The Bus-House

Tuesday, April 15, 2008 -- Vancouver, WA

Since we began this new lifestyle back in July, I've struggled with what to call our new home, especially when I'm writing or talking about it. "Motorhome" or "Motor Coach" has always seemed a little pretentious to me, evoking images of the wealthy traveling from high-class RV Resort to high-class RV Resort; or highly paid celebrities who don't fly; or Nascar drivers hanging around racetracks with their trophy-wives and kids. We are none of those things.

I have often used "camper" -- a term that reminds one of the units people use to go camping, like travel trailers, tent pop-up trailers, and fifth-wheel trailers. This works for me because we really prefer camping to resorting, we like being in the woods, with plenty of space between us and our neighbors, with a good old-fashioned campfire ring, the smell of pine, the sound of wind blowing through the trees.

I've also used "bus", even though it also doesn't quite seem to describe what we have. It's really not a bus. Some high-class motorhomes are indeed converted buses. But ours is not. "Bus" does flow off the tongue easily, but, for me, it just doesn't communicate what I want the term to say.

However, in a flash of brilliance, our almost three year old grandson, Ryan, has come up with a term we've been using around here the past few weeks... a term that works for us... a term that has solved my problem. That term is "bus-house" which describes, to a child, that our house is a thing that looks like a bus. It's caught on with everyone around here. It has a certain ring to it... it rolls off the tongue easily. And if it makes sense to a kid, it should make sense to anyone. I like it.

So you'll probably be reading more about the bus-house in the future, or The Bus House, or TBH... maybe just BH??

By the way, when people ask Ryan where the bus-house is... he proudly tells them it's at the "VR Park". Don't you just love what comes out of the mouths of little kids?

T