The Master of the waves

The Master of the waves
Come, and Serve the peace giver!
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Tuesday, May 19, 2009

It's Summer time! YEEHAA!

WOW! It is hard to believe that so-o-o much time has slipped by since my last posting! We, my wife and I, have been VERY busy and have experienced some amazing changes in the months since my last posting. For quite some time we have been discussing the purchase of an R.V. and we have looked at many small ones, medium sized ones and some of the huge ones that are the size of a bus. Because we have two full sized poodles as our traveling companions we finally decided on a 36 foot long ForeTravel UniHome. It is definitely not a new vehicle, it is a 1990 model, but in very good shape and has plenty of storage bins, closets, "cubbies" and drawers. It has a wonderful queen sized bed in the master bedroom, a nice "galley" with a stove, complete with full sized oven, a microwave / convection oven and a nice sized "fridge" with a freezer and an ice maker. The main selling point for Leona was the tile floors because of the dogs. For me it was because both the drive engine and the generator were diesel and both had low hours of usage. The mileage was pretty good for a vehicle its size, being 6.4 to 7.8 miles per gallon. I have had experience driving heavy equipment, large trucks and delivery trucks in the past so I was feeling pretty confident about driving it. Needless to say I had a few humbling experiences on our trip. Parking lots in some of the older Malls are definitely NOT designed for vehicles of that size! There are some patches of color on both sides that were definitely not "factory colors". The thing that really stands out though, through out our whole trip, was that the hand of the Lord was upon us from the "git-go". We were so blessed all along the way that it still makes my heart swell with joy! On the second day of our journey, later in the afternoon, the rain had tapered off to just a drizzle and we were zipping along at about 7o mph when we heard a loud "BANG"! Luckily it was one of the rear tires that had blown and they were dual tires. (Blessing #1) I pulled over and checked the tire and it was solid and safe enough to drive on with no danger of falling apart (Blessing #2) so we consulted our map and our GPS and discovered that there was a town pretty close by with an RV park . (Blessing # 3) We turned around and made it safely to the RV Park and to our camp site (they had a vacancy! Blessing #4) As I was getting things hooked up and Leona was dealing with the dogs a gentleman about my age jogged up and stopped to talk. He was a very nice fellow and we chatted for a while and found out that the reason he had stopped was because he had just gotten a poodle as a gift after having heart surgery and was admiring our dogs. In the way of conversation I mentioned that we had had a blow out and needed to get a new tire or get the old one fixed. He said; "You know I was in the tire business for years and if you need to get a tire there is a friend of mine who is still in the business and he will fix you up right." (Blessing #5) The next day dawned bright and sunny and we gave the fellow a call. He said they would be able to fit us in right away or at least as soon as their RV man got back from a road call. By the time we drove over the RV man came driving in. I noticed there were crosses on the wall and religious tracts in display racks. It turned out that the whole place was run by Christians. (Blessing #6) They had the tire in stock and before our coffee got cold in our cups the tire was mounted, balanced and in place on our RV! The owner of the place said; "Because y'all are friends of Ron's I'm going to give you a special deal." and he shaved a considerable amount off the bill! (Blessing #7) Robert, the fellow who did the actual work, checked all the other tires to make sure they were safe and he and the owner gave me a lesson on how to tell the age of the tire and how to tell if they were safe to drive on. So we were safely back on the road before 12 noon and had a bunch of new Christian friends to boot! We were blessed all along the way! Even though the weather was cold and rainy for most of the trip and both Leona and I took turns having colds (unfortunately I ended up with pneumonia and bronchitis) we still were Blessed in so many ways! We were blessed with places to stay when we got to Otis Mass. A fellow named Larry who owns a gas station, garage and deli (Poppa Larry at L&M Auto) where you can get the most amazing sandwiches, fresh baked (and healthy) breads and pastries let us park in a corner of his lot for a whole week while we were visiting family in the area. We also were able to park our RV in a space behind a B&B (the Maplewood House)that is owned by some friends of ours and for a very modest fee they let us hook into water and electric service. More and more blessings! That is the way it was, all the way up and all the way back we were blessed over and over again. Strangers, friends and family all were blessings to us. It seemed that where ever we went and who ever we met it was ALL for a reason and there was ALWAYS a blessing! The longer I live the more I know that God is the power that moves the whole universe! There is no such thing as a coincidence! Even the "bad" things happen for a reason and even in those things there is a blessing if you look close enough and deep enough. A group of prayer warriors that we belong to kept us wrapped in prayer from the very first day through the whole trip and I know, just as surely as I know the sun came up this morning, that it was their prayers that kept us safe. All I can say is thank you Lord, thank you for all you have blessed us with and for keeping us safe. To God be the glory!

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