Resting and Recharging

Here we sit, just off of I-35 in Moore, OK about 800 freeway miles south of Minneapolis.  We arrived last Saturday, the 4^th, after 3-1/2 days of driving.  We are parked behind the First United Methodist Church and have just completed the first of 4 weeks volunteering here.  Some major flooding about 18 months ago created a lot of damage which we are helping to repair.  We are joined with 3 other couples.  We have worked with the Drakes a couple of years ago in California, but the other 2 couples are new-to-us.  Morris and Karen were our leaders this past week, but they left for Florida this morning.  Next week’s leaders will be Jack and Barb, who arrived Wednesday afternoon and worked with us yesterday.

Most of us spent most of the week at Renee’s place; a house originally owned by her native American grandparents on land deeded to them almost 100 years ago.  Most of our work has involved flooring: some new sub-floor, some laminate, some peel-and-stick tiles, and painting.  A few of us also spent time at David’s double wide trailer where we are fastening metal skirting around the outside to help insulate and direct future water runoff around the building.  Both of these homes are about 25 miles southeast of town, so we pack a lunch and eat on site each day.  Another group of volunteers (not Nomads) are coming in this weekend and should finish at Renee’s place, and there is not quite a day’s work remaining at David’s so next week will bring us some new opportunities.

Most Nomads are retired folks who really appreciate our 3-day weekends.  After 4 days working, we need the next 3 to recuperate.