Ok, I am an 80’s rock chick at heart, hence the name of this post- The Only Way Is Up – Yazz, 1988. Go on, play it- and, you’re welcome:-)
But this is not a post about how awesome 80’s music is (because it’s indisputable – it is – lol). This is a post about our bus to motorhome conversion, and The Root Cause Australian Tour – taking our mission to Transform Children’s Health, One Lunchbox At A Time, around Australia. I have been too distressed to write since my last post back in March – Broken Not Beaten.
Since that post, we have relocated our bus (come office, school and mobile billboard for our mission) to R & R Bus and Leisure Hire in Lake Munmorah. These guys are absolutely AMAZING!
The reason I have been too distressed to write is for the last 3 months is because after relocating our bus, all we got was bad news about the ‘work’ (a term we use now loosely) completed on the bus at the old place. The wiring was unsafe, bunk beds which had been screwed into thin plywood with styrofoam behind it, roof raising which had insufficient support beams that could not be passed by the engineer, cracks in the exterior walls where the roof had been raised, insufficient room for the water tanks we required… the list goes on and on.
The dollars we estimated we had lost just kept mounting. I have had to work real hard on putting that behind us. The real distress has been dealing with the thoughts of what could have been if the work had been completed and our kids got on those bunks or we drove over bumpy roads and the wiring rubbed against the metal. I shudder. And of course, the impact this delay was having on our mission to Transform Children’s Health, One Lunch Box At A Time. The great momentum achieved from being on Channel 7’s Sunrise jeopardised by an unscrupulous business man. The mind kept racing. It was a constant struggle to say and believe my mantra (I trust the universe delivers, and I am exactly where I need to be) I have said everyday for at least 5 years. I’d say it but have tears in my eyes, realising I didn’t really believe it.
During this time, Israel and I have both had moments when we thought we were beaten. There have been many a bad day, interspersed with days of excitement. We remain committed to our mission to Transform Children’s Health in Australia, and have been travelling here, there and everywhere in our car to run classes. This has really kept us buoyed.
AND THEN….
On the 14th May, the universe did deliver.
On our road-trip to Rockhampton, to take The Mad Food Science Program to the Romp In The Park Festival and to some pre-schools, we called into see Anthony & Rob at R & R Bus and Leisure Hire to check on the progress of our bus. Guess what?
No. BAD. News.
Instead, music to our eyes and ears. There was real progress being made on the bus, and we were told the bus will be ready by the end of July 2015.
The Only Way Is Up!
Since that visit to the bus, so many great things have happened.
- I was interviewed by ABC radio Capricornia about being a Food Revolution Day Ambassador and about being at Romp In The Park in Rockhampton.
- One of our past wedding clients, who is a lawyer, has come on board as a supporter for The Root Cause Australian Tour and will be acting on our behalf in pursuing Stargazer Motorhome Conversions and the proprietor Brett Smith to see if we can recover some of our money. Thank you Tanya and Waterhouse Lawyers.
- I received a phone call from a company about potentially becoming a National Partner for our Tour. I meet with them on Friday 12th July – wish me luck!
- Audio-technica came on board as a provider of The Root Cause’s Australian Tour. Look out for a vlog about them coming soon.
- Our trip to Rockhampton was amazing. We estimate we made over 500 green smoothies and touched about 1000 people over 3 days.
- We took the kids to Movie World, Wet ‘n’ Wild, and Seaworld. We saw quite a few of Australia’s Big Things – the big banana, the big bunch of banana’s, the big clam, the big prawn, the big avocado, the big Ned Kelly, the big giraffe, the big knight, and Matilda from the Commonwealth games (click here to read our daughters post about Matilda).
- And on the way back, we called in and checked on the progress of our baby. No. BAD. NEWS again – yay! More progress, and lots of our appliances have arrived.
Then today, we had more good news from Anthony about the bus. It’s still on track for end of July.
So my distress is totally gone, and instead I am filled with absolute confidence that not just the universe but Anthony and Rob from R & R Bus and Leisure hire will deliver – and our bus being with them, is exactly where it needs to be.
So now I feel excited to share some details and pics about the conversion of our baby.
Introducing R & R Bus and Leisure Hire
Rob and Roxanne own this wonderful business. Their main business is actually hiring out their great custom built vehicles for parties, corporate functions, events and even romantic get-aways. So keep them in mind when you’re next looking for something like this.
They also obviously do bus conversions and repairs too. We were fortunate enough to be introduced to them by Brad who was another person who was duped by the same guy we were. A big shout out to Brad who let our bus conversion jump ahead of his at R & R because he could see how distraught we were about selling our home and losing so much of our life savings. Also a big thank you to Rob for dealing with my crying sessions and our thousand and one questions.
Meet Anthony
Anthony, is our main man. He is doing nearly all the building work. He’s been working on caravans and bus conversions for years, but also moonlighted for a couple of years on the TV show The Block making the kitchens. He knows his stuff, and quite honestly, is rocking our world. Here he is today installing our front roof hatch.
Building Progress
The next few pics may not seem like much to you, but trust us, they are amazing progress.
This first pic shows the steel framework from the front of the bus down. Where Israel’s hand is here, is our dining room. He’s leaning against the back of a double seater. Looking straight down the line from there, the tall framework at the back is the kids bunks on the right, and our bathroom on the left.
Oh my, this is a good looking set of wires don’t you think? Seriously it is. Compared to the jumbled mess we had previously, this is a real sweet looking set of wires. In the roof you can see the wires are now encased in a conduit rather than the wires just running through the hole in the roof.
This little plastic corner edging may also not look like much but the job they do is so significant. They are actually where the corners of the rounded windows will be and will prevent the rain from coming in. We didn’t have them before!
Our flooring has arrived. Pretty awesome colour don’t you think? This will go down before the cupboards etc are laid on the floor.
Two of our appliances – our freezer and our washing machine. These will be installed here in these side bins.
We have been so excited by the progress being made that we have finally sat down to review our Australian Tour Route. Here we are mapping out NSW in more detail.
And here is our updated Australian Tour Map of Australia. Israel is currently working on building us an interactive map for the website, so stay tuned.
Thank you to our wonderful National Partners:
Thank you to our wonderful Supporters: