Origin Story
It all started on New Year's eve around a campfire on the shore of the Puget Sound in Olympia Washington. In a discussion of what we were going to do after Brian retired from the Army a topic of owning a coffee shop came up. I knew that I had a friend here in Fort Worth that had been roasting coffee so I sent him a message. A few weeks later a package arrived with a small bag of green (unroasted) coffee beans, a book and a letter of encouragement. This package was the very beginning of our dream. Brian set sail on months and months of research that led to home roasting in a jiffy popper and eventually the purchase of our first 1 pound roaster.
While Brian was learning to roast in our garage the topic of a storefront became a consistent conversation. Neither of us truly loved the idea of being married to a location with the burden of having to spend every hour running a business. This led to the idea of a mobile coffee shop. We could open when we want and stay home when we didn’t, this was after all supposed to be during our retirement life. In Washington there were mobile food and beverage trucks everywhere you turn. One of us had a bright idea to buy a school bus and convert it into a coffee shop so Guess What??? We Did!! We bought a 40 foot long school bus and with the help of all the Soldiers Brian worked with we went to work. We painted it blue and poured our blood, sweat, and tears into making the dream come true. Everyone that stepped foot onto the bus had fun sharing stories and working together, sometimes the stories and laughter was so good no work got accomplished. So we named it Fun Bus!
Plot twist! Unfortunately the military had other plans for the Kimes Family. The phone rang around 9 pm one night after a long weekend of working and playing on the bus and my heart sank. Late night calls are never awesome when your husband is in the Army. I heard “Congratulations” as Brian answered. Brian had been promoted and the Army was moving us from Olympia Washington, land of the trees, to Lawton, Oklahoma, land of deployments. This reassignment required us to move across the country in less than 60 days and taking the bus with us was a logistical nightmare so we had to find the bus a new home. The promotion came with a considerable amount of responsibility and a trip over the ocean so the dream was put on pause for several years.
In October of 2019 Brian retired from the Army after 21 years and our family moved home to Fort Worth, Texas. November of 2021 a dear friend asked if we were still roasting coffee and told us he wanted to buy a bag to try. Upon delivery of the coffee a buzz was created at our favorite watering hole, Upper 90, and orders started to pour in. We have been roasting and selling Fun Bus Coffee beans ever since with a smile on our face and the reignited dream in our heart.
