A Great Thanksgiving Day

Amarillo, Texas OR Gainesville, Texas?

Thanksgiving buffet at the Big Texan with Cajun Turkey, regular Turkey, Prime Rib and all the trimmings OR Cracker Barrel Thanksgiving meal?

Relax all day Thursday and drive Friday OR drive Thursday so I can rest Friday?

The girl spending all day riding in the BoggsMobile Friday OR Black Friday shopping in Dallas/Ft. Worth, one of their favorite shopping places of all.

Decisions, decisions. Honestly nobody had any strong leaning either way. We were all kind of ambivalent about the whole thing.

We went to bed with no decision made. We got up Thursday with no decision made. We seemed to have no inclination to make a decision.

So what do we do when we can not make up our mind? We do what we do best. We drive! We hooked up, loaded up and pointed the nose of the BoggsMobile toward the southeast and Gainesville, Texas. After a little over 5 hours we had the 300 miles behind us and we were pulling into the House of Prayer about 4:30.

A few minutes later we were walking into Cracker Barrel and walking straight to our table without any wait at all. That is two years in a row that has happened and I may get use to that.

As usual on Thanksgiving at Cracker Barrel, we had a wonderful meal!

As we were eating a family from Tennessee came by the table on their way out. We met them in 2011 at camp meeting in Elco, Illinois. They were out in Texas and Oklahoma visiting relatives and stopped for Thanksgiving meal at Cracker Barrel as we did. We did not even think to snap a picture but their last name is Curtis.

We asked for the check later and it had already been paid. We assume the family from Tennessee paid our bill.

God bless them for their kindness!

The girls brought me back to the bus and they moseyed over to WalMart to see if they might stumble into some unbelievable deals. They plan to shop most of today in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area if all goes as planned. I will probably stay right here and try to get rested and ready to preach Sunday.

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving day too!

Before I leave you I have some pictures from the Big Texan. We really love this place. It is big, hokey and over done just like all good roadside attractions. Plus their food is great!

They have a 72 ounce steak dinner that is free if you can eat it in one hour or less. Last May Molly Schuyler ate two of them in less than 15 minutes. That is 9 pounds of meat plus all the trimmings of two meals. The first one was gone in less than 5 minutes! Wow!

This is a 72 ounce steak they have on display.

Nope!  I did not eat one.

The smaller one that I did eat was excellent!

That is all for now. Thanks for reading.

Davy

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope that you have a very Happy Thanksgiving with your family and friends.

We are starting this Thanksgiving in Amarillo, Texas at an RV Park near the Big Texan Steakhouse. We had a good travel day Wednesday, driving a little over 300 miles. We arrived here just in time to get settled in the RV Park and then go for a great meal. I will try to put up some pictures from the Big Texan tomorrow.

My first visit to the Big Texan was on Thanksgiving Day in 1986. Jeff Hensley and I were passing through on our way to Phoenix to visit my brother Steve. We ordered two steak dinners and a $20 bill covered the meals and the tip. The three steaks last night cost me considerably more than that! We have eaten there several more times through the years including for Odie's 17th birthday.

We have about 300 more miles to travel and then our long journey from Arbuckle, California to Gainesville, Texas will be complete. We are planning on finishing the drive today but since most of the trip is behind us and we are not pressed for time, we will play it by ear. I like to drive hard as we have and then spend two nights in one place once the bulk of the traveling is behind us. Plus the Big Texan is having a Thanksgiving buffet too! I know I will not feel much like driving if I eat that.

If we decide to go on to Gainesville today then Kelly Jo and Odie will probably go to Dallas/Ft. Worth area and shop on Friday. Since I am not the shopper in the family I will let them make the final decision. We generally eat at Cracker Barrel while traveling on Thanksgiving. IF we end up in Gainesville this evening then Cracker Barrel will be in the plan.

We were thinking of family this week and going through some old Thanksgiving posts. We found this from Thanksgiving dinner with the Morgan family a few years ago and we have been laughing our heads off. 

Kelly Jo's brother Danny singing Opera to the extreme delight of her cousin Jackie. It was hilarious! If viewing the blog from an iPad or iPhone you may not be able to see the clip. I wish that Apple and Google would just play nice. I guess we need to start posting the clips to YouTube and then they would be visible to everybody.

Odie said that somebody told her they watch this clip on our blog whenever they need a really good laugh. I hope it brought a smile to your face.

God bless you all today.

Davy

Travel Days and Schedule Changes

Today's post runs from California to New Mexico and even takes in a little bit of Oklahoma even though we have not been there physically in the last few days.

After many happy days in California it was time to say goodbye and roll the BoggsMobile toward the great state of Texas. We love the state of California. We love the ever changing scenery, we love the weather and we loves its people. May God bless all the churches that opened their doors to us on this westward tour. You all are the reason we are able to keep traveling and spreading the Gospel. We loved being with you.

We left very late in the morning on Monday. From central California it is a long way to the state line no matter which direction you go. This is a rest area about 3 1/2 hours from Riverdale.

I took this picture of our GPS as we crossed the state line with Arizona on I-40.

So after 393 miles and nearly 7 hours we finally made it to the state line.

Our plan was to drive to Kingman, Arizonia and spend the night at the Flying J. Kingman was the last place along I-40 that was forecast to stay above freezing Monday night. The rest of the route was going to be warmer the rest of the week but Monday was going to be frigid.

When we pulled into the Flying J all of the RV spaces were full or WAY to small for the BoggsMobile and the Green Machine. There were several spaces available in the truck parking but I would have had to remove the car and then back the bus in. That is not a huge deal but I was feeling good and I knew there was a rest area up the road where we could spend the night.

What I did Not know was that the rest area was closed! Another thing I did not know was that there was not another place to park for 120+ miles. When I finally arrived in Bellemont at the Pilot close to Flagstaff it was 25 bad cold degrees.  The picture below has a finger in the lower left corner because I am not used to taking pictures with gloves on!

We had seriously considered taking the southern route to Texas. It is nearly 200 miles farther but much warmer. We decided while driving Monday to follow I-40 because the weather forecast was pretty good as long as we stayed away from Flagstaff Monday night. Well, as you can see, that did not work out to well for us!

After a fitful night we pulled out of the Pilot and drove toward the sun and its warmth. It turned out to be an absolutely beautiful day! The USA is a gorgeous place and we are blessed to live here.

Tuesday was a shorter day for us. I think it was about 330 miles to Albuquerque, New Mexico. We were parked in the Flying J on the west side of town shortly after noon. We had some pressing business that needed to be completed and Albuquerque was the last city along our route where we could get it done.

When the business was finished we decided a nap was in order. When the nap was finished the sun was setting and we decided to stay the night. Albuquerque is a beautiful city.

I would have liked to finished the 300+ miles to Amarillo but we are fine right here. So that puts two travel days and between 900-1000 miles behind us. We only have a little over 600 to go. I plan to stop at a little RV park west of Amarillo and stay at least one night there before moving on to the House of Prayer in Gainesville, Texas.

I do have a schedule change to tell you about. After Gainesville we were going to Lawton, Oklahoma. Pastor Brandon Murray called me Sunday night and told me he had to cancel revival. He did not realize that many of his folks were going to be gone that week. We sure hate to miss them this year but we understand completely. It is hard to have revival without your folks there. We love the Murray family and the church at Lawton.

I text several folks in the Oklahoma area that might have been planning to visit the revival at Lawton to let them know it was canceled. Pastor Lendell Birdsong asked us to spend the weekend with them at Blanchard. So we will be there December 6th and 7th by God's grace. You can always see the latest updates to our schedule HERE.

That brings you up to date. May you have great food, great family time, great fellowship and overflowing thankful hearts tomorrow as you gather for Thanksgiving.

Davy