Ussery
Just a Girl and her Bus named Bubba
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My name is Heather and I was raised on Indian Land in southeastern Oregon, until age fifteen, when I left and spent a year in Australia as an ‘experimental exchange student’.
When I returned to the USA at the age of 16, I attended college, received my FCC license, followed by a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Communication Studies & Journalism from CSU Sacramento and a Masters Degree in Rhetoric & Communication from UC Davis. Later, while living in Laguna Beach, California, I became a certified yoga instructor.
I have traveled extensively and worked a variety of jobs. During the ’80’s, I worked in radio, followed by a foray into the music industry, where I spent time in A&R, booking, concert production and as a glorified babysitter. Eventually, I worked as a music journalist for a major independent record label and several online publications. I have also written a few books.
All of this as a single mother. I recently hopped on an Amtrak train and traversed the country. By the end of that trip, I had logged over 10,000 miles on planes, trains and Bubba the Bus, a short bus I purchased in Nashville, which I plan to convert into a tiny home.
When I first started dreaming of living on a bus, I imagined traveling the country, the steady plop, plop, plop of tires rolling across the pavement. I pictured myself drinking coffee in the shadow of a saguaro cactus, savoring a glass of red wine nestled in the moss of a Sequoia, cruising through wheat fields, the Red Hot Chili Peppers playing in the background. To quote leading author, public speaker, and life coach, Tony Robbins; “reasons come first; answers come second. and I feel 97% confident I have not been taken advantage of; which isn’t to say, that people haven’t tried; (ie, I got estimates for the above-mentioned exhaust leak, which ranged from $800 to $1790 to repair!
Have you dreamed of hitting the open road, wind in your mullet, Red Hot Chili Peppers playing in the background, spending nights, under the open sky, in your converted home, that short bus you found on Craigslist? First, there is Nature’s Head, which is the Cadillac of composting toilets, with a price tag to match, (around $1000+). Check out price and reviews on Amazon Second, are cassette toilets. The main benefits of these toilets are space–(it’s a cassette, it can fit in a drawer or under a bed), cost–(about a hundred bucks at Walmart to $500 on Amazon) and removable holding tank, which can be easily taken out and dumped in a public/residential restroom.
It stands for cannabidiol, and belongs to the cannabis–(marijuana) family; but, like any family, it is part of a family tree, and is actually a cousin of the marijuana plant. After checking out several CBD coffee purveyors, I chose Strava Craft Coffee, from Denver, Colorado. I chose them because after working for over two decades in the coffee industry, (and it pains me to admit to this), I have become a pseudo coffee snob. Since I live as a single female, full-time in a short bus, that I converted; regular bowel movements, sleep patterns, and stress takes on an added level of importance and I am particularly interested in monitoring them.
We went along with our days and were grateful for the multitude of things that came our way, like when our vegetables grew and were not eaten by rodents or our chickens laid eggs that were easily discoverable, or new books arrived at The Ranch and I had time to read them cover to cover or the irrigation pipes weren’t frozen to the ground and covered in snow, or the turkeys didn’t drown in the rain–(yes, they do drown in the rain), or the desert sky would light up and you could hear thunder roll from far off places. Don’t be mistaken, this is essential for us; but, I am thankful to be #shelteringinplace on Bubba the Bus–in the great outdoors than from my mini-room in San Francisco–which is not to say I don’t like SF, but, I LOVE open spaces; in a way that many may not understand. I decided to head to Nashville via Salt Lake City; but, was snowed in on Donner Summit for three days–days in which SLC was rocked by a 6.9 earthquake. I have never seen the sun so radiant and I (literally) wept in gratitude or waking up to nothing but the sound of birdsong filling the air, or the random acts of kindness by strangers providing me with hot showers and safe places to park; eating a Cup O’ Noodles in the shadow of a Saguaro cactus, drinking coffee blanketed in the moss of a Sequoia; and last night, I heard frogs; their songs filling the air and filling my heart with knowledge, hope, faith, and inspiration.