Greetings from Kansas...land of wide open spaces

Greetings from Kansas!!!

It is 10:45 Kansas time and it took 30 minutes to download these pictures.  In the meantime, the others are snuggly tucked in their beds while I sit on the steps into the bus, in the dark, while it rains, and try to get something written about todays adventures.  When traveling across Kansas, it is pretty flat and not too exciting...except when Lon sees gigantic farm equipment passing us by with only inches to spare between us on the highway.  Remember, we are traveling 50 miles per hour.  There are also wind turbines, hay bales, corn and wheat...yep, that's exciting--not.  

We spent most of our day in Kansas

Big sky and lots of crops

And more crops...

And more crops...

And really big equipment!!!

                                                                   

One of Raleigh's rules when she first started
dating Lon:  NO SLEEVELESS SHIRTS!!! Notice, his has sleeves.

At a rest stop switching drivers.
Will posing for the camera.

Tim is showing off his farmer's tan
while his shirt reminds him to CHILL

William and Tim went to Walmart (which is within walking distance from our campsite...rather urban, don't you think.  While they were bonding there and picking up some sundries, they found some shirts.  I didn't get a shot of William's today, but it is reversible and he says that tomorrow we'll get to see the other side.  I'll just say one word for those who know him well..."MEOW"

Lon and Tim took an excursion to see some cool farm equipment.  I think some John Deere and Casey stuff, but I "forgot" to listen so I can't really tell you about that.  The campsite where we are staying is filled with people who follow the crops and harvest them.  Nebraska is their next stop, I think.

Again, Will is under the bus but since it is raining and
 calling for flash floods, he is prepared with
his hammock suspended from
 the underside of the bus.

I really am on the trip with them...here's proof

We had a lovely dinner of pulled pork, minus the King's BBQ sauce which, I'm sad to say is still in Franklin.  Raleigh has done laundry twice already since we really have to keep things clean for Lon.  Last night she put the clothes in the dryer, inserted the quarters, and left the laundry room.  When she returned, the upper dryer was really warm, but her clothes were in the lower dryer...oops!  More quarters and another trip to the laundry room.

The kids are just relaxing and enjoying the ride.

Tomorrow we get to our destination is Colorado and get to stay in a hotel!!!  William is visiting friends near by and will have the bus while we take the van to the wedding.  Our day will be shorter tomorrow...only about 300 miles so this should be cheese cake, unless it doesn't stop raining.  The good news is we haven't found any leaks, yet.  Thanks for following along!  More tomorrow...

PS...I have messed up the layout but I am too tired to try and figure it out...sorry

Made it to Missouri and we haven't left anyone behind, yet!

Hello fellow travelers!

If that isn't a happy couple, I don't know what is!!!

A little art for the trip.

We need to add a few peace signs and flowers!

Each day just keeps getting better!  After our powwow last night, we woke up this morning invigorated and ready to head out at 6:05 am.  Only 5 minutes later than our objective.  And we made it 105 miles before we stopped for the first time and that was to turn on the generator.  It was so cool this morning that we rode with the windows down and the curtains flapping out the windows.  Sorry Tracey, a few of them got a little wrinkled.  We averaged 50.1 mph and even made it to 61 mph going downhill with a  strong tailwind at one point!  Total miles today was 440.  Tomorrow will be our longest day at about 500 miles.  Raleigh and I might take the wheel of the bus since is will be Kansas and it will be really flat and straight!


 .

Some pictures of the destruction at White Sulphur Springs, W. Va.

For those of you who knowTim,he has been sporting neon orange wicking t-shirts lately.  Since I didn't have time to tie dye shirts for the trip, Raleigh suggested we all wear shirts to match Tim.  We won't be getting lost anytime soon, that's for sure.  

Getting some rest in Missouri in our matching shirts

Tim driving the land yacht paddle boat

William didn't want to wear the orange
shirt anymore...ewwww.  Put it
back on, Will!

Checking fluids again...

By leaving early, we were able to travel in cooler weather and get to our campground by 4:30  We would have gotten there sooner but there was a little glitch with the GPS and when we arrived at our destination, we were in a  neighborhood.  Oops...Checked the address again and finally made it.

We had enough daylight left to reorganize everything which will make tomorrow an even better day!

Things we took out of the van to
rearrange and put back in the van.

How will we get it all back in?

A little messy at the end of the day.

William is land surfing, keeping us entertained.

Raleigh has the best seat in the park chilllaxing with Lon

Setting up for dinner.  Lon is happy to have his fan
and some wifi.

We had a great meal of meatloaf made from Carolyn's cookbook.  I froze it in vacuum sealed bags and just boiled them to heat it up.  Add some instant potatoes, a can of corn and some salad and we were ready to eat in 15 minutes.  Lon said the meatloaf was close to his mother's home cooking.

Raleigh and Will dressed alike.  I am so sorry I didn't get the shot
of their matching cut off shorts to go with the shirts.

Christy, this is where we are parked tonight

The generator is just plugging along,
keeping us cool

It is almost time for our nightly powwow
 and then the party lights are going out.

Everyone else is asleep so I am going to head back inside, too.  Oh, we don't have room for William in the bus so he is sleeping under it!  He slept in his hammock last night but there are no trees close enough together to string it up tonight...and it is supposed to rain/storm later.  He's used to roughing it so I'm not worried.  More tomorrow..1

Day Two...12 hours on the road 🚌

Well, we made it to Kentucky safe and sound although we are a little slap happy. I have no wireless connection here because we are staying in a little mom and pop campground by a lovely lake. That means that I am doing this on my phone so this post may be short, sweet and without pictures.

We made it five miles before our first stop at Food Lion for some ice and the Dollar General next door for some Command hooks to hang a makeshift curtain. After that, we drove an hour to Roanoke and stopped at Walmart for a toaster and camp stove. Once those errands were finished we got on the road for real.

I drove the van again till lunch time and Tim captained the "land Yacht"... More like a "land paddle boat" much of the day. Raleigh took her turn driving the van. She and I are waiting on Kansas to drive the bus where we have wide open flat roads. We thought that would be safest for us and others on the road!!

William had the opportunity to drive the bus and the van today giving Tim and me a little break. We totaled about 489 miles and it took about 12 hours but we did stop for dinner so it wasn't all driving.
Lon has been a real champ, keeping us laughing with his quick comebacks.

One of the highlights for me today was the debriefing we had at the end of the day. William has traveled a lot in his 29 years and he currently is a field guide instructor at the Mountain Institute in W. Va. He leads groups of children as well as adults on wilderness excursions teaching them mostly science related topics. He used his travel and work experience to help us work on some group dynamics and plan ways to maximize our ability to have a safe, organized, and hilarious adventure. What can I say?  I love my crazy family!!!

Alas, it is too, too late and we plan to hit the road by 5:30 tomorrow morning so I'm signing off with no pictures today😞. Hopefully that means there will be extras tomorrow.

And We're Off!!!

Raleigh and Lon are ready to roll!  Check out those curtains.

  D Day has arrived.  June 27th and we are finally on the road.  Our plan was to leave by noon and we almost made it.  We left about 1:30 with Bick and Carolyn waving us on.  

Raleigh waving goodbye as we start our journey.

     Today our destination was Moneta, Virginia where met up with William and  stayed at Smith Mountain Lake with Raleigh's brother, Cody and his girlfriend, Evie.

Tim was the appointed driver today

Going down the driveway, headed west.

    

We traveled 200 miles in 5.5 hours with six stops-working the kinks out.  We only made it 15 minutes before we made the first stop in Cortland about 7 miles from home.  I was driving the van, following the bus and in a bit of bad planning, the case of water was with me and the thirsty people were in the bus.  We remedied that and got back on the road.  Stop #2 was to locate some tape, which was also in the van, so that we could tape the drawers and cabinets shut since we never got around to attaching the child safety latches that we purchased for that purpose.  

Check out our generator.  Keeping Lon and the food cool.

Stop #3...we were on a two lane country road and had to pull over for a massively oversized load...both halves of a modular home.  Fortunately, that didn't take too long.

Raleigh checking the transmission fluid level.

#4 was a stop to check what we thought was a leak of transmission fluid.  Raleigh crawled under the bus to check things out and all was okay but stops #5 and #6 were just precautionary stops to check the fluids and get fuel. 

You might be a mechanic if....

The really good news was that Lon did not experience any motion sickness.  The weather was great until we met with some rain around Lynchburg but that didn't last long.  We arrived at the lake around 7:00 pm.

We are all nervous when Lon exits the bus but he has no fear!
     

We had a wonderful dinner of steak and twice baked potatoes for Cody's upcoming birthday and our good friend Sue blessed us with her presence and some wonderful ice-cream.

     

 Tomorrow we plan to drive 425 miles into Kentucky.  ETD is 7:00 am but before we can leave we need to make sure the essential items are in the bus and not the van so we will do some rearranging really early.  Now that William is on board, let the antics begin!

Sneak peek at the conversion

We are so close.  Lon's dad, Ed, has us hooked up electrically.  Tim is building in storage space and adding the much needed cup holders.  Raleigh has almost finished painting the exterior and the curtains are hung.  I just wanted to give you a glimpse of how the transformation is progressing so here are a few more pictures.

Raleigh mastering the spray gun!

It's looking less like a school bus and more like a prisoner transport!

Some paneling is in and the little sofa turns into a bed for me and Tim.

Lon is testing out his position behind the driver's seat.  He is high enough up to  see the road so hopefully that will keep him from being car sick.  Otherwise, whoever is driving, look out!

Coming soon...the finished project!

Two days till we leave!

Here it is...The Struggle Bus on the day Raleigh and Lon picked it up near Beckley, West Virginia.  Because bus drivers aren't supposed to drive fast, it has a "governor" on it that only allows it to go 55 miles an hour.  And West Virginia is not flat!  Needless to say, the trip back home was a real "long and windy road".  Fortunately, we were staying at Smith Mountain Lake for the Memorial Day weekend so we were able to  make the trip home in two days.  Lon struggles with motion sickness so he couldn't ride in the bus because he would have to be latched in in the very back of the bus...not a good option.  So Tim put on his bus driver's hat and drove the bus with Raleigh as his co-pilot.  Lon and I followed in his van as we crawled our way home and Tim got accustomed to the air brakes.  

As we quickly learned when William got his bus, these buses are manufactured by Blue Bird.  The sign on Lon and Raleigh's bus is fitting...it is a handy bus indeed!  When we peeled the stickers off of the bus where it had been painted over, we were left with Raleigh County Schools, which is appropriate.  I couldn't convince her to keep the "Raleigh" part on the side but Lon has given me permission to use some window paint and embellish a little.  Photos of that will come soon.

We leave in less than 48 hours and we are adding the finishing touches.  We are keeping our fingers crossed and saying a few prayers that tomorrow, when the generator is going, and the air conditioner is revved up, we will be cool as cucumbers!  

I'll add more pictures of the after version of our efforts soon...stay tuned!

Colorado or Bust!

Team Bickham
Tim, LaVerte, Raleigh, Lon, Carolyn, Bick

Recently, my daughter was joking with someone who has been through many medical trials and said it was nice to meet someone else who is on the "struggle bus" that could relate to the daily challenges she and her husband, Lon, face...challenges that most of us will never fully understand. 

The name, "struggle bus", has stuck with me. We are all on a struggle bus of our own. No-one escapes trials in this thing we call life.  But we all have the opportunity to choose how we face our obstacles.  Some days we do better than others.  I could get all philosophial on that subject alone but I'll save it for another blog. However, I think we can all learn a lesson from Lon and Raleigh about focusing on joy.  They are a ray of sunshine to all of those who know them.

It seemed only fitting to name this blog "Adventures on The Struggle Bus" to chronicle our trip out west in their newly acquired handicap school bus converted into an RV  so Lon can go to Raleigh's best friend's wedding.  

After 5 long years of not being able to travel more than a few hours away,  Lon and Raleigh are embarking on a grand adventure and I thought we should record it with a blog.  Lon cannot travel on commercial transportation and when I checked on the price of chartering an airplane we decided that $3,000 per hour (for 8-10 hours) was a little high for a round trip to Colorado where Raleigh's best friend is getting married in July.  So, Raleigh and Lon, following the lead of Raleigh's brother, decided to jump in and buy a handicap school bus and convert it into an RV.  William bought a regular bus this year and has begun its conversion so they are ahead of the learning curve.  Memorial Day weekend we took off for West Virginia where they purchased their bus in Raleigh County.  We thought that was a sign of good things to come! 

There are many people on "Team Bickham" helping to get this thing on the road.  Lon has logged countless hours, and I do mean countless hours, on the internet researching everything from air-conditioning to spare tires.  The UPS man has begun to drop off more than medical supplies and parts for Lon's trucks.  Now there are daily deliveries of bus paraphernalia.  He will never be out of a job if Raleigh and Lon keep this up!  Lon has also been our travel agent and has booked our stays in campsites along the way.  Bick has been instrumental in getting the electricity hooked up so we can have airconditioning, outlets and refrigeration.  He could have used some airconditioning on those hot, humid work days!  Tim has helped implement Raleigh's plans for a murphy bed for Lon, install paneling, pick up a sofa, and generally do whatever Raleigh and Lon ask him to do.  I have helped prep the exterior with sanding and taping in preparation for the necessary paint job. Raleigh has popped rivets to remove the metal paneling...brother William helped with this!  She's changed the oil, had it insulated, scraped, sanded, planned the layout and has been the general contractor along with Lon. Carolyn is making us happy by providing her wonderful chicken salad and pimento cheese for the trip.  We will not starve for sure.  And even their friend, Tracey, is making curtains so that we won't be exposed at night in the campgrounds.  (Or so others won't be exposed to us!!!)  Tim and I will make the trip with them as support crew/drivers.  William will travel with us, driving Lon's handicap van as our emergency vehicle in case the bus breaks down. 

If I can get the hang of blogging, I will add pictures and stories during our travels.  We leave Monday the 27th of June...Colorado or Bust!