A Long Road to Idaho & Back: Soapers + Skoolies
As you've probably followed along with our little adventure, we've been looking for a school bus for a conversion project as a new home since we arrived in Arizona. We found a potential school bus in Idaho on Craigslist last week, and spent this week getting ready to go pick it up, travel to Idaho from Arizona, and back again.
On Thursday, we left Arizona around 9 am. Crossing through Northern Arizona always makes me a happy camper - I love the landscape of beautiful red rock and the bright clear blue skies.
On the road to Idaho... Love northern AZ. #redrock #northernarizona #desert #beautifulday
A photo posted by Kenna (@kennacote) on
We made it to Salt Lake City, Utah around 9 pm. From there, we hooked up with the fabulous Nikki of My Magical Star and chatted soap + biz over a late dinner at a little place called Iceberg Drive Inn. With monster shakes and onion rings as big as my face, we got back on the road with full tummies, a happy heart, and a lovely gift from Nikki including a bar of her Chai Tea soap and a Doublemint Lip Balm (that has been in my pocket ever since. Yum!)
A quick little meetup with the lovely Nikki of @mymagicalstar over a late dinner! #soapytravels #slc #soapmakersofinstagram #xo #ontheroad A photo posted by Kenna (@kennacote) on
Shortly after we crossed the Idaho border, we landed for the night at a pretty fancy little rest stop and slept in the back of our SUV in sleeping bags. Friday morning, we finished out the drive to Pocatello, Idaho. We met up with the bus's previous owner at the diesel mechanic to look over the bus to make sure we really wanted to take it home with us.
Longgggg drive to pick up our eventual home. #skoolie #busconversion #idaho #homesweethome
A photo posted by Kenna (@kennacote) on
Needless to say, we fell in the love with her and prepped to take her home, but first - another meetup with a long-time friend and soapmaker, LeeAnn of Dairy-Aire Crafts & Gifts. We met up at a nice little local joint in Pocatello named ButterBurr's, and chitter chattered over soap, business, life, and plans. It was so nice to finally meet up with her, as we've known each other for years on Facebook. I boxed up my Apple Pie to take home to the kids and we finally got on the road.
While our drive up to Idaho took approximately 13 hours on the road, and 8 hours of sleep in a rest stop, we found out that our new little soon-to-be home had other plans for us. It took us about 20 hours on the road (and another 5 hours of sleep in rest stop) to get back to home-base in Arizona, including a four hour endeavor of an overheating engine in Idaho back country and a two hour escapade to get the tail lights operational in Salt Lake City. Thankfully, we were able to get her back on the road on our own, and didn't have much more trouble with her!
A photo posted by Kenna (@kennacote) on
We made it back to Arizona Saturday evening, to very anxious kidlets who wanted to run around in their new home and frazzled grandparents who so graciously watched over them while we were gone. I have a ton of email and other work to catch up on since the trip was somewhat spontaneous, and we'll be leaving again on June 21st so I can hit up The Nova Studio. (xoxo to those of y'all patiently waiting to hear from me!)
But, of course, we're getting started on our conversion straight away! I'll be sharing pictures of our progress on Instagram as we rock it out. Eventually, we'll pull together a dedicated blog solely for the bus as this isn't the right place to document our little adventure. This will be last my little update about our school bus adventure until that happens - so if you want to follow along, make sure you hit up my Insta!
Want to snag weekly advice on building a successful soap biz directly in your inbox?
Of course you do! Sign up for our newsletter below for more tips and tricks to make bank in your biz.
