Overheated Our School Bus Conversion @ 10,000 FEET

Overheated our bus at 10,740 feet. Quick breakfast this morning. A long way to go today.

Papa, where are we going today?

We are going to a vlog fan's house near Rocky Mountain National Park. We're gonna do that tomorrow, not today. Got a big travel day today. It's gonna be a long boring day, so I put up on Instagram Let's spice it up a little bit with some question and answer. We already got a couple of questions in. Oh gosh, we already got 4 questions. Are you still planning on getting bees? Miles, yes, we still plan on getting bees when we get back. Growing Back to Eden, when will we be in Washington? Hold on, Rebecca, when will we be in Washington?

Um, September.

Sleeping in this morning. We've been going hard. Been getting up at 5, 6, going to bed at 11 or 12. Can only do 5 or 6 hour sleeps. Well, 5 hour sleeps one night and be okay, and then 6, 7 a week, and then we gotta crash, right? Yeah, still in the bed. I don't know if y'all can see that. Oh yeah, you can see that bright and clear. 9, 11. As my dad would say, we're burning daylight, but we need to to catch up. Yeah. You're looking good! I'm more just— Looking happy.

I'm just more resting. I don't know, maybe I got some— maybe we got some therapeutic benefits last night from the, uh, the mineral hot springs.

Glenwood Springs Hot Springs. She came here when she was a teenager or early 20s.

Yeah.

And I knew about it. I was at home. She was here with her family. I wanted to be here. I don't know what it was about this place. And you wanted me to be here.

I know I did, because I was just here with my family and my sister was sick, so I was by myself.

Somebody blew up a float and everybody's clapping for them. Now here we are, we're here together. I think we'll do a Q&A from this bed right here.

Okay.

Couple of questions. Let's do it. What would you change? What would you take out of the bus?

What would I take out?

Somebody wants to know what you would take out.

That stupid light.

Oh yeah, that we keep on hitting our heads on. The one that we were gonna put over a dining table that we never use. Yeah, this one. We keep still hitting our heads on it.

Um, well, we took out the washer and dryer.

Yep.

We did take those out, um, and we took those out like in June when we went home. There's just too much of a risk of leakage and mold growing and stuff like that. I just couldn't handle the stress of always having to check behind the washing machine and stuff like that. I would maybe make the shower smaller so we would have more room in the bathroom, like when we were going to the bathroom.

It's a little cramped in here. In our new design competition that's going on right now. Somebody wanted to know how our basil was doing. Let's see. Oh my gosh, Rebecca, you got a decent leaf right there, honey.

Awesome.

I think this is a perfect example because we were leery. We weren't sure this was going to happen. It's in the bus. Is it going to get plenty of light? Well, it gets plenty of light. It's like a greenhouse right there. That basil plant is jamming. I'm glad we just planted, right? Speaking of Just Planting, we got that design contest going on. We're coming up with a new design. Gonna create another t-shirt and a mug with this new design. It's gonna have the words Just Plant on it, and it's got a— in honor of this— a plant growing in a pot. So we've narrowed it— hundreds of people submitted applications, tried for this design contest. We've narrowed it down to 4. Go vote for those. We'll leave that up for the next couple of days. Whichever one you guys pick is the design we're gonna come up with and sell And we're bringing back the Great American Farm Tour t-shirts and mugs with that logo, plus a black Great American Farm Tour t-shirt. And somebody wanted to know, are we going with the same company, Farm Fresh? Absolutely. They source their material locally out in California, and it's 100% organic, so it's non-GMO, all that good stuff. All right, time to go, guys. Where'd you get your cool sticker thing? Amazon. Look at that. We're gonna fill up with some fuel. Somebody wanted to know how much diesel fuel have we bought this entire trip. Hang on a second. Ready? Guess. Can you guess? No. $4,027. Plus whatever we get here today. Probably about $150. Well, we must have been drier than I thought. It only lets you fill the $95. I've done that twice. Still not done filling it up. But it won't let me do a third time here. I've got to see a cashier. $230 of fuel. Pulled over on the side of the road. Our engine warning light came on. We're at 10,700 feet. Our engine water has gotten too hot. So Beauty's trying to figure out if we need to turn the engine off or not. I'm gonna text my mechanic.

Justin talked to the mechanic and everything is fine. We decided that we're gonna take the car off with towing it, which we had thought that we might need to do, but we were gonna just see what happened. Since we've been doing this pretty fine and there's been no issues at all with the engine getting too warm, we just figured it was gonna be another day like the last couple days we've been traveling. But obviously this one's just a little bit more intense, so I'm gonna drive the van and and we're gonna just get up this mountain and get down it safely, and everything's going great. The engine is— this is the— this is the one that was too high, and it is obviously recovered nicely. We pulled over immediately. It's working out and everything's going fine. I have to admit, when that engine When that warning buzzer came on, oh, I was so afraid. I was like, I thought it was the brakes, and I was like, oh no. Yeah, it was, it was nerve-wracking. I think we were all a little bit like—

What a view. What a place to get broken down on. Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. We got Beauty in here. I got her a radio. Here you go. You go in front. I just skipped exit 221 where it kind of leveled out. About to go through a storm, 40 minutes away. Hey, you guys enjoying dinner? Yeah! Yep. We have arrived. Finally, it's been a long hard day. A lot of climbing, really slow going with Maple. A bit of drama there breaking down. Kind of crazy. Gonna answer a few more questions and then be done. Hey, hey, Gideon. Your ketchup's on your finger, buddy. Can you sit down?

Thank you.

Good boy.

Lydia's Little House asks, what is the best food you have had so far on this trip? And I would have to say that it was at Al Lumna's of Lumna Acres. He made this like— zucchini yellow squash yummy delicious crock-pot recipe. It was absolutely amazing.

Plus his homegrown turkey.

Oh yes, plus homegrown turkey.

And he brought a— he brought a gluten-free organic cake. So not only does this get you clean—

That was to the potluck. He brought the cake to the potluck.

Yep. Not only does he eat clean, he really knows how to prep it good. And isn't— and he taught me— isn't that what it's all about? It's all about the eating, right? If we're homesteader growing our own food, that's the end result.

Dia Foyd asks, did you grow up on a farm or did you get into it later? And I did not grow up in a farm. I grew up in suburbia in South Florida. Justin kind of grew up on a farm. They had cattle.

Do you guys grow up on a farm?

Yeah, it's fun growing up on a farm.

If you had to choose a new state to live in, what would it be? Colorado, for sure. Whiskey Creek Ranch asks, when will you be in Washington? September, I believe it's September.

She's looking at the next question. I'll give you a rough idea of the schedule. Next up, Wyoming, eastern South Dakota, then cutting up through Montana, Idaho towards the end of August, then Washington. Yeah, then Washington in early September, then Alaska. Alaska, y'all. Does anybody know of any really cool farms in Alaska near Anchorage? Let us know in the comments down below. Give us a link to the web address. Even if it's you, that'd be even better.

What crop or tree have you seen on the road that you definitely want to plant when you get home? I don't know if I have one. Justin, do you? I want to get a bunch of animals. I think that's more of what I'm interested in.

I have one.

What?

More flowers.

More flowers? Okay, more flowers.

All right, good.

And I do too. You know what, thank you for reminding me. I do want more flowers. Felix asks, are you going to be sad when the tractors—

I want tractor.

You want tractors?

Yeah.

I think it'll be bittersweet, just like leaving the farm and being away from the farm is bittersweet. I think we'll miss aspects and we'll be glad some parts are over.

Yes.

We'll miss meeting people and seeing all the different sights, and we will not miss—

Driving.

The driving. And the terrors that come with driving sometimes.

Yeah.

I'll miss it! You will?

No.

What will you miss?

Um, the driving.

You like the driving?

You like the driving? I don't think so. You're just talking. You don't like the driving.

Do you like the driving?

Maybe you do. I'm sorry. Do you? Do you? Because you kind of don't act like it. You kind of act like you're bored to death when we're driving. Sometimes. Okay.

Somebody wanted to know— hold on one second. We always say somebody when we're That handle is crazy hard to read. No, no, okay. Hillary Sargent wanted to know if we were gonna check out ABC Acres in Montana, and we called them today.

Oh my word.

And we are visiting them.

And they called me back.

Oh, they did?

Yes. Oh good. Move the kids into here. Get you guys away from the couches so we don't have any couch casualties with that fruit. We're gonna ask questions until the fruit is done, so it's ticking down, Beck. Looks like we have 3 questions left.

Samantha wants to know, are we going to continue to homestead? Of course we are. Somebody else wanted to know when the— someone wanted to know what the hiking shoes were that our kids were wearing. They are Keens, and I can't remember exactly which shoe they are, but they're Keens.

Rate them 1 to 10. 10 means Excellent. 8.

Will there be a meetup in northern Idaho? Yes, there will be.

Dan Uman, Grass Fed Homestead, called him today. He's on and he's on for a meetup. It's gonna be good.

This one says, this is for you, Justin, do you think any land can be farmed or is some just too far gone?

Any land can be farmed. If we haven't— if one thing I've learned on the tour, you can farm anything. Look at Jerome, 7,200 feet, not just growing stuff but growing tropical fruits. Look at, uh, Dennis down in the sand, Full Circle Farm in the heat of Florida. Where are some other difficult growing places that we've been? I mean, we'll be in Arizona before it's over. That's the desert, y'all. It can be grown there. You can green the desert with permaculture. So if you can green the desert, you can grow anywhere.

Somebody wanted to know how my mom was doing. Oh, and she's doing excellent, and she's hopefully meeting us in Alaska So you guys will be seeing her soon.

Can everybody go woo for Grandma and Alaska?

One of you guys want to know how Christy's doing? Let's FaceTime her. You guys want to FaceTime Christy?

Yeah.

Guys, she's on the phone. Is she there yet?

Hey Christy.

Hey guys. Hey, Christy's on the phone, hun. Come look. Boy, they're full of energy.

Hey Jonah. Hi. Hey Kenyon, how are you? Oh my goodness, it's Paul Reiss.

Hey! Hey, Christy!

Christy!

Ask her how she's doing. Everybody wants to know.

Everybody from the vlog wants to know how you're doing, so—

Oh, hi, Peter!

So how are you doing?

I got to hang out with some friends tonight. We went to the chocolate lounge. Got some yummy gluten-free cookies. They were so good!

Yay!

Have you ever been to Colorado, Christy?

I have never been to Colorado. I would love to go. Oh, wow. I would love it because—

Yes, it is so gorgeous here, Christy. You would love it.

Hey, watch. Okay, talk to Christy. All right, peace. Yeah, all right, we'll let them finish. All right, you guys, good night to you all.

Did you guys have fun at the rodeo?

Yeah, good.

That is— it's crazy.

See, look at this one.

Oh my goodness, I know they are, Christy. They are growing up so much. That's crazy. Oh my gosh. All right. What do you guys want to tell Christy?

That our brakes, that our engine got too hot. The engine got too hot and we had to pull over on the side of the interstate. And filming at the time.

We did.

How did you cool it down? Did you have to blow on it to cool it down? No.

Yes, they were all going. Is that what they were doing? Yeah.

You know what I was thinking? What? Your birthday is in like 5 weeks. It's in like another month now. My birthday! Oh, my birthday's in a month. My birthday's gonna be in Alaska.

Yeah, we're gonna be in Alaska for Lily's birthday.

She's gonna talk to Lily though.

Let her talk to Lily, are you excited that your birthday is coming so soon? Yeah, and my birthday— 11, right? No, I'm going to be 6. I know, I remember. I be 2. He's going to be 3 on your birthday. Gideon's going to be 3? I thought he was turning 17. Hi, I'm Jonah. And I'm turning 10.

I know, Jonah's gonna be 10.

No, I'm turning 27. You're turning 27?

You're turning 19? Oh boy, Lily says she wants to be 19. All right, Miss Christy, we love you, we miss you. Bye, you guys.

I hope to see y'all soon.

We will, hopefully soon. Bye!

Bye guys! Have a good time!

Thank you!

You too! Bye, camera! Bye!

For more question and answer type vlog, check out our bus video. We talk about our struggles of being on the road. I'll link to it right there.

Good night!