 You guys, this is the famous Wonderboom. This is Robin and Eric and their shuttle bus that they built out themselves. So today we're lucky enough to get a tour of their rig, but we're also gonna find out how they started this life and what they think about it, what they've learned, and what their plan is for the future. You guys might know Wonderboom, the channel. I'm going to link my favorite videos for them down below because they build out schoolies. And if you guys don't know how to build out your own space or you need some ideas, believe me, this is the channel. This guy just built a custom desk for me where he moved out my dinette. You guys may have seen that video and built a custom desk. I'm really curious how you guys ended up in a shuttle bus on the road. What's your story? I think it started with us when we went to Europe in 2015. We went to France and Spain, and it was our first European trip as the first time I was really out of the country except for Canada. And we just saw something different there, a different way of life, a different way of thinking about things that wasn't just work your ass off for 50 years and then like hope you don't die when you retire kind of thing. And it's like it just, it felt different to us. Like enjoy the pleasure to the moments. And so we wanted to do that more and we thought you only have so much time. You don't really know how much time you have. So you have to figure out what's more important for you. For us, the money wasn't the important thing if we could figure out just to make enough to have the life that we wanted. And when we started to see people doing this on YouTube, that changed everything, it changed our whole perspective. Yeah. How about you, Eric, what do you think? Yeah, no, I was feeling, I've been doing construction for 30 years and breaking my back and my knees and everything. And it was time for a change. And we started looking at maybe buying a little land somewhere and putting a little tiny house on it somewhere. And so went down the, looking at YouTube videos and saw people doing schoolies and buses and vans and stuff and we're thinking, well, hell, why don't we make a tiny house we can take with us to all these beautiful places instead of having one piece of land somewhere you're stuck with. We can go around and see gorgeous places like this and enjoy all the incredible beauty of this country and that everywhere has to offer. So is this your first rig? Yes. And what is it? This is our 2005 Ford E350 Super Duty. Van is the chassis of it, but it was a shuttle bus, like a senior care home shuttle bus at one time. And we bought it for the low price of $13,000 or $3,000. Oh my God, $13,000. $13,000. No, those were the prices of the sprinters we were looking at because that's what we were thinking of doing in the beginning. We were looking at sprinters and they were way too expensive and so we changed our, yeah, sorry about that, $3,000. $3,000. So we changed our thinking dramatically and this one popped up on the Craigs list in the Chicago area. We bought it kind of randomly quickly. Were you in the Chicago area? We were from Madison, Wisconsin for 25 plus years hanging out in the cold of the Midwest, which we are not missing at all. You know, again, just started watching all the videos, saw Bob Wells, all the different people out there doing this and it really just saw you. Yeah, you and well said. What? Yeah. Yeah, so many other people doing this. I mean, of course. By the way, can I just stop here and tell you guys to go to Wonder Boom, I mean like stop this video, go over to Wonder, then come back. Go over and look at their channel trailer, the funniest channel trailer I've ever seen in my life. I sent it to everybody I knew when I saw it. Okay, go on. Oh, that's a little, thank you. Well, yeah, well, yeah. So, okay, so you found this. No word. And then, how long did it take you to build this out? And I know you have videos. He has videos showing the entire build out, you guys. Yeah, we got the whole process on our channel. It took a little over three months. It was, I did construction and carpentry. So, you know, probably quicker than most people could do it in, you know, typical situations. Plus we had all the wood. Yeah, we luckily, I had found the beautiful, we carried our wood around with us. Cedar and walnut that I had from auctions from years and years earlier that we towed it around with us forever that we've amazingly enough had a place to use. So, saved a ton on that. So, that was huge. How much did you pay for that? We paid $3,000. $3,000. Thank you. $3,000. Okay, thank you. And it is a rust bucket, by the way. It is, it's from Illinois. So, I would, we would tell people Southwest. Yeah, by in Arizona or, yeah, somewhere dry and warm. Not where there's been snow. Because of all the salt. Interesting. Yeah, if you're looking for a rig, find one in the south. What happens in the, up in the Midwest or anywhere there's salt where they use, where it's cold where they use salt on the roads, there's much more corrosion. So, if somebody wanted to get something like this, how much do you think they'd have to spend in materials if they had not been collecting wood? Right. For basic build. Yeah, I mean, well, to do it in the same fancy cedar and walnut that we have, it would be quite a few thousands of dollars of materials. So, but if you wanted to, you know, many people use recycled wood of different kinds, you know, different pallet wood or whatever. You can do any of this stuff, you know, in a more economical way, you know. So, it's more about what is the, what the space works for you, what, you know, what you're going to be doing in your living space and what, you know, what makes sense for you. Find the budget and the material that works for you. It was lucky for us that we had that wood. I mean, it was just something that, you know, I literally would like, when we moved from our house to an apartment, I'm like, what are we going to do with that? Why is that coming with us? You know, I mean, I question it because like most people would, it's like, but he was lucky he could put it in the shop at work. And so I didn't have to see it again, you know. But then, you know, you're like, you know, thank God that I didn't make her get away. We're going to see it here in a second, but it's beautiful. So it took three months to build it out and then you hit the road. How long have you been on the road? A little over a year and a half, almost a year and a half. Almost 18 months. Yeah. And full time? Yes. Full time. How do you like it? It sucks. We're going to go back to a, you know, apartment and pay, I don't know, $5,000 a month or $1,500, whatever it is. Right, work for the man. Work for the man and just, you know, grind it out because that was so much more fun. Yeah, I'm sorry. I asked. Yeah, there's challenges. We've had mishaps. We've dealt with stuff. We've, you know, it's not as if it's been like a, you know, ice cream cake, you know, kind of walk or whatever. I don't know if that meant. I think unicorns and unicorns. You know, unicorns farting out glitter, but the people that we have met. Right. I don't know. We'll see each other again. See, that's the thing. Yeah, that's the thing with no meds. Meet up, you leave, everyone's cool, too. I mean, I mean, in my experience. There's a few. Yeah. Well, I mean, when you have to go, it's time to go. And everyone's cool and you see them again when you can. And I was sad, like one of your friends left today and I was sad that I didn't say goodbye to her. She leaves early. If there's somebody out there that's about to hit the road, what mistake would you advise them not to make that you made? Get a rig that you don't have to deal with the engine. Make sure that you do a lot of research on the engine of your rig. We had to put $4,000 or more actually into this rig if you think about how much we had to put into it. Total. Six liter diesel. It's still, it's still a good engine, but it's, it can be a real paninia. And how is the space for a couple? Fantastic. Yeah, for us, it's fine. For some people, they need more space. It just depends on your own personal preference for us. We can sit right next to each other and just completely ignore that we're there. So that's beautiful. And if you can do that with your partner, a small space is good for you. That's good. But you guys do also have a car. That's a new thing. Oh yeah, and that's new. We got that in October. Up in Reno. You don't tow it, you drive it in tandem. We will be towing it. We were hoping to tow it. But no, yes, we were planning to tow it. And it's a manual, so it should work. Gotcha. And what's in the future for you guys? What do you want? More traveling. This summer, we're gonna go through Arizona, New Mexico and then up the Rockies. Both of us have a lot of family in Colorado. Yeah. And I'm really excited. I love the desert. I didn't used to. I was talking to my sister the other day and she still hates it. She's still a mountain person. She lived in Flagstaff, Arizona. But I've really learned to love it out here. I've learned to love a lot about it. But then it's great because then the summer comes and you go to a completely different type of place. Yeah, it starts heating up. I go to the forest and I'm like, oh, I'm home. And then I come to the desert and I'm like, I'm home. Yes. That's what it feels like. Well, we're losing the light out here. Here we are. So is it okay if we go inside and get a tour of the Wonder Bus? Absolutely. The Wonder Boom. Wonder Boom. Yeah. Woo. Woo. Woo is the name of the bus? Yeah. We're gonna go check out Woo. Yeah. Tell me about this wood. Gorgeous. Black walnut. We got at an auction 20, 30 years ago and it sat in a guy's garage for 30 years before that. No, like 27 years ago. It was an auction that this guy was having and I found it and bought it for $55 all of this plus twice as much more of this and we dragged it around forever. And Robin wondered why and this is what it turned out to. So, hey, Robin. Yeah. Tell me about your really cute way that you hold your Berkey on the counter. Okay, so I saw it somewhere else and then we went to a thrift store and I was looking specifically for two belts and I wanted them to be two different colors but I wanted them to look the same and the first place we looked we found them and they were exactly what I wanted. When I need to take this off and clean it, I literally just undo the belts. They work perfectly and it stays there. It never has moved. It's been perfectly. And so when we did the sink, we designed it so that we would fit the Berkey here so that we don't have the sink to be able to get water and then be able to fill it. We wouldn't have been able to do that if it would have been over here or something like that. So for anybody who does is not on the road yet, the belts are keeping the Berkey from falling over while they're in motion. While you're in motion. A lot of people put this in their sink. There's a lot of things. There's some people have their trays. But I just saw the Samar. I don't remember where. I'm sorry whoever did this and like, I'm not giving you credit, but somebody should get credit for that because I just thought it was a really good low tech but cool and kind of like, not really steampunky, but I mean using, you know, I love reusing materials. So that just worked really good. Well it's a small space and you guys have really put a lot of personality in here. Yeah. And we wanted to feel like, you know, we wanted to feel good if we had to spend days of rain or be stuck in this rig. It's like, I actually like being in here a little too much sometimes. Like, I know you're supposed to be outside, but I like it in here. I'm just gonna stay here. So you guys have a composting toilet. Yes. But no shower. No. How does that work out for you? So we shower at Planet Fitness or at Truck Stops or at other places. I mean, there's a lot of places with showers. There's laundry mats with showers in different places. So yeah, it hasn't been an issue for us. But you have sinks, you have water. Yeah. And give a water tank. We have a 15 gallon fresh water tank. We have no water heater. So I just like heat a little bit of boiled water up to do the dishes. It's never been an issue with us. You know, to have all that, it just seems, it seems excessive. I think I like to keep it as simple as possible. Yeah. I'd rather go to a place that has a really nice shower with really hot water and be able to like stand in there and like really take a shower than have one of those that are like all, ah, you know, oh, okay. You know, it's like, okay, I'll just, I'll just wait a couple more days and go to the real one. And we've kind of, you know, put it into the budget. Budget. Yeah, we have the winter fridge on 400 pound drawer glides. The whole thing comes right out and it's got the dual compressors. So one side can be the refrigerator. The other side is the freezer and lots of storage space. We move it. And this runs off 12 volts? Yep, runs off our 12 volt, totally off our solar. And we have a couple of just simple latches to do it, but we can also close it up like that until we get this here. And then we have our cooktop here. Oh, genius. And that's where that right up there opens up. And it worked out nice again with the, this side, if you notice this side is lower than this side because we needed to have room for the counter or for the art. And so with, it worked out perfect that the cooktop fits right on the top and it's almost the same exact side, height as the other side when with the cooktop. One of the most common complaints I hear from van people is that they have to go outside to cook. Like when the weather's bad or it's windy. So you have an option, which is great. Yep, we just use the simple little, one gallon little propane tank. So Robin came up with this simple paracord that is a real stretchy flexible cord material. And that holds the spice drawer for all of Robin's awesome cooking. But basically, you know, it just comes right down, stretches over and keeps everything closed when we're driving down the road. And we don't have to worry about things flying open and it's not some, you know, $20 hardware we had to buy somewhere. This is a simple stream. Okay, hi. He does sneak up on you. He's snuck around. I thought it was somebody walking up to our campsite. Hi. Okay, so when you want to make it into a bed, you pull this forward. So this is just a slide that comes out. And then when we're done, we just push it back in. It's usually something that slides out. And then these two cushions fit. And then these cushions just go right in here. It's very quick and simple. We just put the cushions in. We actually leave our sheet rolled up attached to these two sides. So all we have to do is just pull it down and just attach it to those two sides. And it's much easier than like taking it off and doing the whole thing again. You know, the first time I saw this, the bed was out. Right. So I thought it was a permanent bed. This is a really great little group space. Yeah, yeah. Now these people like board games, I happen to know. So this is a good board game space. Yeah. Well, we should show you our table. Yeah. Oh, we have a table too. And tell me about the floor. Cork. Cork. It's cushy. It's cushy. We like it. It's not that durable, but we don't really care that much. So. Okay. Talk to me, Goose. All right. So in front of our beautiful Instagram doors and our lovely. You need a girl out there in a bikini with a floppy hat. Van life. The Lagoon table leg. All right. So that slides right on there and tightens up a couple turns. And that's good. And this makes a table? Yep. Robin will show you. The other part of it, which is redwood, a redwood bookcase that I salvaged. Gorgeous. Oh my gosh. With some of that same. Look at this thing. With some of the walnut that we had from the countertops around the edge of it to finish it out. I want you to read you my desk. Just like that. Yes? Yes. Okay. All right. One of the little tricks that we did. Let me slide it. Go off again. If you look at the back, see how it's not totally centered right in the middle both ways, which would be kind of your natural inclination to do it. But what it does is it makes it so it's actually more useful in different situations. See, right now it's closer this way, but we spin it around and it's a little further back and it goes farther out of the way. So it actually creates more opportunities to fit in different positions. It was a really lovely tour. That was amazing. We have fun stories with Eric and Robin and Robin. Oh. The hook, Dan. I don't know about you guys, but last night I woke up and there was a hook in my door. Oh, was it bloody? Thanks Wonderboom for the great tour. Check out their videos below. Everybody have happy travels. Yeah. Happy plane. That's great.