Our Story

Check out blog part 2 for more of our adventures

Spent the night in Seaside, Oregon

Stopped in Portland on our way up the coast. It was lame.

Awesome second day of the trials. Got to see Matt Centrowitz take the win in the 1500 meter.

Steve gave us a tour of the track that is dedicated to his brothers

Everyone was super stoked to see Bernard Lagat take the win, but we were even more stoked to see Galen Rupp take the loss.

Made it to Historic Hayward field to watch the Olympic trials for track and field. Thanks so much to Steve McChesney for hitting us up with tickets and showing us around Eugene.

Tacky trails were a welcome sight after doing so much riding in a desert

We rode the McKenzie river trail on out way out from Bend

We drove our way from Bend through the Cascades. It was amazing to see the landscape shift from desert to dense forest.

After 1 month on the road Lewis headed home because he was too soft for the bus life. You will be missed, Loris. 

Thanks again to the Millsagle family for hosting us in Bend. Will and Andy spent countless hours with their dog Dexter playing fetch in the yard.

Checked out some cool caves in Redmond

Great mountain bike ride at Phil's trails in Bend until William wrecked his derailleur and Andy snapped four chainring bolts. Luckily, we were able to hitch a ride from a fellow mountain biker, saving us a thirty-minute walk home. 

Some of the best pizza we have ever had

Cooking the pizza in the brick oven

Firing up the oven

Steelhead falls

William jumping for joy with the knowledge that there will be pizza for dinner tonight 

Stoked for cliff jumping at Steelhead falls

Scott prepares to get footy for the boys

William getting ready to set up the ropes

Heading up to Smith Rock for some climbing and fly fishing

The map of our journey across the side of the bus in chalk. 

South and North Sister and Broken top mountain.

Thank you to the Milslagle family for hosting us, and Dexter the dog for keeping a watch over the bus.

Thanks to Octave for the surf hookup! 

Started the morning with some boogie boarding and paddle boarding on the small surf.

Dropping some waves on the boogie boards.

Lunch on the Grill. Good food is even better when all you've been eating are peanut butter jelly sandwiches and granola bars.

Lewis getting ready to drop in. 

Follow the rope and you can find Will.

Sums up the day.. Our surfer friends (middle) ripped it up and we got tossed around (left and right). 

All and all a sweet day at the ocean. Finally made it coast to coast!!

Quick edit from our stay in Crested Butte. 

Kuhl has been extremely helpful through providing us with some of their awesome clothing for our trip, so we paid them a visit to check out the company. We were amazed by how relaxed and friendly everyone was, and had a great time learning about the workings of such a successful business.

We were lucky enough to come just in time for lunch, which is cooked every day for all of Kuhl's employees by one of Salt Lake City's top chefs. After almost two weeks of a diet of granola bars and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, the meal tasted truly incredible. It was easily the best meal I have had in a while.

We realized this lunch was only the second time we had eaten fresh fruit throughout the whole trip. We'll have to increase that fruit intake to ward off scurvy.

We were lucky enough to meet Kuhl's in-house artist, Manny Carrasco. He has spent time drawing frame-by-frames for cartoons and animated movies. Additionally he has done a ton of other amazing work in painting and drawing that we were very impressed by. Now he works on some of the art pieces for Kuhl, and agreed to give our bus a little decoration as well. He also runs a great non-profit that organizes other artists to donate their work to fundraise for a range of charities. You can check out their work at http://www.expeditionart.org

We got to see one of Kuhl's array of awesome company vehicles. It is a Ural motorcycle from the World War Two era that Kuhl's owner thought was so cool it had to represent his business.

The final highlight of our visit was when Kevin Boyle from Kuhl invited us to come with him on a ride on some of his favorite trails in the area. We rode up a seven mile road climb through a canyon to a high trailhead. The trail followed the edge of the canyon until we came up upon an amazing view over all of Salt Lake City, which was followed by a ripper descent down back into the valley. It was probably the best ride of the trip to date. Thanks so much to Kevin and everyone at Kuhl for hosting us for an awesome time in Utah!

Thanks to the Morgan family for putting us up in Park City, Utah. Huge shout out to Maddie Morgan for drawing a sweet mural on the side of the rig!

First stop in Utah. After our stay with Scott Levine up in Eden,  he took us for a  gnarly 3 hour ride up and around Snow Basin. Some of the best riding we have done so far. 

We drove way back into the mountains behind Crested Butte to camp at a high alpine lake for some fly fishing.

We brought along possibly the most gear ever for a one night camping trip, including a few inner tubes to float the lake on.

We constructed a raft out of our four inner tubes and a tarp. It was a beautiful craft but its seaworthiness was questionable.

 Calvin snags one of many trout. 

Calvin, Lewis, and Scott hang comfortably from the trees while Will bravely fights off the beasts of the forest on the ground. 

Thanks a lot to the Bates family for hosting us for an awesome stay in Crested Butte. Also a big shoutout to Orvis and Kuhl for providing us with the sweet gear.

Made a quick edit with footage from Boston to Boulder. We ran into a few issues trying to upload it so its got a few hiccups. Soon we will have a sweet edit from our stay in Crested Butte.

Hiked up to into the mountains to find some snow. 

Hiked up to just over 12,805 feet. You really start to notice the lack of Oxygen in the air. 

Scott and Will hollering down to Lewis and Calvin before dropping in. 

Lewis tossing in a couple turns. 

Got in some night fly fishing with Calvin Bates our first night in Crested Butte. 

Awesome stay in Boulder, thanks to Hank Yoder for putting us up. We camped the night on top of Monarch Pass (continental divide elv. 11,300 ft). Headed to Crested Butte. 

We hit up this a sweet bike park in Boulder after dinner. Lot's of really cool flow trails, jump lines, pump tracks, and dual slalom.

Went out for a quick morning ride up the pass. We went in search of fly fishing but the water was pretty high and dirty so we decided just to explore a little. Then we jumped in the river for a quick dip to cool off.

It was so nice to finally see mountains again. 

Spent the whole day driving across Kansas and finally made it to Boulder Colorado for sunset. 

Not a bad way to end a full night of driving. After watching the sunrise in Kansas City we set up hammocks and slept for a couple hours before making our track across Kansas to Colorado.

After driving all night from Saint Louis, we made it to Kansas City by 5 am just in time for the sunrise. We stopped at the World War One Memorial to watch the sunrise. 

After an awesome stay and sweet Mountain Bike ride with the Bigelow family in Pittsburg we hit the road. We made it to Saint Louis to see the Arch (the gateway to the west) just after midnight. 

Day 1 on the road was an interesting one. After picking up our third passenger Will Rhatigan we ended up in stand still traffic in western New York due to a tractor trailer being overturned. This meant we had three hours to be creative while sitting on the highway. We brought out the Longboards, Bikes, Frisbees and lawn chairs making the best of it. We made it to Pittsburg late last night. Huge thanks to the Bigelow Family for putting us up for the night. Plan to do a quick bike ride in Pittsburg this morning and then head to Saint Louis. Stay tuned and follow our Instagram @busboys2k16. 

T - 1 day! 

We are packing up the bus tomorrow and hitting the road. Lots to come. 

As of early this past week the interior bus conversion is nearly complete! This includes two 9 foot bunk beds, a fold down table positioned between four of the original bus seats, and an elevated shelving unit! Check out the pictures to get a better understanding of how things are shaping up! Thank you to everyone who has been helping to fund this trip, we are incredibly appreciative!

The past few weeks we have also been working odd jobs around our towns in attempts to earn some last minute funds before our big departure!

Lewis Nottonson (5-3-2016)