Living out of a Bus Ed. 6 - the Useful, Useless, and Wish List

For this week’s edition, I review our packing list. What are the most useful things we have in the bus? The most useless? And what we wish we packed, but didn’t!

It’s easy to analyze these things in hindsight, but not always that obvious upfront when you are in planning phase and not actually living it.

Top 5 most used things we packed:

outdoor mat - we picked this up within a week or two of being on the road and it’s amazing to have for all of the obvious reasons. It keeps a lot of dirt out of the bus and is a great spot to sit and hang and do morning yoga :)
the grill - keeps the heat out of the bus & just makes food taste so much better! This was one of the last things we packed & it almost didn’t fit, but we took the legs off of it to sneak it in & SO glad we did! Nothing can compare to a good ol’ grilled cheeseburger.

3. my yoga mat & workout bag - almost daily usage, love new moves with my bag! See my post about staying #fit while on the road full time with these 2 accessories!

4. cards - so versatile! We play something with cards almost daily, our favorites being cribbage, blind golf, and speed. Some sort of bus entertainment is a must! Especially these days when it’s getting dark at 7:30 PM :0

5. Mobile hotspot - we have a hotspot (the Verizon jetpack Mifi 8800L), but we recently upgraded Jake’s phone to be hotspot-capable as well giving us a total of 45 gigs of hotspot / month. The hotspot gets 16 gigs of data, and reload prices are outrageous, so when we ran out, we upgraded Jake’s phone plan to get 30 gigs of hotspot itself. This is more than enough for our working needs & even allows us a few eps of GoT / week (yes, we are aware that we are about 4 years behind, but #winterIScoming!!!

BONUS I: a plastic egg holder (okay, grocery stores sell these too), but I highly recommend as it doesn’t get soggy in the fridge!

BONUS II: my chicken wall hanging <3 - the best reminder of my girls, even though my favorite one passed while in grandparent daycare #RIPDandy; a memorial will be had on our return to the coop.

BONUS III: we recently ordered a battery-powered milk frother from Amazon - it really adds a new level to morning coffee. Oat milk lattes coming up, all day, err-day!

Top 5 most useless things we packed:

cowboy hats - we were optimistic & they make us feel powerful, what can I say (btw, we have yet to wear them this trip, but they do fall out of their storage when we take sharp left turns!) We also bought them last year when we were out west, so they have a special place in our hearts <3

2. Wifi extender, specifically, we have the Wineguard Connect, model WF-AP01. It’s a bust & I wouldn’t pay more than $20 for it honestly (it retails for $300 and up). Luckily, we found this on Marketplace, in the box, and got it for a good price. But it’s what I would call $300 over-priced. This is my warning to you - don’t buy it! (unless it’s from me - it is for sale :D)

3. our backcountry gear (thus far) - we have a full bin of camping goods, but have only broken out our tent, mats, and bags once in WA! We aren’t that confident in how the dog would do with multiple long days on the trails (especially in any weather over 80F) and don’t have her papers with to bring her to a daycare. :/ We have many trails on our list that we want to go back to the backcountry!

4. nice clothes - anything aside from pajama-type clothes or workout clothes only take up space. We didn’t pack anything extreme of these (we were thinking a bit), but anything more than nothing is too much. #whatwerewethinking

5. our pull-out couch - we are so happy we have this functionality in the bus, however, we spent SO much time putting this guy together for the limited use it has gotten. We have more friends staying with us coming up, so maybe we’ll feel better about it once we have more visitors :)

BONUS I: I’m still not sure how I feel about the inflatable kayak. I have gotten in on the water a handful of times, but Idk if I would pack it again, in all honesty.

Top 5 Things we WISH we packed that we did not:

Checkbook - when we do pay for camping, it’s almost always at a pay box. National Forest, BLM campgrounds, recreational areas - they all operate by pay box. Which are NOT 21st century devices and do not spit out change. SO if you want to avoid over-paying OR not having cash on you to be able to stay somewhere, bring a checkbook. There have been quite a few times that we end up scrounging together as many quarters as we can find or over-paying by a few dollars because we don’t have the change. #roundUP So do yourself a solid, pack a checkbook. Also unlike the 21st century, I have not seen a single pay box that doesn’t take checks.
Sports! We enjoy a wide variety of spots & sometimes we are hiked out and just want to throw a frisbee in the park. Things like a frisbee and spike ball unfortunately did not make the cut, but I think would have gotten a surprising amount of use! TG for our tennis rackets though - we’ve had at least 5 matches in the last couple months.
A different extender, but for cell signal - we actually looked at one of these that functioned as both a wifi extender and cell signal antenna, but it was not what was for sale on the marketplace at the time. It’s crazy to think that 10 feet in the air would make a difference, but something I have learned while searching for signal is that it DOES. This is something on the wish list now that we know how awful the extender we currently have functions!
A flip-out table on the side of the bus - this is more of a project than a “buy it from Amazon” kind of deal, but I envy all of those who have a flip out table installed to their bus! When staying on free land (which we do often), it doesn’t typically come with a picnic table (shocker), so having your own for grilling, eating, chilling, gaming, etc. would be extremely nice! This is the first project Mr. Jakers will tackle when we get back to our tools, I’m sure of it! :D
a heater - this is less of “wish we packed” & more of “we were aware we didn’t pack it & knew we’d likely need to pick one up on the way!” Leaving MN in 100+ weather, it seemed outrageous to pack a heater. We also didn’t really have the space for it (which we still don’t), but at least we will need it when we buy it! Anyone down to trade an AC unit for a heater??

& there you have it! A review of our very best items (aside from all basic amenities), the junk that just takes up space, and things we have on our wish list for #RubyUpgrades! :)