Amarillo, TX to El Mirage, AZ -Travelogue Part III

Odie has a great post ready for tomorrow on this topic, but I want to take a moment to wish my Dad, Eugene Boggs Happy Birthday. Happy, Happy Birthday, Papa Bear! We love you much!

Amarillo, TX to El Mirage, AZ -Travelogue Part III

This is the final travelogue of our journey from Tennessee to Arizona. You can get to the first two parts below.

Travelogue Part I

Travelogue Part II

The weather was so nice in Amarillo, that we had decided to hang out another day. We did not need heat or AC and that is perfect weather in an RV! Wow! It was beautiful.

Then KJo checked the forecast for our route Tuesday and discovered the weather guessers were calling for rain over the first 200 miles of our route. That caused us to reconsider.

Rain is not a deal breaker for driving, but driving 240 miles Monday would greatly reduce our chances of driving in the rain, so we shook up the plan. When the plan was finished shaking, we had decided to hook up the Jeep, crank up the BoggsMobile, fill up with diesel and hit the road.

We filled the tank where we had spent the night. We only took on 123 gallons, but it made sense to fill up there and be finished with it for a while.

We made the 242 mile trip to a rest area east of Moriarty, New Mexico without much trouble in four hours.

We have parked in a lot of rest areas in all these years of traveling, but something happened Monday evening that we have never experienced. We were contacted by TWO friends that drive semi-trucks for a living. Both of them driving separate trucks and going by at different times, spotted the BoggsMobile in the rest area while they were driving by.

That is amazing. We do not even remember being spotted by one friend driving by in a truck, much less two! The first was Bro. Steve Walker from Wichita and the second was Bro. Bryan Cole from Oklahoma City. Unfortunately, we did not get pictures because they spotted us!

We had the blessing of going to church with Bro. Steve for nearly four years in Wichita and we have known Bro. Bryan for more years than I remember. He is the Dad of Kaitlyn, the young lady I eventually won as a friend by a consistent flow of M&Ms. You can read some about that HERE.

Our friends spotting along the road and reaching out to us, made us smile. Of course, KJo's tacos made me smile too!

Tuesday we ran the generator for a little bit in order to run the engine block heater. Yep, it was cold enough overnight to need to warm up the engine, but we were perfectly fine inside.

We traveled against high winds again Tuesday, but we only drove 3.5 hours and 209 miles. We spent the evening and night at the Arizona Welcome Center near Lupton, AZ. The scenery there is absolutely awesome!

Wednesday morning we ran the generator for a while to warm up the engine coolant and then cranked the bus. While warming up the engine, KJo cooked another omelet. Wow!

After about 105 miles, we stopped at Flying J in Winslow, Arizona to do the work of the evangelist and then finished the 160 miles to Flagstaff. We parked at Little America Truck Stop off of exit 198.

Believe it or not, friends called us as they were passing by and we got to visit with them for a couple hours at the restaurant inside the truck stop. I did not even think to get pictures. Ugh!

I was up at 4:30 Thursday morning at the truck stop in Flagstaff. My eastern time brain says that is 7:30 and that I have slept too late. We were rolling by 8:00.

We had a little bit of construction, but other than that, the 154 miles to El Mirage passed quickly and with no trouble. The temperature was in the low 40s when I got up, 63 degrees when we left and 105 in the afternoon here in El Mirage. We knew the temperature change was coming, but it was a shock to our system.

KJo and I had a project to work on as soon as we arrived. I will tell you more about that once I have a firm opinion on whether it has worked or not. The rest of our evening was spent with friends and wonderful burritos from Humberto's!

Our travel ambitions were modest each day this week. We were not anxious to plunge into 100+ degree days in Phoenix, especially when are main ACs are not functioning. The high temps in Moriarty, NM, Lupton, AZ and Flagstaff, AZ were in the 70s and the lows were in the 30s. Much better than 100+!

Yet, we are glad to be here and look forward to having revival! Thank you for dropping in.

Davy

The Weekend Dispatch Featuring The Big Texan

I have some pictures from Odie's weekend in Ohio first. It looks like she spent most of the weekend in church and that is not a bad thing. I have much more below Odie's pictures.

We began our weekend Saturday morning by driving through the wind to Amarillo, Texas. We were hoping to eat at The Big Texan and our hope was fulfilled. 😁

We enjoyed a wonderful meal that Saturday! Wow! I did not eat the big 72 ounce steak, but I sure had a big one! Then we moved to the TA Travel Center across the interstate for the evening and night.

Since we do not have to rush, rush, rush to our next revival, we wanted to find a place to go to church on Sunday. I text friends for recommendations, but could not come up with any great options. I found a Church of God in Christ online and listened to one of their services Saturday evening and we made plans to go. 

Sunday morning we cranked the bus and moved to the Petro Travel Center less than a mile away. The weather was so mild, that we decided not to travel after church and we did not want to wear out our welcome at the first truck stop.

We arrived at Pentecostal Temple Church of God In Christ a few minutes before 11:00 and slipped into service. They welcomed us very warmly. Pastor Demerson and his people were good to us and even asked us to minister for a few minutes.

It was a super great morning.

We only took one picture of people. Bro. Rodrick and Sis. Natalie Watkins were incredibly kind to us.

We had to eat Sunday afternoon and we just happened to be parked very close to a great place to eat. I had a much smaller steak Sunday.

KJo cooks a wonderful omelet! Wow!

I wrote about the weather earlier. The forecast for Amarillo was hot, hot, hot, but the weather guessers were way wrong. It has been beautiful! That is another reason we stayed here for a while. We do not have to run the generator in this weather unless we need hot water. Excellent!

Thank you for reading today.

Davy