Weekend Woundup and Weview #45

The weekend started with a tremendous lunch Friday at one of our favorite places to eat. Rodizio Grill!

Bro. James and Sis. Tara McCoy introduced us to Rodizio Grill in July 2015 when we were here for our first revival. Here is the picture from that hot day.

We fell in love with this place back then and we appreciate the McCoy's taking us there the very first time.

Kelly Jo and I have been to the one in Nashville twice and we have taken family and friends to the one in Ohio several times since then. Yes, it is that good! It is kind of pricey but definitely worth it as a splurge! Wow! 

We will have more pictures from Rodizio along with a great big bunch of pictures from the church in tomorrow's Revival In Pictures post.

We had a wonderful service Friday night. Some of the men from Liberty had visited a church in Aurora, Colorado and that church repaid the visit Friday. Pastor Norman Hurd brought a big bunch from his church to revival Friday night and they were a tremendous blessing and encouragement to the revival. They also responded good in the altar service and testified to receiving help from the Lord!



It was great to have Bro. Hurd and his folks and to get acquainted with them.

God moved in a mighty way Friday night in the altar and I believe that we all left encouraged in the Lord. I love services like that and I love when whole revivals are like that!

Saturday morning I spent some time on top of the BoggsMobile.



I will tell you more about that later in the week. Then we enjoyed a wonderful lunch with Bro. and Sis. McCoy at their favorite Mexican place. It was excellent. The salsa had a roasted flavor like Los Cabos but it was served chilled rather than warm. It was very good!



We finished revival with two more great services Saturday night and Sunday morning

We only had one revival service on Sunday morning. Bro. McCoy and his church take their Sunday evening services to some local assisted living facilities. They are a blessing to many folks there and it is a wonderful outreach.

When service was over Sunday morning we all went to Sweet Tomatoes. We enjoyed a great meal and wonderful fellowship with the McCoy's and their folks. When we arrived back at the BoggsMobile it was about 70 degrees and the sun was shining bright. 

There was a very cold front blowing in on Monday and we wanted to get out of Dodge before it hit. It was coming from the northeast so we would be driving into it but once we get above Wyoming it is supposed to be a little better.

We pulled out at 4:00 PM Sunday.

Traffic was light all the way through Denver and beyond. It was a really pleasant day to drive until the wind picked up the last hour or so. We enjoyed the evening on the road.

Did I mention that Colorado is absolutely beautiful?

Two hours later we stopped at the welcome center in Wyoming to empty our holding tanks. We left Castle Rock at 4:00 and it was 70 degrees. We traveled 100 miles north and it was 40 degrees, felt like 29 and the wind was blowing 17 MPH out of the northeast.

The sun went down while I was working and all hope of getting warm vanished with it. Friends, I am telling you I thought I was going to freeze to death! It got cold fast!

We wrapped up the weekend a couple of hours later in a rest area south of Casper, Wyoming.

The total drive between revivals this time is between 900 and 1000 miles and I wanted to make a bigger dent in it Sunday evening so that we could mostly rest one day and maybe see a few sights. The cold, wind and the forecast of snow a few miles ahead put a stop to that.

We will pick up today and see how far we get. Thanks for riding along with us.

Davy

Travel and Work Days

In keeping with our stated goal to travel as smart as we can the next several weeks (in light of my fantastic scheduling) we built some rest into our 530 mile trip between Wichita and Castle Rock, Colorado. PLUS we had a newsletter to write and get uploaded to the printer and a bunch of book work to do too.

We tried to get a good night's sleep Sunday and we did not rush off bright and early as we often do on travel days. Bro. John and Sis. Judy DiZazzo were knee deep in remodeling the last time we were here and we wanted to see the finished product. The house looks tremendous and we enjoyed our visit with them very much.

By the time we arrived at the church, cranked up the BoggsMobile, unhooked the utilities and attached the Green Machine, it was 11:00 AM. Perfect!

What was not perfect was the terribly high winds that beat us up all day long. It whipped around in different directions a few times but it was mostly coming out of the northwest. It was horrible.

We were going north the first two hours and then pretty much due west the rest of the day. That means it was hitting us on the left side of the bus toward the front for two hours and then the right side the rest of the day.

The wind was blowing sustained speeds of 20-27 MPH and gusting to 40 MPH according to our weather apps! I believe they may have clocked it a little too slow! I had to keep a firm grip on the wheel every moment. My knuckles were white and my whole body was tense from the wind hitting us broadside.

I am super glad that not all travel days are like Monday.

We have been west nearly every year since 2010 but we have not traveled west on I-70 through Kansas since then. We love this drive across the flat lands of Kansas. But those flat lands are deceptive.

Wichita, Kansas is about 1300' above sea level. We dropped about 75' going north to Salina where we turned west on I-70. I-70 looks like it is almost completely flat but it is steady climbing at about a 1% grade. I do not believe my GPS ever showed a 2% grade, always 1%.

This perfectly flat landscape picture was taken through my bug soaked windshield in western Kansas. The elevation is about 3900' above sea level! That was a big gain for the day. Especially when it never seemed like we were going uphill at all!

This picture out my side window is in eastern Colorado. It looks flatter than Kansas and that is saying something.

My GPS said were 5400' above sea level in that picture above. Amazing!

By the time we stopped I felt like I had been beat up all day long! I was very glad to pry my fingers off the steering wheel and get out of the driver's seat and away from the heavy wind.

The sun went down very shortly after we arrived and we went to work on the newsletter and settled in for a very cold night. It was the coldest night for us this fall and way colder than we are used to in October. We had a good frost. IF there is any ragweed out here, it should be dead and that is good! It will get colder later in the week.

We did not travel Tuesday. We rested, tended to a couple BoggsMobile issues (I will detail in a later post), and Kelly Jo and I spent the biggest part of the day catching up on book work. It was a tedious day but necessary and enjoyable overall.

Who says we park at Flying J for free? We paid the rent before we departed Flying J on Wednesday morning.

The drive on to Castle Rock was beautiful on an awesome clear, warm day.

We arrived just before 11:00 Wednesday. We were here two years ago but we flew in so the BoggsMobile had never been to the McCoy's house. We parked in the road, figured the best way in and parked. We are in a gorgeous location.

We expected to have access to 20 amp electric and run the generator a lot during the very cold weather that will visit this week. But the electric panel was in the garage with easy access, so we wired into 50 amps. That is a plus.

Pastor James McCoy, Sis. Tara and their daughter Sara welcomed us with open arms and we are very glad to be back with them. 

We had a wonderful time with them in July 2015 and if last night's service is any indication, this is going to be a great week. I love ministering in pioneer churches. It is a great place and time to exercise the calling of an evangelist. May God give us grace to do it well in Castle Rock, Colorado.

Kelly Jo and Odie were smiling big after church!

We had a very special visitor the first night of revival. Do you recognize our dear friend from Richton, Mississippi?

Bro. J. W. Cooper is working this week on a oil rig about an hour from here and he popped into church Wednesday. That was a very special treat for us and for the church and we appreciate his time and effort! May God bless you, little buddy, for being a blessing to us!

Thank you all for stopping in to visit us today.

Davy

Travel Days and Revival

We are planning to cover quite a few miles between revivals the next few weeks so we are trying to be as smart as we can be with our travel days. I used to think I was a wimp if I could not drive at least 1000 miles a day! Time has made a change in me and I have to ration my travel days now.

We are trying to travel smarter. We only had about 400 miles between West Plains, Missouri and Wichita, Kansas but decided to take both days to cover the distance. So Monday and Tuesday were both travel days. 

It was beautiful and cool late Monday morning when we pulled out of Junction Hill Church. Sis. Galiher pulled the bus to the edge of the parking lot so I could hook up the Green Machine. I think she has a future in bus driving.

Soon we were ready to go.

We stopped near Carthage, Missouri for a late lunch with Bro. Mitch Boggs Jr. and Bro. Jason Fellers. They were working right next door to a roadside restaurant with lots of parking. We had a good meal and great fellowship! We laughed until we nearly hurt.

11 miles later we stopped at Colaw. It is an RV salvage place and they sell new and used parts. We have been doing business here since 2002 and we love to stop in when we are passing through during business hours. We only found about $90 worth of stuff that we could not live without. That is not too bad for me and Colaw!

We stopped 11 miles later at Flying J in Joplin. We emptied our holding tanks and filled up with diesel. There was no one in line to empty the holding tanks but the fuel line took forever. We were at Flying J over an hour total.

We drove to a rest area north of Cherryvale, Kansas on Hwy 400 and decided to stop for the night. We were only about 125 miles from Wichita but I am trying to pace myself so we stopped.

KJ prepared a little snack before bed time and it was delicious as usual!

We had a peaceful night's rest and Tuesday morning we were off to the races.

We pulled into Bethany Revival Center about 11:30 and hit the ground running. We love parking here. It is a great place with great utility hookups and a beautiful new parking lot. The entrance is wide too. What is not to love?

We set up sound, had a fun sound check and then prepared for service. The first service is critical for the tone of revival most of the time and God helped us all Tuesday night. I am looking for a great week!

Here are a few pictures from revival to wet your appetite for more later in the week.

That was the end of our two travel days and first night of revival. Pray for me this morning and Thursday morning. I will be preaching at the Sedgwick County jail both days. I have been doing this for years and I always need the Lord to help me. I want to be effective there.

Thank you for stopping in today. 

Davy