“That,” laughs Ami Hill, curator and head bus driver of Bus 252, “is what is gonna be on my headstone. I’ll figure it out.” Ms. Hill stopped for a moment, furrowed her brow, and continued, “Well, it’s either that or I have an idea!”

But first things first. Who exactly is this pretty, petite woman who looks so tiny behind the wheel of her coral-colored roving art gallery, seen on the ByPass and Beach Road as she travels from an Art Show in Buxton to her regular Wednesday stop at the Whalehead Club in Corolla?

Ami Hill grew up in Virginia Beach, and as she explains, “It’s like a big little town. It’s big in area, but everyone knew everyone.” She graduated from high school and worked 20 years in the corporate world. Her company was being sold, and like many of us, she didn’t want to work for a boss again. “I loved my boss. That’s why I stayed for 20 years. Says Hill, “But it got to the point where if I was going to strike out on my own, this was the time.”

Full disclosure, Ami and I are friends. But more than that, she is an inspiration not only to me but to many others on the Outer Banks. She is not one to remain idle for too long.

“It was initially about 13 years ago, right after my son was born, that I had the idea to open a store stocked with all Outer Banks locally made items. I just, at that point, didn’t have the means to pull it off.”

Then that’s when life sent Ami a signal in terms of her company being sold. “I never really gave up my original plan,” she continues. “I had been thinking about it all those years. Then in December of 2017, I signed a lease on a building.”

That building became Muse Originals, located on the Beach Road at about Milepost 2, next to Art’s Place. “I still didn’t have a lot of means in 2017, but I had also come up with the idea about inviting artists in on consignment.” Hill continues, “In the summer of 2017, I started going to the art shows that popped up on the Outer Banks. Places like Little Island Art Show in Rodanthe. Plus, at Christmas, there are always a lot of art shows that pop up. I collected business cards from each of the vendors. Then, in January of 2018, once my building was mostly built out, I sent them each email to come to the store to see what I was trying to accomplish. I don’t remember how many came out. It might have been 15 or 20, except for 1 artist; they were all in.”

“I figured it out.” I heard this statement several times during our interview. I was beginning to see why Hill jokes that it will be the words on her headstone.

The Muse Original retail outlet was in business from March 2018, all of 2019, and through the first 3 months of 2020. Then COVID hit.

“Yeah, I was at the kitchen table one day wondering how I was going to help support my family of 5.”

Ami is married to Jonathan, and living with them are 2 sons and a daughter.

“I knew my biggest expense was the building itself. What could I do to reduce this expense and still do what I was doing? Going mobile was the only thing that made any sense to me.”

And thus, Bus 252 was born.

“I figured during the pandemic more people would prefer to shop outside than having to go inside, so it made perfect sense to me.”

But a bus? Who comes up with the idea of a bus?

“I don’t know,” laughs Hill. “What I really wanted was a trolley. They’re wider, taller, lined with windows, and can be enclosed. I even took a trip to Maryland to look at 3 different trolleys. Two of them were great, the third, not so much. And they turn on a dime!” laughs Hill, who can tell you without a doubt that a bus does not.

Unfortunately, the price was ultimately too high for Ami to swing. Riding in the backseat on the way home from Maryland, “I was just looking at my phone, and I found a bus for sale in Kitty Hawk. So I drove all the way to Maryland when all I had to do was to go to Kitty Hawk for a bus!”

It turned out that the bus wasn’t the one that Ami ended up buying. But it is where the idea of the bus was generated. “I mean, I always wanted to drive a monster truck anyway,” Hill laughs. (So Grave Digger, if you’re reading this and need a driver, I know a little blonde lady that can fill that seat.)

“I figured it out.” Hill once again proclaims! She and Jonathan bought a bus, brought it to their home in Kill Devil Hills, and started their work on it. They took out the seats, painted the bus a coral color on the outside, installed a generator and a portable air conditioning unit so customers may walk through. The inside was also prepped with shelves and merchandise. All completed within hours of their first show on June 19, 2020, which is Ami’s birthday, at the Rundown Cafe in Kitty Hawk.

Ami’s plan was not to have the bus appear at locations alone. Instead, she wanted to create a place for other artisans to also display their wares. Artisans like Buffy, the Ginger Gypsy (who also teams up with Ami to create pop-up art shows. Rhonda Dozier is a jewelry artist (who helps Ami set up and tear down the bus at events). Other regulars are Susanna Sakal, who creates resin art, Debbie Tucker, Eric Griffin, Valerie Roby, and Beth Fleishaker. “A real band of gypsies,” as Hill has called the group. 

Ami has also provided a stepping stone for some of these people. “Some of our artisans have never done a show before,” Hill explains. “They’ve created things at home but had nowhere to display it. The more well-established art shows wanted, the more well-established artists.”

This reporter has also been known to appear at a show or two with his Outer Banks-themed novels.

I wondered what the reception was like for Ami Hill when she approached places on the Outer Banks to park her bus and have a pop-up art show. “Clearly, some people thought I was crazy, but more than not, business owners had been very kind.” 

A partial listing of places Bus 252 has been over the last year (in no particular order) has been The Rundown Cafe, Jimmy’s Seafood Buffett, the Club House in Colington Harbor, Jack Brown’s, Outer Banks Brewing Station, The Whalehead Club’s Cork & Craft, Roanoke Island Festival Park concerts, The Outer Banks Seafood Festival, and the KOA Campground in Coinjock.

But the story doesn’t end here. Ami had another idea. 

It was at a show at Jimmy’s, which just happens to be next door to Spanky’s in Kitty Hawk, when Ami motioned to the Spanky marquee. It said, “Open Monday – Friday from 11-3.” She told me, “Clearly, we are working too hard. Maybe we should just sell hot dogs for a living and work just 20 hours a week.” We both laughed at the idea, and I forgot about it. Not Ami Hill. Just 3 weeks later, Hill was the proud owner of The Anchor Grill at Camp Hatteras in Rodanthe. And ironically, there is not a hot dog in sight on the menu.

They started off working 7 days a week from 11-3. Then, closing to prep for dinner and then back open again from 5-9. Now closed Wednesday and Thursday, Ami pulled together her family. Her husband Jonathan works the grill alongside Chef Jim, who has extensive restaurant experience on the Outer Banks. Lest you think her kids get a free ride, they don’t. Well, at least one of them anyway. Her oldest, Cooper, works the window occasionally, as does Jonathan’s daughter and Chef Jim’s daughter. And when Ami is not out with the bus, you’ll find her working the window. It is truly a family affair. 

Ami Hill does, in fact, have ideas and figures them out. When asked for advice for other budding entrepreneurs, she quickly replies with, “Be persistent and positive. They are the only things to see you through. Just keep trying.”

At a recent show, I overheard a customer ask how Ami got herself in “all this.” Without hesitation, Ami laughed and said, “How did I get myself into this? Of course, the better question is, how am I going to get myself out of all this!”

Greg Smrdel is the editor of Coastal Life Magazine and is also trying “to figure it out.”