View Out The Front Window August 21, 2016

For the second time this week a post did not go live until several hours after we published it. We usually try to put up Odie's Saturday Post by mid-morning on Saturday. It went live way late. HERE it is, if you missed it.

Check out our posts from the last week at the links below. 

Odie's Saturday Post

Great To Be In New York

Getting The Job Done

Almost Making The BoggsMobile A Convertable

Around The Globe

Weekend Woundup and Weview

This was our view out the front window in Manchester, Connecticut Sunday night/Monday morning.

This was our view out the front door at a travel plaza along I-95 near Milford, Connecticut.

This was our view out the front window at the same travel plaza.

This is a bonus shot of the BoggsMobile and Green Machine while parked at the travel plaza.

This is our view out the front door at Gateway Christian Center in Valley Stream, New York.

This is our view out the front window at Gateway.

We finish up the Anniversary meeting this morning and we will leave for Ohio sometime later today or tonight. I would rather try to negotiate my way out through New York City in the middle of the night but leaving this afternoon may make more sense. We have two partial blocks of city streets to go through to leave the church and they are packed with cars during the night. We will see what they look like this afternoon.

I hope you have a great Sunday.

Davy

Exciting Week Ahead

Hey, happy Saturday Friends! This is Odie checking in from New York. It has been great to be back here. It was good to visit Brooklyn Tabernacle on Tuesday night. We enjoyed it very much.

Wednesday we visited the 911 Memorial and Museum again. We toured it back in 2014 shortly after the museum opened. It was overwhelming then and was still overwhelming emotionally this visit. September 11th, 2001 was an awful day and I will never forget the terrible feelings of that day. If you are planning a trip to New York City, this is a must see. Be sure to keep the tissues handy. 

 

We are enjoying a great weekend with Pastor Sunny Philip. It is our pleasure to be here in Valley Stream at Gateway Christian Center! It it wonderful to see friends we met on our trip here in February and I love making new friends!

This coming week is a special week that I look forward to all year. It is Indoor Fellowship Meeting time at our home church, Dryden Road Pentecostal Church. 

It all begins Tuesday evening, August 23rd at 7:00. It goes through Friday the 26th. Wednesday-Friday the services will be morning service at 10:00, youth service at 6:00 and evening service at 7:00. It is all happening at 3201 Dryden Rd, Moraine (Dayton), Ohio.

 

Bro. Dwain Galiher is the scheduled morning speaker.

 

Bro Randy Webb is the scheduled night speaker.

 

Both preachers are wonderful men of God and they are Dryden Road Pentecostal Church favorites. I am looking forward to a wonderful week. You still have a chance to join us. It would be wonderful to have you at campmeeting with us. For more information visit the Dryden Road Pentecosal Church website

Visiting ministers will be preaching too. We will have pictures and campmeeting reports all week starting with Wednesday's post.

Thank you for reading! I look forward to seeing you this week. If you come to service please make sure you find us and let us know you are a blog reader. 

Odie 

Great To Be In New York

Reminder: Dryden Rd. Indoor Fellowship Meeting begins on Tuesday night August 23 and runs through Friday night August 26. There will be meals and day services Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. We hope to be there by Tuesday night and it would be awesome to see you there too.

Great To Be In New York

It is a blessing for us to be at Gateway Christian Center in Valley Stream, New York.

The church is located only a very few miles from where we preached in Queens in February so we are not very far out of the NYC city limits. It is still city and heavy traffic here as far as the eye can see but there are yards and parking lots. Those are two things you do not see much in NYC proper.

Gateway Christian Center is also only 6 miles from JFK airport. That is very convenient. If you want to fly in and be with us this weekend, you will not have far to go once you land. (Grin) We are not expecting any friends from far off but we are excited to see many friends that we met in February. That is a lot of fun.

Pastor Sunny Philip invited us to be here and we are happy to be able to accept his invitation. It was my sincere desire to have City Reach in NYC this summer but that proved impossible to put together in such a short time. However, my introduction to Pastor Philip and this whole trip came to pass because of City Reach. I wrote last week about the providence of God and I love to watch Him work.

We begin this special meeting tonight at 7:00. They will have a baptismal service Saturday afternoon, service again Saturday evening at 7:00 and then we will close with service Sunday morning. The church is beautiful and spacious. We are looking forward to enjoying the presence of God over the next three days.

Thank you for praying for us and thank you for reading as well.

Davy

Getting The Job Done

I was telling some church folks last night about the GPS trying hard to turn the BoggsMobile into a Convertible on the way in Monday night/Tuesday morning. Pastor Philip told me he saw a truck torn apart yesterday morning on the parkway. It had hit a low bridge on the parkway where it did not belong. OUCH!

I am more glad every moment we did not get on the parkway even under heavy pressure to do so! KJ took this picture yesterday.

Yikes! The edge of the right lane is 6' 6"! Duck!



Getting The Job Done

There are times when you just have to do whatever it takes to get the job done!

If my job was easy then plenty of folks would be doing it and doing it better than I do and I would be looking for something else to do. A little grit and determination will often take you farther than talent, smarts and connections. 

Personal Note: Thanks, Dad, for not allowing me to quit when I wanted to a few hundred times when I was a kid. 

That quality is probably more important than most skills I have acquired. Grit, perseverance, and tenacity are huge parts of the "spiritual" side of our lives and ministry. God points, God speaks and we as humans make up our minds to believe and follow no matter what. Through opposition and in spite of difficulties you over come adversity to complete God's plan. You do God's will and watch God finish the work.

This principle applies to the spiritual and it applies to the everyday mundane natural things in life. It can be as simple as trying to turn the bolt again, reaching up one more time, getting down on the ground and getting dirty or picking up your end of the load. You must push, pull,  poke, prod, shoot, shove, strain, move, march dive, dig, drive and then do it again.

Life pushes you and you push back. It is hardly ever easy. Success is seldom found on the path of least resistance. The fruitful road is usually as hard as it looked like it was going to be and sometimes harder. But pressing through is always worth it.

The example for today is definitely not spiritual.

I mentioned in an earlier post that there is a deficiency of RV Parks big enough for the BoggsMobile up here. Another thing missing in the north east is big truck stops. We knew that coming in so we have been planning our fuel stops carefully. It helps that we can go 1000 miles pretty easily between fueling. We have been running the generator a lot on this trip so we do have to consider that too.

However, we rely on truck stops for more than diesel and a place to sleep at night when traveling. We rely on Flying J truck stops to empty our holding tanks. Some states have dump stations in rest areas but those are getting few and far between. Many churches give us access to a sewer connection but I can not often maneuver the bus in a position close enough to take advantage of their offer.

It is easier to pull into Flying J, pay the $5 ($10 without their discount card), get the job done and be on our way. I would say we empty our tanks at Flying J 25-30 or more times each year and we have for nearly 14 years.

We emptied the holding tanks at Flying J north of home the morning we left and a week later we knew we needed to do it again before we pulled into Lowell and parked next to the tent for a few days.

Kelly located a small campground right on our route a few miles before Lowell. It may have lots of camping sites but I say small in the sense of low trees, tight turns and narrow spaces. She called ahead to check on permission, price and most importantly access.

We knew the entrance to the park was good from Google maps and that the dump station was close to the entrance. That is all good news but that is where the good news ends. I topped the hill of the gravel road and I knew this was not going to be easy.

IF I had any other options I would not have pulled down to this station at all. I would have ran and not walked to the bus and drove out of that campground as fast as I could. But I had no other options and the job had to be done. 

The station is on this hill. It is steeper than the picture can show.

And what goes down must go up it seems. This is the road out.



It is narrow enough but it is made even narrower by the trees on both sides, the electric pole straight ahead, the sharp curve just out of site, the steep uphill climb smack dab in the middle of the sharp curve, the sandy area on the hill and the steep drop at the top of the hill on the opposite side of the road while still in the curve.

I walked it all before hand and decided I could do it. I am no daredevil and I err on the side of caution when it comes to the bus. I do not like to take chances.

I did miss a key detail, though. 

I did not realize that the back of the bus would still be in the curve trying to avoid the trees at the same time as I was trying to keep my left front wheel from going off the edge and rolling the BoggsMobile full of diesel fuel end over end down the hillside.

No pictures of all that because we were all too busy praying and driving.

Never, Never, Never again! But there are times when you just have to do whatever it takes to get the job done!

Thanks for reading.

Davy

Almost Making The BoggsMobile A Convertible

I am not sure what happened to yesterday's post. It was ready to go up about 3:15 AM and I thought I hit the "Publish" button. I woke up Tuesday morning and started working on a few things and did not realize it had not posted until nearly noon. By the time I had a chance to turn on the computer, the post was up. What's up with that?

If you are an early morning reader and you missed yesterday's post you can read it HERE-Around The Globe.

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Almost Making The BoggsMobile A Convertible

I mentioned yesterday that we had quite an experience getting the BoggsMobile to the church here in Valley Stream. Inquiring minds want to know what in the world I was talking about.

I had been warned by several bus people to be very, very careful bringing the bus any where near New York City and I thought took their warnings very seriously.

Evidently I needed to take them even more seriously!

I researched the clearance on all the major bridges and tunnels and I knew which ones to stay away from. I knew from experience to stay away from residential streets as well. I mapped out my route way ahead of time and I THOUGHT I had asked all the pertinent questions.

Sunday night in Connecticut, one of the men there had printed out a map for me to follow with the best route. It was exactly the route I had considered once I was in NYC proper with only a few minor changes while still in Connecticut. He was confident I could enter the city during the day between 11:00 AM and 1:00 PM and be fine.

We left Connecticut Monday morning in time to do that and I was definitely thinking about following his advice. But Sunday night and as I drove Monday morning, I was overwhelmed with the feeling that I should wait until after midnight, as I had planned earlier.

We stopped at the travel plaza in Connecticut for most of the day and left before midnight according to our original plan. We were only about one hour and fifteen minutes away and the drive was going perfectly all the way to the Throgs Neck Bridge.

Throgs Neck carries I-295 over the East River/Long Island sound and connects The Bronx with Queens. In this picture you can see the wide open road and the bridge in the distance.

We paid the $43 toll to cross the bridge and once we were on the south side we were only 14 minutes from the church. We had it made in the shade drinking lemonade on the down hill grade.

That is when our plan fell apart. We were supposed to enter the Cross Island Parkway at the end of the bridge but the signs were very plain. Cross Island Parkway - PASSENGER CARS ONLY

What? That parkway takes us within one mile of the church. It is the only way to get there without city streets. I had not closely looked at other routes because this one was simple and straightforward. 

But the signs were very clear. It was enough to scare me and keep me off the parkway even though I had no idea what else to do. 

I had read of the warnings to truckers to stay off highways in New York that are labeled PASSENGER CARS ONLY. My mind was flashing back to horror stories of low bridges and thousands of dollars in fines and towing.

(The pictures in my head)

The Cross Island Parkway may be the only way but I could not bring myself to get on it with all that going through my mind. How in the world did I miss that with all my research and preparation?

I-295 continued south a few miles and then ended in the choice of another forbidden parkway or city streets. We chose city streets. I was driving nice and slow and listening to my GPS scream at me, trying to direct me to the parkways and Kelly Jo was trying to understand the big picture on her phone while trying to direct me on the immediate turns.

It was a ride for the ages and we will not soon forget it. I refused to get on the parkways even though we had three or four more chances and I refused to turn down obvious residential streets because I knew that would be a good way to get stuck between rows of parked cars or under low trees.

At Kelly Jo's direction we kept winding around bigger streets slowing working our way south toward Valley Steam. We crossed the parkway one final time and we were tempted to get on it for one mile to our exit. The entrance was too narrow for us so we followed our evolving detour instead of the parkway. I will tell you in a few minutes what a great choice that was.

After about 50 minutes we made it to our very last turn. We had to turn on a small dead end street to enter the back parking lot of the church and we could not make it because of the parked cars. We both jumped out and unhooked the Green Machine from the BoggsMobile while blocking the intersection of two residential streets. Fortunately there are not too many folks out at 2:30 AM. Only two cars had to wait on us.

Then we had to get into the church parking lot itself. There was barely room between the parked cars to fit the bus through. You can see the dead end of the street on the right side of the picture below. And you can see the black car on the left side of the picture that is parked in they way.

Kelly Jo drove the bus from that point and I directed her in. Thankfully the curbs are low and we were able to put the front wheels on the side walk and miss the black car with the back of the bus. All of this at 2:30 with the neighbors sleeping. At least I hope they were still sleeping!

I am so thankful we did not try this during the day. We were on some of those streets in February in Bro. Hardyal's van and we would have been in a mess during the day on Monday in the bus. Although it was stressful and it took us a while, at least the streets were pretty clear when we went through.

After we were parked and breathing again, I found a website with the bridge heights on all the parkways in and around NYC. The Cross Island Parkway has bridges at 8', 9', 10' and 11' all along the way. That last mile I was tempted to turn down has a super low bridge within 100 yards of the on-ramp. If we would have squeezed though the on-ramp we would have been stuck!

We drove the Cross Island on the way home from church last night in the Green Machine and witnessed the low bridges for ourselves. One right lane clearance was 6'6". That is crazy! We were thanking God every mile for keeping us off that road and helping us wind our way around.

Hey! That is why you all pray for us, right?

Now, getting out may be another story. I wonder if any churches here need a Pastor with a bus that can not leave town?

Thanks for reading.

Davy

Around The Globe

It was quite and experience but we did make it through the edge of New York City tonight and into the church parking lot at Gateway Christian Center in Valley Stream. The last 30 minutes were pretty hairy. Remind me to tell you about it some time.

We parked a few minutes ago.



As a reminder, any time you see a bold word on our blog, it is usually a link that you can click. It will usually open in a new tab.
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Around the Globe

On our way to Lowell last week we stopped before exiting the interstate in order to soak up some bandwidth. We had some business to take care of that required internet access and in 2014 we had no internet in Lowell. Thankfully that situation has improved but we had no way of knowing before we arrived. Better safe than sorry.

While using the free internet at the rest area on I-91 near Bradford, Vermont we noticed this marker.

James Wilson sounds like an interesting man. He was a farmer and a blacksmith with the hobby of astronomy and geography. That seems like a fascinating combination of vocations and hobbies and it made me want to sit down and talk with this guy. It turns out this guy was brilliant.

His hobby led him to map making for children and schools and then to making globes. I like globes so that intrigued me even more. As the sign says he learned engraving and soon opened a business making and selling globes. He was the first globe maker in the United States. 

James Wilson felt like a country bumpkin when he took his first globes to Boston. He had no idea how he would be received but the educated and high society folks in Boston knew brilliance when they saw it. They embraced Mr. Wilson and his globes wholeheartedly and assured him every globe he could make would be sold.

His 13" globes were commercially successful at the astronomical sum in that day of $50 each. He opened a second factory and eventually used other materials to make the globes cheap enough for schools and the average home. He made globes the rest of the his life, eventually expanding into building planetariums.

This is a picture of a twin set of terrestrial and celestial globes he made and below that is picture of a globe made by his factory in 1831.

Yes, James Wilson was an interesting man and he certainly left his mark in the world. His globes are still fancied by collectors around the world and fetch a hefty price, considerably more than $50.

Researching Mr. Wilson led me to THIS. It is a Columbus Imperial Illuminated Floor Globe. 



It is a 40 inch hand painted globe. I pasted the general description below and you can click on the link for the full description and several more pictures.

• Designed and Made in Germany.
• Place Names and Cartography All in English.
• Floor World Globe with American Walnut Cradle and Brass Meridian.
• Imperial Illuminated Map, 40 Inch Diameter.
• 45"W x 45"D x 55"H; Weight: 176 Lbs.Availability: In stockList Price: $16,950.00

"The old fashioned map recalls the hand-drawn maps of yesteryear while containing contemporary, up to date geography... In addition to the abundance of place names, this floor globe also contains images of famous sailboats and mythic sea creatures in the style of hand-drawn parchment maps of the past. Despite the classic sensibility of the cartography, you can expect the accurate, detailed and abundant modern geography that Columbus is known for."

Now, that is an amazing globe. I did notice that they have them in stock and they offer free shipping to the continental United States. That is generous.

Thanks for reading today.

Davy