Travel Days - Vonore, Tennessee to Richton, Mississippi

Wednesday and Thursday were travel days. We only traveled about 470 miles over the two days so we obviously did not get in a hurry. In fact, I text Bro. Scott Morris Thursday morning and told him I was only about 210 miles from him and if I could do 70 miles a day, I should be there by Sunday morning.

We left East Tennessee Luxury Coach some time mid-morning and headed south west. Here we are as we prepare to pull out.

It was a beautiful day to travel and once we cleared Chattanooga, the traffic thinned out quite nicely. After all of the activity of the previous few days, I knew I would not drive far but I did want to go at least half way. I made it about 260 miles.

We needed to empty our holding tanks before getting to Richton and the Flying J at McCalla, Alabama was our last chance to do it. We decided to pull in there and call it a day. After snagging a spot among the trucks (The RV spots at that Flying J are always filled with trucks) we settled in and all took a nice afternoon nap!

I mentioned in yesterday's blog that Kelly Jo and I worked most of the evening on our travel visas to Nigeria. The kept us up late and then I could not sleep. I did sleep some in the early morning hours but I was awake shortly after 6:00 again.

I let the girls rest while I had my devotions and worked on the blog. We cranked up the BoggsMobile, emptied the holding tanks and we were soon on our way. We stopped at Dirt Cheap in Meridian after about 120 miles so the girls could get in a few minutes of retail therapy.

When they were finished we pulled over to Walmart so Kelly Jo and I could get our photos for the visas taken. Office Depot was across the parking lot and we went there next to Fedex the whole package to the Nigerian Embassy. We should have the visas in less than three weeks. Then we can finalize our reservations.

Once that was completed we finished the trip to Richton, arriving about 4:00 PM. It is great to be back home in Richton and we enjoyed some time and a great meal with our friends. We love Bro. Scott and his precious family.

Just about bed time, Bro. Jimmie Radcliffe pulled in and it was super great to see him. Once he was half way parked we said good night and got to bed just after midnight.

That puts two travel days in the books.The next two days will be spent preparing to get the tent up and getting ready for City Reach Richton. It feels good to be back in the swing of things!

Thanks for stopping in today.

Davy

Getting Ready For Nigeria

Things are staring to come together for our trip to Nigeria in November. I was beginning to get a little worried about our travel visas. You must have a prearranged travel visa to enter Nigeria. You can not fill out the paperwork on the plane or the airport like you can in many countries.

A Nigerian visa is a long drawn out and complicated process involving you or someone else hand carrying your passport, two new passport sized photos, money, application, recent bank statement, invitation letter, copies of the first four pages of your host's passport, travel itinerary, receipt for the amount you already paid online to Nigeria and receipt acknowledgment into the Nigerian Embassy. 

I am not sure they need the certified oil analysis for our last four BoggsMobile oil changes and the results of my third grade California Achievement Test or not but I may send them anyway.

You can not apply for the travel visa more than 90 days away from your trip. We have normally paid a company to go to the Embassy in Washington D. C. for us. That is cheaper than traveling to the Embassy and staying in town 3-5 days waiting for the visa to process. Once it is processed you go back in, wait in line all over again and pick up your visa. 

Since we were in New York about 90 days from our travel date, we decided to try carrying in our wheel barrel full of applications and other paperwork to the Embassy ourselves. This would save us nearly $90 each plus shipping and would be a new experience. (It used to be $35 then $55 and now $89.)

Our first hesitation came when we learned the Nigerian Embassy in New York City has absolutely terrible reviews for customer service. The show stopper was the website. We waded through the pages of visa application for each of us and it kicked us back to the homepage on more than one occasion. ALL of the information was lost so we would start again.

After finally making it through the applications successfully the website would not allow us to pay. I would put in our payment information and hit the button and back to the login page we would go!

There are warnings all over the page about how difficult to impossible it is to obtain a refund if you double pay so the onus is on us NOT to double pay. After getting kicked back to the login page when pressing the payment button I would wait a day or two to make sure the payment did not show up on our statement. 

This is all in their instructions. They expect you to have problems paying on their website. Once you know the payment did not go through, then and only then, you try again!

This went on for 2-3 weeks long after we were gone from New York City. I have messed with it at least once per week since then with similar results. Last night was the night designated to rise and conquer this thing. It had to be done. We can not book our tickets without our visas in our hands.

Last night I spent more time than I care to remember on the phone with the website company and then much more time with our CC company walking through the steps over and over again until someone flipped the right magic twanger and the payment went through. 

We are paying a total of $305 each to the Nigerian Embassy, $89 each to the company walking into the embassy for us and $60 total for Fedex shipping both ways and we are almost done! All we have to do is get the recent passport type photos and ship it all in. Wow!

When payment was confirmed, Kelly Jo and I spent the next hour+ printing duplicates of most of the documents listed above and then collapsed into bed very late with a satisfied grin that we were finally on our way.

That is when i discovered I was so hyped up that i could not sleep! Oh well, at least we are going to Nigeria!

Thanks for reading.

Davy

Picture In Place of Post

No post today. And this pictured drawn over a year ago by Devin Heath explains the reason. Great job, Devin!

Davy

BoggsMobile in Vonore, Tennessee

I had hoped to be on the road toward Richton, Mississippi by this morning but we have had a change a plans. We are not hard pressed to be down there today Or tomorrow so we are OK with that. There are worse places to be "stuck" besides beautiful east Tennessee!

We stopped here to have something on the BoggsMobile checked that has been acting up and can be a serious problem. I wanted to get to the bottom of it before it had a chance to get out of hand. I will fill you in later with details. 

I know the BoggsMobile is in good hands here with Jeff Rowe. He has proven it several times. The bus has lots of good company too.

That fact does not keep me from being nervous, though. Prayer from my friends and family helps with that. 

Thanks for stopping in and reading.

Davy

#37 Weekend Woundup and Weview

We have a lot of pictures in this round up from the weekend. I hope you enjoy them all. It was a great weekend.

Friday we were tying up loose ends trying to get ready to leave. Thursday I had unloaded the tent trailer but Friday all my tools had to be sorted and put in the bus. Mom and Dad took us out for a great meal at lunch time. We enjoyed the meal and visiting with our family very much.

Jimmy pulled out Friday and it sure looked empty with him gone.

Here we are going down the road Saturday. I am eating salami rolls while going down the road thanks to our neighbor Sue. Thank you, Sue!

Before we could get on the road, we pulled into Dodds and loaded up our sound equipment. It was easy with all the help. We love our holy roadies!

Our drive to Vonore, Tennessee was uneventful just like we like it. We found out that UT had a football game in Knoxville in the afternoon so we timed our trip through Knoxville right at game time. It can be a mess otherwise but we sailed right through at the perfect time.

Saturday evening Kelly Jo made me this sugar free desert. Perfecto!

Sunday morning we drove about and hour and twenty minutes to be in church with our friends at Beechfork Holiness Church. Pastor Herman Woods, his wife Sis. Margaret and the whole church have been so dear to us for many, many years and it is always good to be with them.

We had a good service and a wonderful visit. Several of us went to Shoney's and enjoyed a great meal and even more good visiting with our dear friends. I was so glad to spend time with all of them, with no pressure to rush away. We did not get back to the bus until nearly 4:30.

Today we are at my friend, Jeff Rowe's shop. I have some problems with the bus that at least need some diagnosis. If anyone can get to the bottom of the complications, he can.

Once we are finished here we will mosey toward Richton, Mississippi.

I hope you had a great weekend. Thank you for reading.

Davy

View Out The Front Window September 25, 2016

I want to spice this Sunday post up a bit so I am dedicating it to my favorite sister, Theresa Osborn. She said my Sunday posts are too short so she does not like them as much as the rest of the week. 

How do you like me and my Sunday posts now, my sweet Sis?

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

Odie's Saturday Post

GoodNews In Abeokuta

Revival In Pictures - Waynesville

City Reach Richton

Another Good Monday

Weekend Woundup and Weview

This is our view today out the front window at our friend's place, East Tennessee Luxury Coach in Vonore, Tennessee.

This is our view out the front door. The coach next to us is a beautiful Vouge. The conversion was done in Oklahoma. We have several friends that worked at that plant when it was open and probably worked on this conversion.

We plan to be in service this morning with our dear friends at Beechfork Holiness Church near Wartburg, Tennessee. We can hardly way to see them all.

I hope you have a good Sunday. Thanks for reading.

Davy