Fine Crew Still CRUISING the Countryside

PHOTO BY MORGAN TABOR

Three women went viral a few weeks into a 2021 road trip in a converted school bus. Two years later, they’re still fast friends and two of them are continuing their nomadic lifestyle.

BY MICAH DREW

It took a single headline from the Washington Post to turn a road trip among new friends into a national story, sending three young women from the West viral for their adventures.

The converted school bus is a work in progress, made possible through the hard work of family, friends, and the young women who call it home.

“Three Women Discovered They Were Dating The Same Man. They Dumped Him and Went on a Months-Long Road Trip Together,” read the title of Cathy Free’s 2021 article. The origin story of the BAM Bus, named for Bekah King, Abi Roberts, and Morgan Tabor and their converted green school bus, was the hook that captured the nation, but the story that continues to define them is one of adventure and friendship

Instead of harboring ill will towards each other following their dramatic discovery, Roberts, of Salt Lake City, and King and Tabor, of Boise, bought a school bus, turned it into a cool bus, and set off on a trajectory that continues two years later.

Bekah King, Abi Roberts, and Morgan Tabor found out they were dating the same man and instead of getting mad, hit the road together.

The road trip wasn’t intended to make headlines or be broadcast to an audience.

“We were warned by the Washington Post writer that we might receive some emails and notoriety, and we thought she was lying,” Tabor said. “Lo and behold, we woke up and realized something was happening. A lot of the DMs were from people who had similar stories—it was beautiful to see, but it was overwhelming. It was a lot to sift through.”

PHOTO BY MORGAN TABOR

A desire to genuinely respond to messages and answer interview requests meant the trio spent some of the early weeks of their road trip inside their bus glued to their phones.

“Our intention for the road trip was to get away, and it was kind of impossible in the early days,” King said. “But we found our balance that summer and it’s not as overwhelming anymore.”

PHOTO BY MORGAN TABOR

Their initial trip, documented through social media, was a best of the west journey—waking up to the backdrop of the Sawtooths and the Tetons, sunset hikes in Glacier National Park, and seascape walks on the Olympic Peninsula. It was the kind of whirlwind adventure where waking up in the same place twice was a rarity.

Of course, many of the most iconic parts of the trip were less picturesque, stored only in memories and the pages of the official bus journal—panic attacks, raccoon attacks, doing laundry in a creek, or getting the bus stuck in a sand dune.

“I think that first summer we just attracted a lot of chaos,” Tabor said.

PHOTO BY MORGAN TABOR

Act Two

That’s right, there was a first summer in the bus. And then a second. And soon to be a third. What was initially just a road trip turned into a lifestyle for the “Fine Crew,” a name that appears on the bus, which originally appeared as “Fire Crew” because of its origins.

At the end of 2021, the trio returned to Boise to save up some money and make renovations to the bus. That stint of stability brought its own challenges.

PHOTO BY MORGAN TABOR

“Having a shower and consistent place to use the bathroom is great, but it was tricky going from nomadic, independent lifestyle to being back with my parents,” King said.

“The pacing was hard. Living on the road, time runs very differently,” added Tabor. “The couple months we’d been on out really felt like years. Being stagnant was weird.”

After five months, broken up by a trip to Costa Rica for Tabor and Roberts, the Fine Crew hit the road again.

PHOTO BY MORGAN TABOR

Learning from their experiences, they moved a little slower, chasing good weather around the West (the bus doesn’t have AC or a heater) and responding to high diesel prices that made staying put for days or weeks on end an attractive option.

“We’re notoriously terrible at planning basically anything,” King said. “But I think we more consciously thought about what we wanted to see, and what we could do on the way there.”

PHOTO BY MORGAN TABOR

WHERE TO NEXT?

Roberts is currently finishing up her degree, so only King and Tabor are still living in their “metal tube,” most recently waking up in the Southwest.

“We have some favorite spots in terms of landscape and beauty, and we have our favorite spots because of the people we’ve met,” Tabor said. “We’ve been some places that we would say are just ugly, but the connections and friendships we made there were beautiful.

One of the latter was a tiny town in Arizona that the duo visited in February for Skooliepalooza, an “ungathering” of like-minded nomadic spirits with similar converted school buses.

“We didn’t know that place existed until a month ago, but we walked out of that little desert area with lifelong friends,” Tabor said. “Probably by no one’s standards would you call that place beautiful though.”

The goal for 2023 is to continue traveling, but with an emphasis on relationships and building community.

PHOTO BY MORGAN TABOR

“It’s something we’ve missed—I mean, we’re living with friends in a bus, which is fun, but at the end of the day, I want to see my hometown friends and other people I care about,” King said. “We’re going to take more time to intentionally reconnect with people this year.”

Also in the works this year is a recently announced “BAM Bus” film project with New Line and Jonathan Glickman’s Panoramic Media. Glickman was among the flurry of initial messages the trio received following the Post piece, and the trio took their time ensuring it was the right fit.

“Ultimately, if people hear our name and have seen a film, that’s what they’ll know about us,” Tabor said. “We wanted to make sure our story will be told in a way that’s true to us.”

The project is still in its early stages of bringing a team and writers together, but there’s one thing Tabor and King are certain about—they won’t be playing themselves on screen.

“The Rotten Tomatoes score would be atrocious,” Tabor said with a laugh.

To keep up with the Fine Crew on their 2023 adventures, follow @fine_crew on Instagram.