It was a wonderful weekend in Melbourne in the middle of 2007. We were catching up with our friends and having a few "child free days". Jane and Gareth asked Chris and I what we thought about travelling around Australia with them the next year. We immediately replied "Wow, that sounds like a great idea!" We chatted about a million things and had plenty more to drink and every time we spoke about "the trip" the greater the adventure sounded. By the time we went to bed that night Chris and I could talk of nothing else but "the trip" and we were decided that we would give it a shot and try to be off within the next year!
On the way home from Melbourne we even stopped to look at caravans and our excitement just grew and grew. We mentioned the plans to our kids (Will 7 and Laura 5) and although they really had no idea of what it would mean they both thought "a holiday" and "no school" sounded wonderful. We broke the news to our families early on too and thought that if we could answer any concerns they could come up with then we would be all set to go.
Fast forward to December 2007 and plans had changed slightly. Jane and Gareth were not able to come at this point in time and our dream home had changed from a caravan to a converted school bus.Then what do you know.... BINGO, we had found an old Nissan UD school bus to buy. It was a much cheaper option and gave us lots more room (which is important when there are 4 people squeezed into the one living space!) Chris flew to Qld to pick it up, and 2 days later he was home with our beautiful big blue bus. It was love at first sight for all four of us and we couldn't wait to get started on the renovations. Within days all the old vinyl seats had been removed and we had an empty canvas to begin building our dream. We took plenty of time and lots of drafts to come up with our final design and then marked it all out on the floor in chalk. We could walk around inside and say "look! I'm in the bathroom", or "hey, I'm having a sleep on the bed" and almost believe it!
Over the next 10 months we slowly saw our dream taking shape. Every day we weren't working to pay the bills we spent at the bus, minus a few days here and there to shop for food and clean the house. The kids were a little "over it" by the end so we had to take turns staying at home sometimes with the kids to give them a little time off. We took every opportunity to show off our project to family and friends and couldn't wait for the day we could take it for a trial run. Not far away now!!
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