I am up for this adventure, I swear. But I’ve had to get my mind around some things when it comes to this move from my city condo to our primitive mountain retreat. How will I get my stuff from Oregon to New Mexico? Where will I put it all while we build our house of mud and straw? How will I brush my teeth before bed? Where will I pee?
I looked into renting a U-Haul, but the price roughly equals my cost of living for more than two months, and that doesn’t make much sense to me. We talked, threw around ideas, and decided to buy a bus. It would be perfect!!! We could easily fit all the belongings we wanted to bring with us. The dogs and cats would have plenty of room, and maybe we could even fit in a few chickens!!! We could use our own bed, desk, and dresser. Jeff could easily fashion a kitchen space. We could use a solar panel for electricity, and transfer it to the house when the time comes. Efficient, logical, perfect.
We combed Craig’s List for a few weeks, did some research, and found a bus we wanted to look at in Wenatchee. It was an old 1960’s transit bus. The seats were pulled out and a basic kitchen and toilet had been roughed in, but otherwise it was a blank canvas. It sounded perfect for us.

We drove up there on Sunday (6+ hours away), took a look, camped in a state park that night, got a trip permit the next morning, and went for a test drive.
Here are some things we learned about busses: They are big. Really big. They are noisy. There are many things that can break, and they would all be expensive to fix. It would be a logistical nightmare to get it, bring it to Portland, store it, fix it up, and get it to our spot on the mountain.
We aren’t getting a bus.
We talked about it, and we both agree that it would be doing a disservice to this pristine, peaceful, untouched property to drive the automotive equivalent of Godzilla onto it and park it there for an undetermined amount of time. We consulted the I Ching and our instincts were confirmed.
Now we’re looking at tipis. It feels like a much better fit. The one we’re looking at will be plenty big enough for us. You can even have a fire pit in the middle to stay warm during the winter. I still don’t know where I’m going to pee, but I’ll worry about that later.
