God has such a great sense of humor. I picked this title
shortly after our arrival in early February for our project at Shocco Springs
Baptist Conference Center, Talladega AL because one of the first fun things we
did was visit the great Superspeedway where we were able to participate in the Fan Track Day. That meant we were got to
take our own vehicle and run the track. Well, we went with friends who had a
one-ton Ford Dually. I was grateful it was their truck and not our car. I
believe, had Bill been driving our car he would have accelerated a whole lot
more than we could in that truck. As far as I’m concerned we went plenty fast
in the truck; I think it was about 90 MPH. I held tight onto my friends arm in
the back seat as Bill was in the front seat with the driver. |
| Look close. New VMMer entering her rig. |
You’re wondering what that has to do with God’s sense of
humor; well, you’ll have to wait until the end of this story to find out.
First, I’d like to tell you about our amazingly wonderful time at Shocco
Springs and the great bunch of VMMers we were blessed to work with. We were
especially blessed to have a couple that we met at EAA AirVenture this past
summer whom we invited to join us on this project as part of the Volunteer
Mobile Missionaries (VMM) Buddy program. It’s a program designed to give interested
couples an opportunity to “try out” this lifestyle. Apparently they liked it
enough as they have now joined VMM. We are so delighted and we will be working
with them again in April. Welcome, friends!
One of the main projects for the guys was removing old
bathroom fans and installing new ones. Only problem is they didn’t ship as
planned and were not on site when the men were ready to work. So, for the first
week of the project they painted and then installed doors in several of the
lodges. Then look what arrived. This picture may not be very impressive, but from what I was told,
you should have seen the crazy lady trying to run on the uneven grass to catch
up to the front end loader and snag this
picture. (As you may or may not have ever noticed, I rarely use names in my
writings. So, you’ll have to guess who that crazy lady was.)
A very important example was set for me on this project
which I particularly noticed on our Ladies Day Out in Oxford AL traveling
around to numerous stores.One of our beloved ladies always found a
clerk or cashier to chat with about life and Jesus; listening to what they weren’t
saying, so she knew what to say. Watching her love on others, with no
thought of having something else to do or place to be, truly inspired me. I’m
praying that I won’t always be in such a hurry to move on and will be more
intentional in sharing Jesus’ love with those He brings across my path. Help
me, Jesus! Another one of these dear ladies, offered to share an article about
this very kind of behavior. God’s timing is so perfect. The bottom line that
spoke to me from this article was not to look at speaking to others as a duty
but out of a sincere love for our neighbor (the second greatest commandment).
The writer referred to it as needing a baptism of love. This is my prayer, Lord
Jesus.
Our group enjoyed a delightful bring-your-own-meat-to-grill
potluck to celebrate Valentine’s Day.
Meet my friend Mario. I actually call him Goofy, because
he’s one of the cutest goofiest looking dogs I’ve had the pleasure of bonding
with. Love it when there are friendly little dogs on project.
Besides our trip to the Talladega Speedway, we visited the
factory at the Alabama Institute for Deaf and Blind. What an experience. They sew
ALL the ties for military uniforms and a bunch of other stuff too. We also went
to two awesome museums: Anniston Museum of Natural History and Berman Museum
(as a gun collector, he covered most wars from the Revolution to WWII). There
also was a great pictorial of Pearl Harbor. Pictures I had never seen before.
Oh, how I pray that we all would remember what has been sacrificed for our
freedom. It’s so sad that our young people are, in many cases, unaware. The
Natural History museum was much more uplifting. So VERY well done especially in
displaying animals in true likeness of their natural habitat. I would recommend
both these museums to anyone who is in the area.
As I said, this was an amazing group. We all had such a
wonderful time and here we are celebrating our final night (Thurs 2/22) together
at a local restaurant. It’s
time to head back to the rig and finish packing up so we can head out first
thing in the morning. Keep in mind, first thing in the morning, when you have
to pack up your entire home and auto, takes a while but we managed to get on
the road by 9ish.
As some of you already know, if you were on Facebook during
our travels, things didn’t go as well as we would have liked. Not even out of
Shocco Springs, Bill made a really tight and sharp turn with such precision that
he relaxed for a moment as he pulled the rig over so we could attach the tow
dolly and he caught the back wheel of
the rig on the curb. He was so mad at himself…made the really hard turn and,
not thinking, ran over a curb at the beginning of a straightaway. I was
following with the car so I was very perplexed why Bill wasn’t coming out to
put the car on the dolly. Well, he was inside cleaning up some of our daily Corelle
dishes. That’s the second time that cabinet popped open; the first time was
almost exactly one year ago when we hit a really big pothole coming out of a
truck stop. The good news is, the pieces that broke, were extra bowls and
plates. We still have a service for, at least, four. Praise the Lord!
And the “fun” continues. Barely out of Shocco Springs, the
rig started acting up; jerky and losing acceleration. Warning light. We pulled
over, got the manual out, and decided it was okay to continue on. The rig seemed
to smooth out, and then not. Help us,
Lord. Help us make wise decisions. Please help us get to our destination
safely. Bill started thinking we may have gotten some dirty fuel. So we started
looking for a Truck Stop along our way so we could get it checked out. I started
letting friends know on FB that prayers were desired. It got so bad (especially
going uphill) that Bill had to drive the rig on the shoulder of the Interstate.
Can’t tell ya the number of miles we travelled between 15 and 30 MPH. Praise
the Lord, he was able to safely do that.
Now this is where, I ‘m making reference to God’s sense of humor. I
title this blog “Speeding to another project” and here we are going from 90 MPH
at the speedway to 15 MPH on the Interstate. J
Most of the time if we got up to 45 or 50 MPH, Bill was happy. The prayers kept
us going, that’s for sure.
In the midst of all this, early in our trip, there was a car
in front of us where the driver kept sticking his arm out the window and hitting
the outside of his driver’s door. He was following a big truck and was closer
to it than to us, so I assumed he was sending a message to that driver. Oh no,
he was signaling us to let us know that the basement door under Bill’s driver’s
seat was open. We found that out many miles later when we made a quick stop at
a rest area just as a safety precaution. What next? Trust me, there’s a lot
more to come.
Well, we finally made it to a Love’s Truck Stop in Dublin,
GA, around 4 p.m. Crazy busy place and
the layout was kind of weird as well. Most truck stops we’ve been at have pull
through parking and drive through diesel islands. Not this place, big semis literally
going in circles and backing into a very tight line up for parking. The good news was they had a
24 hour repair service. The guy at the counter was really nice but there were
two trucks ahead of us. While we waited, Bill went to take the car off the tow
dolly. Three more surprises! One, the passenger side tire on the tow dolly had
blown. We had no idea when that happened but it couldn’t have been too much
before we stopped as the wheel rim didn’t show any damage from being
tire-less. That was surprise number one.
Surprise number two was even wilder. Somehow an owl (yes, a rather large owl) got
trapped between the dolly and the car. Seems impossible to me but my nephew
wrote on my Facebook page and I quote: “So we think the owl might have been on
the edge of the road or in the ditch and just as you drove past it flew up just
in the wrong spot and it got sucked in.” I suppose that could be it. Look at
the picture and tell me how you think he got there.
Surprise number three:
Another unknown occurrence took place. We now have several serious/deep
scratches on the passenger side of our rig. At first, we couldn’t figure out
what it could be as, again, we heard nothing and it wasn’t there when we
stopped at the rest area much earlier in the day. But, then again, we were
pretty fixated on keeping the rig moving forward. With where the scratches are
located, all we can come up with is that the tire caught something and it flew
up and into our rig. Bill does remember driving over something but didn’t think
anything came of it. Who knows??? Well, God does and we’re just trusting Him
with all of this knowing that He is faithful and trustworthy. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and
lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He
will direct your path.” Prov 3:5-&6 This is one of my life verses and
kept coming to mind throughout this whole situation. Amen & Amen!
Once the owl was disposed of and the car off the dolly, we
were able to get the wheel rim off and headed out to find the right size tire.
(Love’s didn’t have it.) We were told there would be a 2-3 hour wait at
Wal-Mart so we rushed (drove very fast but not too much over the speed limit)
to a tire shop that would be closing in 20 minutes. HalleluJAH! We made it in
time and they stayed and took care of us. One problem solved. PTL!
Once we got our rig in to service, we went on another wild
goose chase looking for fuel filters, hoping that would solve our problem, yet,
knowing we were still going to have to spend the night in this crazy Love’s
Truck Stop lined up with all the semis. It still gives me shivers when I think
about how tight those spots were. It’s not surprising that I didn’t sleep all
that well as I kept praying that no one would back into our wonderful home.
Yes, I know, these semi drivers are a LOT more skilled at backing than I am (which
doesn’t take much), but it still caused me a teeny bit of anxiety. BTW, no luck
finding the filters as all the more likely places had already closed.
Saturday morning bright and early (7 a.m.), so we’d be first
in line, we headed over to see the main mechanic who was now on duty. He sent
us out to a trucking company that had the exact filters we needed. Of course, one of those filters ended up
being the wrong one, so we had to go out one more time to get the right one.
Got those replaced and hoped that would do the trick as the result of his diagnostics
was beyond this service center’s capabilities.
We knew that we could get service in Savannah, so we choose to believe
that the filters were the answer as the rig seemed to be running better, so we
headed out for Savannah GA arriving mid-afternoon. About the time we should
have arrived the day before. Oh well, not complaining; just thrilled we made it
as we almost called for a tow truck as the rig really struggled to keep going
in some places. The second time that it stopped completely, Bill said, “I think
we need to call for a tow.” I bowed my head, and said, “could we just wait a
few minutes.” Breathe deeply and pray. When Bill started the rig up, it purred
like a kitten and off we went. It still wasn’t running right and we had several
slow downs, but it never came to a stop again. HalleluJAH! PTL!
We had time yet that evening to get together with some old
Oshkosh friends who now live in the Savannah area. Showed them our rig. Was
treated to a delicious meal at a close by restaurant called Fish Tales. Here’s
their daughter, enjoying oysters. She’s quite skilled at it, but I could
barely watch…they give me the creeps. Too squishy and slimey. Went back to the
rig for a lovely campfire. Sunday morning we joined these same friends at
Compassion Church (which we really enjoyed), and then followed them to their
house for Lupper (mid afternoon combo Lunch & Supper). Love their mode of
transportation. Grateful
to be able to enjoy this time and not think about the rig.
And then came, Monday morning, time to get the rig checked
out. We called Good Sam to see what our Extended Warranty might cover and
Cummins Sales & Service to see when we could get our rig looked at. Good
Sam opened a ticket for us (which will be a PTL a little bit later on), but at
the moment the news wasn’t good. They did not cover diagnostics . Our call to
Cummins wasn’t very promising either. The only way to get on the schedule was
to bring the rig in. We tried to explain that we live in it and could we please
bring it in when they were “ready” for us. No way, no how. We decided to take a
ride (in the car) to their location; after several more attempts of explaining
our engine problem and living arrangement, we were able to talk to the service
manager. He said absolutely positively do not bring the rig in. According to
him, with the warning light we had, we should not have been driving it at
all. Oops! That’s not what the manual said; it just said “service soon.” He recommended sending out the mobile unit. Oh
no, that’s big bucks and Good Sam won’t cover diagnostics. (Lotsa silent
prayin’ going on, I can tell you that.) Plus, there was still a strong
possibility that we would, ultimately, have to have the rig towed in. The good
news (not really, I hated the thought of our home being tipped and towed), our
vehicle insurance through State Farm would cover the towing and one hour of the
diagnostic. Well, that was something but, as some of you know, I sent out a
Facebook prayer request that it would be a simple fix. So now, all we could do
is wait until the mobile unit was available; hopefully by Wednesday we would
learn the fate of our dear home.
With that being said, we thought let’s enjoy our time here
while we can. That afternoon we visited the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum
(fabulous) and then took to the streets and river front of historic Savannah. I
could spend hours looking at all the architecture and park squares and
historical markers and row houses and and and but it got too dark that we had
to call it a night but not before we stopped at Leopold’s Ice Cream Shop.
Yummmmmmmmmmmm!
Not knowing for sure when the mobile unit would appear to
diagnose our rig, we decided it would be a good idea to maybe add a few more
days to our park reservation. While we were in the park office and due to some
unexpected charges by the reservation company, the Park Ranger let us take the
walking tour of Fort McAllister for free which, according to somebody, it’s the
best-preserved earthwork fortification of the Confederacy. It was absolutely
incredible. Definitely worth the price (had we paid for it). We
spent the entire morning taking in the fort and its history. Learned a lot and
loved it. After lunch we headed out to Skidaway Island State Park and walked a
beautiful winding trail for almost three hours that went through maritime
forest and past salt marsh and liquor still site, leading to a boardwalk and
observation tower.
Wednesday morning, just a little after 8 a.m., Tom, the Cummins
mobile mechanic showed up. Hallelujah!!! (I don’t think that I mentioned enough
that through all these trials, I kept turning them over to our faithful Father
and I remained fairly calm, for me, that is, trusting Him to do whatever was
best for us. So much better that way!) So, Tom got to work doing all the
diagnostic stuff; eventually he found a problem…the lift pump wasn’t running.
Seriously, we had the high pressure pump replaced almost exactly one year ago and were told then that we
should buy the low pressure one as well because one failure often follows the
other. Kind of forgot about that. The good news, no great news, was that we
still had it and Tom could replace it for us on the spot. (No towing!!! PTL!!!
Beyond thrilled. So happy!) About half way or more through the process of
replacing the pump, I remembered that in order for Good Sam to cover repairs,
they needed to talk to the repairman and approve the repair. Well, this is what
I referred to earlier when I said there was good news in the initial inquiry
call I made to Good Sam. Because I had made that initial phone call and because
we were considered “roadside assistance,” they would cover it. End of story?
Well, sort of! What this means is that the diagnostic time will be included in
the repair bill and also will be covered. Huge savings! Thank you, Lord! Thank
you for friends who prayed! Soon we will be “on the road again” moving at a
normal speed. HalleluJAAAAAAAH!!!
P.S. We spent the next day truly relaxing and
enjoying a bit more of the area before heading out to see our son in New Smyrna
Beach, Florida.
Thanks for sticking with me through this rather lengthy
detail of our Talledaga to Savannah experience.
