Skooliepalooza, which took place in Ehrenberg, Arizona, was an event unlike any other I had seen. I followed a long, bumpy, dirt road deep into the desert. I worried a few times that I might be headed in the wrong direction, but eventually I came upon a city made of buses and vehicles of every type.
I was headed to a spot that Nelson, a man I had met a few months prior in Maine, had sent me coordinates for. He and his partner Crystal had a huge bus, and traveled with his son Cole, who was about my age and had down syndrome, and her pre-teen daughter, Harlow. I pulled my bus into a circle of other vehicles, and met the rest of the group. Tamara traveled in a short bus with her cat, and Cami in an RV with her 2 dogs. They were both a bit older than I. Tiff and Eric, who were around my age, along with baby Ryder and their dog, lived in a full sized bus. Two other families included Jason and Liz with Levi, their 2 year old who was about to turn 3, and Nicole and Sean traveled with their seventeen year old son Avery. Bobby, also about my age, traveled in an ambulance, and the youngest adult traveler was Libby, who was twenty-four and drove a short to medium sized bus. Then there was Dimitri and Petar each in a van and Aidan who lives in a bus but flew out.
I found out later that this Ungathering hosted approximately 1000 vehicles and 1500 people. Numerous dogs and some cats roamed freely, but there was also a horse, goats and chickens. There were two main “roads," with vehicles set up along each side. People wandered everywhere, weaving in and out of groups, with booths set up randomly along the way where people sold their art. There was a kids’ camp area where kids played, but little ones also frolicked throughout the gathering.
I arrived slightly before the sun went down, and as it was about to reach the horizon, everyone climbed on top of their rigs to watch the sunset over the mountains in the distance. The view was breathtaking. Just as the sun dipped below the last peak, everyone erupted into howls. Much to my delight, this was a nightly ritual.
That night a group of people from my camp headed out to explore. I was grateful to be with them since the event covered a huge area, and I wasn’t sure I would be able to navigate anywhere and return to our circle by myself, at least at first.
As we wandered around, I started to hear music off in the distance, and then started seeing bright lights. We came upon one large bus that had speakers and many lights mounted to the top. There were people everywhere, dancing to the music. In the back, a fire gayly burned. I loved the chaos of the night, and dancing in the wide open desert.
As I spent more time there I got to know everybody in my little neighborhood. We had fires almost every night, multiple potlucks, and every morning when I came out of my bus, there was someone to have coffee with.
Many mornings Jason and Liz invited me into their bus for breakfast. Levi was precocious and fun, and lounging around with this new-found family quickly became one of my favorite things.
The mornings were always a little chilly, but once the day warmed up, we often set up a little table outside with paints and papers. I enjoyed the art and the company.
The first day a group of us set out to explore. I enjoyed walking around looking at all the art, and everyone we came across was extremely open and friendly.
Eventually we wandered over to the bus that plays music at night, and discovered during the day their bus was a stage where different people and bands came up and played laid-back music. We sat awhile, enjoying the warm breeze while we listened to a man sing and play his piano.
One night I set out with Eric and Nicole to go to the main stage to listen to music. We danced round and round in the excitement until they decided that they wanted to check out a different bus that had music on the other side of the gathering. I had so much energy that I just ran in circles the entire time we walked over.
The other bus was playing very mellow music, and I was not in a mellow mood, so I quickly decided I was going to leave. I told Eric and Nicole that they could stay, but they decided to come along with me anyway. We wandered through the desert, but Nicole kept stopping to stare at the stars, saying, “But guys, just look at the sky! It’s so beautiful; I just wanna look at it!” Eric said, “Well let’s just sit in the dirt then.” So we all sat and just stared at the beautiful starry sky.
Another group of people walked by us as we sat in the night, and we greeted them. One man from that group decided to sit with us, and introduced himself as Bennet, and we all sat in a circle for awhile talking about our travels. Eventually we decided to move on, and all headed back toward our camp. We realized we were walking by our friend Zack’s rig, and Eric abruptly started knocking on his door. Zack opened the door and invited us in for snacks and shots of tequila. It was the perfect way to end the night before heading back to camp.
While at Skooliepalooza, Jason and Liz were celebrating their five year wedding anniversary. As a surprise, Jason was setting up a vow renewal ceremony. He sent Liz away to listen to the music while we started setting up an altar in front of their bus. We all grabbed plants, crystals and whatever nice things we could find in our rigs, and threw them all together to create the altar.
A random girl dressed in all-white and carrying a banjo happened to be walking by. Someone asked her if she would play for the ceremony, and she happily agreed. She and her music really added a nice touch.
Jason and Liz walked down the aisle together, and Nelson stood behind the alter and said a few words about them and their love. Then they each shared their vows. It was a beautiful ceremony and at the end, their son Levi ran up saying that he wanted to say some words too. He then turned to the audience and said “Jeremiah was a bullfrog,” and that was it. Everyone erupted with laughter.
The evening wrapped up with another pot luck and everybody circled up around a campfire.
Tiff, Eric, Ryder and I spent one whole day together, exploring and hanging out. Tiff and I talked about what it was like traveling in a bus with a baby. She thought it was easier than it would be while living in a house, because wherever you went, your house was right there, so you didn’t have to pack bulky diaper bags and equipment to go anywhere because all the baby stuff was always with you.
One night there was talk of a “bus burn,” where a group of people had pallets that they put into a pile the size of a bus, which they were going to light on fire. That was something I did not want to miss.
I walked over to a multicolored short bus with all sorts of twinkling, colored lights. There was a man on top of the bus with a flame thrower, and a man with a megaphone was yelling about the fire they were going to have. The whole scene screamed “Chaos!”, and I loved it.
They poured a little gas on the pallets and then lit the pile with a lighter instead of the flame thrower, which disappointed me a little, and also concerned me with someone’s hand so close to that gasoline. I thought it was going to go up quickly, but it was a slow burn, and everyone moved in closer for warmth. But as the fire grew bigger and bigger it became hotter and hotter, and everyone quickly started to back up. Dancing broke out around the fire, mainly made up of people from my neighborhood. We ran around the quickly growing fire as we twirled and danced about. I danced until my body couldn’t take it anymore and then retreated off to bed.
Cami had a cute little teapot set and had been wanting to have a tea party, so one day a few of us girls got together and all climbed up on the roof of her RV to do just that. We sipped tea and ate little snacks while we had girl talk, which I loved because I don’t get a lot of that.
Another great part about Skooliepalooza was that all my animals were able to hang out without leashes. Sophie had multiple dog friends to play with and was entertained the whole time. Maggie just wandered about, happy to be around the humans, but not impressed with the other dogs. Thomas even had another cat friend there. They played back and forth, teasing each other and testing the waters.
It was a beautiful ten days of connection. I came to love every person that was a part of our little neighborhood. I went out and enjoyed the music multiple times, but more often than not, I wanted to be with our crew, drinking morning coffee, hanging out in each others’ rigs, and having our potlucks. I was so grateful to become a part of this beautiful, little community.
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