when we arrived at the Jackys' in portland that night, we were greeted warmly by chris. i knew his wife from the natural birth community in idaho. althoughthis would be the first time we had been able to hang out with chris, he treated us like family. if you ever receive an invitation from the jackys you would be remiss to not take them up on it. he made sure keith,the kids and i had evertything imaginable we might need. then he informed us that dinner was almost ready, but he had to run to the store for a few things first.

i handed him our thank you gift (yes, the not so weird one.) he thanked me for the bottle of wine and laughed that it was one less thing he would have to go to the store for...but he still needed pasta. now i laughed and went out to the bus to retreive the gift i almost didnt give. these little coincidences make me wonder how often i miss holy spirit promptings by reasoning them away.

we pulled over on the side of the road and detatched the van to go retrieve the phone. you may remember from our time in olympia that god had been teaching us that set backs can actually be set ups for good things to happen if we keep our hearts and minds in the right place. i remembered this and made the necessary adjustments and determined not to miss it. moments later i noticed a couple checking out our bus.

i began to share with her that god cared about her and her pain, and desires for us all to be well...and that "by his stripes we are healed." (isaiah 53:5) she agreed, clearly not offended by this. a stunned look came over her face. "something is happening." she said. she felt heat in her neck and throat. i thanked god and told her that i believed he was healing her. we prayed and asked god to bring the healing into completion. moments later,she reported that she no longer had any pain in her neck! we jumped up and down and thanked god. she then tried swallowing, and could now do this free of pain! she radiated pure joy. it was wonderful.

as she was walking away, she turned around and shouted," oh yeah! i didn't tell you, but i also had a migrane when i came over and it's gone now too!" at that same moment, just like clockwork, keith pulled up. he was pretty curious about the stranger who was shouting about being healed of a migrane. i could not wait to tell him the rest of the story. as i recalled the events with keith, we were both filled with gratitude for a god who can turned a misplaced cell phone into an encounter with the miraculous. the same god who heals massive pain also cares about headaches...and fancy pasta!

written by  firebynite on December 15, 2010 from Portland, United States
from the travel blog: super vegi-matic bus travels
tagged Healing and Portand
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if you have never been around the olympic peninsula, you may not know what you're missing. lush emerald green, mossy ,viney forests spill off cliffs into the ocean. absolute majesty! you can really get in touch with your inner hobbit there. as we careened down those rural highways, i was instantly taken back to the first time i traveled those breathtaking stretches twenty years earlier. i then fell in love with the pacific northwest and promised myself i would one day live there.

our next stop was in olympia. after a beautiful trek through the peninsula, we planned to dine that nite with another old friend trixy, her husband matthias and their two young children. i called trix to let her know we were almost there. i told her our exact whereabouts, to which she said, "you're just down the road, i'll bet i could see your bus from here." this moment was precisely when our bus came to a suprise rumbeling halt. puzzled, keith turned the keys in the ignition again. nada. hmmmm......

what do you do in those moments when you don't know what to do? well i'll be honest, i have plenty of experience in what NOT to do. however, early on in this trip i was given some good perspective from a wise friend. we had a major set back involving our engine which had the potential to be disasterous. her response to our scary situation was simple: "wow! i wonder what God is going to do in this situation...there must be a divine appointment with the mechanic!" (um,.... yeah! exactly what i was thinking! ha.) everyone ought to be so blessed to have a "jill" in their life speaking faith into every situation.

that exchange reminded us that whenever a trial comes our way, we have some pretty important decisions to make. it is an opportunity to see what we are putting our trust in.
am i going to become afraid stressed and/or angry, or am i going to trust in god's faithfulness? he desires to be with us and help us through whatever situation. we decided to trust god, and believe it would be all be ok. i reminded my soul that it didn't have to work hard trying to figure out every possible problem and solution. god was not caught off guard by this. why not go ahead and believe that he'll come through just like he always has before?

i was releieved that we did seem to pick an ideal place to break down,if there ever was one. (thank you olympia--we love you too!) in the wee hours of the morning, a tow truck finally arrived. in and out of sleep i heard the guys dinking around with the bus. a short time later, the sweet reassuring vegified purr of the engine. it never sounded so sweet. they were able to jimmy-rig fix the starter and we were up and running! this would not be last time that what started out looking like a set back ended up being a set up. stay tuned. i will be sharing a few more set-up stories of even greater magnitude just a few miles down the road.

written by  firebynite on December 2, 2010 from Olympia, United States
from the travel blog: super vegi-matic bus travels
tagged ANNA, Olympia, Trixy, Leif, Ham and Tia
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what do i mean when i say tribe? my spiritual mom starting using the word to help describe a deeper than usual connection we find with others because of a strong shared passion or passions. you might say, people with whom we seem to share a similar D.N.A. in primitive times i dont think many people longed for their tribe, you were simply born into it. your family had a certain talent or function which your name likely reflected. it distinguished you amongst other tribes. today, it seems that many desire that kind of community, but are uncertain as to how it is found or devloped.

having layed a little groundwork, let me introduce you to my Seattle tribe: amongst us is

gathering with these dear ones has been one of the greatest privledges of my life. over the years we have broken bread together, grieved loses, celebrated births, laughed, supported eachother through crisis,taken huge risks, and had fun, lots of fun together. in all of these different facets of life we were drawn back to the common goal of knowing god and his ways. it is who we are. life only makes sense to my tribe through this lense. i still remember significant, life changing prayers prayed for me through these friends fifteen years later. thats a good prayer!

this tribal thing is a big deal. i cant seem to get away from it. i often want to know if others have found their tribes, and if so what the process of discovery looked like. i have sat down several times now to write about this and struggled with what to share,what not to share, how to condense it. if it inspires something in you, good! please comment or send me an email and we can continue the dialoge.

written by  firebynite on November 10, 2010 from Seattle, United States
from the travel blog: super vegi-matic bus travels
tagged Seattle and Tribe
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we spent our first nite at a rest stop in ontario, oregon logging a whopping 40 miles on our first leg of the journey. it just felt good to be gaining momentum. the next morning we rose with the sun and (gasp!) the realization that we couldn't make coffee without electricity to grind our beans. i know, i know...what can i say? i like me some good coffee. so we opted for a coffee shop at a grocery store in the next city. at check out the cashier asked for my zip code. i hesitated as it dawned on me that i didn't have one. i told her so. she gave me a blank look. "we are on the road." i explained. she looked at my young children, my husband and back at me. her blank look turned into a sad/concerned look. de-ja-vu. i have had this expereince so many times. i was not going to be able to explain that we hadn't lost a job or a home, but we had actually chosen this life. i resolved to pick a zipcode, (any zipcode) and have it ready for the next time.

the next several days would become our education in the school of veggie oil traveling. up to this point, all of our trips on the bus had been fueled by diesel. things move slower when you travel by bus, and potentially much much slower when you add all of the unpredictability that comes with finding and filtering your own oil (not to mention the steep learning curve that comes with it.) i tried to give my friends in seattle, our first planned destination, a heads up on our estimated time of arrival. i had to call back several times with new e.t.a.s. i should note that i am not a flakey- hippy type. lets say, more of a reasonably responsible hippy-type. i like to give my word and keep it. this was tough and took time to give myself grace and embrace the fact that we were doing something we had never done before. it would take time for the adreneline of city life and schedules begin to fall off. breathe in and breathe out.

we had the pleasure of stopping in woodland, washington to stock up on oil filters, as well as filter some more oil. for me there is such exhiliration in exploring a town i have never been in before. once we secured a good parking spot, i took the kids for a walk to allow some space for keith to work on the bus. it was a beautiful fallish september morning. this charming town's streets were lined with craftsman style houses surrounded with japanese maples,fragrant lavender and rosemary bushes. vines and moss grew everywhere inbetween. ahhh...northwest green bliss. we discovered a neighborhood library in a victorian house that just happened to have childrens story time that day. i love that my children give me a legitamite reason to go to story time. life was beautiful.

i am thankful we had that idyllic peaceful morning to counter what would be a challenging second half of the day. we needed to find diesel and it was getting dark, pouring rain and we were now in rush hour traffic. easy. pull off the next exit and fuel up, right? we'd hoped so. however when you have a thirty seven foot bus with bikeracks in the front

as we walked into the familiar refuge of my dear friend' s home that nite, it never felt so good to receive their warm embraces. the famous americanos that dan makes never tasted so good. the exceptionally hot bath i melted in that night felt quite a bit more luxurious than usual. we made it to seattle!

written by  firebynite on November 9, 2010 from Seattle, United States
from the travel blog: super vegi-matic bus travels
tagged Seattle and StoryTime
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my plan for bringing you up to speed on our travels is to give you an overview followed by some story telling just down the road. buckle your seatbelt, here we go! just kidding, if you know me at all you know i like to take my time with details. this will be more of a country drive rather than a roller coaster ride.

another major surprise for me was how s-l-o-w veggie travels can be. i understood that traveling on a bus means going slower. this i gladly embraced. however, up to this point our travels on the bus had been fueled by diesel. when we moved onto our bus and started this trip, it would be our maiden voyage running on recycled veggie. some people would do trial runs when doing something they have never done before. we are just not those those people, whoever they are. it does sound responsible. maybe i will give it a try some day.

veggie oil may be free, but you will work hard for it in most cases. for those who may not be familiar with the process it looks something like this: step 1. drive in alleys behind resturants and locate the recipticle that used oil is disposed in. 2. check it out--it must be a fairly full vat that is not overly junky you will typically spend most of the morning oil dumpster crusing to find a good supply. in some small towns you may find nothing. 3. once good looking oil is found you pump it into your 50 galon drum holding tank. 4. trasport tank to bus and send it through the filtering system in the bus' fuel tank. 5. heat up the oil and test drive your new supply. 5. if your enginine is running rough,(you might have water in your supply ) pull over and drain veg oil from tank, properly dispose, and start the process over. sometimes you may spend days in one town unexpectedly to filter oil. other times, you may need to really step on it to get some where and decide to bite the bullet and use diesel instead.

i hope you'll travel along with me the next several days and weeks as i revisit seattle, portland, eugene, grants pass and redding. i will share more pictures and tell some outrageous stories you wont want to miss!

written by  firebynite on October 21, 2010 from Redding, United States
from the travel blog: super vegi-matic bus travels
tagged Slow, VegOil and Destiny
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one of the rebekahs (in the orange scarf)

i imagine that anyone who has made a major life transition can relate with this, but last week was tough! it was almost time to go. keith was working sun up to sun down on construction....making bike racks, building rooftop storage, inventing an effective veggie oil filtering system. me? i cant really remember what i was was doing. its a blur of caring for my kids, keeping us all fed and hydrated, packing, cleaning, errand running, getting rid of more stuff and drinking shots of chloraphyll. (affordable green drink, good for when you're depleted.) being too tired to read, i opted for watching lost episodes of gilmore girls.

thankfully that is not where the story ends. the next morning, some of my mama friends had planned a gathering for the purpose of praying for me and sending me off with blessing. talk about good timing! later that nite we would share a final dinner with our good friends. once in the presence of those dear and trusted friends, all the stress poured out of me like the contents of a pressure cooker. confession is so good for the soul. i am amazed how, in god's design, something shameful can not only be disarmed, but transformed. my friend and her husband prayed for us that nite(thank you gordon and tammy!) and brought into our weary souls the perspective of heaven, changing everything.

as you have probably guessed, i didnt move to stars hollow, (which is for the best since it is a fictitious place.) although still busy, we are putting bike riding and frisbee throwing back on the to-do list. i no longer feel overwhelmed but remember where my strength comes from. i admit i am happy to know i have a place to lay my head and that we wont have to be become complete raw-foodist overnight thanks to the rebekahs!

written by  firebynite on September 13, 2010 from Nampa, United States
from the travel blog: super vegi-matic bus travels
tagged Rebecca, GilmoreGirls, Prayer and Confession
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next, comes the piles of things under your bed, (for me that would be pictures or art that i like but didnt make the present cut for wall space. the junk drawers and boxes in the garage i never got around to unpacking the last time i moved..."the easy to put off bcause it requires sorting but fairly easy to get rid of stuff."

lastly, as you have probably guessed is the hard to give up items. it was kind of interesting to realize just what those things were. i dont have much that i have held on to for long. some treasures that i have meant to, have long been lost somewhere. if i told what hardest to get rid of belonging was, you would laugh.

i overcame my tendancy to procrastinate and began the arduous process or sorting and sifting through my earthly treasures a few months ago. i had a yard sale with my friend which consisited of two van loads of mostly easy to get rid of stuff. next i took pictures of my furniture and posted them on facebook to give my friends first picks. craigslist got the leftovers.

here is where the unexpected grace came in. we had prayed over our stuff and asked god to get it to people who would be blessed by it. while i anticipated that this would happen, i was was totally surprised by how much those people blessed me!

the most remarkable encounter was with a gal who called me about my desk. i never really cared much for the cumbersome old dark piece of furniture until i transformed it with a sloppy coat of white paint and viola!-- shabby chic. when she arrived to see it, i instantly liked her. she told me she liked the style of the desk so i showed her several similar pieces, which she took. she shared with me that she was about to open an organic (natural, chemical free ) hair salon and my "hard to get rid of" furniture would outfit her new shop. how cool! i enjoyed hearing about her new venture and by the end of our conversation i found myself wanting to give her all the cool stuff i could find!

when she and her husband came back with a trailer, we talked for a long while, realizing we shared much in common. before they departed, i asked them if i could pray for them. they graciously accepted. we encounted god together and were filled with joy! in the midst of a business transaction, heaven came down!

through this i am once again reminded that god wants to be a part of everthing in life. he is not to busy with world affairs or too holy to be bothered with little details, like who gets my desk!

p.s. the hardest to get rid of item? a gaudy broqued vintage mirror that i spray painted

i also spent a summer living in a converted schoolbus with some friends in oregon. we parked in an old grove of apple trees in a wooded area. the tree's blossoms attracted bears which we heard singing at night on more than one occasion. i loved the rythem of rising with the sun, cooking outdoors and fine-tuning the art of improvisation. (such as "grinding" coffee beans with a hammer!) after all, the closest coffee shop was 40 miles away! the once a week trips into town for a bath, mail and supplies made me feel a bit like a pioneer. well, a pioneer who must have good coffee.

i was part of a circle of friends who enjoyed simple living and traveling on a shoestring. out of which the affectionately used term "urban-camping" was born. (traveling and sleeping in your vehicle.) i enjoyed short stints of urban-camping in my single days. at times, i met well meaning strangers on the road who assumed something terrible must have happened to me to be (gasp!) living in a car. after all, why would anyone in their right mind choose that? most cases proved futile to convince them otherwise!

our honeymoon "suite" was a schoolbus parked at "The land" in northern caifornia. (more about that wonderful place later) we started our life together on the road, then settled for a few months at a friend's farm in tennessee. there, we stayed in ...you guessed it, a schoolbus. starting to see a pattern here? although pennyless, we dreamed of having our own home on wheels one day.

keith was a few credits shy of a degree in alternative building when he walked away from a terrible car accident. while he was fortunate to be alive, his back was quite injured. hence, until healed, carpentry was no longer a feasible vocation. how then would we fuel our travels? after some prayer,seeking and divine intervention, electrical proved to be that very thing. we buckled down for four years while keith went to school.

home on the bus

while we are very busy with all the preparations, i write. for me this is an essential part of readying my spirit and mind for what is to come. maybe you have no desire to be an urban camper. that's ok. whoever you are, you have a dream. i hope in some small way this will inspire you to go after it!

written by  firebynite on July 28, 2010 from Nampa, United States
from the travel blog: super vegi-matic bus travels
tagged Dream, Schoolbus and UrbanCamping
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presently, my husband and i are converting a carpenter schoolbus into an r.v. it will run on veggie-oil (perphaps i will invite my husband to write about that later) so far, we have removed the seats, put in a hardwood floor, put in a yellow vintage clawfoot tub and bunk beds. four weeks to go and we will be on the road. still much to do...such as put in the kitchen...and the second floor. we will do what we can, and the rest we will work on as we go!

our wonderful garden lot

i enjoy wild mountains, high deserts as well as big cities....but mostly, for me it is about the people. everyone has a Story worth telling. i look forward to introducing you to the folks we meet on the road, even as you and i get to know one another. even though what we are doing is not something you hear about every day, i hope you will not mistakenly think that we are the only ones on an adventure. there is much beauty to be discovered in whatever season of life we find ourselves in. yours is a Story worth telling. i hope you will tell it!

written by  firebynite on July 26, 2010 from Nampa, United States
from the travel blog: super vegi-matic bus travels
tagged Adventure, Traveling, Jesus and Schoolbus
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