Why We Bought a School Bus

In September 2020, my husband and I sat in the parking lot of a used RV lot to discuss the pros & cons of the dated RV that we toured. This RV offered state-of-the-art technology and finishes from 2005, and formerly retailed at the hefty price tag of $200,000. Now, 15 years older and 1 foreclosure sale later, the salesman was trying to pass this “land yacht” on to us for only $20,000. What a steal, right? We were crazy not to take it, right?

As we sat in the car, checkbook laid out beside us, I did an online search for how to safely secure children into an RV while moving. As it turns out, there are sadly few passenger & child safety restraints required for RVs.

Many states require children to be secured while driving; however, 1) what are their seatbelts secured to, 2) how many seatbelts are available [we have 3 kids in carseats], and 3) are they crash-rated? The answers we found didn’t make us feel confident about our family’s safety while driving in the RV.

Later that night, my husband woke me up to tell me hear him out. At 2am in the morning, that’s the last thing I intended to do, but he sounded so hopeful.

Why don’t we buy a school bus? They are made for transporting children and made of steel.

We researched and it turns out that purchasing a retired school bus “was a thing.” There is an…