A Girl and her Little Blue Bus

Hello! My name is Lexis. I am a 20 year old girl with a passion to travel and explore new places. Upon graduating high school I knew I didn’t want to jump right into college. I was never into books, nor was I the type that wanted to sit and study in a classroom. I didn’t even know what career I wanted to pursue.

During and after high school I traveled to all kinds of different places with my mom.  Whether it was a trip to an island or somewhere in the states, it was always a thrill to explore new places, meet new people, and see new things.

Working five days a week and saving money allowed me to take my time in deciding what I wanted to do.

At age 18, shortly after my first outdoor adventure with my mom, I realized my love for camping and the freedom of being outdoors. As I continued to explore new places, my love for peaceful surroundings grew even more.

My mother and I used to camp with our 1965 Serro Scotty Hilander travel trailer. It was so much fun to take it out to campsites and set up and enjoy the camping experience. My mom wanted something that didn’t need to be towed so she decided she wanted to start a bus conversion. Watching my mother build and complete hers made me realize how nice it would be to have my own little home on wheels.

I was following others on Instagram for a while, watching them travel the world in both vans and bus conversions. I was torn on wanting a van or wanting a bus because of the frequent weather changes my state has.

Since we have long, cold winters I felt a bus would be my best choice because it allowed me to have more space since I would be inside more than outside for four to five months depending on how bad the winters were.

On February 6th, 2017 (age 18), after months of searching the web and local ads for the right vehicle and saving up my money, I found a little, pale blue, short bus with a ton of bus life potential. I contacted the seller immediately with my fingers crossed, hoping that it was still available.

After a few, LONG hours of waiting for a reply, my phone lit up with a message from the seller telling me the bus was still available and if I was interested he would be around later that night to show the vehicle.

My mother and I jumped in the car and drove out to the bus and took it for a test drive. After leaving the sellers house (which ended up being only a few blocks from my house) I went home and thought about what I wanted to do.

The next day we went back.  I paid for the bus and just like that, the little 1989 Bluebird short bus was mine.

That’s when “Lola” came into my life. The name “Lola” came from the nickname my mother called me growing up. I figured the name would be cute for the bus and would bring along memories of my mom in my travels.

Since my mother already completed her shuttle bus conversion (as seen in the October 2017 issue of Bus Conversion Magazin) and knew all the ins and outs to converting a bus into a tiny home, I asked her to teach me what to do and where to start. I never knew how to redo a floor, build cabinets, hook up solar panels, inverters and deep cell batteries, or even wire anything together. It was all new to me and I’m so glad she had the knowledge, patience and interest to teach me.

One important thing I wanted my bus interior to have were one of a kind pieces that you couldn’t just go out and buy in stores. I receive so many comments about how unique my fabric accents are. Since my mother and grandmother have sewed all their lives, I decided it would be most meaningful to me if they both made me pieces for Lola.

All of my window and bathroom curtains, chair cushions, toilet skirt, driver seat cover, some of my blankets, and tiny curtains to hide my wheel wells were handmade from scratch by both these amazing women. I gave them a vision and they turned it into the most beautiful reality.

I decorated my space with nothing but my own vision, which gave “Lola” character and made her so unique. I wanted my space to reflect me and what I loved and I’m so happy with the way she turned out. My style and choice of decorating was what I wanted in my tiny mobile home, and what I knew was going to make ME happy at the end of the day. My favorite part about “Lola,” besides that she has so much character inside, is definitely her exterior body color. Her paint job is an original vintage blue, and I used peach accents for the wheels, front grill emblem, door curtains and accents in the interior decorations and bedding.

My goal was that I wanted to be able to get in my bus and drive wherever and whenever I wanted, and to stop anytime, anywhere and be comfortable. Being only 19 years old, I figured this would be the perfect opportunity to live and enjoy my life to the absolute fullest and to travel in one of the safest vehicles available.

To me, it is even cooler that I get to travel with my mother and her bus conversion to different places around the US.

I started my Instagram page as a journal to post pictures of my conversion progress, advice, travels, and of course a lot of “Lola.” It makes me so happy to see how far I’ve come in such a small amount of time. Learning new things, meeting new people, attending events, and enjoying every little bit of part-time living in “Lola.” I never expected to gain a large following or to receive messages from people young and old from all over the world.

Since my conversion is now complete, my plan is to continue exploring and seeing new places with my mother and her bus. I will be attending tiny house festivals and other events across the US, along with sharing my journeys with my followers to encourage more people to live their dreams.
Hope to see you on the road!