Mid-Period

Nomads’ work periods are scheduled in 3 week blocks.  Our first period of 2018 runs from January 8 to 25, so we are about 2/3rds through it.  Our main commitment has been to do whatever is needed at Youngtown Methodist Church, while being parked at Calvary United Methodist Church’s back lot.  These locations are about 12 to 13 miles apart, both on the west side of Phoenix.  We have completed all items that Youngtown had planned for us (mainly painting and some light carpentry) so we plan to use our remaining week helping out at Calvary.  Later this morning our contact here will take us around to show us a couple of things he would like help with.

We have planned for getting together tomorrow with some other Nomads at a coffee shop across town.  Some of them are old friends so it will be fun to see them again and get caught up with their activities.

Still Recuperating...Back to Work Soon

Somehow, a whole month has slipped by.  We changed our plans and skipped going to Silver City.  Instead, we dropped down through Alamogordo, past White Sands (without stopping, this time) and back to an Interstate highway at Las Cruces.  We spent a night each at Escapees parks in Deming NM and Casa Grande so that our last day on the road was a short one through metro Phoenix and on to Paula and Tom’s place on the north side.

We have just been sitting here with no major sightseeing or work going on.  Bob has taken the time for a couple of motorcycle rides, but there is not much in the way of scenery in the metro area.  A rider has got to get way out of town to find much good riding and the traffic is terrible; not bad, just inconsiderate and at least 10 mph over the posted limits.

Pam and Ron have moved down to their winter home, about ½ hour away so we’ve seen them a couple of times.  Ron has loaned quite a few paperbacks, so we have done a lot of reading.

Our loafing is about to come to an end.  Friday morning we will meet with the pastor of a church in suburban Youngtown AZ for the first time.  We will learn what repairs they would like to have us do over the next 3 weeks.  Later that day we will move the rig to a different church who are allowing us to park in their back yard.  The project started out with 4 RVs registered to work here, but 2 had to drop out leaving just us and one other couple.  We may have some last minute additions, but that’s not too likely.  We will get as much done as we can with the people we have.  Usually it is more than our hosts really expected from us.  We will see if we can surprise them.

A Day Off

We spent 2 long days of driving (Friday and Saturday) to get to the mountains of New Mexico.  We are recuperating by taking Sunday off at a park in Ruidoso Downs and wandering around Ruidoso (another nearby town).  They are between seasons here: lots of tourists in the summer for cool mountain air, and lots of skiers and snowboarders in the winter.  There is no snow yet, but it is coming!

Tomorrow we will get back on the road again, dropping down near White Sands and sightseeing around Silver City.

Departure to the South and West

Our time in Oklahoma has come to an end.  There is still a lot of need remaining and some Nomads will be here for another couple of weeks, before a Holiday break.  The OK Disaster program has also been extended into 2018 with many groups, including Nomads, coming back to continue the repairs to homes flooded about 18 months ago.  We had made a 4-week commitment which ended yesterday.  With only a couple of cool mornings, our weather has been great for both indoor and outdoor work. Even so, it seems like we are leaving just in time: a great weekend is forecast, but next week will have highs in the 40’s and overnight lows below freezing.

We are on our way to Paula and Tom’s place in Arizona.  Our first day on the road in awhile was a long one; zigzagging diagonally through SW Oklahoma and on to Lubbock TX.  We saw a lot of cotton fields being harvested, but not much else in the way of sightseeing.

Holiday Time

Two more weeks are now behind us, and we have one more before we leave for Arizona.  On our project near Moore, Oklahoma, house #3 needed 5 new windows and a couple of floor repairs.  Most of last week was spent at Tina and Willie’s place (house #4), where 4 bedrooms are getting all new drywall and floors, and the hallway will also be re-floored.  Most of the old drywall had already been removed, mostly.  In a mobile home, the drywall had been glued and stapled in place.  It took lots of time and effort to get the studs smooth enough for the new walls. This coming week we will have just 2 couples and the area project coordinator, so we expect to be there all week working mostly on the installation of laminate flooring and molding around the floors, doors, and ceiling.

Two weeks ago we came across a small diner in Oklahoma City that does a lot to support the less fortunate in their neighborhood, so we came back to support them over Thanksgiving: 800 servings were packaged Wednesday evening and we helped combine this food into meal packages on Thursday morning.  Volunteers were lined up to deliver these meals all along the I-35 corridor before noon.  Here are Bob and Barb in front of 300 pies:

After working at the restaurant, we had a late breakfast along with Jack and Barb, our fellow Nomads workers.  Then home to watch the Vikings beat Detroit!!  Our Thanksgiving dinner was provided by Cracker Barrel.  All in all, a nice Thanksgiving Day.

This evening (Saturday) the older downtown section of Moore held a family-friendly parade with over 30 floats, followed by a tree lighting ceremony and sleigh rides. We walked about 2 blocks to get to the parade route.  About 55 degrees out.  Not bad; but not very Christmas-y out. 

   

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.

Escaping Winter Just in Time

When we last posted, we were emptying the cabin and loading the motorhome.  We picked a good day to do it, while the weather was still OK.  Most of that work was done a week ago Wednesday, saving Thursday morning for loading the motorcycle, parking the golf cart, and doing all of the final lockups.  As we got to the County road, the weather began to change to a cold mist and drizzle.  It stayed that way most of Thursday, but changed to heavy, wet snow overnight.  We spent the night parked on the street outside of Steve’s place in Duluth and woke up to about 8-10 inches of slippery white stuff on Friday morning.

Paige spent the morning with her mother, while Bob had a last-minute eye exam.  We both got good reports, then left for Brett’s place by mid-day.  The snow on the ground got lighter as we came south.  We parked on the street there for a few more days, helping with the granddaughters’ activities and getting to Paige’s final eye exam.  We also had a family gathering on Saturday night with Brett and Dave’s family (minus LeJoy who is moving her business, but we got to see her Sunday morning for breakfast).  We all had a great time eating lasagna, chocolate éclair ring, and visiting.  Love to see everyone!!  Before leaving Minnesota, we took time to have lunch with the Dave and Nancy, who are now former fulltime RVers and former Nomads.  It was snowing lightly during and after lunch, but quit about an hour later.

The temperature climbed out of the 30s about the time we got to the Iowa border; first time in over a week for us.  Wednesday night we spent in an RV park, first time in a week we got to open all 4 slides.  Today, Thursday, our temperature display showed 60 as we came through Kansas City.  Warmth sure helps the disposition.