Sydney Vassal, 33, and Erin Sherwood, 32, have transformed a bus into a bookmobile called Loom & Lore, where they packed it full of nearly 1,000 books, specializing primarily in romance titles while offering a variety of other genres for community members to purchase.
“We are a book shop that sells mostly romance titles out of a refurbished bus,” Vassal said. “We really just wanted to create a space where readers, makers, and people interested in building community could come together.”
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Now, they’re gearing up to take the bus, which they’ve named “Millie,” on the road throughout the state.
They explained the idea for a bookmobile clicked when they were exploring alternatives to traditional retail.
“We started seeing the idea of mobile businesses popping up, and we really liked the idea of having something that wasn’t necessarily tied to a brick and mortar,” Sherwood said.
Loom & Lore Bookmobile was founded by Vassal and Sherwood less than a year ago; they had their grand opening in August 2025 at Badger State Brewing Company.
Since the opening, Millie has stayed primarily within the Green Bay area, with regular pop-ups at local breweries, coffee shops, and markets.
“We have a lot of loyal customer base, who come and find us wherever we are in the area, which has been really cool to see,” Sherwood said. “We also have started a monthly book club, which we have a steady attendance for, and have regulars at, which has been incredible.”
The pair is preparing to take Millie on the road throughout Wisconsin, on a “Romance Road Trip” this spring and summer.
Vassal said many smaller Wisconsin communities have limited access to bookstores—especially ones that carry indie or niche titles that may not be available at larger chains. The road trip is designed to bring those books directly to those communities.
“Romantic Road Trip is a traveling book-ish vendor market throughout different areas of Wisconsin,” Vassal said. “We wanted to bring this really cool business we’ve started, and this really cool community we’ve started building around to a little bit more underserved areas of Wisconsin.”
The roadtrip will include multiple stops throughout May and June, featuring local vendors, artists and small businesses alongside the bookmobile. Every stop will look a little different.
“In every different town that we’re stopping in, it’ll be a different selection of vendors, a different selection of experiences, and most likely, a different selection of titles, because we’ll be restocking the bus as we go,” Vassal said.
While Loom & Lore is not yet a full-time venture for either Vassal or Sherwood, they explained potential plans for the future.
“We are looking to launch a series, hopefully with a quarterly vendor event like we have been putting on,” Sherwood said. “I think both of us want to focus on that going forward and just like, continue creating these community spaces for people to come and really just like, have a good time, shop local, meet new people.”
