View Out The Front Window November 30, 2014

Odie's Saturday Post

Great Thanksgiving Day

Happy Thanksgiving

Travel Days and Schedule Change

Tuesday

Arbuckle, California

Since we have been on the move this last week, we have lots of pictures from our front window. We traveled four days. Two of those days ended in truck stops in Bellemont, Arizona and Albuquerque, New Mexico. The third ended at an RV Park in Amarillo, Texas and the fourth ended at our destination, the House of Prayer in Gainesville, Texas.

This is our view out the front window Monday night at the Pilot Truck Stop in Bellemont, Arizona near Flagstaff.

This is our view out the front window Tuesday night at the Flying J Truck Stop in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Out the front door at the same place.

Out the front window a little later in the evening.

And one more from beside the BoggsMobile looking toward the front. Albuquerque is a beautiful city at night.

This is the view out our front window in an RV Park in Amarillo, Texas Wednesday night. I guess they put the riffraff in the back.

Here is the old familiar view out our front window at House of Prayer in Gainesville, Texas.

And out the front door.

Gainesville is a very comfortable place to park. We first brought our Hitchhiker 5th wheel here in February 2003. We loved it from the first moment. There is a very nice concrete drive all around the church with the RV parking and full hookups in the back away from all the traffic. Bro. Logan loved evangelists and did everything he possibly could to make us feel comfortable at his church.

Bro. Logan was not able to pastor the last couple of years of his life and has now been in Heaven over a year now. Pastor Dennis King is still taking great care of us and we are enjoying every moment of it. He took me to lunch Friday while the girls were shopping and even took me to see Santa.

Here he is. A skinny Santa riding a Harley! It cracked me up.

Bro. Larry and Sis. Rosemary Landress were passing through Gainesville on Saturday. They are on their way to the border for a missions conference and then on into Mexico for a few days. 

We realized several weeks ago that our paths would cross this weekend and we have been looking forward to seeing them ever since. It was super great to spend a few hours with our dear friends. We hated to see them move on. Bro. and Sis. Landress included us in their travel plans many, many times through the years. We love to see them every time we can.

Pastor Dennis King took us all to lunch and we enjoyed the food and fellowship. 

We begin revival today in Gainesville. We are looking forward to it.

Davy

Thankfulness Soaring In My Heart

Hey friends! Happy Saturday to you. How was your Thanksgiving?  We had a great day. Most of our day was spent traveling from Amarillo to Gainesville, Texas.  

I must admit I missed my Ohio family this week. I am already anticipating being home in a couple weeks. The Morgan crew met up at my grandparents Thursday for dinner. I am thankful we were able to talk and text with them.  I wish I could have some of my Gran's cooking. Our Boggs clan meets up this afternoon at my Mamaw and Papaw's. I know they will have a fantastic evening. I am thankful for my whole family! Love you all and we will see you soon!

As you all know we left California Mond+ay morning. We had several good weeks in one of my favorite states. I was sad to leave, but the asphalt in my blood was itching. It was time for us  to roll. 

Last Friday was the final day of school before Thanksgiving break at Riverdale Christian Academy. It was party day for most of RCA.  Sis. Twila Spencer invited me to visit her class. The 4th graders had built rockets and Friday was launch day. It was exciting to watch my buddies launch their creations.

I had a blast getting to see several of my Riverdale friends one last time. We topped the afternoon off with ice cream and brownies in the learning center. Thanks Twila for allowing me to join in the fun. 

I am thankful we have been blessed with a smooth travel week from California to Texas. I have picked a habit up from Dad, of thanking God every time the BoggsMobile cranks on command. The Lord shields us thousands of miles each year, and I am truly grateful. I do not want to take His protection lightly. 

On long travel weeks I like to use some of the time to catch up with my great friends. I am blessed beyond measure with friends. On Thanksgiving I was able to touch base with many I had not talked to in a while. 

Let me close this week with a little personal note.  

Dad and Mom, I am thankful God put me in your family. Thank you all you do!  Both of do so much behind the scenes working to keep our family machine oiled and working!!  I love you both more than word express!!

God bless,

Odie 

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