Vintage View Vednesday Montana 2007

Schedule Adjustment: Bro. Tracy Boyd's Dad is having a pretty major health crisis in Oklahoma and Bro. Tracy and Sis. Shea need to be by his parent's side. The revival that was scheduled to begin tonight in Sterlington has been canceled. 

Bro. Tracy was understandably hesitant to cancel, but I informed Bro. Tracy immediately that we completely understand and not to worry about us at all. Things like that can not be planned and obviously are more important than anything we might have planned in advance.

Please pray for Bro. Richard Boyd and his family.

Vintage View Vednesday

After our beautiful day in Glacier National Park with my parents, we spent the night in Kalispell, Montana and then began to make our way to the Metzgers. The goal of the trip was to preach revival for them at Sun Valley Church and it was time to get started. We were anxious to introduce all of our dear friends to my Dad and Mom.

We knew my parents would love the Metzger family and we knew they would love my Dad and Mom. It worked out exactly like we knew it would! I love that!

We preached a week or so and had a wonderful time. Dad and Mom were able to see some sites around Missoula during the day and we all loved visiting together. I may have pictures of some of that at a later date but today's Vintage View Vednesday is from our travel day to the Metzger's home and our first day or two with them and their church.

I hope you enjoy.

I was thrilled that my parents got to see beautiful Flathead Lake.

We took them to one of our favorite places in Missoula, the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation.

Our next stop was the Metzger's home.

Thank you for joining us for Vintage View Vednesday.

Davy

Those Are The Brakes

For whatever reason, the brake caliper on the driver's side of the front axle on the bus was malfunctioning the last several miles to Moss Point, Mississippi last week. The inside of that rotor was eaten away and so was the brake pad. It was on the inside of the rotor and the outside was fine. The passenger side on the same axle was fine too.

I ordered rotors, calipers and brake shoes for both sides. The bus is like your automobile in this respect, whatever you replace on one side, you should replace on the other. That is where the similarities end.😀

Everything on the bus is Much bigger!

The caliper was no longer dragging on Friday at Forts Lake, but there was no way of knowing if it would seize and not turn loose the first time the brakes were applied. I asked Jeff Rowe if that side could be disconnected and he told me how.

The front brakes do not have emergency brakes on them so if the airline is removed, the brake will not activate. I removed the airline, capped it and started toward Tennessee. I still had all my rear brakes and brakes on one side of the front axle. It was imperative to avoid stomping on the brakes, but stopping would not have been a problem.

Driving at night in reduced traffic was a huge plus. I did not have to hit the brakes one time until I was at a red light about 10 miles from Jeff's shop in Vonore. That worked out perfectly.

Jeff Rowe pulled the BoggsMobile into the shop and the guys went to work. By 3:00 Monday afternoon, the work was completed, but we spent about two hours driving it and making sure everything was completed properly.

All was well and we hit the road a few minutes after 5:00. We drove 120 miles to the Welcome Center on I-59 in the northeast corner of Alabama. I probably could have easily driven a couple more hours, but overnight parking spaces were filling up fast. This rest area had two vacant parking spaces so I scooped one up.

I took a bunch of pictures while in the shop and I will have a few descriptions along the way.

This is the inside of the rotor on the driver's side. You can see it is destroyed. I do not think I took a picture of the brake pad, but it was gone.

Alan and Dan jumped right in and they had the driver's side wheel, rotor and caliper off in only a few minutes. This was not their first big job.

That is a caliper below.

The rotor is bolted to the hub with ten bolts and nuts. You can not get an impact driver on them. They mostly have to be removed about 1/2 turn at a time with a huge open-end wrench. It is labor intensive.

The spindle with everything removed.

The new caliper with the slack adjuster and brake chamber bracket bolted on.

The old caliper.

The new rotor painstakingly bolted to the hub.

Going back together.

These pictures are from the passenger side. It is a little more narrow on that side of the shop so I did not take as many pictures of this side.

I can not tell you how good I felt to pull into Jeff Rowe's place and I can not tell you how good I felt to leave knowing this big job was done absolutely right.

The calipers were 25 years old with over 372,000 miles of use. I suppose it was about time one of them glitched a bit. Hopefully, these will last another 25 years or 372,000 miles and someone else can change them at that time.

The tag axles have disc brakes of the same sort, so I guess I need to plan on changing them in the near future as well. For now, I am definitely breathing easier thanks to Jeff Rowe and his shop. May God bless my friend in everything he does. Will you join us in praying for Jeff? Pray for his family, for good health, good strength and lots of good profitable business!

Today we plan to roll on toward Sterlington, Lousiana. We are looking forward to seeing our friends as soon as possible!

Thank you for reading today.

Davy

What's Up, Weekend? 1/13/2020

Well, you miss a weekend and you miss a lot!

Even though we were sick all week and there was already much sickness sweeping the church before we arrived, we really had a great revival in Moss Point, Mississippi. God spoke to His people and loved on us all week long. Amazingly, I had little voice some days, but I had plenty of voice to sing pretty much whatever I needed to sing and voice to preach as well.

Not having enough voice to fulfill my obligations properly is one of my greatest fears when I am sick, but the fears were completely unfounded this week. Praise God for His help. KJo and Odie were able to sing most nights too. We did have to manage our song selection to accommodate their voice strength each night, but we were happy they were able to make noise in tune at all!

BoggsMobile

The front brakes on the BoggsMobile needed work and the parts were delivered by Thursday evening. After a phone call with Jeff (Who is Jeff? See below) I made an executive decision Friday morning to drive to  Vonore, Tennessee after church Friday night before making our way to Sterlington, Louisiana for our next revival.

We spent most of Friday making preparations for the last minute trip. By 3:30 the water was unhooked, the electricity was unhooked, all the cords and hoses were put away and the Green Machine was hooked to the bus. Ready.

We rested a few minutes before getting ready for church and then away we went. We had a good crowd the last night of revival and a wonderful service. The Forts Lake Church has so much talent and the singing Thursday and Friday night was phenomenal. We loved every moment of it!

We appreciate Pastor Tim Cauley and his congregation and all of the visitors pressing in to have revival last week. Thank you Forts Lake for having us in your church and making us feel like family.

You can find many more pictures from revival at Forts Lake in our Revival In Pictures post.

After service Friday night I cranked the bus while KJo was taking charge of packing up sound equipment and then I carried it out and loaded it in the bus with the help of several of the young men. We went back in to say our goodbyes and then hit the road. It was about 9:20 PM Central Time.

We dreaded the trip for two reasons. Number one, it was overnight, after church, with little rest. Number two, it was supposed to rain on us all night long.

There was nothing to do about either thing but pray and God helped us tremendously. The rain front that brought terrible storms on Saturday slowed to a crawl and we had almost zero rain the whole 517 miles from Forts Lake Church to Vonore, Tennessee. At about the 250 mile mark, we had about 40 miles of a very light mist. Perfect.

Also, we had light traffic the whole drive. We passed through Mobile, Montgomery, Birmingham and Chattanooga and drove on 6 interstates and never one time hit the brakes in any of that. It could not have been much better.

I did get a little sleepy about 4:30 Central, but I told KJo and she prepared a little snack and we talked through it. We pulled into East Tennessee Luxury Coach and set the parking brake about 5:45 Central, 6:45 AM Eastern in Tennessee. The trip was 517 miles in 8 hours and 25 minutes.

When we arrived I did not even unhook the car. We turned on the generator, flipped on the AC and went to bed. A little later in the morning I unhooked the car and backed into a parking space and plugged into electricity.

After KJo backed into the open space, I realized there are five XLs parked in a row. 

Prevost manufactured the XL for years, but they changed to the XLII in about 2001. All five of these buses are at least 19 years old and some of them considerably older. The other four, a Beaver, a Country Coach, a Liberty and another Country Coach make the BoggsMobile blush with its obvious wrinkles and age marks, but I think they take a nice picture together.

Yesterday morning, we let Odie rest so that she could try to get on top of sickness. KJo and I attended a little church close by, went to fetch a bite to eat and generally had a good, laid back day. After the storms blew through Saturday night, Sunday was a beautiful day!

We visited a second church Sunday evening and met some great folks. We enjoyed it very much.

This morning Jeff and his guys will be busy setting things in order on the front brakes of the BoggsMobile. Soon all will be well and we will be on our way to Louisiana.

There are new readers all the time and some of you do not know who Jeff is and what he has to do with the bus. Jeff Rowe is the owner of and brains behind Tennessee Luxury Coach in Vonore, Tennessee. He has been doing his part to keep the BoggsMobile on the road for several years and he is much more than a friend to us. Jeff Rowe is family without a doubt.

Pulling into his place in Vonore is like pulling into home. We can breathe easy and relax. We know the BoggsMoblie is going to be well taken care of here. Jeff does things right, he does them reasonably and he does them as quick as possible. He has pulled my fat out of the fire more than several times and we regularly thank God for him.

That pretty much brings you up to date on the weekend. Thank you for reading today.

Davy

View Out The Front Window 1/12/2020

These pictures represent two views out our front window at Tennessee Luxury Coach in Vonore, Tennessee. This first one is when we first pulled in Saturday morning.

The second is when we pulled into a spot later in the morning.

Last Sunday I asked about how many of you regularly use the links to the posts of the previous week that I often include in our Sunday View Out The Front Window. I appreciate those that responded to the question. 

I heard from about 15 million of you and the majority do not use the links at all, one or two commented that they have used them but do not regularly and one said he uses the links often.

As I mentioned to you last week, the Sunday View Out The Window feature was created so that we could post on Sunday without a huge time commitment. Posting daily requires pouring in several hours of time during the week and on weekends, time is in short supply.

So I think I will omit the links for now and maybe add them in on some Sundays when I am overwhelmed with free time. If you would like to see the posts from the previous week, you can navigate to them from either the desktop view or the mobile view

Thank you for reading today.

Davy

Happy Birthday Davy

Hey Friends,

This is Odie reporting in. I am hoping that we are all on the mend. Sickness is not welcome on the BoggsMobile. 

We had a fantastic week with Pastor Tim Cauley and our friends at Forts Lake Assembly. The Lords always visits us in a special way and we greatly enjoy our time in Moss Point, Mississippi. 

Happy Birthday, Dad

In a few days, it will be my Dad’s birthday. I want to take a moment to wish him a happy birthday. Dad does not like attention on his birthday, but he totally deserves extra recognition. My Aunt Theresa sent me the picture below a while ago. I Have saved it for today’s post. 

Dad, I hope that you have a terrific, birthday! I love you “more than a hog loves slop!” Thank you for always being there for me. You have taught me what love truly is. Thank you for your unconditional love and encouragement. I appreciate your unselfish life. You are my hero! You are an amazing man of God!

I am proudly a Daddy’s girl. From the moment I entered this world you have been in my corner. It is definitely a blessing to have you in my life. I am extremely proud to be your daughter. Happy Birthday!

Thank you for reading along as I show my Dad some special attention. I appreciate you all for stopping by to visit me today. I hope you have a good weekend. 

Odie