From 'road-schooling' to gas that costs $500, this family of 4 shares what it's like living in a solar-powered Greyhound bus

• Ashley and Alex Morris live in a converted Greyhound bus with their two children.

• The family lives on the bus full-time and travels the United States year-round.

• They shared what it's like doing everyday tasks like attending school and making friends on the road.

The Morris family, also known as "The Wanderlusters," travel full-time in a solar-powered Greyhound bus converted into a modern tiny home.

The Morris family is synonymous with adventure.

Alex, 32, and Ashley Morris, 33, live full-time with their two children, Declan, 9, and Hadley, 5, in a 45-foot-long Greyhound bus traveling the United States. The family of four, known as "The Wanderlusters," has explored at least 18 states as of August 2022 when they spoke to Insider. At the time, they were looking for orcas on an island near Washington State's coast.

"We like to fully experience an area as much as we possibly can, so when we go somewhere, we'll stay parked for one to two weeks and check out as much as we can," Alex told Insider. "We slowly pick up our home and move it across the country in short little bursts."

The family chronicles day-to-day life with their travel blog and social media, showing audiences how to tackle day-to-day activities like attending school and living with solar power.

The Wanderlusters originally lived in Michigan but decided to hit the road in November 2019.

The Morris family lived in a traditional home in the Port Huron area in 2017, a time when Alex said they were living the "American dream." But after he got laid off from his job in August 2019, it opened the door for opportunities.

"We didn't know what we were going to do," Alex said. "I started lining all these other opportunities up and Ashley at this point was like, 'Let's go live on the road,' because she'd been trying to convince me for years up until that point."

Ashley wanted to try RV life after learning about "road-schooling" online.

Ashley told Insider that she was inspired to live on the road after deciding to homeschool Declan. While scrolling online one day, she stumbled across "road-schooling," which means children are homeschooled while the family travels full-time.

"This would be amazing for our family," she said. "Declan would get so much more life experience. He would get to see so much."

Alex was initially hesitant, but couldn't say no when they tentatively listed their home for rent in June 2021 and a willing tenant responded in 24 hours. They used Alex's severance package to purchase a travel trailer in November 2019 and moved out of their home that month.

The family traversed the United States with the travel trailer in 2020 before upgrading to their current bus-turned-tiny home in May 2021.

The family hitched their travel trailer and officially hit the road in February 2020. During that time, Alex and Ashley realized that lifestyle was a perfect fit for their family, prompting them to discuss the next steps.

"We sat down as a family and we decided we loved this life. We wanted to keep it going as long as possible," Ashley said. The Morris family used the money they got for their Michigan home to pay for the $32,000 converted Greyhound bus. After renovations, the family paid around $52,000.

Although the family left their home, they kept their Chevrolet Silverado truck, which they hitched to the bus and brought along with them.

The Greyhound bus is outfitted with solar panels, a touch the Morris family added to avoid stopping at campgrounds for electricity.

Alex and Ashley said they installed the solar panels themselves after buying seven panels for $65 a panel on Facebook Marketplace. One of the main reasons they wanted solar panels was to avoid RV campground fees. RV campgrounds typically charge travelers fees for renting lot space, electricity, and utilities.

"We can spend weeks or months out in the middle of nowhere and be fine," Alex said. Ashley said most of the bus runs on electricity, including the water heater and lights.

The bus has other amenities like a 75-gallon fresh water tank that lasts about seven days. The family has a 60-gallon water bladder in case they run out, which they can find at campgrounds and other road stops.

The family also uses campground or rest stop dumpsters to dispose of trash between destinations.

"When we were in our house, we would go through one bag of trash roughly every day as a family of four," Alex said. "Now, we try to be as compact as possible."

Gas can cost as much as $500 a month, depending on how far the family travels.

The Morris family typically spends between $300 to $500 a month on gas for the bus and truck.

"I can get about 500 miles to a tank on the truck," Alex said. "A tank costs me about $100 or $120, and we fill the truck maybe twice a month."

He said the bus needs about 160 gallons of diesel when it's empty, equaling around $1,000 for 1,500 miles. When the Morris family spoke to Insider in August, Alex said that they hadn't stopped for gas in two months.

"The bus is designed to go from like coast to coast and fill up once, so it's meant to haul a lot of people and go for a long time," Alex said.

They try to plan their gas stops in advance, knowing that certain states, like California, charge more than others.

The renovated space has hardwood floors and modern features that make traveling cozy.

The home has hardwood floors that span the entirety of the space, sans the bathroom. A long couch sits in the main area alongside a mounted TV and a table. The kitchen sits nearby with an oven, stove, sink, refrigerator, and cabinets.

I can cook while we're driving," Ashley said. "One time, because we have solar on our bus, we were doing a long drive across the country and I actually made us a full dinner."

Further into the home are the couple's bed and their children's bedroom.

The children have bunk beds, a desk, and space for their toys on the bus. It also holds a laundry nook where they can wash their clothes and hang them on clotheslines to dry.

The children attend school on the bus, allowing them and their parents to explore in their free time.

Declan follows an online curriculum while Hadley is still in preschool and works on basic skills with Ashley. Outside of school, the children fully immerse themselves in nature. The family shares social media posts of them visiting national parks and beaches.

"It was like we were seeing everything for the first time through them. They were just so overjoyed by everything," Ashley said.

She added that one of the reasons she and Alex dove into the travel lifestyle was to spend more time as a family.

"We were both working full-time jobs, so our kids were pretty much being raised by a nanny," Ashley said. "We just wanted that time with our kids. You get such a short window of time while your kids are little and we felt like we were missing out on it."

"We didn't want to miss out on it anymore," Alex added.

Despite what some people may think, Alex and Ashley said loneliness isn't a problem while they travel.

Ashley said people think life on the road may be solitary, but there's a thriving community of families to meet through Thousand Trails. Thousand Trails has more than 80 RV parks nationwide and people can apply for memberships.

"We all have a Thousand Trails membership, so we tend to stay in the Thousand Trails campgrounds and meet up," Ashley said. "It's great because we can plan our routes around each other and we can travel together. We honestly have a much more active social life on the road than we ever did in our house."

Each day for the Morris family offers a new escapade, and they show no signs of stopping.

Read the original article on Insider