Last Post of the 2011

Here we are! December 31, 2011! Wow! Time flies whether you are having fun or not! But we are definitely having fun most of the time!

A year ago we were at Zoar Holiness Church near Elba, Alabama with Pastor Jon Isaacs and his family. Today we are in Wynnewood, Oklahoma. We have covered some miles in the last year, been in some tremendous services, watched as folks lives were changed by the gospel and we have received much help from the Lord. It has been a wonderful crazy year and we are thankful for it.

We plan to start 2012 off by making our way to Blair, Oklahoma about 150 miles from here and beginning revival tomorrow night. The air leak is not resolved but I have made the decision to press on and try to either get it fixed there or take it to Prevost in Ft. Worth in the next week or so. 

We are looking forward to revival with Bro. Billy Ray Hudson and his church. We have been there once before for one service but we have never preached revival there. We are asking God to meet us in each and every service. God certainly knows what people need and he knows how to meet those needs. Please pray that God will use us to minister to His people.

We spent the day with the Landress family. I helped Bro. Larry on a project that he has going and enjoyed visiting with him. He helped me so much yesterday on several projects and I can't even begin to repay him. Bro. Larry and his family have been our friends for many years and they mean so much to us. They have helped us and encouraged us in more situations than I can count. I am very thankful that God brought them into our lives. We have shared several meals with them and their children and grandchildren the last few days and we have enjoyed it so much.

May God bless you all with a great start to 2012!

Davy

Here are the pictures I promised last night.

This is a picture of the lines that were/are broken. The small oil line in the foreground is fixed with a coupling and the big air line has the yellow patch material and the clamp around it. We are not sure that the temporary patch can take the heat but it is holding for now and has definitely slowed down the air escaping.

Here is the finished battery installation.

Working on the BoggsMobile

Today was a work day. I changed the batteries today and then Bro. Landress worked on replacing the leaking air hose. If you don't like posts that talk about working on things at least skip to the bottom and look at the last two pictures.. It will be worth it.

The batteries have been losing their charge quickly and they are over 5 years old so it was time for replacement. Everything went smoothly on the battery change and the bus started so I guess I didn't mess it up too badly.

There is a platform on top of the batteries and the battery charger sits on top of that. I had already removed that when I took the first picture.

Everything is pretty much out in the open and that is always a blessing when a fat guy is trying to work on something.

There are four batteries so I numbered the posts 1-8 and marked each wire as I took it off. Several  posts had four wires and all but one had two or more wires. By labeling each wire I wanted to make sure I didn't mix any up. Even with every wire marked clearly it could have easily been confusing.

These are the new batteries below.

These are the old ones. The old batteries charged for about 1000 miles over the last two days and three of them read 12.1 volts when I took them out. The one in the back was at 10.8 volts so that one was the culprit.

Here is the empty battery tray...

And here are the new batteries installed...

I didn't take a picture with the cover and battery charging re-installed but I should have a chance to take one tomorrow. I wish I wasn't going to open that compartment tomorrow but we are still working on the air leak. Bro. Landress took the small hose off and it had an obvious hole.

What wasn't so obvious was the fact that the large hose it was rubbing against also had a hole. This is the view from the passenger side just beyond the batteries...

The small hose is an oil hose. It runs from a fitting next to the compressor up to the alternator. You have never heard of an alternator that needs to be oiled? Me neither, but as my Dad always said, "You learn something new every day IF you pay attention." I actually had a diesel guy tell me today that NO alternator has an oil line running to it so he would have learned something too had he been willing to pay attention. lol

Down below near the bottom center of this picture you can see the two metal mesh type hoses. The small one going up is the oil hose the large one going side to side toward the right bottom corner is the main air hose coming out of the compressor. Of course these are special high temperature hoses with Teflon lining. We were able to have the small hose spliced with a special coupling  by a guy that specializes in hoses about 45 minutes from here.

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The large hose is a different story. It goes toward the front of the bus and out of sight. It looks like it goes all the way in front of the drive axle without a junction. That means there is no way we can access it to remove it, replace it or splice it without a lift or pit. The coupling the guy used on the small hose required a press on a bench. There may be a more portable way to press the coupling in but we have no way of knowing. The hose specialty guy isn't open again until Tuesday. 

Bro. Larry is working on temporary fix so we will spend some more time on it tomorrow. 

Now for a little fun. I thought you might be interested in a picture of me under the bus....

Can you believe it?

You shouldn't believe it! It was Bro. Larry and it was very tight. He had is head all the way up to the tag axle. He was trying to trace the large air hose. He just about smothered all of us while he was under there. Thankfully he made it out safe but not quite as easy as he went in. Lol



Hope you all had a great day. God bless,

Davy

We Made It Through One of Those Days!

We had another long day. We traveled less than 400 miles but it still took us about 10 hours. We started out in Ozark and stopped in Carthage at Colaw RV salvage. It is one of my favorite places. We spent about 40 minutes there picking up a few things.

Just a few miles down the road we stopped in Joplin for fuel and lunch with Bro. Kurt McCrorey and the Craftons. It was so good to see our friends.

Traffic was very heavy and we had several slow downs due to accidents and construction. Each time we had to slow down our air pressure in the BoggsMobile would drop. Each time we would have to pull over and let it build up. It made for a long and tiring day.

I spent a lot of time on the phone seeking advice and we all spent a lot of time praying seeking God's help. Praise God we made it without totally losing air pressure.

Bought a little diesel.

These are some pictures taken through the dirty windshield of the BoggsMobile. It's another beautiful sunset. This one was in Oklahoma City.

When we arrived in Wynnewood the Landress family and Blankenship family helped us set up. Brother Larry had arranged for us to park in a lot on the edge of town. It is a great spot with 50 amp service. We spent a few minutes accessing the air situation and found a hose with a whole in it near one of the compressors. We then went to grab a bite to eat. We plan to change the batteries in the morning and then try to replace or repair the air hose. I hope that takes care of the problem.

Thanks for praying for us.

Davy

A Long Day Ending at Lambert's (Sorry, Zach)

Today started out clear and cold in Ohio. Kelly Jo cranked the BoggsMobile about 8:30 and we were hooked up and ready to go by 10:00 or so. We enjoyed a smooth day of driving even though the traffic was heavy at times.

Here is a picture of the BoggsMobile and the General ready to roll. This is in the parking lot of Dodds Church near Waynesville, Ohio this morning right before we departed.



The sunset was gorgeous as we were driving across Missouri on I-44.

A normal day for us in the BoggsMobile is about 500-550 miles. I figured I would be ready to stop after 400 today. We were feeling pretty good as we passed the Flying J in Sullivan, Missouri so we pressed on toward Springfield. The 140 mile stretch between Sullivan and Springfield is lacking good places for us to park overnight so that pushed us toward the 600 mile mark. We hit a traffic jam because of an accident in the last 10 miles. I should have stopped earlier because I feel every mile now!

There is a gravel parking lot RV Park in Ozark that is very easy to get in and out of and is nicely priced at $20 a night for full hook ups with 50 amp service. It is called StageStop RV Park and we have stopped here many times through the years.

The StageStop just "happens" to be right behind Lambert's Cafe and once Odie flashed those puppy dog eyes at me it was all over but the crying. Even though I felt like laying down in the floor (You can see it in my picture below) we walked over to Lambert's and had a good meal and a great time as usual.

Odie looks fresh and chipper because she stayed in her bunk all day while poor ol' Dad did all of the work.

We are back at the bus now and preparing for a long winter's nap. I plan to post this and then start easing toward the back of the bus and climb into bed. This may be one of those nights that I climb back out of bed just so I can enjoy the feeling of climbing in again!

We have about 360 miles tomorrow with several stops along the way. We won't have to start too early but I do not like to burn too much daylight before hitting the road. Thanks for praying for us...

Davy

Direction

Well, the best laid plans of mice and men oft go awry and mine are always going awry no matter how carefully I craft them. And I do carefully craft them. I love to know what is going on and I love to know it ahead of time. I can tell you where I plan to be the third week of July, 2012 (Montana) and first week of December (Nigeria) and every week between here and there but ALL of it is VERY subject to change!

And the point is???? Yesterday I posted Christmas pictures and said, "..we plan to hit the road tomorrow morning" but it is around 10:30 and we are still in Ohio. I was supposed to have the BoggsMobile in Nashville, Tennessee at 2:30 today for some routine maintenance and then on to Wynnewood, Oklahoma for battery replacement and then to Blair, Oklahoma for revival. I cancelled the Tennessee appointment but I intend to keep the rest in place.

Why didn't we leave this morning? There are two parts to the answer...
1. A little winter weather forecast to blow through Ohio today.
2. A little hesitant feeling about leaving that started gnawing on me as we were going to church last night. I could have hooked up last night after church and beat the weather system but the little nudge to stay kept me here.

I have learned through much trial and error (Mostly error) to listen to those gentle proddings. It may be God speaking. There have been enough times when I have heard what seemed like a still small voice and could plainly see later that the Lord was guiding our family along. He was protecting us from harm or providing for our needs or placing us in the right position to be the most help to some one else in need. I have been busy this morning trying to seek God's direction and looking for doors of opportunity to minister to others while I am seemingly delayed from my course.

Why do I tell you? To encourage you to be sensitive to God's voice. Is He guiding you to a place of safety? Is He directing you to His divine provision for you and your family? Is He pointing you toward a new place of service? Is He offering words of comfort and peace? Is He prodding you to notice a person that could use your help and encouragement? I encourage you to seek the voice of God in your life.

It may be that God will speak to you audibly or He may speak to you through adversity.

He may speak to you publicly or He may speak to you privately.

God may speak to you loudly or He may speak to you softly.

He may speak to you while the Word is being preached or He may speak to you while you are reading the Word in private devotions.

God may speak to you while in prayer or He may speak to you while in conversation.

He may speak to your ear or He may speak to your heart.

Rest assured, friends, God is speaking to you. Take some time today and each day to listen to Him. He has exactly what you need. In your sickness, in your trial, in your loss, in your struggle, in your grief, in your sorrow, in your battle or in your sin. God knows what to say and when to say it. Are you listening to His voice? Hearing Him will make all the difference in your situation and in your life. I have missed Him or ignored Him several times and it was always to my own hurt. I want/need/must HEAR God's voice.

Listen, friend, you do not have to be super spiritual to hear Him, I am living proof of that!

End of sermon...

We may leave later this afternoon or we may leave tomorrow morning. Since we won't be going through Tennessee we will most likely take the most direct route to Oklahoma. That means we will be going our familiar road through St. Louis and then down I-44 through Missouri. That opens up some interesting possibilities along the route including Lambert's. I will let you know...

Davy

Christmas With Our Families

A few Pictures from Christmas. Hope you all had a great day. We are off to revival at Dryden Rd. tonight and then we plan to hit the road tomorrow morning.

Davy

Morgan's Christmas Eve

Boggs Christmas Day