The Best Laid Plans And All That! BoggsMobile News

Our life often revolves around the BoggsMobile so sometimes that is what I write about. If you are here to read about our 1995/96 Prevost XL Vantare, you are in luck today. 

IF you go to sleep every time I post something mechanical, humor me today, you may like tomorrow better!

The Best Laid Plans And All That! BoggsMobile News😍

I told you Tuesday that we hoped to roll some miles under our wheels that day. While we did roll some miles, it was not as near as many as we had hoped. We were gone from East Tennessee Luxury Coach before 7:00 AM, but we were back in 55 minutes.

Tuesday

By 4:30 AM, I was up and thinking about leaving. By 6:30 the bus was running and we were hooking up the Jeep. Thirteen miles later, KJo was in the back and smelled brakes getting hot. At the same time, my tire pressure monitor was telling me that one of my tag axle tires had pressure rising. Time to pull over.

Thankfully, there was a station we could pull into. Nothing was overly hot, but it was pretty obvious one of the brakes was dragging. I called Jeff and headed back to his shop. We unhooked the Jeep and Jeff pulled the BoggsMobile into the shop.

You may wonder why we make such a big deal about brake issues. There are two reasons. Number one, when we need to stop this thing, I want it to be able to stop. Number two, tires and wheels are the leading source of bus fires. Ouch!

The brakes drag or the bearings run dry, the wheel gets red hot, the tire catches on fire and the bus burns down alongside the road. I have seen way too many pictures and way too many videos and cried every time. We are doing our best to prevent something like that!

There are valves that control the air flow to the tag axle brake chambers. They are called R12 valves. I had them replaced in October 2013 at Prevost Houston. They were leaking like crazy then. They were not leaking Tuesday, but it was possible they were not working correctly. They are not expensive and relatively easy to change. That was the first thing to replace.

Jeff also recommended changing the tag axle brake chambers and they had to be ordered. They would not arrive until Wednesday so we were grounded for the day. I will tell you about Wednesday in a few moments.

A Different Subject

The bus has two 12 volt fresh water pumps and both are kind of difficult to get to. Pump #1 is very difficult to get to. It quit working a while back, but since the second one was working, we did not worry about it. The day we left Virginia and came to Tennessee, Pump #2 quit.

Since were in Vonore an extra day, KJo and I drove to Camping World to get a pump and Jeff put it on. Now we can use water from our fresh water tank when we are not near a spigot.. Yay!

For my own personal information, I purchased a Remco brand pump this time. The bus originally had Flojet and Sureflo pumps and the last two I purchased were Flojet. I like the variable speed 5 GPM Flojet, but it was $400 at Camping World. This one lasted about 4 1/2 years.

The Remco variable speed 5.3 GPM was $228. It is the 90-55AQUAJET-ARV. Jeff had a ball installing it. Hopefully, we are still friends. I need to redo that whole setup. It has not been good from the beginning.

Wednesday

I enjoyed a leisurely morning outside Wednesday. I walked a bit and then sat in the shade in front of the bus. 

Just about the time, it was getting too warm for me outside, the parts arrived and it was time to pull the bus into the shop.

New brake chamber for the tag axle.

These are the two old chambers that were replaced in June 2014.

The brakes released perfectly after installing the new brake chambers and we were hooked up and on the road by 12:50 PM Wednesday. Hallelujah! We had a first good day on the road with no problems at all. Hallelujah Again!

More road news later. Thank you for dropping in.

Davy

A Word For Wednesday - Full Surrender

It is time for A Word For Wednesday. A Few minutes ago, I posted A Word for Wednesday on our YouTube Channel. Please give it a listen and leave us a comment here or on YouTube.

Full Surrender

I am reading today from Everyday With Jesus by George B. Duncan. Jesus is our Savior and is also Sovereign. He is Savior and He must also be Lord!

Romans 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

In our very first A Word For Wednesday, on January 6, 2021, I read a sermon from George B. Duncan. You can find that at this link.

Thank you for dropping in today. It is always good to have you.

Davy

We Begin!

We had planned a trip to California last year, but I was concentrating more on breathing than I was driving the bus.😁

Today, we begin. By God's grace we will leave Vonore, Tennessee shortly after daylight and drive 1864+ miles to El Mirage, Arizona in the Phoenix area. After a week or so in Phoenix, we plan to venture into California for about four weeks.

We have made trips like this many times in three or four days, but we intend to ease along nice and slow. For the first couple of days, I would like to drive like we did a few times last fall. 

That is, begin early in the morning and drive about 200 miles in three hours. We would follow the three hours of driving with a walk, a meal and then stretch out on the couch for a few minutes. Then drive another 200 miles in three hours and stop by the mid-afternoon.

IF I can do that two days in a row, I will feel good about our progress, slow down a bit and maybe even have a day of no driving. All of that depends on the BoggsMobile running great, but I am pretty confident that it will.

This will be our twentieth trip to preach in California. The BoggsMobile is making its eight trip to the Golden State since we have owned it, although it lived there the first few years of its life.

I wrote four posts in 2019 about our previous 19 trips to California. You can find the fourth post HERE and there are links to the other three at the bottom of it.

We are looking forward to being in the west and seeing many friends. We will not get to stay as long as we would like, but that is the way it falls this time. I suppose that gives us more incentive to go back again!

Please pray for us over the next week IF you will. We always appreciate it. Thank you for reading today.

Edit: We did not get far Tuesday morning before turning around with a small glitch. I will tell you more about it on a later day. It is only a small delay. 🎵He's Got It All In Control🎵

Davy

The Weeked Dispatch 5/16/22

Do not look now, but we are over halfway through the month of May! Wow! That seems incredible.

This weekend has not been the usual weekend for us, but it was good. We ate good, traveled a few miles and spent time with family and friends. Not too shabby for only a few days.

First, I have a food picture left over from last week during revival. Yummy!

The BoggsMobile was parked in Vonore, Tennessee at East Tennessee Luxury Coach and we parked ourselves at Holiday Inn Express in Oak Ridge. Beechfork Holiness Church is only 20 minutes from the closest hotels in Oak Ridge.

Thursday morning we moved out of the hotel, drove to Vonore, swapped out a bunch of things between the bus and the Jeep and drove straight to Ohio. We did make a pitstop for lunch at Sonny's BBQ in Corbin, Kentucky.

After arriving in Ohio, I visited Bro. Jerry and Sis. Linda Neely from Dodds Church. I have known the Neely's my whole life. Bro. Jerry is very low physically and will soon go to Heaven without a miracle and I wanted to see them and pray with them. (Edit Monday morning: Bro. Jerry passed away early Monday. Please pray for his family)

Then came the yard mowing. We have someone scheduled to mow the yard while we are gone, but we might as well save him a bit of time and us a bit of money when we can.

We had Acapulco a few times and visited with my parents and KJo's parents Thursday night and Friday.

Saturday, KJo and I jumped in the car and headed back toward Tennessee. Odie stayed behind. She is going to enjoy home, family and church for a bit. We sure miss her already.

We stopped in London, Kentucky Saturday evening and visited two churches we had never been to before on Sunday. We have lots of friends in both churches, but we had never been to either one.

Sunday morning we went to Abundant Life Tabernacle near London. The pastor is an old friend, Bro. Ashley Noe. We failed to take any pictures of the people. Can you see we are missing Odie?

Sunday evening we visited Faith Tabernacle near London. The Pastor is Darrell Allen and several of our long time friends attend there. We had a great time at both churches.

Odie sent in a few pictures from her Sunday too.

Today, we plan to finish the drive to Tennessee. We hope the BoggsMobile is ready to ride tomorrow evening so we can hit the road early Wednesday.

Thank you for stopping by for a few minutes. 

Davy

Our View Out The Front Window 5/15/22

Sunday Morning Sanity

Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: I Peter 5:8

Our view out the window today from an undisclosed, top secret location.😍

I hope you have a super great Sunday. Thank you for stopping by.

Davy

Watching Miracles Grow

Hey Friends,

This is Odie checking in from the home front. I will be spending some time here enjoying my family, friends and my beach cottage. I will continue to report in from Ohio until I meet up with my parents down the road a bit.

I hope you had a great week! We had a fantastic time in Tennessee this week. It is always good to spend time with our road family at Beechfork Holiness Church.

Watching Miracles Grow

I was inspired to write this post by a line in a song that I sing. The song is titled, Faith. The line says, 

"When you're praying for answers to things you can't change

Hold on to faith."

Most of us have those things on our hearts that seem impossible. We have been waiting for answers longer than we had hoped to wait. God is still the God of impossibilities in 2022. He is still working miracles.  

One of my favorite kinds of miracles to reminisce and Thank God for is the gift of life. We have witnessed God bless several families with children. It is a joy to watch these children grow!

A few months ago, we were able to see four of our miracle friends in Mississippi. Each child brings joy to their family and church family. I thank God for answering prayers every time I see them!

The Sheffield Family has been blessed with two precious miracles. Caleb and Katie are now 10 and 8! They are sweethearts! We love them so much. You can read about them in our posts from 2011, 2013 and 2016.

February 2022

Next, we have James Holland. James was born in the fall of 2015. He spent several weeks in the NICU. 

Several of you joined us in praying for him back then. Those prayers worked! James is finishing kindergarten. He is a growing boy full of life.  Here is a post that I wrote back in 2016.

March 2022

Then there is my buddy Lucas Brownlee. We prayed for several years with Lucas' parents, Jamie and Allison. In late 2016 they found out that God was granting the desires for a child. We rejoiced with them!

Five years ago On May 4th 2017, their world changed when Lucas arrived! He was worth the wait! He brightened everybody's lives that know him! I wrote about him in 2017.

Lucas is an amazing little boy. He liked to ride with me on my scooter this year. Lucas called it a treadmill. He would ask to ride on my treadmill. LOL

February 2022

A miracle that is still in progress is my cousin Deidre's baby, Chloe Jean. Several of you have asked me how she is doing. Chloe Jean is doing fantastic. 

We are so thankful for her progress. She is eating and growing well. Chloe is laughing, smiling, cooing and full of life.

Doctors are continuing to monitor her liver issues. We are believing God for her complete healing! 

Here is a recent picture of Chloe Jean. I am hoping to see her soon when she comes to Ohio for her first visit.

While we were on our Virginia tour, I met Oliver Tinnon. I had been waiting months to meet this little miracle.  He is the son of my friends Bro. Jonathan and Sis. Whitney Tinnon.

Last year I was excited to learn that Baby Tinnon was on the way! I immediately told Whitney to pencil me in for baby time on my visit to Virginia in 2022.

Oliver came several weeks early. He immediately started surprising the doctor with his progress. God was answering prayers daily for my friends. Oliver is a fighter. He was determined to overcome life's obstacles!

By early December, He was home and going to his first church service. Today you would never know that he spent weeks as a preemie in the NICU! God is so awesome!

There are many more stories that I could share. I will save those for another post. Today I want to encourage us. Our answered prayers will happen. The miracles are still growing. We will rejoice in the future!

Thanks for stopping by to visit with me today. We must remember, 

"When you're praying for answers to things you can't change

Hold on to faith."

Odie