White fang skoolie
Hello, my name is Cynthia Currie, and I live full-time on the road in a school bus I designed and built with my own two hands—a dream I’d carried for over a decade. In 2018, after years of sketching container homes and refining van layouts, I finally brought my vision to life. Fueled by my background in mechanical and electrical engineering, I transformed an empty shell into White Fang—a rolling, self-contained home that is as much a piece of functional art as it is a living space. Every inch of her reflects intention, creativity, and freedom. She’s more than just a vehicle—she’s the embodiment of self-reliance, wanderlust, and wild beauty. Living in her, waking up in new landscapes, and chasing the seasons feels like a deeply personal revolution.
Together with my wolf dog, Roan, I roam the Western U.S., following the winds and the weather. I own and operate Raven Wolf Sky Sports, a traveling paragliding school rooted in freedom and connection with nature. In the summer, we settle near Monterey, California—cool coastal air perfect for flight and escape from inland heat. Come fall, you’ll find us exploring the red rock canyons and desert thermals of Moab, Utah. Winter pulls us north to the snow-covered slopes and big mountain lines of the Cascades, where we ski and fly in the backcountry wherever the snow is deep and untouched.
Everywhere I go, White Fang is my sanctuary and my launchpad—a home built by hand, for a life built by heart.
- Cyn
(December 2020)
White Fang was a Skoolie designed and built by Cyn (Cynthia) Currie in 2018. A 1994 BlueBird Mini with a 5.9L 12 Valve Diesel Cummins engine and Allison transmission. She flat tows my Subaru Impreza (manual transmission) and has a motorcycle carrier on the front for my Yamaha XT250 duel sport. Her top speed on a flat straight away is about 55mph and she gets around 11mpg even when wet and towing the Impreza.
25ft bumper to bumper with 21 internal feet of livable cabin space. She is 100% off grid with 400 Watts of solar charging AGM 600Ah batteries that run all the house DC/AC needs. Including a 95L Dometic super efficient DC duel zone refrigerator/freezer. Propain/electric on demand water heater. And even a Cubic Mini wood burning stove. There is 6ft of live edge counter top cut from a 200 year old Juniper from New Mexico, sink is antique hammered copper. Cedar skins the ceiling and continues down the walls of the skoolie to the windowsills.
The accident
On Tuesday September 13, 2022 at approximately 3pm in the afternoon I lost my air brakes on the back side of the 120 (Tioga Pass) near Yosemite, California. I narrowly escaped with my life.
Short version: a few miles down the main downgrade of the eastern side of the Tioga Pass I lost pressure in the airbrakes. There was still back pressure in the peddle, and my air pressure gauge was showing 100 + psi so I was confused as to why the brakes were barely engaging. I used the engine in a low gear as best I could over the next few miles, trying multiple times to pull over onto narrow paved over looks. Luckily I had only accelerated from 35 to 45 ish but I rounded a turn on 2 wheels of the bus. Knowing this was my last chance, I aimed for the dirt of a larger overlook. In a last ditch effort to slow down I used both feet on the break peddle causing the air breaks to lose enough pressure to emergency lock up. I jackknifed with the Subaru. Flipped the bus and Subaru onto the driver side. The friction of the jackknifed car and it being on its side slowed me down enough to that I stopped right before the cliff. The force of the accident and roll caused the car to completely sever the tow connection from the bus ripping steal and iron of the hitch and safety chain!
I have no idea how I did not die. I can say that although this was my worst fear, this exact scenario is why I went with a Skoolie. School buses are built STRONG, reenforced steel and iron. The frame is extra tough to protect children in case of emergency. That is how Roan and I survived with minimal injuries. He this been a ‘normal’ RV it would have crunched and collapsed like a tin can. Even with rolling and sliding on its side for at least 50 if not 100ft there was minimal disformation in the frame. The timber structure I built on the inside did not fair as well, unfortunately.
Subaru totaled
Bus totaled
Luckily I am insured with State Farm. But I don’t know how it’s going to work with the bus.
I have gone over the Sierra Dozens of times in the last 4 years with the bus towing the Subaru…. In the snow even. I predominantly travel in the fall and winter months, chasing the snow and good flying conditions. White Fang has been over countless mountain passes from Canada to Mexico… from Big Sur, California to the Rockie Mountains of, Colorado. She has never had any brake issues prior to this. In February of this year 2022 I had some engine troubles and during that time I had the mechanic work on the brakes along with all the normal maintenance of owning a vehicle (oil change, flush the radiator, and more). This is the first trip, less than 1,000 miles since the service.
I took lessons on how to drive and operate the school bus and air brakes before and during the build process in 2018/2019 and I have to say I would HIGHLY recommend that if you own and operate a Skoolie. It saved my life and that of the motorcyclist. I would also recommend regular maintenance on your brakes and vehicle in general, which I do at least once if not twice a year. If I could go back I would also educate myself of adjusting my brakes and understanding that system better. Make sure you know and trust the mechanic(s) working on your vehicle.
In closing I am so grateful for my friends and family for the support I have been receiving.
rebuilding my life
With the help of State Farm and the incredible support from Maeve and Jen’s GoFundMe, I was able to buy a Dodge Ram 3500 Turbo Diesel 4x4 and pair it with a Lance Squire cabover camper. After living on the road in my self-built skoolie for years, taking on this new build felt like an evolution of the dream—a fresh chapter in my mobile lifestyle. I began remodeling the cabover in December 2022, and it’s been a whole new kind of adventure: working with an existing system and making it my own. I tore out walls, replaced every appliance, and reshaped the interior to better reflect how I live and travel.
After losing White Fang in the bus accident, I found myself totally unmoored. That build was more than just a home—it was years of intention, sweat, and identity rolled into one beautiful, functional space. Losing it shattered me in ways I hadn’t expected. For a while, it was hard to find the motivation or drive to start again. But the truth was simple: I needed a home, and I was the only one who could build it for me. So I picked up the pieces—literally and emotionally—and began again.
One of the biggest challenges—and biggest learning opportunities—was integrating my salvaged electrical system into the Lance’s original 1994 setup. That era was built around AC power, but today's mobile life runs almost entirely on DC. I ended up removing most of the original outlets, keeping just two, and replacing the rest with efficient USB charging ports. Now I’ve got what I actually need—eight USB slots for everyday use, streamlined into compact four-port strips. I upgraded all the lighting to LED, added a high-capacity inverter, and installed 400 watts of solar on the roof to power the whole system. It’s lean, efficient, and built exactly for the way I live.
Every surface inside has been replaced with salvaged old-growth cedar from the Sierra Nevada. The countertops, dining table, and cabinet doors are all live-edge cedar, each piece chosen and placed with care. It carries forward the warm, woodsy, cabin feel I created in White Fang, but this time it’s even more artistic and refined. This isn’t just a camper—it’s a hand-crafted sanctuary on wheels, born from grief, grit, and a refusal to give up on the life I love.
