Good thread, glad to hear you'll be off on a proper bus adventure.
Just wait you might end up like the Rehm family of Bodeswell.org
Great trip have only browsed their blog, but they took their 71 all over the US and South America, brilliant!
I lived in my bus for about half a year and travelled all over the west of the US with two hicups, one the points broke, sorted in 15min, then a few years later my front main bearing gave up
I'm restoring it now haven't driven it from then 2005.
Nearly done, hoping to get MOT in about a week.
Have travelled with my partner after only dating her for two months and then living on different continents for 8months before meeting her again and living in a small Toyota Hiace in NZ for a year. We worked for a month here then travelled for a month, worked... We did get a room in a house twice for about a month each to break it up, but were able to sustain our year travels with less than six months minimum wage jobs.
Then we did the same in Oz in 2009-10 and going back in a couple of months to continue...
Here are some pics of Oz of the van and a little bit of the set up it was a long wheelbase, but we didn't need that much room. The NZ van was a shortwheel base and was fine. have an eski (we didn't have ice in it nor plugin) for veg, cheese and milk and buy meat fresh. HAve your bus organised and set up so you're not moving stuff about all the time, that's why we left our bed out all the time, too much faff otherwise.
Oh we free camped only in OZ and and a couple of nights in NZ. My family and I travelled 5 weeks through Spain and Portugal pulling a caravan and only stayed in a campsite for a week the rest we found free spots and stayed several days at some and that's a car and caravan, you'll find many awesome spots to camp for free!
This is nearing the end of our travels so a bit skinny.
Yup those are freshly picked mangoes and cocomuts!
Best of Luck and have an awesome trip!!
Andy