Spring Break

We spent 4 days relaxing at the Gulf Islands National Seashore, just south of Pensacola Florida.  When we arrived on Tuesday the weather was sunny and pleasant, but very foggy for the remaining 3 days so we didn’t get to see a lot of the scenery.  The campground was near Fort Pickens on a narrow barrier island with the Gulf of Mexico to the south and Pensacola Bay on the north.  The fort was built prior to the Civil War, and remained active though WWII.  Geocaching took us around the fort and to a number of nearby artillery locations.

  

The wind can blow white sand from the shoreline across the road where front end loaders are used to keep the road open.  With white sand and heavy fog this can look like a blizzard with white-outs.:

  

You may have heard about the military helicopter which went down with the loss of all 11 soldiers on board, due to foggy conditions on Tuesday night.  This happened very near us and we saw the staging area where communications and the rescue and recovery were being handled.  A sad time!

After a rainy Friday, the sun came out on Saturday when we moved back to the mainland and where we joined another Nomads group.  Here is most of the group, having lunch on Sunday after attending church:

 

On April 30^th of last year, the city of Pensacola and surrounding areas in Florida were hit with very heavy rains (more than 30 inches in 26 hours is what I have heard).  Many roads were washed out and lots of property was damaged.  The repairs are still going on.  For disasters like this, Nomads set up what’s called revolving teams.  We have space to park 6 RVs for a number of months and members sign up for as long as they like, from as little as one week to a couple of months.  Each week some workers might leave to be replaced by others.  We have plenty of time to get to our next regular 3-week project in Louisiana, so we signed up for next week.

We have 10 volunteers ready to go to work tomorrow. An introductory meeting just ended, so we had a chance to meet one another and learn about the work.  Wallboard, floors, baseboards, and cabinets have been installed in most places.  One lady’s house will likely be completed tomorrow, and some of us will begin to work on the next assigned home.  Nomads are not the only volunteers here; there is also a group of Mennonites living in the same campground, as well as lots of college students on spring break.  The local Habitat for Humanity group provides dinner for all the volunteers one night per week, and there were over 100 there last week.

We are really looking forward to getting to work.