Roses and Thorns

4/11/23 Tuesday

Today we left New Orleans and headed to Anahuac (pronounced Ana-wok) TX. Sunny day all day, I-10 all day… uneventful 😊

We ended the day at a Harvest Host on Trinity Bay in Anahuac, TX.

This was definitely a rose of a day. We enjoyed the company of the other 2 couples staying the night at the Harvest Host. It was a good day!

4/12/23 Wednesday

Another travel day through Texas.

Started like any other travel day but today we anticipated going 420 miles to Sonora, TX. A little longer than we normally drive in one day.

We traded drivers at lunch time and about 90 minutes into my drive, a pick up truck passed and a woman passenger was waving out the window frantically, pointing to the back of the RV. I pulled over on the shoulder and Paul got out… the Honda we tow was smoking like crazy! Crap!
The transmission was really hot and we were grateful we were only a mile from an exit and a Shell station travel center. We got off the road, parked in the Shell station and Paul commenced trying to diagnose the issue.
It seems the car won’t go into gear…

After several calls to transmission shops (who couldn’t even look at the car for 3-5 days) we brainstormed our options. One clear option was to rent a uhaul tow dolly and tow the car to Las Cruces where we are spending 2 weeks with a Habitat for Humanity build. Hopefully that gives us enough time to get the car fixed.

Many calls led us to a military supply store that also rented uhaul equipment and they had the dolly we needed.. 3 miles away. Bonus! Once there we were wondering how Paul and I were going to push the car up the ramp onto the dolly… and so many other questions. Then 3 men arrived to rent a dolly as well! The men started chatting with Paul as I am inside filling out the rental paperwork and they were happy to take Paul to the auto parts store to get the receiver hitch and electrical plug we needed. It happens that they were 3 brothers, one of which tows vehicles to various locations and uses dollies regularly. Once all the paperwork was done, parts purchased we were ready for hook up.

The brothers had the dolly behind the RV before Paul could move the rig up to make room! They pushed the car up onto the dolly, hooked up the car and we were ready to be on our way again. We truly believe those brothers, from El Salvador, who came here 8 years ago looking for a better life, we’re put in our path by God. They wouldn’t accept money for helping us, just responded that they helped us and we help others. That’s the way it should be (we spent 1+hours with them and traded stories). As a society, we are so ready to gripe about the knuckle heads because they are so obvious but if we take time to look, there are angels everywhere.

A couple days ago I was reading a devotional about how we don’t thank God for our thorns. Thorns give our faith the opportunity to fly into action. Today, I thanked God for the thorn, we got to meet some angels!

After 12 hours in transit including a 3+ hour layover in Saguin, TX, we opted to spend the night at the Loves travel center in Sonora TX, grab a sandwich at 9 pm and rest . We didn’t even bump out the bed slide-out, just crashed on it as is! Another driving day through Texas tomorrow and then into New Mexico.

God is good!