Counting Hours Now

Are you tired of eating cold pizza because the delivery driver can not find your house?

Maybe you should try making your house number a little more visible from the street.

Yep, I think that should do the trick!

Is that hilarious or what? That really is their house number. It matches the numbers on the porch post.

We are counting down the hours to departure time. We leave Pensacola in the afternoon tomorrow and then take the overnight flight out of Atlanta. We always try to plan a couple of days of down time before international trips but it never seems to work. We are normally floundering around at the last minute feeling like we are forgetting 47 important things.

This time it worked. Although last week and up until Monday morning was a total sprint, all of that work enabled us to relax yesterday (Tuesday) and today. I feel more emotionally and spiritually ready for this trip than I have in times past. Of course the fact that I am only scheduled to preach a few times instead of 10 times is probably helping with that.

Monday evening we met Bro. and Sis. Deane and Bro. Howard and Sis. Glenda for supper at Cheddar's.

We had a wonderful meal and fabulous fellowship. It capped off a great day. We appreciate the invitation and Bro. Howard and Sis. Glenda buying our meal.

I also appreciate Odie taking a little time to blog last night. I was under the weather pretty badly yesterday afternoon and evening. I woke up feeling better this morning, praise God. I think it might have been the malaria medicine that we began taking a few days ago. Any way, I think I will live.

You will probably hear from me once or twice Thursday and then Odie will probably take over the blog while we are gone. I will post from Nigeria if I can. It all depends on if dependable WiFi can be found.

God bless you all.

Davy

Odie Reporting From Mississippi

My home this week is Mississippi. Thanks to the Morris family for accepting as part of their family. I am having a wonderful time visiting with friends!!!  We have a full week ahead of us. I will be checking in along the way. I will probably be blogging while my parents are gone to Nigeria. 

Today I  met sweet Madison Hunnell. She is just a few days old. Congrats to Marlee and Cody and big brother Brody. Maddie is beautiful!!!

Tonight we celebrated "Mr. Anonymous" birthday!! Happy birthday Mr. Anonymous!!!  

Odie

The BoggsMobile and Odie are Gone

A Great Sunday

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This morning started pretty early. I cranked the BoggsMobile and gave it about 20 minutes to warm up. Then Kelly Jo flipped it around in its parking space so I could empty the holding tanks. When that was finished we were ready to go. 

I pulled out of Beams of Light Holiness church at 7:30 on the dot. I was supposed to have the bus at Jake Parkerson's shop at 8 and I arrived with about 4 minutes to spare. 

It was only 13 miles and only 2 turns but traffic was busy. Stop and go traffic gave me a chance to take a couple of pictures of the BoggsMobile and the Green Machine. 

Bro. Jake and his crew were waiting on me when I arrived. 

We went over everything and discussed the time schedule and then Bro. Jake showed me around his new shop. He has a great place to work and I know the BoggsMobile is it good hands. 

I still teared up a little as I drove away. 

Next it was time to get Odie started toward her temporary home. The Morris family have been on vacation a few days and they were passing through Pensacola at lunch time. We met them for lunch at Sonny's and off they went with Odie.  

We dropped Odie's Luggage and power chair in Richton when we picked up the trailer Thursday. We knew they would not have much room in their car. 

Even with her push chair they had a little room so I guess they just had to stop at Walmart. 

So now the BoggsMobile AND Odie are gone from us for several days. Can you guess which one I am missing more?

Davy

A Great Sunday

We had a great Sunday at Beams of Light Holiness Church in Cantonment, Florida. We were thrilled to be here for Pastor Appreciation Sunday morning. 

Pastor Philip Deane and his family have been here nearly 12 years and they are well loved by their church. The service Sunday morning was beautiful and the meal was beautiful too!

We had a good service Sunday night as well. These folks have always been so kind to us through the years and this weekend was no exception. We had a wonderful time. 

It was great to have Bro. Farrell Stearnes with us this weekend. He lives in the Pensacola area and is a dear friend. It is always a blessing to see his smiling face. 

We are planning to crank the BoggsMobile early Monday morning. It is less than 15 miles to Bro. Jake's shop but it will probably take about 30 minutes to get there with traffic. I also need to empty the holding tanks and it needs to be moved to do that. 

Hopefully after the bus is in position tomorrow we can take a moment to breathe. We have been going at a run for several weeks and at a flat out sprint for several days. We need to catch out breath before going to Africa. 

I am usually pretty nervous when the BoggsMobile is in somebody else's hands and out of my sight. I am asking the Lord to put my mind at ease this week. My sermons for Africa are ready but I need to be spiritually and emotionally fit for the services. 

Kelly Jo has been working so hard. i hope she can get rested by Wednesday. Thank you for praying for us. 

Davy

Travel and Work Day

We had a peaceful night in the Penney's/Bass Pro parking lot. Kelly Jo did put a note on the bus door letting the police know we had permission from the manager to park there. That may have prevented a knock on the door in the middle of the night.

Friday was a lot shorter on travel than Thursday was but quite a bit longer on work. We pulled out about 8:30 and we were pulling into Beams of Light Holiness Church about 2 hours later. It does take a bit of finagling to park the trailer here but all of it went pretty easy. When it is time to leave I think I can hook on and get out without too much problem.

While I was pulling out hoses, brushes and the ladder Kelly Jo was preparing a bite to eat. After a great lunch she jumped in and helped me give the BoggsMobile a good washing. It usually takes me about 40 minutes to get everything out, wash the bugs off the front and rinse and brush all of the stainless on the bus and put everything back up. If I include the upper part and the wheels and tires it takes about an hour total.

Today we worked about 3 and 1/2 hours including a little break thrown in for good measure. I climbed the ladder and washed the BoggsMobile from the air conditioners down to the concrete. I scrubbed it as good as I could and it looks pretty nice.

I wanted to scrub it real good because the BoggsMobile is going in for some paint work Monday morning. Jake Parkerson and his crew will be doing the work. Jake repaired the damage caused by hail to the roof of the bus back in 2011. 

We are now having some clear coat issues in several places...

And some bubbling issues around the rivets where the stainless and sheet metal meet.

Both of these things need to be addressed before they become major issues. The bus was built in early 1995 so most of the paint job is over 18 years old. The original owner had some of it repainted in 1997 at Prevost's expense but I do not think that any of this is related to that. It is just an old paint job that needs some work.

Bro. Jake should be finished with the BoggsMobile when we get back from Nigeria. Since I am taking it in Monday morning we need to be completely moved out including all of our stuff for Nigeria. It is a logistical nightmare to pull it all together but Kelly Jo has it all under control.

More work tomorrow and then church here at Beams of Light Sunday.

Thanks for reading.

Davy

Travel Day

We are parked in a parking lot near Bass Pro just east of Mobile, Alabama. It has been a long, long day. I must be a wimp. 

We left Pine Prairie, Louisiana about 8:30 Thursday morning. We would have left earlier but I did not do any of the prep work Wednesday so there was a lot to do before we could crank the bus. 

I had to disconect and roll up four water hoses and put them in their place. Then I unhooked the hose for the gray water drain and put it away. 

Then I fetched Odie's power scooter from the church and loaded both chairs in the Green Machine. After that I hooked the Green Machine to the bus and then it was time to crank the bus. 

While it was warming up I unhooked all the electrical cord, put it all away and visited with Bro. Gautreaux a few minutes. It is always a little sad to leave friends and family but it was time to go. 

Traffic seemed thick for Thursday but we had a bright point in our travels today. We stopped in Mississippi for diesel and got it for $3.57 a gallon. 

That is 25-50 cents cheaper than I have been paying and that put a smile on my face. I still put in over $500 but that's much better than it could have been. 

We arrived in Richton, Mississippi about 2:00 PM. It took us over an hour to hook up the church van to the tent trailer, bring it around to the parking lot, hook the trailer to the bus and the load the car in the trailer. 

Whew! I was ready for a nap but no time for napping. We had to roll on down the highway. 

It has been five weeks since I have pulled the tent trailer with the BoggsMobile. It has been a joy to only pull the little Green Machine during that time. I remembered just how joyous when I hit traffic this afternoon. 

We hit Mobile at rush hour but it was not too bad. I take it very easy when pulling the trailer through cities so I probably slow more people down than rush hour does.

By the time we were on the east side of Mobile Bay I was frazzled and wore out. We walked into Bass Pro to relax and to pick up a new vest (My blue Big Dog vest has went over the rainbow to see Dorothy and Toto.)

We asked Bass Pro and Penney's if we were ok to park overnight. They both said we could so I hope we make it through the night without a knock on the door.   

We are only about 90 minutes away from Beams of Light Church so we will finish up in the morning by God's Grace. 

God bless you all. 

Davy