#expecttheunexpected – Chasing Sonshine

Our search for sunshine led us to Buckhorn Campground at the Lake of the Arbuckles near Sulphur, Oklahoma.

It soon became apparent how Sulphur got its name. As we drove through the town’s valleys, our nostrils were assailed by that familiar rotten egg smell. It turns out that Sulphur has natural springs that are high in elemental sulfur. While public mineral water fountains are available in Sulphur, we didn’t try the water this time. Thankfully the noxious smell tended to hang in low spots and didn’t permeate the whole area.

While we were there, we explored nearby Chickasaw National Recreation Area.

As we hiked the trails, we watched armadillos snuffling through the woods. These little creatures buried their noses in the ground and bulldozed their way through the forest, eating dinner as they went.

He looked at us, scurried deeper into the woods, and continued his lunch.

Thankfully, we didn’t see any but they might have seen us!

After our time in Oklahoma, we went back to KC so we could vote absentee. We had planned to vote before our trip south, but we failed to remember that county offices would be closed on Columbus Day. Although the miles add up, we didn’t mind returning to KC to perform our civic duty.

When we are in Kansas City, we get to see some of our kids and we get to worship with our church family. When we are on the road, some Sunday mornings we watch our church’s online services and sometimes we find a local church to attend. It’s encouraging to meet fellow Christians throughout our country and it’s fun to experience how different churches worship the Lord. Upon arrival at one church we visited, we were each given a small paper lunch bag which contained our communion elements. In the churches we have attended, communion is celebrated with a small wafer and a sip of juice. However, this church gave us a generous wafer and an eight ounce can of grape juice. After the communion meditation and prayer, the sound of popping can tops echoed throughout the sanctuary. It took several swallows to drain the juice can. At first, the copious amount of juice made us chuckle but on reflection, isn’t that what Jesus offers? His blood was shed to cover all of our sins, not just a sip of them. He invites us to drink deeply and be filled with His love and His grace. An acronym for grace is God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense. We left that service with a fresh reminder of God’s riches and Jesus’s abundant, overflowing love for us, thanks to an eight ounce can of Welch’s Grape Juice.

https://youtu.be/Ju-9_NBB1Yo

As we packed the house, we sorted items into three piles: store, loan, and donate. For storage, we quickly surpassed the capacity of our Kearney unit so we rented another unit in Liberty. Cyretta’s parents offered extra storage in North Central Kansas so we took advantage of their generous offer. The loan pile went to our kids, along with a bit to Cyretta’s parents. The donate items went to Hillcrest Ministries thrift store.

Having so many places to take items required many trips. Thankfully, our Intech Flyer Explore makes a great box trailer. We packed it tight on multiple occasions, transporting our stuff from our home to its destination.

On one trip, we had a little more excitement than we anticipated. Our trailer is equipped with a slide-out kitchen. On the day we purchased the trailer, as we pulled into QuikTrip for fuel, the kitchen slid out on its own. We chalked it up to a rookie mistake of not locking the kitchen handle. From then on, every time we left the driveway, we made sure all of the trailer’s latches were locked. On this particular trip, as we traveled into Kearney, we went down a small hill and bumped over a culvert seam in the road. Then we heard a thwack. Sure enough, despite the handle being locked, our kitchen had deployed on its own again! This time, we thought it hit a street sign. Our Suburban was impeding traffic so Bill muscled the kitchen back into its slot and we continued our journey. We added a stop at the hardware store to purchase a C-clamp to hold the kitchen door shut. After emptying the trailer, on our way home, we passed by the area where we thought we hit a sign. A woman was working in her driveway and as we passed, she yelled, “Did you hit our mailbox???” When we realized what she said, we turned around and returned to the scene of our unfortunate kitchen catastrophe. Sure enough, the kitchen had struck their mailbox in our first, and only, round of mailbox baseball. We profusely apologized and offered money to cover the repair expense. Thankfully, the couple was understanding and accepted our offers.

When we returned home, we searched to see if this was a common incident with the trailer. Through the Intech owners’ Facebook page, we discovered that we were not alone in our kitchen mishap. We called Mid-America RV and made an appointment to leave the trailer for repairs.

Thankfully, the kitchen slid out when it did. Had it occurred a little further down the road, we would have hit a bridge guard rail which could have done much more damage. We were grateful that all we hit was a mailbox. God is good, even in the timing of unexpected and undesired bumps along the way!

Lesson Learned: Expect the unexpected. A locked door may open unexpectedly, on trailers and in life.

Tag: #expecttheunexpected

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