Flopping Around in Foley, Alabama

I hope you were able to read yesterday's important post about our up coming trip to Nigeria. HERE it is just in case you missed it.

We have enjoyed our four days off this week. We have been completely lazy.

OK, so maybe we went to Lambert's Cafe one more time while we were in Foley... Odie treated us to dinner Wednesday. She is pretty generous to her old Dad and knows that food keeps me smiling. I raised a wise little lady.

The rest of the week we did as little of nothing as we could. Kelly Jo and Odie walked around the huge outlet mall here and I spent my time reading and preparing sermons for revivals and Nigeria. I really enjoyed the extra time to read and study without the pressure of being ready to preach every night and I know the girls enjoyed their evenings free.

I intended to sleep late and take lots of afternoon naps but that did not work out so well. I did rest a little Thursday afternoon. Believe me, Odie more than made up for my lack of sleep every single day!

We also drove down to the coast one day and looked around at the white sand beaches, restaurants, hotels and houses. It was beautiful and the crowds were light. It must be the off season. It is probably less than 10 miles down there but we only went that one time. Normally we love going and putting our toes in the sand on a deserted beach but we wanted rest this trip. I did not even walk in the sand.

We had something interesting happen while we were down by the Gulf Shores area. We had heard that Gulf Shores State Park has a great campground with plenty of big spots for us to park. I wanted to look it over to see if we could actually get the BoggsMobile in just in case we were down this way again sometime.

The campground is about a 2 minute drive and a 5-10 minute walk from the beaches on the gulf and the longest pier on the Gulf of Mexico. It had the potential to be a great place to park IF the spots would accommodate the bus.

We pulled in the entrance and an employee came outside to greet us and ask how he could help. I told him we were camping near Foley and wanted to look over the park to see if we could stay there in the future. He told me, "I can allow that but I am going to have to charge you a dollar to drive around." He proceeded to tell me that he was sure I understood why but honestly I did not comprehend what he was saying at all.

I was thinking about me being a potential paying customer willing to pay $30-40 per night and they were worried about a dollar! I suppose we looked to much like white trash to him cruising around in our little Green Machine scouting out our next place to party...

I wonder if they would have charged me a dollar if I had pulled up in the BoggsMobile and told them I was scouting their park for a future stay in the area..



It is hard to say for sure but I doubt they would have charged me a dollar. They probably would have fallen over themselves to show me a nice spot and that is just not right. I am the same person whether I am driving the bus, the late Mr. Cheap Jeep, the General or the Green Machine. We often judge by what a person drives or the quality of their clothing but the judgement is Often incorrect. I am not richer, better or more dignified when I am driving a 17 year old but nice looking bus!

I thanked him politely for his time and turned that buggy around. Yes, I had the dollar to spare but I had pretty much decided that state park campground was not for me and my family so why bother.

Maybe.... Maybe I am judging the motives and actions of the employee on too little information...Maybe. But I do know this old adage is true.

People will forget what you said...
People will forget what you did...
But people will never forget how you made them feel.

And he made me feel like I did not belong there and I guess I agree with him.

The day definitely improved though. We went to Five Guys Burgers and Fries Thursday evening. It was closer to us than Lambert's so we felt like we would be disloyal and uncaring if we ignored it all together. Kelly Jo and Odie can do pretty good on their diet at Lambert's but NOT at Five Guys! They decided this would be a splurge. You should have seen Odie devouring those french fries! I wanted to snap a picture but it was over too fast.

Today (Friday) we will load up and head over to Richton, Mississippi. The GPS says it is about 124 miles and about 2 1/2 hours by car.. It will take us considerably longer with the bus and trailer since I will have several miles of stop and go traffic both here and on the west side of Mobile.

We will be going straight to the city park in Richton where the tent revival will be. We plan to park the BoggsMobile right on site as we did last year. Once we are parked and wired in I will take my time and lay out the stake line for the tent. We will be setting the whole 48x70 tent and I hope to have everything ready to go when the men arrive on Saturday morning.

We had a great tent revival last year with Bro. Scott Morris and his folks and we are expecting even better this year. We plan to run the meeting through next Friday, take the tent down on Saturday and stay over and preach Homecoming for them on Sunday the 30th.

Although we hope to travel to Bond, KY on the following Monday and Tuesday, it will be nice to stay in one place over two weekends. We are looking forward to spending lots of time with Bro. Scott and his family and church.

May God bless you this weekend.

Davy


Some Pictures from the pier.