Ready to Get Back to Work

Our week of recuperation is nearly over.  We did lots of errands, repaired the TV antenna, had lunch with Nomad friends who are workcamping at a nearby Corps of Engineer campground and had them over to our campground for a short visit and met other Nomads who were also camped at Toad Suck.  Plus our rig got a well needed bath.

 

After cleaning everything, we spent Friday listening to the rain on the roof all day.

 

Today we left our quiet Corps of Engineers campsite at Toad Suck and traveled a grand total of 12 miles to a church parking lot on the east side of Conway AR.  One year ago this weekend a tornado, rated EF4, came through here and produced lots of devastation.  Not only Nomads, but many other volunteer groups as well, have been here helping to rebuild homes and lives.

Disaster Recovery projects are handled differently from traditional Nomad projects.  These can be long term, with team members signing up for any number of weeks at a time (not the usual 3 weeks only).  Each week some members might leave, to be replaced by others.  They have room here for 6 rigs to park.  Three have stayed over from last week, and 3 replacement rigs just came in today.  When doing laundry yesterday we met a couple who had been here, but were about to leave.  We have committed to just one week (4 working days) but we will have to leave a day early, next Thursday, so that we can attend Sophie’s history competition at U of Minn.

We will have an official introductory meeting tomorrow evening, but unofficially we have learned that some of us will be doing drywall work, while others will be finishing some plumbing items at another house.

 

Taking a Short Break

We have left the OWL Center after 3 weeks.  Here are some of the things our group of 9  accomplished:

Replaced and painted front door of office
Removed hideabed from Samantha's office
Primed and painted Samantha's office
Dismantled old horse shelter and moved roof to Maze area
Designed and built replacement horse shelter (larger)
Helped Miss Laurie with lunch preparation
Serviced large Bush hog and large lawn mowers
Power washed and cleaned conference room tables and chairs
Dismantled cardboard wall partitions and moved them to loft in tool shed
Dismantled staging and moved to white horse shelter
Replaced and painted back door of office
Primed and painted letters for new OWL sign
Trimmed shrubs by front door
Assisted Samantha with students on horses, three rimes
Scraped, primed, and painted NE entrance gate
Power washed and cleaned north end of office building
Power washed front sidewalk at office
Cleaned and prepared 8 rooms at the Lodge for guests
Painted numbered signs for Samantha
Cleaned and prepared strawberries for jam
Cleaned north greenhouse
Started clearing south greenhouse
Prepared 2 batches of salsa
Fixed broken desk support
Washed Conference Center Windows

We had a long list of things to do, which we like to have.  We were unable to get to everything.  There is always lots of work available here.  Some former Nomads, who are still RVing “Snowbirds”, come here on their own every winter to “drop in” and help out wherever they can.

One of the special activities included a field trip to the main campus in Ruston, LA where we got a tour of the classrooms and met with the school principal.  I should point out that the Louisiana Children’s Home is a Residential Psychiatric Treatment facility, not just a school, or an orphanage, but is a very intense place which houses teens with many difficult problems.  One of the more effective ways of reaching out to them involves the use of horses.  Paige got particularly close to one of the girls by leading her on Babe, the Percheron.

         

They have about 15 horses to work with, so a new (and larger) shelter was appreciated by both the staff and the horses.  Here is the new shelter and the builders:

   

Another special activity is to help bottle salsas and jams in their commercial kitchen.  These products are sold for fundraising.  Improvements to their process since we were here last, has made it possible for a group of our size to get 2 batches done using half of us for each version.

 

We finished working on Thursday and had a “going away” dinner that evening.  Two rigs pulled out on Friday morning, but the rest of us stuck around a little longer.  We left on Sunday morning for Conway Arkansas.  Two years ago we were here and stayed at a Corps of Engineers campground at Toad Suck Ferry.  For more details check out:http://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/44   

We will be here for a week, taking things easy, until next week when we will help rebuild some areas damaged by heavy tornados about this time last year.

 

OWL, Again

We arrived at the OWL Center in Duback, LA a week and a half ago.  Officially it is the Outdoor Wilderness Learning Center, or OWL for short.  It is a rural facility affiliated with the Methodist Children’s Home of Louisiana with headquarters in nearby Ruston.  We got here early so that we could get our taxes done, and get some body work on the truck scheduled.  It’s such a peaceful, quiet place!  We were here two years ago for a project so it was familiar and we looked forward to our return visit.  This is the first site that we’ve had a repeat visit since we’ve been involved in Nomads.
The other team members arrived last Saturday and Sunday.  We have a total of 9 of us working together.  We are from MN, IL, GA, KS, and MO. The week started off with a detailed tour of the facility on Monday.

There are many projects on our list – which is always good!  The men started by removing a horse shelter and started the building of a newer, bigger shelter.  Lots to do there yet.  The women started scraping the front door for repainting only to find that it was almost rusted through so that project turned into the purchase and installation of a new front door.  We also prepped an office for painting and, the big project, was washing and cleaning conference center tables and chairs.  There were over 200 chairs and many round and rectangular tables.  This was a huge job which ended on Thursday with the guys helping so we could finish before the weekend  (thank you, guys!).

 

On our day off, Friday, we took a field trip into Monroe, LA which is the closest large city and the home of Duck Dynasty.  We have some fans of the show in this group and they were excited to see some of the local sites featured in the show.

 

We also toured the Biedenharn Gardens and Home which is where a local family started the Coke bottling business.  Very informative and the gardens were beautiful.

 

A Couple of “Firsts” for Us

This past week was our first one working on a DR, or Disaster Recovery project.  Here is what our leader has posted as accomplishments:  http://www.nomadsumc.org/newsdetail/939465 .  Work on Miss Mae’s house was begun about a month ago and completed last Thursday.  She has been living elsewhere for the past year.  Paige and Joanne installed a laminate floor in her bedroom – turned out very nice!!  On Thursday we had a ceremony to celebrate the completion of the work and give the keys back to her.  She is an 86 year old with a lot of energy and spunk!  In addition to getting a lot of repairs done this week, we also had the time to take in some local sites, like Joe Patti’s seafood market – yum!!

 

Pensacola’s biggest claim-to-fame is its Naval Air Station.  All Navy, Marine, and Coast Guard pilots get their initial training here, and the base has an excellent museum showcasing the history and equipment used by their flyers.  We spent most of Friday here.

This base also happens to be the home of the Navy’s Blue Angels, who have just returned here from their winter training base in California.  They practice every Tuesday and Wednesday here, but are gone to airshows around the country nearly every weekend.  We could hear them practicing but weren’t able to see them.

  

 

Saturday we said our “goodbyes” to the Nomads and hit the road, traveling north and west into Mississippi where we stopped for the night in Hattiesburg, home of Brett Favre. 

 

Tonight is another “first” for us: parked at Walmart with no hookups (boondocking).  It’s a rainy night here. Tomorrow should be a short day up to Jackson and over to Vicksburg, the location of a major battle of the Civil War.

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.

A Few Days of Rest

We have had a couple of quiet days here at HoHum park, on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico.

 

 

 

 

On Saturday we explored the area to our west, including wandering in some shops in the small town of Apalachicola (try saying that a couple times!). A sign for an adult daycare caught our attention:

 

Closer to where we are parked is an interesting lighthouse, see  http://www.crookedriverlighthouse.org/index.cfm/m/3/dn/History/

Bob made the 138 step climb.

The views were great:

 

Also nearby, in the town of Carabelle, is the world smallest Police Station.  Although we didn’t get a photo, you can see details at  http://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/242

Today, Monday, we took a road trip north to Tallahassee to check out a yarn shop (without buying anything).  On the way we passed a graveyard for old trucks; see   http://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/15949

Late this afternoon a pod of dolphins passed just offshore.  We didn’t get a picture, but neighbors say that they come by twice every day.  

Tomorrow we will move again.  This time to a Fort Pickens on the Gulf Island National Seashore, near Pennsacola Florida.  We will pick up our mail there and relax for a few more days before volunteering next week for some rebuilding of flooded homes in Pennsacola. 

Back to the Mainland

Last weekend we enjoyed some warm weather with fellow project members by sitting outside.  Paige and Lee both enjoy knitting and Lee entertained us by spinning some wool on her portable spinning wheel.

 

We stayed busy for the last week at our Nomads project in Williston, FL.  Paige worked with Bob, Ken, and Tony who were building a handicap ramp for a family just outside of town.  The weather was warm this week, mostly in the mid-80’s, and we got very hot while working.  The family was very appreciative and happy to have this done for them.  It made us all feel good!  Others in the group did some work at the parsonage and painted parking stripes. 

 

After 3 weeks in Williston, Florida, we packed up this morning and hit the road once again.  We traveled north, back to the mainland of North America and west along the Gulf of Mexico, staying in Florida’s “panhandle” region.  We stopped at the HoHum Resort just east of Carabelle for the next 4 days.  We are also very close to the line between Eastern and Central time zones, so we can leave our clocks as they are on Saturday night and be accurate again when we cross the line on Tuesday morning. 

It didn’t take long to meet a number of our new neighbors and we chatted with some from Michigan, Maryland, and Minnesota (Champlin). 

We plan to do a little sightseeing along the coast and have some more seafood before moving to the western end of Florida later.  We will post some pictures soon.