Camper cooking

Just a quick one to convey the culinary art/disaster that is cooking at 60mph. Successfully completed twice so far, the camping stove works great as long as all the windows are closed. As you struggle to maintain composure, balance and contents of saucepans you feel like a cook in the galley of a ship.

What didn't go so well, was the attempt to complete the dishes in such confinement. Wishing to be further relieved from driving duty, I got the plants out the bucket, I got water in the bucket, I even washed and somewhat rinsed the few implements and plates we had used, all without too much drama. But there was one thing I was forgetting.... what am I going to do with the dirty water??? I'll tell you what I did, in the interest of not losing any time, I rolled down the passenger side window and carefully got the bucket outside, holding on tight, tipped it up and bingo! - all the water is gone. Well, I'm not quite sure what the opposite expression to bingo is, but lets just say that some less enthused expressions were soon to be heard when the remnants of lunch suspended in the water were found to be stuck to the side of Buster, congregating on the windows of course. FYI we had had BBQ chicken for lunch and it dried to the van quick, yuck! Disposing of dirty dish water at highway speeds not recommended. Did anyone but me, need this helpful hint? :)

Next post is the update from our awesome weekend in FL....

To the land of Peaches

Tuesday evening was gross. Really gross. Once it started to rain, it didn't stop. So instead of sleeping up in the canopy, we hesitantly decided to sleep in the bottom bed. Stuff was everywhere. Trying to clear the back bed of our stuff was quite the task and only took about 3 hours. But it was a good night's sleep in a mostly vacant Wal-mart parking lot and it was surprisingly pleasant.

We rolled out of the parking lot and headed south for Jasper, GA. Beautiful scenery through the valley was breathtaking, as well as the stench that was coming from Max's direction. 

We had an interesting gas stop in southern Georgia, we had been looking for the staple of the north, Dunkin Donuts, and when we finally noticed a sign on an exit, we were excited. Being about 90 degrees out a Coolata was in order, little did we know what concoction would fill the Dunkins cup. Sugar saturated Ice with brown food coloring is the only way to effectively describe it. Yuck! Plus I scraped Buster up against a pole leaving the gas station, so now he has a little red streak on him. Not one of our better stops.

Before long we were approaching my aunt and uncle's home on Sharp Mountain. To say that Buster struggled up the steep and twisting road would be a huge understatement, at several points we were changing into 1^st to make it. It was great views and we were very glad after 10 hours on the road to have a wonderful place to stay with family. My Aunt and Uncle so warmly welcomed us and fed us the most amazing food, including Peach cobbler. I got see my cousins and catch up with everyone and whats going on in their lives. We had such a wonderful time; that feeling of gratefulness was welling up again.

Destination Snowflex

After a good 4 hours sleep and a killer almond croissant, it was on the road again; destination Lynchburg, VA. Buster broke all records as he whizzed thru New Jersey and Pennsylvania, not missing a beat (praise God!) on occasion he even approached the speed limit. The scenery thru Pennsylvania reminded us of Kent, England, rolling hills and farm land with little groups of trees sprinkled throughout. The weather agreed with the picture of England as gloomy clouds also repeatedly sprinkled on us throughout the day.

'Lynchburg, VA??' I hear you say. The Hibbin's will never pass up a chance to shred, even if its glorified carpet. Liberty University is where you can find year round shred, a shred of sorts, don't expect too much and you'll probably be impressed; we were. Imagine an ocean of irrigated, up turned broom heads and that is pretty much what you got, but hey, its August, so its incredible none the less. Rolling as the Hibbin's do, we took the last tow rope at midnight and called it a job well done. We left soaked but that was more to do with the 'rain' coming up from the ground rather than the regular type. O yeah; word from the wounded (not wise) don't fall over, rug burn x 100, ouchies.

Onward to NYC:

Well, we finally got on the road a respectable 5.30pm. And promptly sat in Boston traffic; Score! Praying heavily over the fairly untested Buster we shot down the Masspike overtaking a total of 2 vehicles whilst averaging an impressive 55mph. Nearing NYC, I (max) realized how vulnerable poor Buster is; stranded on a uphill in the middle lane approaching some foreign spaghetti junction, where the GPS is chirping 'do you not know your left from your right?', you realize that of the available motion controlling devices at hand, none is going to produce the response necessary to satisfy Miss GPS. So you sadly sail on and get the dreaded 'recalculating!'.

But we made to Brooklyn and enjoyed a wonderful evening with our friends, Mike and Melissa. Though the available time was short they graciously put sleep aside and showed us an awesome time in the city and their stella home. Thank you guys.

Introducing Buster:

Saturday the 21^st was moving day. All went well with the Uhaul and putting stuff in storage by my parents in NH. It was a great day. We got to chill with our awesome family including my super cool Aunt and Uncle. Fantastic help from our family in NH made a stressful day very managable and entertaining.

Sunday morning, Mom made the most unbelievable blueberry pancakes. Then the family rolled their sleeves up and got ready to get dirty. With Max and Dad on the mechanics and leakage control, my brother on the detailing, and my Mom on décor duty, the finishing touches were made on Buster. It was a great morning with us all working together. Max and I felt so much love and support, more than we could have ever asked for.

Sunday afternoon we headed back to our empty place. On our way home we went past the storage unit with all our stuff and thought,“our bed and stuff is in there, where are we going to sleep???”

Faith is a beautiful thing!

As we are counting down the days to depart for Colorado, we are also counting down on our deadlines and details of stuff that need to get done before we leave. It's a headache. Yes, the stress is setting in, but we are finding our strength in the Lord. We feel like God is showing us His goodness everyday. Joy and excitement,  coupled with some trepidation fill our hearts as we are about take a huge leap of faith! 

We are so thankful for our time in the Boston area. From scrapping together pennies at Day Street, to the comparative luxuries of Wyman Terrace; we will miss it all so much! From our good days of growing at Gateway Community Church to our not so good days of running from Rufus our killer cat; we are so thankful and we love God so much; for all that He has done and for all that He will continue do! 

As we feel any stress setting in, Max and I encourage each other to pray for peace. The kind of peace that we feel while floating around on our inflatable kayaks out on spy pond. The peace that sets you free, knowing that we are in God's hands, that He loves us, and that he will take care of us.

                                                                                  

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."  


 Philippians 4:6-8   

Have Faith and Peace out!   :) 

so peaceful!

Bringing Buster home.....

Buster was hungry.

Totally wild, totally hippy. Being VW fans, we wanted a vw bus and God blessed us in giving us Buster! He is brown, he is ugly, and has a lot in common with...well...poop. But he is perfect! Lets hope he makes it all around the country with out breaking down, so please keep us (and Buster) in prayers! 

The Adventure Begins........

Team Hibbin invites you to come with us on our EPIC and faith filled adventure to the mountains of Colorado. We got the word, we got the faith, we got the guts, and we got the van to get us there. Buster, our 85 Westfalia Vanagon is getting ready for the coolest, awesomest, radest, and craziest roadtrip yet! Stay tuned dudes!