Day 27 - God Appointments and Provision!

This morning started out not so great when we realized that one of the inside back tires of the bus was very low on air. We left the KOA and drove back into Silver City to find a tire shop. After several attempts with shops that could not work on tires so big, we finally found a nice family owned shop called Werner Tire Service that was able to help! Come to find out the tire was low because the valve stem was leaking air. He told us it had probably been that way since we got it, but because the back tires are dual the other tire was compensating. Even though they were supposed to be closed the owner and his 12 year old son stayed to fix it. They worked happily for an hour or more with an audience of Burford boys asking tons of questions. The owner had 3 teenage sons so he was fairly tolerant of the boys. When they were done they only charged us a SMALL amount for the part and labor. It was awesome! If you're a Silver City local, PLEASE give them your business!
While we were there another regular customer of his pulled in and turns out he owned a Newell Motorcoach from the 90's and just wanted to ask questions about the one we are driving. He gave Craig lots of pointers on Newell's in general and told him about lots of online forums that may also be of help to us with the bus!
Once we finished with all of the tire stuff it was well after noon. CJ wanted to at least ride some, so Craig switched out his seat to one that had a relief spot in it and they tried in the parking lot for a few minutes to see if he would hurt. He said the new seat helped a lot so they decided to ride a while and stop if he started hurting at all. We drove back to the stopping spot from yesterday in Hurley, NM and they got out to ride. It was a gorgeous afternoon to ride with bright sunshine and 73 degrees. The terrain was almost completely flat with a slight downhill in some spots.
After about 2 hours of cycling we pulled over at a small rest area on the side of the road. There was an older man and his wife there who we struck up a conversation with. The man worked refurbishing John Deere tractors. He started talking tractors and old cars with the boys and immediately made friends! Caleb crawled up under his truck and examined it well. :) They gave us great advice about the route for the next two days letting us know a bridge was out on the road we were planning to take and giving us another safe and even shorter way to go. His wife told us the she was going to call the news media in the area and they gave us a kind donation for the NCCS. After he and his wife left a man and women on a motorcycle pulled in. Of course the boys went straight over to them to examine their rides! They were very kind and even let Caed and Caleb sit on the motorcycles. We started talking to the man and turns out he was also a cyclist. He was very interested in CJ's ride and plans. He asked CJ why he wanted to do such a big ride and when CJ responded that it was a call of God, he quickly told us that he too was a Christian and invited us to come to his church tomorrow. We were excited because we hadn't yet gotten a response from a church for tomorrow so we weren't sure where we were going to go. He confirmed the advice about routing that the older couple had given us and told us that he had actually ridden the road himself and assured us that it was a safe way to go.  We had a great discussion in the bus later about how it is clear that God appoints even the people we meet at rest stops on the side of the road! We needed both the route advice and the church invite and God gave us both through people at a rest stop!  This morning, we believe God lead us to just the right tire store with people who cared enough to stay and help even though they were technically closed and even had the man who owned a Newell drive by at just the right time to see us there and stop to talk!
When we were done talking at the rest stop CJ said he was ready to ride some more. We asked if his saddle sore was hurting and he said not really. The new seat was not putting pressure on it so most of the pain was gone. At the end of the day CJ and Craig ended up riding over 40 miles into Deming, NM. We are staying tonight at a great little RV park calling "The Hitching Post" and are thankful to once again have a donated spot!  The best part about this RV park is that laundry is only 75 cents per load and 50 cents to dry.......so now we are off to WASH!