Ringing in the New Year

This year was different and I told Ron I doubted that I would forget what we did on New Year’s Eve. 

We left Texas on Friday, December 27th to drive all the way back to Red Bay, AL to Tiffin Industries to have seven windows replaced in the RV.  They are double-paned and the seal had lost the vacuum between the glass and moisture got between the panes.

Mr. Tiffin told us to come at this time when they had less work.  It took us two days to drive over.  The first night we stayed in a church parking lot in Greenville, MS without power.  We just went to bed when we got in and got up early to leave the next morning.  The next night we parked in our friends’ back yard (Jan and B.J. Kennedy in Florence, AL).  We got there about 2 p.m., got showers and took them out to eat at Red Lobster.  We went to church with them on Sunday morning, December 29^th.  Ron spoke at Center Star C of C in Center, Star, Alabama, that night.  After the night service, we drove an hour south of Florence to Red Bay, Alabama and parked in the service parking lot for Tiffin Industries.   We waited all day on Monday without service.   It was a very cold, rainy day.

 

Between Greenville, MS and Indianola, MS there were fields of snow geese.  These were rice fields so they had stopped there to eat the grain that had fallen off into the shallow water.  On our trip back home, many were in the air but the fields were still white with thousands of the beautiful birds eating the rice.  It was a beautiful site but, of course, I was not prepared and did not have my camera ready to take a picture. 

When we were in Red Bay in September to have the windshield replaced in the RV, there were literally hundreds of RV’s waiting for service.  We did not expect many at this time because of the holidays but there were still at least 100 there.  I looked at license plates and saw they were from Ontario, North and South Dakota, Wyoming, Alaska and other northern states.  It was obvious that they had come south for the winter and stopped over for service/maintenance on their RV’s.   It is amazing how many RV’s we see traveling on the roads, no matter which direction we drive. 

Tuesday morning, Ron went over to see if they were going to get to us.  They decided to send us to an RV repair place nearby that gets the overflow work for Tiffin.  They got the windows from Tiffin and had us ready to go in about three hours.   This was New Year’s Eve.   We left Red Bay at 1:30 p.m. and drove straight through to Texarkana, TX, arriving at Hampton C of C at 11:00 p.m.   It had turned so cold that Ron decided we must plug in for some heat that night.  We had blankets across our laps while we drove and also wore our coats and gloves.  With just heat at the front of the RV, it got down in the 40’s in the back of the RV.  Once we got parked, we got in bed quickly to get warm and slept until daylight on New Year’s Day.  We drove on to Boles Children’s Home in Quinlan, TX (we had left our car there) about three hours’ away.   We went to Bible study that night at Johnson Street in Greenville, TX and stayed one more night parked at Boles Children’s Home. 

This morning we got up at 5:45 a.m. and prepared to leave by 8:00 a.m. in order to stop at a diesel place to get the oil changed on the RV.   It takes an hour to pack things away and secure everything for travel.  If we are leaving early the next morning, I do as much as I can the night before.  We were at the diesel shop until 11:00 a.m.   We arrived back at Lake Park in Lewisville, TX this afternoon about 1:30 p.m.   We will be here until Saturday morning and then leave for Houston, TX.

It is very cold in Texas now.  We hope to enjoy a couple of months of milder weather as we travel along the Gulf Coast to the southern cities of Texas. 

To back up a little, after we finally got over jetlag from our trip to China, we drove to Boles Children’s Home in Quinlan, TX on December 23^rd.   We enjoyed a wonderful dinner party on Christmas Eve at the apartment of Henry Sherwood.  He had 19 for dinner that night (including several from church and some of his children and grandchildren).  I know Henry was tired afterwards because it was a lot of preparation for such a wonderful meal and party.   On Christmas Day, we went into Greenville and had lunch with Wayne Childers, one of our sponsors.  We spent several hours at his apartment that afternoon.  It was a quiet and peaceful day of rest for us.   We knew the trip to Alabama was arriving one day later so we needed the day without stress.

This was one Christmas we didn’t gain weight.  We had too few meals to add on the pounds.  We had too many on-the-road snacks that didn’t add up to a lot. 

Best wishes to everyone for a wonderful New Year!