I'm Sam and I'm Carley and we're the Flat Out Travellers.
Canadian travelers, you're allowed to travel six months of a year, period.
and we almost didn't get in. Yeah we showed up to the border and they they
looked at the bus and the like where you going when I'm going for a six-month
trip down the East Coast across them up the west coast what do you do for a job
we, we're unemployed right now Oh where do you live? in the bus. okay pull over there
And they're like yeah you're not getting in. well and they also said are you
not aware of the requirements for a travel visa in the States and
we're like - we just said we sold our house, left our jobs and like we're
aware of it but it's not a law you have to be a homeowner and have a job to
travel in your country we understand it looks a little bit more sketchy I think
they're just scared of people coming in and working illegally they kept saying
like oh what if you fall in love with Texas you got to Texas and then you just
stay there. And we're like, that's illegal. we're not gonna do that
And I'm like, I really like Canada. We just want to travel.
We want to enjoy your country and then we want to come home. we actually met a family
who are travelling in the States full-time play there I think may be going
for a six-month trip. we asked them if they had problems yeah and they said oh we just
told them we were going to Disneyland. likes honestly I would suggest being
completely honest and we were at the point where like if they don't let us in
they don't let us in and we'll do something else but I'd rather not lie like we were
at the point where - we were just completely honest - we can't give them any
more like we're doing everything you got being as honest as we can and then they
can go to look at your blog right they look at the instagram yeah it's just
we just be honest and if it doesn't work out well you kind of gave it everything you got.
Then you change your change of plans. so thankfully eventually they let us cross. so yeah so we
went to Walmart got our restock your groceries because
you can't bring a lot of stuff across the border yeah then we picked up a SIM card
for our phones American SIM card and then we traveled through Vermont. And
it was the perfect time of year. we wanted to see Vermot. Everything on the East Coast
is new
We originally bought the bus
as a motocross rig, for hauling. to haul all the bikes and the quads to the races and have
somewhere to sleep and then we were looking online at stuff and we came across
Mike, like, Navigation Now Here, I guess we've been saying it wrong this whole time. I always thought was navigation nowhere
I always thought it was navigation nowhere
yeah we were corrected yesterday by a personal friend of Mike so yeah
saw him and started talking between us like a cool to do kind of thing, but we had just bought
a farm, like an 80 acre property. we had chickens and goats and pigs and
ducks yeah so it was like oh no we can't do that yeah we can't do that like we're
settled here this is where we are and then we said, well we'll give
ourselves a year and after a year if we still feel the same - cause it was winter
at that point, and oh yeah it's not fair you can't say you
wanna sell the farm in the winter. Let's see how we feel after the summer. so then we got into the fall before winter starts
and we just looked at each other like,
I guess we're selling. so. So sold the farm, quit the jobs, my cousins took the goats.
The bus is a '97 international it's a 7.3 turbo diesel everybody when we say we have that says yeah, that's a good motor. yeah window 26
Perfect. Seven window, yeah, seven window
26 feet bumper to bumper and 18 feet behind the driver's seat back of living space
Not a super common size actually. no. we have a lot of people messaging us being like where'd
you find your bus? I'm looking for one that size. And we're like come to Manitoba because we
have small school systems so it's a very common size bus. took seven months to
do. we did it all ourselves minus the storage box underneath it was built by a
Hutterite colony. Yup that's cause it's a lot of welding and they're built really well by them. oh it's a barn wood ceiling which
you don't see very often the wood is from her brother's barn that fell down it
was like 50 feet form where we were renovating the bus so we just took the barn wood and dragged it over.
When you started the build, what were like the most important things to you?
having a space to like host people. Mine was the permanent table.
you're looking at plans we saw a lot of like double couches and I
really wanted a permanent kitchen table for eating and having a decent sized kitchen
and we got a real four burner cooktop, propane, which is wonderful. And we have tons of counter space so we can
cook at the same time which we both like doing yeah and having enough room for
like someone to work here on this side and someone's be chopping on that side
because we both cook. We built all the cabinets and then we have our sink with faucet
between the kitchen and the bed we have a Do It Yourself composting
toilet it gets really cuz I didn't want a grey water it's the main reason
composting toilets are great but I didn't want to spend $1000 on the toilet
but mine cost $3 honestly I think I'll put another $30 in revamping my toilet
and I think I'm gonna love it. I'll find out then, because I like almost love it.
we didn't want a camper. we didn't want an RV. We wanted a school bus
converted home. we still wanted to feel like a school bus so we
left the original door on the school bus cuz some would replace that but like
no, to me that's the number one best thing about a school bus, is the door. number
two is the windows. yeah. like yes they suck, they let a lot of heat out but
there that's what lets all the light in - classic! and makes a school bus a school bus you
wanted like a moody creative workspace yeah like for creating music and stuff
and Carley wanted bright and happy and airy. Yeah, cause it's a small space and we've got the perfect
mix I think. We think we've got the perfect mix with the barn wood ceiling mixing with the white cabinets
with the dark up front yeah yeah the moody dark black front and then a dark
bedroom kind of thing yeah so we were really happy with the compromise yep
then as you walk into her bus we have the couch on the left hand side. It's a
full six feet which is nice. For sleeping it pulls out into a good
double size bed and then we have a dinette
obviously there's storage under everything. that side of the dinette houses our
entire electrical system underneath here our amps, our AC panel, everything and
everything electrical is there. Solar is right there well and our solar plugins
over here solar plugins right there and then
our batteries are literally right there. we have 200 watts solar and then we have
460 amp hours of storage at 12 volts with four six volt batteries. we're
running a 120 volt fridge like an apartment-sized fridge and we charge our
devices yeah and then everything else is 12 volt and then takes very little like
water pump 12 volt lights batteries charge when we drive, too. The battery bank
is more important to us than the solar cells. yeah, have you a decent size because of
the way our lifestyle is and then we have the generator as backup but it's
been three months and we've ran it four times. the stove is the cubic mini cub
it's awesome love it tried to maximize our ceiling height as much as possible
that's also why we did the inset ceiling. we had a hitchhiker with us for
a month that he was 6 foot 4 so it was a little difficult for him. did you just
say you have a hitchhiker with you for a month? Do you want to trll her or me tell her? I can't talk so -
OK. So we ere in Montreal and we were just checking out the city kind of thing and this couple
walked by and started looking at the bus we got talking and he was from Australia
he was visiting his girlfriend in Canada and he's like yeah I'm actually
hitchhiking across Canada and I'm on my way to Newfoundland I want to leave
tomorrow so and he wasn't like trying to convince
us to pick him up or anything we were just chatting yeah really well we're
gonna do comand tomorrow do you want to come with? we can take you to newfoundland and he's like super
pumped yeah cuz like it's a lot it was a long drive to make it last you know like
a three-day driv, yeah, a the three-day drive so for him to hitchhike that would've taken a
long time. Yeah and a lot of trips, right? so so he's
like that'd be so awesome and so yeah so on the way to Newfoundland we got
talking about travel plans and he's like yeah I'm planning on spending like a
month there then I got to be back in Quebec or in Montreal in a month and
we're like well we got to be in Quebec City in a month it's like two hours yes
we're traveling together for the next month yeah we can't just drop you off on
the side of the road and then like keep passing you hey you know you may as well
join us for the month yeah it was crazy and we'd only been travelling three
weeks three has happened and like this opportunity to keep up so when we're
talking in the parking lot with him he said I'm hitchhiking to Newfoundland I
didn't even look at Sam all of a sudden I was like what would you like to join
us and then I looked at Sam and like, are
we feeling the same vibe?I just invited him to join us
yeah the first night after we drop him off in Quebec City and went our ways
and then the first night we sat there like, what did we do before Sash was here? yeah like
we and then we realized we've been actually traveling with him longer than
we've been traveling without a lot of adventure so if you happen to see old
George the bus rambling down the freeway make sure you stick out your thumb for
the flat out travelers
and if you catch up with them camped out somewhere whether that's on top of a
mountain by the side of a river at a tiny house festival you're probably
gonna find everybody else kind of buzzing around them too