The Turtle Shuttle, Part I

On the forefront of new, where do I begin? In all reality this moment has been building, and breaking, and brewing for 8 years; perhaps a life time, to be at the beginning… again.

Let’s start here… it is June 2026, and I just bought a bus. A shuttle bus. A fully converted E-450 Ford shuttle bus, to be exact. And she is perfect. As in the dream wishlist, down to the most random details, and more I didn’t even know to dream of. It is fully on and off grid ready, came furnished and completely stocked with every piece of equipment I need to start, and it smells of cedar wood.

I have been looking for a converted bus specifically since September of last year. I have been preparing a traveling studio and mobile business since 2018. I am an oil painter, so there are chemicals to consider. I am a mother, so there are schedules to consider. I have a torrid affair with chronic pain, and a lot of responsibilities, across multiple states, and there’s everything possible to consider. The bus is where everything aligns.

They call her the Turtle Shuttle.

I first saw Ms. Turtle’s profile on a skoolie/conversion site in January. I actually included her picture in a new year’s collage for my phone screen, as my dream bus. For a month or so I simply pondered how I could make it work, while still looking at all my options. By the end of February, I could hardly stand it. I reached out directly. The shuttle bus listing included a link to the owners website, The Wild Cypress, where I learned of the work she’s been doing with inclusive nature and forest therapy experiences.

The Turtle Shuttle made two US tours and hosted deaf forest retreats across the country (and Canada). I wrote to her, that, while I’m not part of the deaf community, there seems to be cross-overs in the work we are doing. I explained what I am working on, what I intend to do with a bus and my proposal. I wished for her to find the exact right person for such a beautiful bus and sent that email off without a second thought. I kept my eyes on the listing websites, even spoke to a man in New Jersey about his 1994 blue-bird bus conversion… all while the turtle shuttle remained on my phone screen.

Then, in April, I got a message.

It was Summer, of The Wild Cypress. She said she read my inquiry and would be happy to schedule a video chat to talk more about the turtle shuttle and see if I was the right fit. We met on zoom with an ASL translator where she proposed a potential work-trade as partial down-payment. Over the coming weeks we discussed the sale and mural/work trade; and, just before my birthday, I sent a good-faith deposit and booked a one-way flight to Florida.

On May 22nd, I flew, in the tiniest plane, from Charlotte to Gainesville. I spent the entire week leading up to that flight crying in my friends’ kitchen. For every different reason; outright fear, so much gratitude, joy, excitement, disbelief, digesting the impending and unknowable change to come. It was palpable. I had hardly told more than a handful of people this was even happening, in part worrying it would all fall through. With advice from the kitchen table, I reached out privately to some friends to tell them my plans, as an act of good faith that it was all working out.

And so it did.

To be continued…