Why Watermelons Are Transported in Old 'Convertible' School Buses

I'm sure I did, AT LEAST, a double take the first time I saw one of those "convertible" school buses transporting watermelons. Maybe it was a triple take.

And no, it wasn't because an enormous number of my favorite fruits just passed in front of me. It was because a "convertible" school bus is one of the coolest things I've ever seen, and I wondered why one couldn't be conceived in the "recreational vehicle" space. Well, that hasn't happened in the handful of years since I saw that first one, so let's take a look at how and why this ingenious idea was born.

Honestly, I'm not sure why it took me so long to see one for the first time; this short video indicates at least a dozen years have passed since hollowed-out buses revolutionized watermelon transportation:

Short, sweet, and very much to the point. Necessity truly IS the mother of invention. Here's a dude who turned a retired school bus into a harvester, but he still needs it to be towed behind something:

The Importance of School Buses in Watermelon Harvesting

Heath Racela, a contributor with Ambrook Research, was fascinated enough after his first encounter that he did a deep dive into the importance of old school buses as modern-day farm equipment. Racela learned about the risks farmers take launching into watermelons as a primary crop. He also discovered that these "souped-up" buses are a big third-party business because there are farmers who can't afford to hire enough people to cover the extra "distance" these transporters can.

In other words, if you see one of these contraptions, it wasn't just some clever project to make one person's life easier. These things are important components in the watermelon business, something you don't need to tell folks in Knox County IN, which turns out about 280 million melons every year. (My mouth is watering, just so you'll know.)

So, the next time you see one of these hollowed-out buses (and it's September, so they'll be fewer and farther between), you'll know that it's WAY more than just a large-scale life hack. Those buses are important cogs in a big old wheel of watermelons.