The End of An Era

I received word Friday that a mentor and good friend went to be with the Lord. "Coach" George Wells had been the athletic director at Houghton College for many years. However, my relationship with him stretched even longer than that. When I was a teenager, our local church sponsored a college revival team called "Youth In One Accord". As a result of their visit, I decided to attend Houghton. After being there for two years, I learned that YOA was holding auditions for a new alto. I was sure I wouldn't make it, but I went ahead and tried out. I traveled for two school years with the "team", and I learned many valuable lessons and deepened my spiritual life greatly. "Coach" was the faculty advisor for YOA and he was one of the founders. In fact, it had started from a revival on campus that also changed his life. The team's ministry spanned decades. The team dissipated after Coach's retirement for physical reasons.
There will be many former team members at his funeral next Tuesday. We all owe him, and our Lord, a huge debt of gratitude.

"not just a swear word"

We became fogged in while going through Amarillo, so opted to stop at the truck stop on the right. This is immediately off I-40W, so if you're driving there, you can't miss it.
On most of the trucks in the lot, and on the travel center, were inscribed, in LARGE type, "Jesus Christ is Lord......not a swear word". I was intrigued by the obvious witness, so later looked it up online.
Apparently it was founded by a fellow who works in San Diego and got sick of hearing all the swearing around him. Since he had the funds, he started this trucking company. It really irritated a number of his customers, to the point that he lost the business of several. This didn't bother Sam; he just took on other customers.
If you have a chance, look it up. jesuschristislordtravelcenter.com

"Weird Stuff"

Everytime we get to another Flying J truck stop, we need to find a place to park.
That's not as easy as parking a Subaru or even a Toyota Tundra.
We are 40' of motor home and 20' feet of trailer and hookup.
That's as long as a tractor trailer.
But the BigTrucks aren't too happy to have motor homes in their spot.
So, we try to park near the front, where RV's and cars share spots.
Yesterday we were debating what to do, when the owner of a pickup truck came out to her truck.
We asked if she was leaving and she said "No."
But then she realized what our problem was, and she moved her truck so we could park in the now "big enough" spot.
Today when we got to the new truck stop, there was another motor home and another truck spaced about the same as yesterday. They both moved, and here we are! Who says God doesn't care about parking places! Not us. :-)

Albuquerque, Take Two

I vaguely remember titling a blog "Albuquerque", last spring. Now we're heading that way again.
We are hoping to enjoy the sights of the annual Balloon Festival. I'm sure it will be a colorful experience, if the weather permits the flights.

"Wipers"

Yes, I'm referring to windshield wipers. They move the drops of rain to one side during a downpour. And then they come back to do it all over again...and again...and again....
Well, ours on the Bus didn't do that. They moved one splattering, and that was it. They refused to move unless someone went out (in the rain) and manually moved them. This was the reason we came to the repair place back in
June. They replaced the modem and sent us on our way. It wasn't raining...and by the time it did, we were too far away to complain to them. The wipers still didn't work as we expected them to.
So now we came again, for our first scheduled stop on our fall trip. This time they replaced the motor. Hubby had said all along that that was what needed to be done. So we left. And it WAS raining. And the wipers worked. We were ecstatic.
Until we tried to turn them off. Guess what. The wipers are fixed; they just don't know about quitting when That button is pushed.
So, since we are about a half hour from the repair place, we go back. And they check everything. And finally they find that one wire inside a bunch of wires wasn't doing what it was supposed to be doing.
So they fix it. And we leave. And it's raining. And the wipers work. And they stop working on cue.
Hurray!

Homecoming

We went to the local school's Homecoming Parade yesterday afternoon.
It took a half hour and included most of the kids in the school, I think.
At least, all the ones who were in cheering and football. Maybe there were a few others along the parade route.
We were at the end of the route, so were parked not far from the police traffic control guy and his police car.
When he sent a log truck left, the logs on the back were so long they wiped out the passenger side of the police car.
Needless to say, there was consternation all around.
At least the parade watchers had something extra to remember the occasion by.

"Gently Used"

Just went to the local thrift shop for Halloween costume ideas.
How many think I should go back and get the Santa costume for my husband?
It might be a bit large, but seems to have all the accessories.
Even has an instruction sheet, and you know how men like instruction sheets.
:-)