Callahan couple preps for skoolie adventure

Travis and Destoni Wilson prep for new adventures as they downshift from a traditional home to mobile living on a school bus. 

Travis knew early on that he wanted to live in a non-traditional way. He and his wife met in Callahan and began dating in their teens. They’ve been married for 13 years. 

“I have wanted to do a bus since I was a kid,” he said. “A bus, a container, a U-Haul truck; whatever. I wanted to be able to travel. But we just kept getting delayed, delayed, so I think it was about two years ago we really started watching other conversions.”

In December 2017, the couple bought a 2000 International 3800 Bluebird school bus that they found online for $2,500. 

Destoni is on board with her husband’s plan to sell their four-bedroom home and most of their belongings for the transition to life on wheels. They put their home on the market and held a moving sale. The proceeds should help the couple pay off about $38,000 in credit card debt and give them a buffer to start their new journey. 

“We had a lot of debt,” she said. “We have, you know, all these things that made us feel stuck. And he came up with this idea that, ‘Hey, we can do this and get unstuck.’”

Callahan resident Lisa Emery stopped by the home a second time Jan. 4 to peruse household items stacked in the kitchen and dining area. She purchased a strobe light on this trip. 

“I think it’s nice. I mean, I’d love to be able to do it,” Emery said of hitting the open road. 

Including the purchase price, the couple has spent about $12,000 so far renovating the school bus, also dubbed a “skoolie” by mobile dwellers like the Wilsons. 

They regularly post the renovation process via Instagram. They also blog about the experience. 

The interior has homey touches of reclaimed wood and a comfy design that provides about 200 square feet of space that includes a bed, a kitchen area and a 1973 avocado green Argosy travel trailer stove. A composting toilet and a shower will provide for the couple’s personal needs. The heated interior will also be home to dogs Geordie and Sister Golden Hair. 

“We really want to go out West – see out there – as far as pictures, it looks like a whole different world, you know, so we want to do a whole loop of the United States,” Destoni said. “We really love sloths, and so we ideally would like to make it down to Costa Rica and go to the sloth sanctuary down there.”

The couple attended a tiny house festival in St. Augustine in November. While there, attendees signed the bus, leaving messages and well wishes like, “Have fun my slothy friends” and “Happy travels.” 

So that it can’t be mistaken for a bus in service, it will be painted a different color before the pair begins their trek. 

In anticipation, Destoni left her airport job recently to button up all the final details. She shared her views on the value of time. 

“I think the 9-to-5, be in debt, have children – that typical life that we’re kind of all supposed to do … we’re figuring out is not really for everyone, you know, and it’s not for us,” Destoni said. “So if we’re going to work, we really want to work on our own terms. We want to do something that we enjoy doing that doesn’t feel like work and you dread going to work every day.”

This isn’t the couple’s first foray into tiny living. Their first apartment was small. They also converted a portable building into a studio apartment before purchasing their current home. 

“We’ve done this before,” Travis said. “We’ve lived this way before.” 

“Not this tiny,” Destoni replied. 

Her husband’s experience as a maintenance employee has worked out handily for the renovation. The skills he’s picked up along the way will help as the couple performs odd jobs to offset fuel, insurance, maintenance and Wi-Fi expenses. 

Travis looks forward to living frugally. 

“For those wanting to free themselves of financial trappings, find your path,” he said. “I mean that’s really all it is. If you’re into home ownership, go ahead and do it. If you’re into building something, there’s so many different ways to build things. My dream is probably a silo home and an A-frame home connected to it. Container homes are awesome. But this consumerism – this materialism – this is what got us into $38,000 credit card debt and now we’re clawing our way back out of it. And it sucks, because that’s the way life is right now.” 

The road to financial peace hasn’t been easy, but Travis believes it will bring huge returns. 

“People are just getting into buying things and just having more things,” he said. “I don’t want things anymore. I want experiences, because I can’t take any of this with me. We have intentional things that we want to do. We want to see a sunset or a sunrise every single day while we’re on the road, no matter where we are. And just take that time to kind of meditate and center ourselves for the day or the next day or the night or whatever and live more purposely.”

The blogger elaborates online about the turnaround he and Destoni made. 

In a June 25 excerpt from “How Building a Skoolie Ruined Our Life,” Wilson wrote, “Building this new tiny home on wheels hasn’t ruined our lives; it just ruined the old life that we were so used to. This experience has brought out so much in each of us. It has forced us to learn. It has forced us to be uncomfortable. It has forced us to work harder than we have in years. And it has forced us to re-evaluate everything in our lives and what we want out of the years we have left.”

The pair plans to roll along in a nomadic style until they find a place that best aligns with their goals. But first, they want to hike and explore areas inside the U.S., Canada, Mexico and South America. 

“We really have not ruled out anywhere of living,” Travis said. “The only thing is, we don’t really like the cold and the snow and we’re going to try to stay away from that as much as possible.” 

“Well, we’ve never lived in the snow, either,” his wife interjected. 

“We’re open,” Travis replied. “If we become snowbirds and we move from one place to the other in different seasons …”

“I honestly think that would be best for us,” she said.

“Ultimately at some point, I hope to find a place that inspires us to stay,” Destoni added. “That’s the way that we like to say it – a place that would inspire us to stay that we could call home.” 

Through it all, the couple has received support from friends. 

“We’ve been doing this and talking about this for so long that people … are just … they’re excited to see it happen, too,” Travis said. 

By the same token, the couple has answered many questions for their change of course. 

“There’s ton of reasons why everyone does this,” Travis said. “Ours was we wanted to get out of debt. We wanted to explore, we wanted to find a new place to live     and so these three things, we can get that from this. And so that’s kind of where we’ve been, but there’s so many reasons why people choose to work nomadically or live nomadically or travel all over the place. And technology’s allowed us to. Everyone can work nomadically. It’s enabling the younger generations to say, ‘Hey, I don’t have to be stuck where I was born.’ I can move around and I can go work eight hours a day – but I could be looking at Yosemite National Park.’”

Follow the Wilsons’ adventures at www.SlothHighFive.com and on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube as Sloth High Five.