On the Bus or Off the Bus?

painting the green bus, courtsey of Green Bus Tour

How would you react if you saw a green school bus driving down the road? What if you went inside and found there were no seats, but rather beds and couches and a mini cooking station? Not impressed yet, what if you were told that the bus ran on veggie oil and was making it's way across the country? This is the dream that started when a handful of conscious New Yorkers got together.

The dream is now becoming a reality, dubbed The Green Bus Tour, and their plans are moving ahead at a fast pace. The group recently reached their monetary goal on the website Kickstarter, showing that they have support beyond their community in the city. They already have one green bus in their fleet and it has made short trips in the New York area.

" I think that its going to continue to grow as we reach other to other entities that are doing like minded things," said Charlie Gonzalez, one of the founders of Green Bus Tour, " we are trying to create a model of collaboration and abundance." The green bus crew has a strong base with their community in New York, teaming up with other conscious groups like Time Interchange New York, Evolver NYC and Newsonic, the collective where Green Bus Tour holds some of their events.

The Green Bus vision is still forming, and nobody is certain where it is going to go, but with events scheduled throughout the city and plans to travel to Burning Man at the end of August, hopes are high. They want to bring together various aspects of their worlds, from yoga to permaculture to music, and educate and inspire people while having fun. " We are inspiring people to create what they want to create," Gonzalez said, " a world that better for all of us."

Charlie at the wheel, courtsey of Green Bus Tour

For Charlie Gonzalez, the idea for the Green Bus Tour came after he went on his own personal journey, both physically and spiritually. " I've deconstructed my whole sense of reality so I could recreate it based on what I believe," he continued, " an inner truth." He went on to talk about how while traveling he had the opportunity to see many different communities and how they worked to make life better for themselves. He also shared that during his trip he found himself on a few busses. "I thought," Gonzalez said, " wouldn't it be fun if we could be traveling around and think of ways that we can improve the quality of life of communities."

The green bus is a traveling education center, but more importantly, it is a traveling community ready to team up with other communities they encounter. " It's a new form of business that's based on collaboration and promoting each other," Charlie said, " that is only part of the greater vision, which is to be traveling around and integrating this whole network that is part of this transformational movement that we are all experiencing right now."