Today has been another whirlwind day and we have one more whirlwind day to go. Hopefully after that it slows down for four days while in Mexico and we get to enjoy revival and time with our friends the Landress family. It should be warmer next few days too. Hallelujah! Have I mentioned that it is very cold here in Ohio?
Kelly Jo started the day by finishing packing and then she worked hard to clean the bus so it's not a wreck when we get back home. I started with a bunch of paperwork, sermon preparation and bus work.
As I have mentioned a couple of times the forecast for tomorrow morning is very, very cold. It was actually colder than they thought it would be this morning, but we made it without anything in the BoggsMobile freezing.
I have been looking for an inside storage place so I can move the bus inside while we're gone in this frigid weather. I finally found a facility in northern Cincinnati and went down and looked at it yesterday. It is a very nice facility. It is heated, has electronic security and surveillance and strictly controlled access. They have several classic cars and nice big boats stored in one giant room.
I made plans have the BoggsMobile there about 3 o'clock Thursday afternoon. That put us to rushing Tuesday evening and all day today trying to get everything in place. I also made a park sleep and fly reservation near the date airport for us Thursday night since we would not have the bus.
I turned the diesel heat on about noon and warmed up the engine coolant. I also turned the generator on so my batteries would stay completely charged on the drive down to Cincinnati. I would only have access to 20 amps in the storage facility so I needed my batteries already fully charged. Since the facility is heated to 55° I would not have to run any heat so there would be no demand for much electricity at all. I could relax while in Mexico know the BoggsMobile was cozy warm and safe. Everything seemed perfect.
You know there is another shoe about to drop don't you? Well, here it is.
We pulled into the storage facility a little after 3:00 PM. My brother Steve was guiding me as I backed in. I noticed in my backup camera and mirrors that it the 14' tall 12' wide door looked mighty low. In fact it looked so low that I thought to myself, "That door looks only 12 feet tall." The owner assured me yesterday and again today that the doors were 14 feet tall. I did not even look closely until I was backing up.
I got out of the bus and stood in the building and had Kelly back to the entrance. Yep, sure enough, it was only 12 feet tall.
The owner of the facility was standing right there to direct me where to park. You should have seen the look on his face when he realized his 14' tall door was only 12' tall. It looked like he was going to have a cow. He felt like a lowdown, good for nothing hound. One more animal and it would've been a three dog night.
He felt so bad that I had driven all the way there, that he reached in his wallet and offered me $100 for my trouble. Of course by the time you figure the diesel I burned and the cost of the motel I bought for Thursday night, that mistake cost me quite a bit more than $100. However I hated to take his money. It was an absolutely honest mistake on his part. When I refused the money what he told me was very refreshing.
He said something like this, sir I'm a businessman and as a businessman I just totally disappointed and let down my customer. I cannot stay in business by treating customers that way. This $100 is the very least I can do besides I would like to help the work you do anyway.
We discussed it some more but he was adamant. I was very disappointed not to get to park the bus inside and hated that we had went all the effort, but I really felt bad for him. He advertised what he thought was true and made and honest mistake yet he was willing to take the blame and make it right as far as possible.If I can use any of his business services in the future you can guarantee I will. He really went the extra mile for the customer. God bless him.
So we drove back to Dodds, parked the bus and hooked up to electricity. The BoggsMobile will have to endure the cold like it was created to do. Please ask God to help our bus not to freeze in any form or fashion and ask him to calm my nerves. I am a wimp.
I have mentioned before we have been looking for some kind of property here in Ohio with the purpose of building a bus barn eventually. This winter really pushes us in that direction. I am very tempted to cancel every meeting I have in the north in the wintertime and head south. Pray that God will give us wisdom and guidance.
Tomorrow starts for us in a few hours so I am off to bed. Thanks for reading.
Davy
