brain injury. When I was prescribed lithium I gained the manic and depression symptoms related to bi-polar disorder. Lithium is a pretty toxic drug and highly addictive. I literally went crazy. Don’t get me wrong, going through art school and these types of situations has its benefits. My art making and story telling were on point but my life around me was crumbling. My long-term relationship abruptly ended, my daughter went to live with her dad and I was having conversations with people who weren’t even there. I had to change something.

Although many veterans have amazing relationships with their local Veterans Affairs, the VA, I did not have this relationship. I went to the VA and told them I was going crazy, my life was falling part and my children and I were suffering. The Psychologist prescribed more medication. What the fuck?! Long story short I wasn’t having that answer, so I took matters into my own hands.

{ before I go forward with this story, I have to note, don’t do what I did and talk to medical professionals beforehand. }

One by one I started detoxing. When a prescription was due, I just didn’t go back to the VA to fill it. Like I said above, I wouldn’t recommend this option for anyone, but it was literally this or death. The reason I am telling you this story before how I got to bus life is because 1. My whole mission in bus life is to advocate for veterans and what ever means possible, save their lives. And 2. I think it is important for veterans to feel safe enough to tell their truth and grow from their survival no matter how horrific that story might be. Cut to … saving lives through art supplies.

 

Take us to the moment you decided to begin your Bus life?

In May 2018 I purchased a school bus from Tom’s River East High School out of New Jersey. It was used to haul around their Marching band equipment. Although it wasn’t exactly the type of bus I was looking for, like all people getting into this lifestyle, I was excited to get started and purchased it on the spot. At the time I was taking classes in art school that included learning about community based art methods. That got me thinking. How can I used my bus and soon to be family home as a community based art studio for veterans?

Being a Marine comes with some pretty amazing life lessons; including ones that are perfect for nomad life. Sleeping in different places every day, minimalist packing, and eating canned goods on the regular is helpful to get used to before you make the plunge.  It also helped build my confidence in myself, to trust my gut and make the leap into bus life. Obviously I had destinations and fears about taking not this task by myself. Am I capable? What happens when things don’t workout? Will the community accept me? My conclusion was to trust in myself, when it got hard take a break but don’t quit. 

 

Tell us about the advantages to the Bus lifestyle?

Over the summer of 2018 I became great friends with an angle grinder and a lot of other tools I had never used before. Youtube and Instagram became great tools to connect with other nomads in the building process and I was able to network when I didn’t know how or what to do next. With every project I got more comfortable in my abilities and one by one checked things off the projects list. There were so many projects.

Like many other nomads know, downsizing your old life to fit inside of your new life can be a real challenge. For me the hardest part of down sizing was art supplies and antiques. Each day my kids and I would go through what to keep and what to get rid of. I had boxes lined down the hall of our apartment labeled with different locations; Garbage, goodwill, bus, yard sale.

Because of the way I have raised my children and the military life we all were accustom to getting rid of excess stuff. Packing up our life wasn’t new. I gave each kid 3 small storage boxes. They each got to decide what came to the bus. If it didn’t fit in the box, it wouldn’t fit under their bed, so it had to go. For my son he picked cars, legos and board games to go in his boxes. My daughter chose makeup, nail polish and hair care. As you can see they are completely different personalities. Although I wouldn’t have chose the same things to keep as them, it’s important to include your kids in the decision making process of downsizing. For us it seemed to go way more smooth then if I just got rid of all of their stuff and they had no choices.

 

The great thing about bus life is whatever your financial means are you make make bus life work. You might not be able to have all the crazy gadgets and 5million watts of solar, but if the lifestyle is really what you are searching for, there’s some compromises to be made.

 

Now after a year of living in the bus my kids come to me with stuff and say, “the next time we go to goodwill, can we donate this?” We continue to do this on the bus , the one in one out rule. My son has a special relationship with stuffed animals. He loves them. Whenever we are somewhere new and they have a gift shop he always picked a new stuffed animal. The rule is, if he gets a stuffed animal he has to give me something to donate. Because I started this when they were young it isn’t a big deal. I don’t even have to say anything, when we get back to the bus the first thing he does is go and get the object he has been thinking about donating. I don’t want you to get the wrong idea. Getting to this point was hard work. I had to stand my ground on many occasions and stick to the rule. Even for myself. But once we all got the hang of it, it got easier.

 

Tell us about the biggest challenges and downsides to the Bus lifestyle?

One of the biggest issues I hear people say why they couldn’t do this lifestyle is because of the things they will miss out on. It’s true, taking 5 hour longs baths if I wanted to isn’t really an option anymore. Although I put a bathtub on our bus, we don’t have infinite water supply. We just replaced it with shorter baths in the bus and more time in hot springs, oceans, rivers and creeks.. Out here on the road there’s always alternatives to what you think you’ll miss, and quit frankly the things I thought I would miss a year ago when we moved into the bus aren’t even on our mind now.

There are still days on the road we stop off at goodwill to donate a few more things, clean out a few more drawers, and rearrange the empty spaces. When you put more value on relationships and the human connection there is less room for clutter and things. We would rather spend our time and money on adventures, great food, and meeting up with friends than on the latests and greatest gadget. Don’t get me wrong, we too love that stuff but 9/10 times if I ask my kids if they want this object or to go to this place they tend to pick the place.

 

How do you find a sense of community when you’re always moving? How do you maintain and build relationships on the road?

Like my love life, this paragraph will be short but I think it’s important for people, especially women to hear me out on this subject. I know I don’t always have the common opinion on some of these issues but one thing I have learned from being a product of a single Mom family and becoming a single mom family is putting myself above the needs of another person. For me it is much more powerful to overcome some of the difficulties of life on my own. I am fiercely independent and a product of some pretty independent women. I’m not saying relationships aren’t worth it, I’m just saying if you invest in other people more then you invest in yourself, how can you give what you don’t have to another person?

How to you combat loneliness is a major question I get asked often. Because I’m a product of a single military women and for majority of my life I have been a single military woman, I find it more fitting in my self discovery and mental health recovery to be single. For me I spent so much time away from my children while in the service that I thought it was important to make them a priority during bus life. So, single life it is. Don’t get me wrong, it can get lonely out here but it was time for me to invest in my family.

I'm using this time to grow as a human being, a women and a mother. You can learn a lot about yourself, especially as a solo women in this lifestyle. WOMEN! You can do this all by yourself. If you think you can’t, there is your motivation to get out there and prove your own damn self wrong. You can do it. 

 

How do you support yourself financially?

As you can probably tell, I am not the normal bus life dweller. That also comes into play with finances. Because I was medically separated I receive military compensation and live full-time off of that income. This is an incredible lifestyle for veterans.

While I was building the bus I was also slowly getting rid of things that caused me to be in debt. This included my car, credit cards, lawyer bills and whatever else was holding me down. Of all things that are preventing Nomadic life, I think this is one of the biggest issues that people come across. I tend to be all or nothing when I comes to goals and lifestyle choices. It costs a lot upfront to build a bus, I don’t think people really talk about that aspect.

For us it was the little things that were holding us down. Did I really need a subscription to all movie watching apps every month or could I settle for just one? Did I really need the workout app that I would never use? Do you really need that $5 coffee 3 times a day .. every day? It was those small things that I really didn’t even realize I was spending so much money on. Once I got rid of the ones I really wasn’t going to use all that often in bus life, I had more money to complete more projects on the bus.

 

What is your one piece of advice for people who want to do what you do?

Theres a couple of levels to bus life. First finding a bus. Theres a ton of resources out there that you can look into for this purpose. For me I found it more important to pay more for a bus knowing that it was in great shape and was well maintained in it previous life.. that’s why I preferred to purchase straight from a school.  

The next level is actually building your bus. Like I said before, I am not the normal bus life dweller. At the time I was building the bus I was was a full time art school student. After you honorably serve your country, one of the benefits is college. While veterans are going through school they get a stipend to help out with finances. This allows the veteran to focus more on school and less of having a full time job and having to balance both. It’s not a ton but it was helpful in my case. Because I was injured in the military I receive disability, this allowed me to take care of my family, go to school and fund the bus build. The great thing about bus life is whatever your financial means are you make make bus life work. You might not be able to have all the crazy gadgets and 5million watts of solar, but if the lifestyle is really what you are searching for, there’s some compromises to be made.

 

What have been the most influential and helpful books, podcasts, blogs, websites or other resources?

One part of bus life I find helpful is the community. Without other like minded individuals this lifestyle can get pretty secluded and hard to navigate. This includes YouTube, Instagram, iOverlander, and roadtrippers. Youtube is a great resource while you are building your rig. If you have no clue what you are doing, like me, YouTube university is where all the information is at.

When I had a question or a problem while building I went to youtube. If I saw a rig that had what I was looking for I watched the videos and used their tips in my own rig. Sometimes the videos don’t show all of the information. This is where Instagram came in handy. I would look up that bus on Instagram and shoot them my message. Majority of the time, the owners would get back to me and give me more detail in solving the problem. Although I used YouTube more while I was building the bus, it gave me key relationships and networking for when I got on the road.

I have met a ton of nomads out on the road that started out as instagram friends - that became real life friends. Another app that I really like to use is IOverlander. This is an app that you can look up previously used over night parking spots, water fill up stations, gas and propane locations. It is helpful when planning out your route to have safe and legal places to park over night. That leads me to Roadtrippers. I used this Roadtrippers to plan out the first 6 months of buslife. This app lets you plan out your route, see other places your might want to visit on your route and budget out gas.  I used all of these apps everyday of bus life.

 

What does the future look like?

Now that we have been on the road for over a year, we don’t really see a stopping point for traveling full time. We have been completely embraced by the amazing nomadic lifestyle and would recommend it for everyone. Like sticking with bus life, we are committed to bringing art supplies to veterans across America, advocate for Veteran Artists, and save lives through art supplies. I know we haven’t talked much in this article about the main mission of The Painted Buffalo but it is a vital part of the success of our bus life and my mental heath recovery. I wouldn’t have been able to do any of this work without the bus life and veteran community, and recovery through my mental health journey.

 

Is there anything that you need that you can’t find or anything you are seeking help with? 

We would love to hear recommendations on how to find places to park! We aren’t super worried about not finding spots but we would love to be prepared for those days when we get in a pickle!

 

Rapid fire questions

 

What are the top 3 Bus essentials that you couldn’t live without?

• Camera
• Stove
• Coffee 

 

Top 3 favorite places you’ve visited?

• Yellowstone
• Oregon Coast
• Moab

 

Where are you now?

Yellowstone

  

How long do you stay in one place?

A few days - a few weeks

 

When did you first start the Bus life?

Aug 2, 2019

 

Are you full-time or part-time Bus-lifing?

Full-time

 

How many weeks have you spent in the Bus in the last 12 months (estimate)?

15 months

  

What kind of bus do you have? 

1997 Blue Bird, Cummins 5.9

 

Where can we go to keep up with you and your adventures?

• Instagram: @paintedbuffalotravelingstudio
• www.paintedbuffalostudio.com

• Facebook: @Painted Buffalo Traveling Studio