All aboard the Admiral Mann
COLLEGE EMPLOYEE BUYS SCHOOL BUS TO RENOVATE INTO AN RV
BY TIM VIXAY
TCP: Do you have any advice for future adventurers or
future RVers?
Urbassik: If you’re thinking about purchasing a vehicle
like this, you need to think of a couple different things
•before you can even get started. A lot of people have
issues with where to store them, so they purchase this
No, she doesn’t go around picking up elementary school vehicle, they’re really excited, but then they have no
kids and dropping them off at school. She just recently place they can work on it or store it. You have to make
bought a school bus with her husband, Johnathan sure you have the right licenses depending on how it’s
Eberhard, and is in the process of converting it into going to be registered. It can get a little pricey, and it
can get a little challenging at times. It’s a very time-
anRV.
consuming process, but it’s fun. I know there will be a
The Clackamas Print: You just bought a school bus. few times where we’ll get frustrated. Maybe the flooring
won’t go in right or we won’t be able to fix something,
What are your plans with this?
Dru Urbassik: Right now, my husband and I do a lot but that’s all part of doing a renovation. If someone has
of camping and we’ve been tent camping for years— the drive to do this and they want to go on an adventure,
sometimes cross-country—and we’ve been looking into’ this is a fun one to do!
This interview has been edited fo r clarity and space.
getting an RV or maybe converting something. And we
found this school bus! We’re slowly converting it into a
camper. It’s a35~foot, 1997 Thomas Saf-T-Liner school Pictured right: Renovations on the bus began with the
bus. It was part of Beaverton. It was bought at auction, removal of the seats and the addition of a sofa. Dru
Urbassik plans to add a bedroom, kitchen, a lounge
and we bought it from someone privately.
The college’s director of curriculum and scheduling is in
charge of many things behind the scenes at the campus.
Dru Urbassik creates the schedule and arranges the
classrooms before each term. In her spare time, she also
drives a school bus named the Admiral Mann.
area and a garage.
TCP: W hat are some o f the renovations you have
planned?
Urbassik: We have taken out all but three rows of seats
on either side. We’ve gutted the whole back of it and on
the right-hand side in the front, we’re actually utilizing
the school bus seats, and we’re making a dinette table.
We’ll have a bedroom, a kitchen area, a lounge area and
then a garage area in the back.
•
TCP: Where do you plan to go?
Urbassik: We are actually going to be in the Ochoco
National Forest. We usually camp on the east side of the
Cascades. We may take it other places, but it’s a really
big, heavy vehicle; so until we get a few miles under our
belts and used to driving it, we’re probably not going to
take it further than just around Oregon for now.
TCP: What inspired you to do this, especially with a
school bus?
Urbassik: Truthfully, it was kind of an impulse buy.
We’ve been looking at RVs and other vehicles, [like]
trailers, for years now. We have renovated a house
before, and we combined that experience and that dream
and decided that we would renovate the bus. We found
the right one at the right time. I like the idea that we
can customize it and do what we want with it. We were
looking at renting an RV, and for about that same price
we can just buy the bus and renovate it. It’ll be a two to
- — three-year project for us. I would have been fine with
the shell of any other vehicle, but we just found the bus
and were like, “ That’s the one!”
12 Clackamas Print MARCH 8,2017 theclackamasprint.com
Below: Urbassik and her husband Johnathan
Eberhard in front of their school bus, proudly named
the Admiral Mann.