Making It Look Easy!

We have been having a great week of travel and we will probably be giving you a full run down tomorrow. Today's Mile Marker is a little reminder that life on the road is not all kicks and grins. I know we make it look easy, but there is some work involved.😍

We were cruising along I-30 in Arkansas and I noticed a slowdown 45 miles ahead on my GPS. KJo investigated on Google Maps and WAZE and sure enough, it was coming with no way around it.

We never did figure out the root cause, but it looked as if there had been some peripheral accidents as always. This is what it looked like to us for a long time.

It took us exactly 30 minutes to travel 3.4 miles. Wow! So much for a good average yesterday.

Unfortunately, we were not finished.

Just as we cleared Texarkana, we topped a small rise and a large state truck was in the right lane. Thankfully, I was dawdling along in the right lane at about 60 while the left lane was speeding by us. I thought the large truck was on the shoulder and it took me a moment to realize he was in the lane.

I started braking, downshifting and praying. Soon I realized I could not slow down in time. There was no option in the left lane. The traffic was way too thick to attempt to merge at all. I pulled right to the shoulder and found the reason for the state truck in the right lane. He was protecting a truck with a small trailer that was cleaning the shoulder.

I seriously considered the grass embankment but decided to hold off until the last moment. When I stopped on the shoulder, I was next to the big truck and right behind the trailer loaded with road garbage. Whew! That was way too close.

Then I looked behind me and saw the speeding traffic coming over the hill trying to avoid all of us. It is a wonder there was no accident.

Less than 20 minutes later, we were in another slowdown. This one was caused by construction. This slowdown lasted 23 minutes and exactly 2 miles. We came to an exit with a detour we could utilize and jumped off. Otherwise, we might still be there.

You are going to love what happened at the end of the day. I will share that with you tomorrow. It is hilarious.

I know we are always talking about Mexican food, buffets, revivals and good times, but road life is more than fun and games. Yesterday was a dose of reality. I apologize if we make it look too easy. 

Thank you for tuning in today.

Davy

Where O Where Are You Today?

Several years ago, someone posted on Facebook that I had been in a bad car accident and I was barely hanging on to life and not expected to survive. The sad part is, I only received two phone calls to check on me.😍🤣😢

Let's just say, a whole lot more people notice when a fresh Mile Marker is lacking each morning.

Can you believe that after 4800 posts and over 13 years I forgot you? I was working most of Wednesday on a special video project and I was deeply involved it it until after midnight. I rolled out of bed this morning for devotions then dove back into the project. I had not even glanced at my text messages.

A few minutes ago I checked Mile Markers to make sure everything posted correctly. It was only then, that I realized nothing posted at all! What in the world?

Unfortunately, there is no way in the world everything will post correctly IF I do not do my job or ask Odie to do my job! Ouch! That hurts.

The very least I can do is post a picture of yesterday's lunch. Does this help make up for my shortcomings?

Thank you for your patience. We will try to be back Friday with a few pictures from the week. May God bless you all.

Davy

Is It Summer Yet?

Is it summer yet? It feels like winter again. Brrrr!🥶

We have enjoyed pretty nice weather all year, but we may have driven too far north a little too soon. It has been cool and windy in Evansville, Indiana this week, but Odie tells us it has been downright chilly in Ohio. 

We are supposed to point the BoggsMobile toward Ohio after this revival, but I am not sure about that. I am anti-cold in May!

I am thinking maybe Florida or at least south Mississippi or south Alabama might be warmer. What do you think? 

Orlando, Florida is supposed to be 90 degrees next Monday. Oops! That may be a little bit too warm.😰 I just checked and Waynesville, Ohio is supposed to increase into the 70s in a week. Maybe that will be OK.

I know I am supposed to be content with whatever state I am in.

Philippians 4:11 Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.😁

But I am still chasing perfect weather!

Thank you for stopping by today.

Davy

A Cold Time On The Old Town

We have been eating at Shoney's in Oak Ridge, Tennesse since at least 1989. We say it is the best Shoney's in the world!

On our first visit to Beechfork Holiness Church, I preached Homecoming with dinner on the ground in June 1988. When we went back for revival in 1989, we began our long relationship with the Oak Ridge Shoney's.

For many, many years, we ate at Shoney's every single night of revival and twice on Sunday. All of the waitresses knew what we wanted to drink and what we wanted to eat most nights. Most of those revivals lasted two weeks too.

For our recent revival, we stayed in the Holiday Inn Express right behind Shoney's. Guess where we every day for lunch? Pastor Herman and Sis. Margaret Woods live about twenty minutes away and they drove to meet us for lunch each day and we loved every moment of it.

We had good meals, and great fellowship. We made wonderful memories and laughed about a lot of old memories through the years.

This is just one of our Shoney's memories. One Friday night after church many years ago, there were at least 30 of us in the back room at Shoney's eating and talking and laughing. There was a roar going on. It is no wonder they put us in the back room.

A brand new waitress was standing at my back preparing to hand something over my left shoulder. She made a sudden move and accidentally dumped the tray on me and my suit and tie.

The new waitress was trying to reach a drink to the table and knocked over the ketchup bottle on her tray. The falling ketchup bottle was going to knock over another drink on the tray so she instinctively tried to catch it. While trying to catch it, she knocked over a FULL pitcher of ice water in the process.

The pitcher of water hit my shoulder and ice and water poured all the way down the front of me. All I knew at the time was that I was suddenly soaking wet and very cold. The room went silent, I breathed in deeply through my teeth in shock and after a heartbeat or two, the room erupted in laughter.

We laughed for ten solid minutes.

When we arrived where we were staying lat that night I was not only wet, but completely sticky. I had not only taken a full pitcher of ice water, down the front of my suit, but a couple of glasses of sweet tea too!😂

No wonder we love that particular Shoney's so much!

Thank you for stopping by today.

Davy

The Story of Paint

The BoggsMobile was painted at the Prevost factory before delivery to the Featherlite conversion facility in Sanford Florida. It was delivered there in early 1995 and was converted to its present configuration as a motorhome over the next several months. After the conversion was completed it was delivered to the buyer in southern California in late 1995 or early 1996 and was titled as a 96.

That is pretty normal in bus conversions, but there was one thing that was abnormal about this bus build. Normally the end buyer purchases the bus from the converter. This customer ordered the bus from Prevost to his specifications and then priced conversion packages from a few of the major converters.

He then hired the conversion company to convert his bus rather than a bus they had purchased from Presost. We have some of this correspondence. Going this route probably cost him considerably more, but he had the exact bus he wanted.

The reason this detail is important is the customer was dissatisfied with the finish on the paint when he received the completed bus conversion in 1996. The converter had nothing to do with the paint so the customer had to fight an international giant over the paint job on his bus.

We have some of those letters too. Including the final letter from Prevost telling the buyer that Prevost was agreeing to repaint the whole coach AND give him a sizable amount of money in return for his trouble.

Evidently, little the shepherd boy in southern California had a mighty stone that brought Goliath to his corporate knees in a hurry.😎😍 The new paint job, which was the same as the original design, was completed in 1997.

Why am I telling this story? Because the 1997 paint on the BoggsMobile is now twenty six years old and is in really sad shape. The clear coat has been peeling in places for years. We had some small sections repaired in 2013 and those sections are fine. Everything else is turning loose now and it looks bad.

Boy O' boy! It looks ok from this distance!😎🤣

It not only looks bad but it is hard to keep clean and the paint is beginning to be affected as well. We hate to make a huge investment in a twenty eight year old bus, but we do not want to watch the investment we have already made deteriorate right before our eyes.

We have been researching paint and even vinyl wrap options recently. Part of my trip this last week took me through Nashville where we have explored some options and the results are not encouraging. The surface needs so much preparation because of the clearcoat issues and other problems, it makes every remedy nearly ridiculous.

If we do this, we are determined to use a shop that knows its way around buses or motorhomes and is completely comfortable painting stainless steel. I am not interested in my brother-in-law's first cousin's ex-husband's neighbor who paints cars under his tree in the backyard.😍 We need the Lord to guide our steps IF we are to make any steps at all.

Pray that God will guide us. That is all we ever need, God leading the way. We are not in a super rush. Thank you and thank you for stopping by today.  

Davy

Owning A Bus IS A Trip!😎

Owning a bus is not only for trips. Owning a bus IS a trip!😎

We have learned during fifteen years of bus ownership that we must schedule downtime in order to keep things running like they are supposed to run. This thing loves to eat miles going down the road, but it requires proper care and feeding.

It has become our habit to schedule bus time in Vonore toward the end of the year and also set aside time while we are in revival in Wartburg in the spring. That seems to work pretty well.

There have been years we stayed in the bus in Vonore and drove back and forth to Beechfork for church each night. That is a little bit of a stretch for us, but it can be done. On other years, we drop the bus with Jeff Rowe and stay in a hotel in Oak Ridge. That puts us about 25 minutes from the church and an hour from the bus.

I often drive to the bus during the day and take pictures while work is being done and generally hang out and watch. Part of the reason I do this is because of Bus Psychosis and also I genuinely enjoy being at Jeff's shop and watching the work. I have learned a whole lot of valuable information that way.

Lately, I have needed every moment of the day to rest and be prepared for revival each night. I was up early in the mornings last week thinking about going to the bus but ultimately chose to err on the side of caution and refrain from the two hour round trip drive.

The BoggsMobile was in good hands, of course. We thank God for Jeff Rowe and the guys at East Tennessee Luxury Coach. They are a blessing to us.

What Was Done?

In no particular order, these are the highlights.

-Oil, filter and lube

-Charge the over the road air conditioning

-Find and fix coolant leaks in the over the road heating system

-Work on a recurring generator problem

-Find and repair bus suspension air leaks

-Inspect a few other items and plan future fixes

-And the main item, repair the brake problem that flared up as we were leaving Ellisville in March.

The bus needs about 10 more things, but they only had it three days and as good as they are, they are not miracle workers. They worked on every item on the list for this trip and did a great job. So far, the heat and AC seem to be OK, the breaks are releasing properly and the air suspension is better.

The generator is a little more stubborn. Jeff discovered some problems and fixed them as much as possible, but it is still acting up a bit. He probably needs more time with it to sort it all out. There is something I can check for him next week in Kentucky.

Overall, it was great stop. I am sure we will be back around soon enough.

Thank you for coming back around to Mile Markers today. See you tomorrow.

Davy

Endurance For The Road Ahead!

The BoggsMobile is in the shop, The Boggs Family is in a hotel in Oak Ridge while we are in revival at Beechfork Holiness Church near Wartburg, Tennessee. The Lord was near us on the first night of revival and we are thankful.

Will you continue to pray for us? We have no complaints. The Lord has been very good to us. However, I am not nearly as strong as I need to be. Three or four days in a row with lots of driving or other activity is enough to prove to me that I need more strength to preach and travel.

I was honestly dragging all day Tuesday and Wednesday, although I had enough energy to preach the first night of revival Wednesday. I know that God is able to heal me completely and we are asking Him to do it.

I will be busy with bus stuff all next week, but I will not be preaching Monday through Friday. Maybe that will help. I would rather preach than deal with bus stuff, but it is part of staying on the road. It must be done.

Thank you for praying for us and for taking the time to drop by each day. May God bless you for your kindness toward us.

Davy

Long "Standing" Relationship

Last week we were in revival at Lighthouse of Holiness Church in Haines City, Florida. As I mentioned earlier, we have had a long relationship with this church and Pastor Chris Whiffen and his family.

In fact, our friendship goes back even more years than the church and we are very thankful God brought them into our lives. We have surely been blessed by the kindness and love of these great people.

Bro. Whiffen began Lighthouse in an old Post Office a few miles north of the current location in Davenport in the summer of 1995. At that time, we were living in Ohio and I was working for an interior trim carpenter in the southern Ohio area.

I did not say that I am a trim carpenter, but I was working for a trim carpenter trying to keep up. I hung a lot of interior doors, ran a lot of case, base, chair rail and crown. I also helped build several bookcases and window seats in some of the large houses we worked on, but I could never be considered an expert carpenter.

I do not remember how it came about, but somehow I began to build an oak Bible Stand for Bro. Whiffen's church in December 1995. I had never built anything like it, but I drew a plan, brought together the material and fumbled through it somehow. I built it, stained it and varnished it.

A friend of Bro. Whiffen's from Florida was visiting in the north in late December and swung by Dayton, Ohio and transported it to Florida for me. On New Year's Eve, I flew to Florida and preached behind the new Bible Stand for the first time. 

I have no idea how many revivals I have preached for Bro. Whiffen since then, but I was honored to stand behind it and preach again last week.

I am amazed at the good condition of the Bible Stand after twenty seven+ years and being used thousands of times. A piece of furniture endures a lot of use and abuse in a church.

I asked Bro. Whiffen if it has been refinished and he assured me it had not.

The finish is still perfect even where preachers grab hold of the edges night after night. I see more than my share of Bible Stands up close and it is completely common to see the finish badly worn, especially on the edges. I think that happens because of the sweat and oil from our skin.

The longevity of the finish is a testimony to the three or four coats of oil-based varnish that I used. I remember the varnish we used then smelled up the whole building and was nearly impossible to clean up. 

It probably causes baby salamanders to be crosseyed in California and is illegal now, but it sure protects the surface on oak Bible Stands.

Twenty seven years is not eternity, but at least I may have made a lasting impact in one thing.😍

Thank you for stopping by today.

Davy

Out Of Range

Our cell phone signal has gone from bad to worse. We only thought the church south of Plant City had poor signal. We dove off the cliff as far as signal is concerned east of Haines City, Florida. 

The signal kind of comes and goes in waves, but has been completely out to sea on most of Monday. I can send texts, but phone calls are hit and miss. Emailing pictures and posting pictures seems completely down today. Reading news or anything on my computer has been no go.

Hopefully, this will post. If you do not see much the rest of the week, you will know why. I will drive to town and try to post A Word For Wednesday and link it here tomorrow as well.

Have a great day.

Davy

The Lord Has Been Mighty Good to Us!

We are receiving questions every day about my breathing and strength so I need to answer publicly. 

The Lord Has Been Mighty Good to Us!

Although my strength is not what I would like it to be, I am stronger than I was even last week. I need to be much stronger to comfortably be able to sing and preach seven times each week, keep the bus going, set up sound and all the rest, not to mention travel between revivals. 

To preach each night requires me to do almost absolutely nothing during the day. If I was having to work on a bus project every day, I would be in a pinch. I believe that more strength will come.

I have ministered every service (5) since Sunday morning without using supplemental oxygen while in the pulpit. Most days my O2 saturation has been good and only dropped a few times for a few minutes.

In full disclosure, I am still using a daily inhaler to help me breathe. I am not sure what happens when I quit taking it. As I get stronger, I will eliminate the inhaler over time and find out.

As I mentioned Monday, I am having some trouble with my hip and leg which seems like sciatica pain. I am calling it my psychotic nerve.😢😁 I would appreciate you helping me pray for relief in that area too.

I have rearranged much of our late spring and early summer schedule. We have removed the tent revivals and deleted some miles and we hope that helps. Shortly after we made those decisions, we received some invitations that were completely unexpected and we have been able to insert some of those meetings.

As I said, God has been good to us and we have no complaints at all. Thank you for praying for us sincerely and fervently over the last few months. May God bless you for pulling me through by prayer. We will never forget it.

Thank you for reading today.

Davy

Running Water!

Odie has been doing a great job on Mile Markers while I have been recuperating. I appreciate her faithfulness the last two weeks and in the days to come. Thank you, Odie!

Running Water

In most households in the USA, we take running water for granted. To have running water in an RV at all times takes some planning and some work.

1995/96 Prevost XL Vantare' Conversion

The BoggsMobile turned 28 years old a few days ago. Like any old house, there are always things to be done, especially when the old house has bounced down the road for over 400,000 miles!😎

In December I mentioned to you that we were having trouble with the water pump that provides fresh water to the inside of the bus for drinking, bathing and flushing. When hooked up to a water spigot with a hose, there is no pump needed. But when we are using water from our fresh water tank, a 12 volt pump is needed.

The BoggsMobile was equipped with two pumps when we bought it. We never need two pumps, but evidently, the second one was a backup. They are both hidden behind the water manifold and the water lines and the pumps are difficult to work on or replace.

The #1 pump is circled in white below and the #2 pump is circled in blue.

During the first couple years of bus ownership, I messed with the cheap pumps that were there repeatedly. They never gave us trouble on beautiful days. It was always raining, snowing or 10 degrees or 95 degrees.

Several years ago I removed the manifold completely and replaced both pumps with Flojet 5 gallon per minute pumps. These pumps are variable speed and much quieter and better quality than the cheap pumps we had always used.

We would alternate usage of the two pumps and when the first one quit we used the other one. The one that quit was the more difficult to replace so we put it off until a better day.

Last May while we were in Vonore, Tennessee the second pump completely quit. I went to Camping World near Knoxville and purchased a pump. Unfortunately, to save over $100, I did not buy the good Flojet model. I bought the pump Camping World was actively pushing, a Remco 55AQUAJET-ARV.

Jeff Rowe installed it. He was able to install it in the lower position without moving all of the water lines.

The new pump worked fine from May until December. It still pumps water but the pressure switch has gone bad and it will not shut off when you close the faucet.

In December I began looking for a way to install a new pump in a better place. There were three water filters to the left of the pumps that we have never used. I figured out how to remove them and that freed up some space. You can see the filters in the picture below. They are outlined in red.

I removed the filters and while we were in Texas, I put some vinyl boards in place so I would have a secure place to fasten the new pump.

Here is the new Flojet pump mounted in place in Texas. 

For my own information, the model number has been revised on the new pump.

Incidentally, I found the Flojet on sale and saved the original $100. The Remco is under warranty so I will either get money or another pump when I take it back.

This week I had enough strength and a day of good weather. KJo and I wired it up, ran the plumbing and it is working fine.

We were able to remove both the old pumps and their plumbing. For now, we will go with only one pump. Since it is out in the open, replacement with the same pump will not be as difficult.

Owning any kind of RV is as fun as a barrel of monkeys. Owning a 28 year old bus is a completely higher level of fun.😍😂

Thank you for stopping by today.

Davy

Our First Schedule Change of The Year

We live and die by the schedule, but there is one constant about that schedule. That constant is change. Life happens and things change. If the pandemic taught us anything, it taught us that change is coming at a moment's notice and we must roll with it.

In 2020, KJo and I were halfway around the world and less than three months into the year, our schedule changed for the year due to COVID.

In 2021, we were one month into the year, when we walked straight into COVID and our schedule changed for the year.

In 2022, our first revival had to cancel before we even left home because of a COVID outbreak. 

Less than three weeks into 2022 COVID broke out during revival and we had to close early, leading to a schedule change.

In 2023, in the first week of the year, a revival scheduled for the end of January had to postpone. Thankfully, COVID had NOTHING to do with it. Hallelujah! 

The Pastor's daughter is having a baby in another part of the country and the scheduled meeting was right in the middle of the excitement.

They thought it was better to reschedule now than for us to get there and they have to cancel at the last minute. I agreed wholeheartedly.

Fortunately, a Pastor had visited a revival in Texas last fall and asked me to keep him in mind if we had any last minute cancellations in the area. Odie reminded me, I sent him a text telling him about the recently opened week and he immediately invited us for revival.

He is excited, his church is excited and we are excited. I will not be surprised if we stumble right into the middle of the will of God that week. I love how God does that.

The dates are January 29-February 2, Sunday-Thursday. We will close Thursday and reserve both Friday and Saturday for travel, because the location change puts the next revival in Mississippi a little further away.

The revival will be at Payne Springs Assembly in Mabank, Texas with Pastor RC Betz. 

It is a new church for us, but we have known Bro. and Sis. Betz since before they were married. We are looking forward to being in revival with them.

If you are out and about, please check our schedule and come be with us in revival. We are always super glad to have visitors!

May God bless you, friends. Thank you for stopping to see us.

Davy

It Is NOT The Most Expensive Mistake I Have Ever Made

Several weeks ago, I told you a story that happened on the first day of this tour in August. Long story short, I left my fuel cap on the pump. In 39 years of driving and 14.5 years of driving this bus, I had never done that before.

Here is the long of the story. You can skip down if you have heard this one before.

I had planned to stop for diesel in northern Kentucky, but that did not go so well. We maneuvered through traffic, waited in line and then my fuel card would not work. 

That is not so unusual, so KJo took it inside while I retightened the 48 lug nuts on the trailer. I had the wheels off recently and this was the 50 mile checkup.

The fuel card will not scan properly so the clerk has to punch in the numbers manually. This clerk said it was company policy not to run a card that will not scan, so no diesel. We have multiple ways to pay, but I wanted to use that card.

In the process of this, I unlocked and opened the fuel door and removed the cap. While tightening the lug nuts, I closed the fuel door. After the clerk could/would not help, I made sure the fuel door was locked and left the fuel cap on top of the pump!

Stupid rookie move!

I discovered my mistake 30 miles later at the next truck stop. All went well with the fuel card, as we knew it would/should.😍

Since then, I have been using several heavy duty paper towels to cover the opening and holding them on with a wire tie.

I tried to order a cap from the national parts line for Prevost, but they could not determine which cap I need. They should be able to tell from my VIN but they were having trouble for some reason. 

There are a few different fuel tank configurations for my model year and even though I could tell them about mine and had the VIN, they could provide no joy. It must have been a glitch in the system of some kind.

I called the Prevost Fort Worth location and after some searching, some holding, some begging and pleading they came up with a part number. There was one matching part in New Jersey and I had it shipped to our next stop. After so much trouble, I was not 100% confident it would be the right one, but low and behold, it is!

It is exactly the correct cap. It even has a chain to hook inside. The chain should prevent a reoccurrence of this mishap. For future reference, the part number is 530041. I hope I never need to know the number.

The price was $42.18 plus $9.99 shipping. It is pricey enough to make me regret it, but not the most expensive mistake I have ever made.😍🤣

Well, you live and learn. At least that is the goal. It sure would be a shame to live a long life and never learn.

Thank you for stopping by today.

Davy

A Fresh Vantage :Point From The Window

I am sitting in the BoggsMobile looking out the window.

My place in the bus is a chair at a small table, next to the window. On that table sits a laptop. I spend many hours each day in that chair, at that table, using that laptop. I use those hours each day in three main pursuits. 

The first is sermon preparation and the second is before you on this screen, Mile Markers. The third is writing, editing, uploading and writing descriptions for A Word For Wednesday and other YouTube clips.

Now, I do not spend eight hours in sermon preparation for each day that I preach as Bro. Bill Houston endeavored to do. Bro. Bill set the bar high! Wow! But I do make a sincere effort to be diligent in my calling and faithful to my master.

There are many days when I am in that chair reading, researching, praying, meditating on God and his Word and typing away at that laptop for many, hours. It is not a chore. I enjoy it.

But that is not what my subject is today. I intend to tell you about the window that is next to my chair, table and laptop.

Most weeks, the view out my side window is the wall of a church or a churchyard with little to no movement all day long other than a squirrel or two. This week, we are in a campground and the entertainment options are nearly endless.

Just the other day, it was very dificult to concentrate on work for a couple of hours. The window entertainment was too entertaining.😎

I watched a 30ish aged couple hook up to their RV and pull out of the park. It was one solid hour of entertainment watching him empty the holding tanks! It was hilarious!

I could take the high and noble road and tell you that I was not laughing AT them, but that would not be true. I was laughing out loud, smacking the table and slapping my leg in wonderful fits of laughter. It was the best entertainment I have had in a while.

TV has nothing over real life, that is for sure.

The trailer and the truck were absolutely brand spanking new. This may have been the first time they have camped anywhere in their new rig. I remember those days very well. That is why I am comfortable laughing at them from my window. I earned the right.😜

Our first rig was 30 years ago. It was late in 1992 and we had a 1979 Holiday Rambleette Fifth Wheel and a 1989 F250 extended cab truck. It was quite a setup in more ways than one and I learned a lot of things the hard way.

-I left our first RV plugged into the electrical outlet and nearly drove away and ripped it out of the wall the very first time I pulled the trailer. 

-I had a very bad tire blowout on the trailer on our second trip. Tires that look good are not always good!

-I literally threw up every time I emptied the holding tanks for three months. Gross? Yep, but true.

-We have had milk containers fall out of the fridge and watermelons explode on the floor while driving.

-I nearly took out fence posts, light posts, electrical pedestals and water hydrants more times than I can remember.

The man I was watching this week had what looked like a hazmat suit to empty the holding tanks. Watching him was a riot. But if he stays at it, he will be eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich while doing that chore in a few years.

He will learn to unhook the water hose the day before when the temperature is a little warmer. It was cold the other morning and he wrestled that 50' anaconda for at least 10 minutes. Even his wife stood off at a distance and chuckled at that sight.

He will learn to hook his truck to the fifth wheel in one smooth motion. He will not have to climb in the bed of the truck six times. He will get the hang of it.

That is my point today. You will get the hang of it too. Let the watchers laugh. Let the critics sneer. Let the scoffers jeer. Let the haters hate. You will get the hang of it.

We have all been there before. We all learned somewhere. The haters and all of the rest may forget, but those of us that are chuckling, we remember. We remember our own first steps and feeble attempts and we are chuckling for two reasons. 

First, we are chuckling at our past selves and we are chuckling because we know you will eventually learn the ropes. It will get better. Please forgive us. We are rooting for you from the window!

Life is hard sometimes. We fall down and we get up. Our knees and elbows may be scraped and bleeding. We may be beaten and bruised. Life may slap us up one side of the head and back down the other side. 

It is Okay! We will get the hang of it. You will get the hang of it. Get up, friend. Dust yourself off and climb back on that horse. Even your friends may be laughing, but they know it is all part of learning to ride.

You may wonder, why I did not go outside and help that couple. That would have been a bad idea. They had a checklist and the worst thing I could do would be to interrupt their checklist and cause them to miss something critical.

Believe me, I have been the one with the checklist many times.

And some things are better learned by experience. I have plenty of experience that tells me that is true. How about you?

Thank you for reading today.

Davy

Purposely Thankful!

Several years ago a Pastor opened up a revival service for testimonies and his young son was one of the first to stand up. We could see the lump in the Pastor's throat and apprehension in his face as he wondered what his son would say. He was probably questioning his own decision to open up the floor to testimonies.

The young man said with complete sincerity, "I want to thank God for my family. We are not a perfect family, but we are a family."

I know the Pastor/Dad felt like crawling into the Bible stand as we all smiled politely and laughed like crazy inwardly. We all had a good tease and laugh about it later but it has become a common phrase in the BoggsMobile.

We will look at one another quite often and say, "We are not a perfect family, but we are family."

That pretty much sums us up. Even though we might like for the world around us to view us without all of our warts and other imperfections, the truth remains we are not perfect, we are not whole, we are not exactly what we planned to be by now. Yet we are thankful we are not what we use to be and certainly not as low down as we could be.

We are very thankful as a family that God has been so very good to us. That does not mean that everything is rosy or that we can even begin to understand some of the things that are going on around us. It simply means we are thankful for the place that God has brought us to at the moment in spite of what we think about the present circumstances.

We are thankful every day. We must be. When Paul describes the perilous times we live in, he includes two words grouped together; unthankful, unholy. I do not believe these words are placed side by side on accident. When we are unthankful, unholy will not be far behind.

I am determined to be purposely thankful. God has been so good to us. He has walked beside us and blessed us every step of the way. Surely, His goodness and mercy follow us each day.

 

There is no doubt that we live in an evil world, infected with 6000 years of sin that will beat you up at every chance. But we are determined to trust God and allow Him to work things out for our good according to His will.

Thank you, God, for loving us and helping us and guiding us.

Thank you, friends, for walking through this life with us.

Davy

A Dreaded But Necessary Change

As much as I dreaded it, I changed phones this week. Ugh!

I dislike most change. I especially dislike changing phones. 

This is one of the first pictures I took with my RAZR phone in December 2005 and I thought it was fine.

Changing from the RAZR to my first iPhone in 2008 felt way too difficult. It should have been easy, but the learning curve wore me out. Since then, I have dreaded every change.

I usually wait until the battery is almost useless and the phone is moving so slowly it seems like it is full of molasses. The phone I switched from was purchased three years ago this month and it has been working fine.

The battery on this phone has held up incredibly well. It says the battery health is 100%. I think it will last a long time and make someone a great phone.

I do have one problem with it. Although it has the most memory of any phone I have ever had at 64gb, it is not big enough for recording, editing and uploading videos. I have mentioned here before that I am constantly bumping up against the limit at the most inconvenient times.

I have purchased a GoPro to help with weekly recording and I am getting used to it. I have recorded several videos with it, edited them on my computer and posted them. Our last two A Word For Wednesday episodes were shot on the GoPro along with a few things you will see in the coming weeks.

However, because the phone is always with me, I still find myself reaching for the phone to record on the fly. I always have my phone, but I need to plan ahead to have the GoPro in hand. 

For example, I would have pulled out my phone to record driving the bus out of Arlington Heights last week, but I knew I did not have enough memory to record 15-20 minutes of video. I can not tell you how frustrating it is to look at my phone and realize I lost the whole shot because of memory limitations.

Last week, I bought a two year old phone, had it shipped here and transferred the contents from my three year old phone. It was actually the easiest transfer I have ever had phone to phone. I am happy about that. I have been up all night a few other times.

The phones are basically the same with one major exception. The newer phone has 512gb of memory. That should give me plenty of breathing room!

It also has a new version of software, which I view as a drawback. I am always the last in the family and maybe the world to update software. Usually, my critical apps threaten to stop working if I do not update.😊

This is a picture of the old one.

This is the new one.

They are pretty much the same in appearance. The same woman is on the front of both phones.

This is where the difference shows up.

Wow! What an amazing amount of storage. The picture and video quality should be similar. I will let you know.

Thank you for stopping by today.

Davy