Counting our Blessings With an Extra Side of Lagniappe

    It's so easy to highlight and commemorate the BIG blessings in our lives, the ones where you're completely blown away by them, and you have no qualms about sharing them just because of how awesome they are.  We know we've got some big adventures ahead of us that will definitely qualify as being breathtakingly awesome and would attract more readers.  

    However, in this post, we're going to highlight some recent experiences that have been a blessing to us and are worth pausing to reflect on. We even have a few lagniappe blessings that have totally surprised us and, you could say, have blown us away!

    Moral Support

    We are so appreciative of the amount of support we've received from family and friends since we took this adventurous leap of faith.  People have called, texted, and even sought us out in a crowd just to tell us how excited they are about our new adventure and how they can't wait to read about all the places we will be visiting in what we call "Our Retirement Home on Wheels!" 

    One very special person stopped us in Walmart and began sharing what she felt the Lord had put on her heart about our new journey, and it was so encouraging and edifying to us. 

    We were taken out to lunch by a sweet couple who heard about our new adventure and offered us a lot of great advice because they go camping quite often.

    Family and friends have let us do our laundry at their house and even fed us while we were there.  Not having a washer and dryer is probably the thing we miss the most; however, we've managed just fine without them.

    Then, there are all of you who responded to our last blog post and gave us a lot of useful suggestions as to places to go and things to do while we're gallivanting around our country!  We really appreciate you reading our blogs and giving us your input.  

    These are only a few examples of support that's been given to us; there's definitely more than what we've mentioned, and we're thankful for every bit of it.

    Initially, we had no idea how people would react when we broke the news of our drastic lifestyle change; however, the pats on the back and words of affirmation have made us feel really great about what we're doing. 

    Lagniappe Support

    On top of all the moral support, we've also received a few lagniappe (extra; unexpected) blessings:  

    We've been given some very nice and much-needed items for our RV by a couple who used to have a camper and no longer needed those items. We think of them every time we use them.

    In addition, we had some good friends of ours give us a gift certificate worth over $200 to stay one week at a local RV park, which we will use when we come back to Abbeville after taking our first long road trip.  It's a newer park that's locally owned and operated, so we're excited about getting to stay somewhere different.

    Lastly, we were recently blessed with another lagniappe gift when we surprisingly got a notification that we've received money from another very dear couple to us.  They wanted to provide the very first tank of gas for when we finally start heading out on the open road to visit a few states we've never been to before.  

    Now, those are some big blessings worth mentioning!  

    Thank you, friends and family, for being so supportive of our endeavors. We appreciate every single person who is fanning our flames!

    The Gift of Family

    We recently took the RV out on the first road trip to Theodore, Alabama, for a long visit with our son, Dustin, and his family.  There were a lot of little blessings experienced there, on top of getting to spend more time with them -- playing card games, fishing and swimming at our RV park, attending a prayer service and a church service, watching a granddaughter lead worship during prayer service, eating some really good mouth-watering home-cooked food, celebrating a granddauther's 14th birthday, celebrating Father's Day ... a lot of little things that rolled up into one big beautiful blessing. 

A view of our home from across the pond.

Dustin is getting Mallorie's fish
Off the hook!

Maddison singing during
Prayer service.

One of Kenna's catches!

Papa & Manning playing around.

    After returning to Palmetto State Park in Abbeville, we had the lower half of Amber's 8 children, two girls one night, then two boys the next, come spend time with us at the park, playing card games, playing at the splashpad, and each duo getting to sleep in the RV.  

Samuel & Ezra on the wrong end of the bear!

Stella & Magnolia at the top of the climb.

    Thankfully, our children and grandchildren have been so supportive, cheering for us all along the way. 

    Provision and Protection 

  As you may already know, we were searching for a vehicle that could be flat-towed behind our RV.  That was the last thing we needed before we could go on a big adventure.  After getting back from Alabama, we drove all over Lafayette to just about every dealership, trying to find one, to no avail.  That night, David revisited an online listing to see if it was still available.  Even though it was located in Oxford, MS, which was much further than we wanted to go, we felt that it would be worth the drive because of its price and condition.  

  The lagniappe blessing in finding this vehicle was that it had my (Bonnie) maiden name on it!  The dealership from which it was previously purchased was located in Memphis, TN, and the decal on the back of the car says, "Gwatney Mazda!" If it's got your name on it, that means it belongs to you, right?

Who knew that a simple decal would
Become a lagniappe blessing?

    On the way to Oxford, we experienced a flat tire on the vehicle that we borrowed from Amber. This mishap could have happened in some very dangerous places along our route; however, it happened where we could safely move away from the traffic on I-55.  We are counting our blessings that we were not endangered, nor were we an endangerment to others by this blowout.

This was a new experience for us,
We've never had a flat while driving!

    An Adventure of a Different Kind

     Unfortunately, we were unable to change the tire due to a lack of tools needed to remove the spare tire from underneath the Yukon.  We called a wrecker service to send help to change the tire, but the driver ended up having to tow us to a Walmart store in the next town, where we had four brand-new tires installed, so we wouldn't have to experience more of this kind of adventure during the rest of our road trip!  

    This mishap led us to a whole new adventure -- we've never ridden in a tow truck before!  We had a good laugh about it when we declared this ride should be included as part of our desire to see and experience new things!

My view of the Yukon as it is being towed!

     Oxford, MS

    We had already planned to spend the night in Oxford, but we arrived too late in the day to really get to see it.  However, we were able to factor in some time the next morning to tour around a city that we've never been to before, and then meet with the vehicle owners to make the sales transaction before heading back home. We were pleasantly surprised at how visually appealing this town is, and we were glad that we got to see The Grove and the University's stadium while riding around the campus that was in full bloom. 

A "Tru" painted mural in our hotel's lobby.

We're in Rebel territory now!

    What's Around the Corner?

    We will be leaving Abbeville on Monday, July 13th, and begin a trek to visit with our family in northeast Mississippi.  First, we will take the scenic byways and head upstate to stay a few days at another Louisiana State Park to take advantage of the 50% off senior discount. This will be a new area for us to visit and tour. 

    On July 16th, we will arrive in Iuka, Mississippi, where we will be staying for a week at an RV park that is very close to where my (Bonnie) two oldest brothers, John and Donnie, live. We are looking forward to catching up on life with our Iuka family and friends.  We will also get to attend a service at Mission Lighthouse, where John is the pastor.  We are always blessed by his preaching, even more so when we get to hear it in person rather than via livestream!   

    Where Will We Go From There?

    Great question!  Our goal is to visit three states we've never been to before as a couple --  Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin. So, we will navigate the RV in a northerly direction and will be making several stops along the route, spending a few days at each stop. We're in no hurry to get anywhere, so if we happen upon places that pique our interest, we'll take the time to check them out.

    We've been doing a lot of research on sites to see in those three particular states, so we have quite a few landmarks in mind, but we do welcome any suggestions regarding those areas and points in between.  We really want to see Michigan's UP as well as all the other points of interest in the states that we will be traversing through along the way.

Until next time ... blessings upon blessings from our neck of the woods to yours!

Romans 1:16