Latest / Her Journey Her Way / Can a U Haul Be Your Living Room at a Skoolie Event? Amy knows.
Transcript
- Rita: Amy showed up to her first schoolie swarm with no bus, no van, and no RV. What she did next is the smartest, cheapest test run I've ever seen. She's a solo mom who was nervous about everything, and she found a way to try this life out without betting the house on it. Somewhere along the way, she found her village, and a stranger did something for her son that made us both want to cry. If you think you need a rig before you can start, This one's for you. This is Her Journey, Her Way, a She Travels Simple podcast. I'm Rita. Camper, shuttle, bus, van, car, and now a forty foot bluebird. Every rig handed me a person I never would have met sitting at home. These are their stories, her journey, her way, and a few of mine too, with the tips and the head stuff that got us out there. My friends are cool. Wait till you meet this one. Hello, hello. Today I have Amy. And the reason I am so excited for you to hear from Amy is because out of all of the people I've met, this woman has given the most attempts at discovering what she wants to do when it comes to traveling. So Amy, why don't you say hello? Hello. And if you want, tell us how old you are and from which region of the United States you're from. I am from the northeast and I'm about to turn fifty. Well, congratulations. Thank you. So Amy, we met a few years ago at the Schoolie Swarm event. And when I met you, you were giving a certain rig a test run. Mm-hmm. And I wanna get to that. But before we get to that, why don't you tell me why you've decided to try out a nomadic lifestyle or at least nomadic traveling? Sure. well if I go back a little ways, I moved to a whole different part of the country at one point in my life. And I loved the adventure of all that. It was somewhere that I had no idea of the climate, didn't know anyone there, didn't have a job there, and that was the point. I wanted to see if I could just pick up and start completely fresh. Now as a mom, a solo mom, I didn't know if it was okay to make these radical changes, but the desire was still in me to do so. So finding schooly swarm was my way of feeling like it's a community so it feels safer and I didn't feel comfortable just picking up and making all these wild changes with my child, but inside a community, sure, it made it okay. Everything I wanna do is possible even though my life my lifestyle has changed. So from the time you moved and the time that you came to an event How how long was that? How long had this been stewing around in your head? my child was already, I think, nine at the time we met at that event. and I had given up trying to live the life I wanted to live because I had become a mom. And it was awesome to so can I tell you a little bit about that event? You sure can. Okay, so be because I didn't know what would work best for us, We came just in our regular vehicle and there was a U Haul right up the street that I looked up ahead of time and made a reservation for their box truck because I knew that that was what the community had. Like people were in box trucks, people were in ambulances, people were in buses, like there were a lot of options and I don't have the money to just throw around to, we tried an R V and that didn't work. So now what are we no, that would have been the end of the line. That makes me smile because talk about thinking outside of the box, now I'm gonna let everybody know. When I met you was the exact moment now not only is she going down the road to get a box truck from the U-Haul, I met her when she was about ready to walk down the road. So This is how awesome this woman is She drives to an event, all of her stuff in the car, child in tow, and then she walks down the road. Now what it's less than a mile, right? So she walks less than a mile down the road to rent a box truck to bring back and then what did you do with this box truck? So we wanted to see what living in the box truck would be like, but at the same time thinking this is gonna be way too cold or way too uncomfortable. So we made the box truck our living quarters and then slept in the car. my gosh. it basically became our living room, which was fantastic because it gave us an idea of how to use the space, how much can we do that's temporary. So anytime we want to do this, we can throw it together and we'll know exactly what we need and what size everything needs to be. we didn't have to worry. My biggest thing was the bugs and or whatever animals might come our way. I didn't want the box truck closed for ventilation purposes, but I didn't want it open for critters and everything else. I wouldn't even have thought of that. We thought about it as far as well, what can we do? But every option that I could come up with would have been too much money pouring into something that could be much easier by us just sleeping in the car and keeping everything grandma's attic is what they told us it's called in the back of the box truck. So that was Grandma's kitchen because we made that into, you know, all of our cutting boards and everything else we needed. It was up there. And then we had our lawn chairs as our little living room furniture. And we had a blow up mattress so that could be the couch. and we brought tension rods and bungee cords and I think it was shower curtains at the time. We brought something to be makeshift curtains to give us a little privacy. That's great. Yeah, I'm sure you all would frown upon you putting windows in and installing a door in the back. Yes. wow. And so tell me some great things you learned about that experience. Well First of all, it was very helpful to see how flexible my son could be. I that was another huge concern for me of why I thought we couldn't do this. and any way I'd be able to test it would be too difficult for him. He has some sensory challenges that I was nervous about. But this was a nice way to ease in step by step and made it possible. And then he It was great, totally flourished. that is fantastic. Now I assume this setup would work for many people, whether it is a friend coming along with you or a cousin, a sister, a mom, or a spouse, a partner. I mean that that's a great way to give it a little test run. Yes. and I love it because you didn't rent an R V. You rented something that could one day be something you own that you would have to use the things you owned to To make it work for you. Exactly. And you didn't go buy things, maybe the tension rods or the shower curtains, right? But you used what you had. Mm-hmm. And then that was also the reason for walking down the street to get the box truck instead of renting a box truck where we were from and driving it here. Because you have to pay by the mile. and it's only a mile down the street. my gosh. We knew that we were just gonna stay parked here. So really it's twenty dollars a day. Well, less than twenty dollars a day for For a box truck. And that is basically what the event costs is like twenty or thirty dollars a day, depending on exactly when you sign up and everything. Yes. So you learn all of those amazing things and then you go home and does your son talk about it So it was actually our second schooly swarm event. We got interested in this lifestyle because of loving tiny homes, loving the idea Of tiny homes, I should say. We had never been in one. We had never physically seen one. we'd only watch them on, I think there was like a some sort of real estate program at the time that we saw and we're that's so cool. I didn't know people lived in like shoeboxes. And then we're like, well, we might be able to build one of those because we don't own our home, we rent. and we thought, well, that'd be really cool because we could afford to buy land, but we can't necessarily afford to buy a house. So if we could build our own little house and Just buy a plot of land somewhere. so there were a lot of moving parts. Can my son handle just up and moving whenever? Can he handle living in a smaller space? Can he handle sometimes we'll see these people, and at the next event we'll see all different people, and sometimes we won't see any people, it'll just be the two of us. And the answer I now know after a couple years of this is absolutely he could handle all of it. that's great. So you do the box truck, tell me about. Other ways you've traveled and stayed at events. we went to the Schoolie Swarm Down in Florida, which is massive, or at least for us. It's massive. Okay, I'm like, it's not just you. It is for everybody. Okay. Okay. All three hundred and some odd people rigs. Yes. Times the people in the rigs. It's massive for everybody. And I say it's a completely different animal. Because right now we're at the fall swarm and I've crossed paths with Amy several times a day. Where there I think we cross paths once in ten days. Yeah, yeah. so as someone with a child, my main concern was how can I connect him with other kids? the swarmwart right now doesn't have nearly as many people, which really, really limits the number of kids, which really limits the kids in that age group. Obviously, you know, my son at the Being nine, it wasn't gonna work if there were just toddlers here, which sometimes that's how it goes. when we were in Florida, it was wild how I thought it was gonna be really hard being by myself in this big community, and how am I gonna keep track of him? For the first few days, I'm a very nervous person. It takes me a while to trust people, it takes me a while to loosen the rules a little for his sake. I think it took me a day and a half of meeting all the people that. Around our area and feeling immediately secure that this is that village that everybody talks about. Like, it takes a village. my god, I met the village. It took us all it's it's almost a decade of being a mom, but I finally found the village, so it was awesome. And I was able to have my own fun. I thought it was just gonna be about making a vacation for my child, but I got some downtime, I got some rest and relaxation and recharge and was great. Yeah, so at the school. Swarm in Melrose in Florida in February. The children outnumber the adults. do they it seems like it seems like that for sure? It seems like it because they run and they run in and they run in like packs. Yeah, I tell everyone it's like my chance to give my child an 80s childhood without having to go time travel. yeah. And there's hoses with that they can drink out of. Literally. And they ride in the back of pickup trucks. Yes. They really do. And all backs of golf carts. Yes, I was just I was gonna say the wild golf cart rides were definitely a huge plus for him. And you and the best part is you can't you can't text him because he's not even on his phone. Mm-hmm. That's the funny thing. They're in trees, they're playing games. We had walkie-talkies actually. walkie-talkie. Because at the I wouldn't let him have a phone. So yeah, we had our walkie-talkies. Yep. Yeah. that's hysterical. I remember calling my kids when we were there and the phone would ring and it's it's in the bus with me. And I'm going, Okay, they're running. They're running. Like I didn't care. And the best part is, all of the parents tell me if you notice this. All the parents keep an eye on all of the kids. Well that's what I mean. It's full eighties childhood like that. Like back home It's a very delicate situation if you see someone else's child doing something you know is unsafe either for themselves or for other kids, including your own. Even if they're hurting your own child, it's still very dangerous to decide to say anything. Even, excuse me, please don't punch my child in the head. Like even if you were gonna just come and say, Don't tell my child what to do Not only that, someone else may even come over and be like, That's not your child why are you talking to that? It's very dangerous. Yes. So it was very comforting to see people immediately, honey, let me show you how to do that. Like and no one stood up and got angry. And then I heard some people saying, thank you for helping my kid cut his, you know, hot dog or whatever the thing is. Yeah. It was like, they all feel the same. We're all here to help each other and help give instruction and help give reminders and no one's mad about it and everyone's on board with it. So it was like I found my people. This is Yeah, it it is really. great. Okay, so but when you went down there you went in just a car and took a tent. Did you run another U Haul? No, didn't run to U Haul. So that the false form was the U Haul and that was our second one. going to Melrose we had the car only. so I actually rented a minivan. we took the auto train which the only auto train in the US is from the Northeast. Well from where does it start? From Virginia very close to Washington DC and it lets you off very close to Orlando, Florida. It's like a ferry for a car. You drive your fully loaded up vehicle onto the train and then you go sit in your regular train seats and then there are no stops until you get To Florida. So then it left me with only a two hour drive because again I rented a vehicle that was extra cheap, meaning you had to pay for mileage. So if I couldn't find a way to make the mileage shorter, that wasn't gonna work. Now I heard that that auto train is expensive. Did you the auto train is expensive? But if I was gonna be driving to Florida, the gas money and all that and the mileage exactly it would have overruled that. it made it affordable to it made it affordable for sure. I'm not Saying it's a cheap way to go, but compared to every other way I could have gone, because for example, if I flew, you could find some pretty cheap flights to Florida, but then how am I gonna get to the swarm? Like I still need a vehicle, which means now I'm renting and you can't bring an air well, you can bring an air mattress on a plane, but but you can't bring all the stuff that you want. Yeah, you can't bring a propane tank and and whatever else you might need to the auto train what it to load up a full vehicle and bring it with us but not have it driving as I'm bringing it with us. Like it was fabulous. So I will tell you another way I've done it and many of us do it and this is for anybody listening. Now that you're part of the Schoolie Swarm family, all you have to do is say, I'm flying down, I have a box or two or I need a cooler, blah blah blah and somebody will take it down for you. So we had a prom a couple of years ago and I had prom dresses and I was flying. Well, of course, we all had the fluffiest prom dresses that we could find at the thrift store and I thought, I can't cram this into a bag and I mean I paid four dollars for a dress. I wasn't paying a hundred and fifty dollars. To have it shipped down there, right? So I asked who's coming through. A guy from Canada says this other guy from Canada's coming. I didn't even know him. Pulled over, met him somewhere, gave him a box and a couple other things and met him down there at the swarm. It was it's just wild, this the village. The village runs across the well, United States and and Canada. Okay. It's so true. So actually with that we've had a lot of people we've we seen on the schoolie page people sending here's my route who's along our route that can't even make it to swarm maybe we could stop by say hi we could have our own little campfire and I just I love it. Like people make it work no matter what there's a lot of people for you know medical reasons or whatever their situation is they can't travel more than a few hours from home and but they want to be part of it and it's like little individual swarms pop up all over the place So now tell me what what did you do after that swarm? at that swarm that was a game changer for us because like I said, we got into this because we cared about the tiny homes. Then we started talking about we wanted to learn to build our own tiny home. And then when we went to that swarm, two things happened. We met Susie. Susie has a tiny home built on a trailer She towed her tiny home and that made me realize we could do that too it doesn't have to be a bus. It doesn't have to be a vehicle necessarily it could be what we originally wanted out of a tiny home. and then the second piece was I didn't know how easy it was to learn from others. Like most of this community seems to learn from YouTube or from people that they know as far as like auto skills and solar skills and electrical skills all of this. I'm not a YouTube kind of person. I am where I'll watch it for inspiration, but I need someone to stand by my side. Like I said, I'm a nervous person. What if I screw up the electrical? I need someone to double check me and be like, look, is this am I gonna start a fire? Are we good? So they had lectures of all kinds and you know it's on the schedule. If you want to learn about solar, this nice person in our community, you don't pay extra for this. It's just included with being at the swarm. So that was we got to learn a lot and see that our tiny house dream was possible with this community. It was awesome. you can't buy that. That's like worth the price of admission and then some. So tell me what you did after Melrose. so we found another swarm because instantly now my son was completely on board for all well when do we go into the next one? So we found the Route 66 swarm. another piece of being a parent in this community was seeing how many families are homeschooling, which really means road schooling. I didn't like the idea of homeschooling because it feels so isolating. I know there are ways people get around that, but I didn't want that. Road schooling seemed so fun and how I saw their kids being able to manage school each day and still do all of the running around eighties childhood stuff that we wanted to do. helped me make the decision to pull my child out of school. So after two swarms, we were done with school. And that made the Route 66 one possible because up to that point we could stay a few like the like I said, we took the auto train. That takes some time. then to be at the swarm for a few days and also it cost money to be there. It's not a lot per day, but it's enough that all things considered we could only stay for a few days. Route 66 was the first time we were able To stay for the entire meetup, which was incredible. I now knew the community enough that I didn't need to be around my son the whole time. I could just be off with a computer somewhere else, and that was okay. I knew that plenty of other people did that, it wasn't gonna be seen as rude or you know, what's her problem, where did she go? It's what everyone does. this group also helped me to see Michelle and Travis have been able to open doors that weren't possible or I don't believe has been possible for others. they got us a bus for all of our community to take into town to a museum that highlights everything that's wonderful about Route Sixty Six and a portion of that was devoted to this man who basically started the bus movement way back when. and they have all these pictures of his bus. It's a two level bus that looks like the Beverly Hillbillies like built it, literally like a shack on top of a bus frame and I don't know how it was street legal but it was it was absolutely incredible and seeing those pictures and all the memorabilia from it was really inspiring but then Travis and Michelle worked it out with the town that only our community like people that regularly go through the museum don't have this option but we could then get on another bus that would take us to a garage where that original bus is held. It was awesome so So cool. Not only did they let us see the bus, they gave us a tour of the bus. We could go on, we could touch anything we wanted, we go to the second floor. that's incredible. What an experience. I'm so jealous. So I'm very grateful to them for putting all that together. That if we didn't have this power in numbers and this good vibe and positive reputation, I believe was part of it too. I don't think that would have been possible. I did look it up and it is the Bob Waldmire bus. it's also known as a road yacht and it's a nineteen sixty six school bus. I am so happy for you and all of the people who got to experience it. That's pretty great. Mm-hmm. It really was. So sixty-six happens and that was about six, seven months ago. Any other events besides the Schoolie Swarm? so the Schoolie community has told us about some other groups that we can also explore and each event that we've tried to go to with each of these other groups. Has fallen apart before the event happened. So no. but just knowing that there doesn't seem to be that competition. Like, if this were a different group, I feel like people would say, you know, this is the event we're at, we're not gonna talk about that. Travis and Michelle will tell you themselves, like, you gotta try this other group, and you need to go to these people run a really nice program. Or I just like that it everyone feels so positive. Uplifting and it's a very supportive group. A hundred percent. so then your next event is the one we're at today. Yep. And tell me what you in. Are you are you in a buzz? Have you committed to anything? No, absolutely not. We are nowhere near the commitment stage for purchasing a specific thing, except we are now signed up for a workshop for timber framing skills. So wow. Yes, so now this is our very it's for teens and adults. and And so we could do it together and they'll take you straight from you don't know what each tool is called, that's where I'm at, to my son who's taken all kinds of woodworking classes and this swarm in particular, like the one we're at right now, there's a gentleman who wrote on the page a few days prior to the swarm saying he was going to be teaching some bike repair lessons and things like that. And I had written saying, is that only open to the adults or can the teens go too? My son's very interested. And he wrote back privately saying, actually, if your son's interested, I have all these other things. I'm gonna be changing out my struts on my vehicle, I'm gonna be doing Changes, I'm going to be doing not just bike repairs, bike tune-ups, everything. Does he want all of that? I'm like, yes, please. This man, once we got here, made my son instantly feel comfortable, which is no small feat. He's a bit on the shy side. he taught him everything throughout the course of one day, very slow, very methodical. My son made a point of telling me what a great teacher he was, which he does not say that often. People Are usually a bit too impatient with him, so this was fantastic. and then above and beyond all of that, the next day, after all of this day full of lessons, Corey went out and bought my son all what he had told him the day before the tools that we're using are tools that I have purchased over you know the course of my adulthood. This is not the type of tool you'll be starting with, so let me show you what you would need. Like, here's the type of tools you would use for these things, it will take you a lot longer, but That's how you would do it. So, starter kit, write this down. This is what you'll need. Okay, so my son came home, told me all of this, so excited. The next day, Corey showed up with all of the tools. Out. Yep. And I told him, You just made Christmas in September for him. Like this is unreal. I want to cry. that is why so many people on this podcast will say go to the schoolie swarm and Amy here has just proven you do not need a bus you do not need an R V. in fact you can walk down the road and rent yourself a box truck and as long as you're not gonna install windows in it, I think you can stay in it for a week. It has been proven. Thank you so much, Amy, for this insightfulness. I have learned a lot and I am so appreciative of your efforts and sharing all of this with me today and hopefully others get more out of it. So if this is the kind of stuff that makes you happy and you want to learn more, head on over to she travels simple.com. over there we have so much information about traveling, whether it's solo or not. And there is all kinds of things you can learn. And there's more her journey, her way stories over there. Amy, again, thank you for telling me about your journey and your way. Until next time, I hope to see you out on the road and stay safe.