Travel, A Little Trouble and The Tent

The night in the rest area was nice and cool. It was no problem sleeping without running the AC or the generator. I was really wanting to finish the drive Wednesday night but we are so glad we stopped there for the night.

The sun was shining bright as we left Thursday morning and the rocks in Texas Canyon were amazing as usual. We absolutely love this place and have for many, many years.

I first drove through there the week of Thanksgiving in 1986 in a 1986 Doeskin Tan 2-door Chevy S-10 Blazer.  Me and Bro. Jeff Hensley took a whirlwind trip to Arizona to see my brother Steve and we were on our way home via a stop in El Paso and a church service in New Mexico and Oklahoma City. We stopped along I-10 to look closer at the rock formations. I have pictures of us in storage some where.

Kelly Jo and I went back to Phoenix in 1987 but we went I-40 in and out. We were driving the Blazer that trip as well. When we left Phoenix that time we drove about 31 hours straight home. Me and Steve split the driving duties and carried the mail toward Ohio. We only stopped every 400 miles for gas and to grab a bite to eat on the run. The top speed limit then was only 55 mph the whole way, nearly 2000 miles.

I think it was fall of 1992 when I brought Kelly Jo and Odie through Texas Canyon on I-10. We were on our way from revival in Raisin City, California to our next revival in Arcadia, Florida. No, I was not very good at scheduling then either. I am pretty sure we have pictures of us on these rocks that trip some where too. We have always looked forward to coming through here since then.

The light was better for pictures as we left Thursday morning but pictures just can not do this place justice. At least iPhone pictures can not do it justice.

It is harder to stop the bus along side the Interstate so no pictures of us playing on the rocks.

We only drove 18 miles before we stopped again. I had some weird things going on with one of the gauges that monitors the air for the brakes on the BoggsMobile. By the time we found a good place to stop it was no longer doing it and I could not duplicate it. All we could do was pray and go on. It did fine the rest of the day but I will watch it closely.

I have consulted experts that I know and nobody has any answers yet.

We are now stopped at an RV Park within two hours of the church in El Mirage. All the miles the last few days, combined with 4 tent revivals in 5 weeks immediately following campmeeting at home have finally caught up with me. I feel like I have been run over by the bus. After we arrived here and got parked and checked in I crashed on the couch and slept like a log for two 45 minute stretches. I could not hardly wake up. I felt like I was crawling out of a very deep hole!

We plan to stay here tonight and Friday night (I am writing this late Thursday) and then finish the drive Saturday. Staying in one place for two nights always helps me a bunch. I should be well rested physically and emotionally by the time we see all our friends at Desert Cove. We are really looking forward to that.

I snapped this as the light was fading Thursday evening. I was busy trying to get the bugs off the BoggsMobile and road grime off the Green Machine before it got too dark and missed most of the sunset.

We have a few pictures of the tent coming down in Richton, Mississippi that have not been posted. There was a big crew from the church and it was all down and packed in the trailer in 40 minutes. That is pretty good considering all three pieces were in the air.

Thanks for reading.

Davy

Pastor Scott Morris up on top of the Blue and White Gospel Tent.

More Miles and Family in El Paso, Texas

We started the day chasing our shadow toward El Paso. It was an absolutely beautiful day!

The view was great all the way into El Paso. Although we have driven through El Paso many times we are always amazed at the natural beauty surrounding this city.

Do you remember that I had to replace the two batteries in the tent trailer back in August and then 20 minutes after I replaced them the bus would not start? I wrote about that toward the end of THIS POST among many other things.The start batteries were going bad but I was thinking I could nurse them along for a few months since I had 24 volt charger. The next week in London, Kentucky I discovered the 20 year old charger was bad so I replaced the four bus starting batteries while I was in tent revival in London.

Fast forward 33 days and I had to replace the Green Machine battery. Monday night it was completely dead. As soon as we arrived in El Paso I found an auto parts store and bought a replacement. I installed it in the car there in the parking lot and it started right up.

For some reason I neglected to get a picture of the new battery. In five weeks I have replaced eight batteries in three vehicles, five batteries in my tire pressure monitoring system (Thankfully those five were cheap) and my iPhone needs a battery too. What is it with batteries? The funny thing is that I have known since winter that the Green Machine battery was weak and it out lasted the rest.

After the Green Machine was ready to roll, we moved down the road and parked in a K-Mart parking lot.

We were meeting a cousin next door at Carino's for lunch. Terry Ontiveros is a first cousin on my Mother's side of the family. She is the oldest child of my Mom's sister China. She has lived away from Ohio most of her adult life and has been in El Paso for many years. It was so good to get to spend a few minutes with Terry. Thank you, Terry for carving out some time for us as we were passing through.

Then we started peddling as fast as we could toward Arizona. We were moving so fast we actually crossed New Mexico without stopping.

In a few hours we were stopping at our favorite rest area. It is on I-10 at about the 320 Mile Marker in Arizona and it is right at the beginning of Texas Canyon. The landscape changes suddenly and dramatically as you enter the area and is very beautiful. We arrived at the wrong time to take good pictures but I will post a few anyway.

We are about 140 miles short of where we wanted to spend the night but we had driven nearly 400 miles and with the battery fiasco, the long stop in El Paso and the previous two 500+ miles days we decided to quit. It was cool as soon as the sun started going down so we did not need the generator.

We are now on west coast time so even my early morning posts may go up a little later in the east. They will be stamped with eastern time so if it says 6:00 AM that means I posted it at 3:00 AM. Probably not going to happen often. "Grin"  I may post some at night if I get a chance so you early morning readers will not be disappointed. 

Thanks for reading.

Davy

A Dead Giveaway!

It is a dead giveaway that I have been on a diet for way too long. We left the south side of Dallas by mid morning Tuesday and pointed west on I-20 toward I-10 and El Paso. I followed this truck all across the southern part of Dallas and across the south side of Ft. Worth and many miles west toward Abilene. I found myself dreaming of Krispy Kreme donuts. 

What an advertisement! A rolling billboard of lip smacking, taste bud exploding goodness of grease and sugar. Stacks and stacks of huge, delicious, fresh, hot Krispy Kreme donuts kept floating through my consciousness. 

Who in the world would temp a fat guy with row upon row of heavenly donuts for mile after mile after mile? That is cruel and unusual punishment. Inhumane, barbaric, diabolical, heartless, cold-blooded, ruthless, merciless and uncompassionate!

I finally came to my senses and decided I needed to change the scenery before I fell off the wagon but good and pulled off an exit for three dozen donuts, two greasy and cheesy cheeseburgers and a large pizza. 

I mean, I have proven my resolve when it comes to denying myself the saturated fats I have come to know and love. But this was ridiculous.

So stepped on the gas, whipped out into the passing lane determined to put this temptation behind me once and for all! This temptation was going to be miles behind me and eating my diesel fumes and dust.

It was then that I saw the side of the truck...

Corn? You mean I have been salivating over rows of corn on the cob thinking they were delectable donuts calling my name? Yep, it is a dead giveaway that I have been on a diet for way, way, way too long!

Ok, I can see that is corn now!

The rest of the day was beautiful. The weather was perfect, the wind was light and the BoggsMobile was running like a scalded dog!

After a while the speed limit went to 80 and we were off to the races.

Actually I do not feel comfortable running the bus that fast even with the wide open road and the highway clear. I keep thinking of all the little men inside the engine trying to pour the buckets of diesel in fast enough and I always slow down.

We did make good time though. We were shooting for 430 miles or so and an overnight stop in Pecos, Texas. We were making good time and it was still early so we made it a 520 mile day and stopped in Van Horn, Texas.

We stopped in Van Horn for fuel again.



Then we pulled into a little RV Park two miles away. It was cool enough last night to park in a truck stop and not run the generator but we arrived here before 6:00 and it was HOT then. We would have been running two airs for several hours along with the generator for power. A cheap campground like this is less money than running the generator very long so the decision was made.

I also knew that Van Horn's finest will ticket RV's for parking any where but an RV park. What I did not know was that included truck stops. They have been known to threaten to tow RVs when the owners parked for a while at Love's or Pilot after fueling or stopped at Walmart to shop with no intention of staying all night. 

Not a very RV friendly town but this little park is fine. The owner just bought it and is trying to fix it up and attract business since it had been closed for two years. I hope he does well but most RVer's avoid towns like this because of the solid NO PARKING stance of the city. Too bad.

There is some beautiful scenery to take in here though. The mountains were gorgeous last night.

We will probably start a little late tomorrow as well. I am going to drag my feet a little so I can pass through El Paso just after lunch. We are going to try to eat with one of my first cousins if we can time it right.

Thanks for reading.

Davy