Today we’d like to introduce you to Scott + Ashley Mason.
Hi Scott + Ashley, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
We decided to flip the script on the American dream and move into an American school bus. Making the decision to have less to see more places and meet more people! Scott, originally from England, moved to the States when he was 20 years old, and Ashley, who lived in America until she was three months old before the Army sent her family to Germany, we have now found ourselves saying “yes” to a big “tiny” adventure. Our heart and mission is to pollinate kindness together, everywhere we travel, and spreading the message to simply “bee kind”.
We first met in Raleigh, NC at the Krispy Kreme Challenge of all places. If you’re not familiar with this charity race, it’s a 5-mile run where the participants run 2.5 miles to a Krispy Kreme Donut Shop, attempt to eat a dozen donuts, run 2.5 miles to the finish line, and do it in under an hour! After first meeting at the starting line and running a portion of the race together, we exchanged contact information, began dating a few months later, fell madly in love, and fast forward a year and a half decided to get married in June of 2013. We both wanted to stay in America and work on building a life together here. This led to our immigration journey, several moves to various cities for work, and eventually finding ourselves in the routine nine to five, still dreaming and chasing adventure, but wondering if there was something more out there for us.
In 2019, we had this crazy idea to consider selling everything and look for a new home of our dreams, an American school bus; the plan to fully convert it into our own custom tiny home on wheels to live in with our two wonderful dogs. Boasting 240 sqft. of intentional design and living space, we found the perfect school bus for our new adventure, the perfect Skoolie. It’s a 2003 Thomas HDX Saf-T-Liner Pusher Engine. By the end of 2019, the school bus was officially ours and parked on our driveway, ready to be converted into a tiny home!
We were both working full-time jobs and took on the nicknamed “Weekend Warriors”, for all of our work on the demolition and build happened on our available weekend hours. While still also traveling around the world and country to other unique and tiny houses to feature and share with others on our YouTube and Instagram pages, we have been able to glean lots of ideas on space-saving and functional small-space design.
Choosing not to go into any debt to make this dream a reality has meant a lot of creative and resourceful solutions as well as budgeting out projects month by month. Between working full-time and sticking to a budget, we now have an end in sight for completion, winter of 2021! We recently sold our house, pretty much everything in it, and have moved the bus onto Ashley’s parents driveway where we are working on completing the build. Our goal is to have the build completed by January 1, 2022, and hit the road for full-time travel as we explore all over North America in our tiny home on wheels.
This idea of downsizing, while at first daunting, is now one of the most freeing feelings. Choosing this lifestyle allows us to continue to work remotely while on the road, explore more places, see the whole country with our dogs, and meet more incredible people along the way. Ashley works for Tiny House Listings as a Tiny House Broker and helps people buy and sell tiny houses all over the country and Scott does video and photography work for real estate, brands, etc., while they both continue to grow and build their social media as their other source of income.
The Hive Drive Bus has always been about more than just a bus, it’s a challenge and reminder to always “bee kind”, pollinate that kindness everywhere you travel, to take what we see modeled by bees and do all that we can “for the good of the hive” (for the good of others). Our mission and lifestyle decisions center around the community in all of its forms. Whether it’s a trivia night out at the bus, meeting up with friends and fellow nomads along the way, or engaging with an online community, our mantra remains the same. To be kind.
You can follow along with our adventures on our Instagram page @thehivedrivebus, on our YouTube Channel (The Hive Drive Bus) for weekly vlogs documenting our Skoolie conversion and travels to unique spaces and places, and we would genuinely love to connect with each of you!
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
We really believe in making the most of every circumstance and having fun along the way. But yes, there have been plenty of challenges along the way. Neither of us has ever converted a bus before, I mean the first time Scott had ever been on an American School Bus is when we were looking at buying one! We also have some experience in construction, but it isn’t vast, so there have been lots of learning curves.
When building out the interior of a bus, nothing is level and the walls are not straight, so you have to get creative when figuring out solutions to those problems. One thing that has helped us tremendously is our Skoolie community. The people that have done this before or the people that are in the same place as us in their build. We share tips and tricks with each other and just really help one another out. We have fallen in love with our community of people we call them our hive. It really is a picture of what community is all about.
One of the other struggles we have wrestled within our minds is that this project has taken longer than originally planned. Our original goal was to have the bus built-in 1 year and we are quickly approaching 2 years, however, when you add up the days of being weekend warriors it is much less than a year spent converting it. We have made life adjustments to our work schedule and now have a solid 4 – 5 days a week to work on the bus and we have also learned to just enjoy the journey as this is all part of the adventure! It will end up being the perfect timing for us once it’s all said and done!
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
We create social media content on our Instagram page and post weekly vlogs on our YouTube channel.
We are known for our school bus conversion and traveling to unique airbnb’s/rentals, and taking ourselves less than seriously. When we hit the road for full-time travel, we also want to create content about the places to see and things to do in each area/state/country we visit. Most importantly, we always try to pollinate kindness and create community everywhere we go, and inspire others to do the same!
For us, The Hive Drive Bus is much more than a bus, it was never really about the bus as much as it was all really about intentionally living and creating a life that you are passionate about. To have the courage to chase those dreams, to swim upstream, to seeing life as an adventure, and create friendships and memories that will last a lifetime.
What were you like growing up?
Scott was always curious about everything and loved learning new things. He loved adventure and found himself watching shows like Man Vs. Wild. He loved the outdoors and was always fascinated by animals, he had several pets growing up from fish, stick insects, mice, hamsters, rabbits, and dogs. He and his family loved to travel and still do. He loved watching movies and creative arts. He went to school for film, theatre, and cooking. He always loved trying new foods and to experience new experiences!
Ashley was a social butterfly and NEVER met a stranger. She’s been a bubbly, chatterbox since she was little and always hated seeing people feel left out. Her interests when she was younger ranged from all things exploring, traveling, and photography, to playing sports, learning to surf, chasing waves and sunshine, and playing and writing music. She’s performed musically in front of thousands of people and was always heavily invested in drama and theatre presentations. She has been an animal lover and proud dog momma ever since she was little!
Contact Info:
- Email: contact@thehivedrivebus.com
- Website: www.thehivedrivebus.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/thehivedrivebus
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/thehivedrivebus
- Youtube: www.youtube.com/thehivedrivebus
