Week 2

Another week has started and the team continues to work on projects at the Rockledge United Methodist Church. The projects include remodeling the office area so the Youth Minister has an office, cleaning the church kitchen, cleaning and painting a room that is to be used by the Boy Scouts for their regular meetings, and doing some landscaping. The weather has been great, a little cooler but dry. Rains are to start again soon. We have been told there is a good fishing area close to the church, but time has not permitted us to go fishing yet.

The team always begins the week with Worship on Sunday Morning followed by brunch together. The team consists of Bob & Carol Hahn (Florida); Lindell & Linda Whitelock (Wisconsin), Jim and Chic Bixler (Indiana) and Jay and Jan Weinheimer (Oklahoma). In addition to the weekly worship service, each morning time is set aside for Bible Study and Devotions. Fellowship and Spiritual Growth are important parts of being NOMADS.

The church consists of several  buildings on a large track of land. The area is large enough we can park our RV's on the property and still have some "roaming space". The  Church was built and the community has grown around the church. The church is not only a place of worship, but does host several community activities as well.

One of the projects has been to improve the landscaping and do some "spring cleaning" on the property. Linda and Jan are shown here working on the flower bed that surrounds the main church sign. I am sure they are enjoying the Florida Sunshine! Other projects that are in progress include cleaning the church kitchen, remodeling the youth area, painting some of the rooms in the education building, making curtains for some of the rooms. There are several projects to complete yet!

Linda did finally get to the beach, but not to swim. The water at Coca Beach was very cold and the weather has been too cool to swim! I know this is a disappointment to her, but it is much better than the snow and cold that our friends and family in Wisconsin are enduring. Hopefully we will get to do a little fishing one evening this week and we will be able to tell some fish stories in the next posting.

Work Has Started!

The weekend was devoted to setting up, getting organized and meeting the rest of the team. The church has a large space and we are "camping at the back of the church. The area has electrical service, water service, and sewage, so the living arrangements are OK.

As you can see we have a very pleasant area for out stay. Greta loves the place because I can tie her to a tree and she can watch the happenings. She is also happy because there are three more dogs for her to challenge. Restaurants, grocery stores, and other supplies are close by as well. There are several fresh fruit and vegetable markets close by so we have plenty of fresh fruits to eat. (Yes, Linda is making me eat healthy!)

The team consists of members from Oklahoma, Florida, Indiana, and Wisconsin.

The work assignments have been given out and projects have been started. I am working on remodeling the office space in the Church. This has included removing some walls, carrying out the debris, framing new walls, hanging sheetrock, framing in windows and doors. Hopefully by the end of the week, this part of the project will be completed and we can move on to another activity. After two days of work the area looks much different.

Linda has been busy as well. She has worked on the team that has cleaned some of the classrooms, worked on cleaning and organizing the kitchen, and doing her favorite jobs...painting!

We have thought about the current conditions in Wisconsin and recognize the weather has created some hardships for many people. Our prayers are the adverse weather will subside soon, and life will return to normal. Linda and I can not complain, we have had one day at 45, but the rest of the time it has been in the 60's and 70's....very nice. 

The team has planned an Wisconsin night tomorrow night...cheese, brats, and sausage. Some of us plan on doing a little fishing this weekend. 

We Arrived!

Finally we arrived in Rockledge in a rainstorm! As we traveled south from Chattanooga our eye was on the sky and on the temperature! The outside temperature was climbing and even before we arrived in Atlanta the air conditioning on the truck was working, but the clouds were building. By the time we reached our campsite in Perry, Georgia, the rain was falling heavily! The rain continued through the night and the next day, but just as we arrived at our final destination the rain stopped.

The bargaining chip in getting Linda to commit to leaving Wisconsin early was the dream of setting by the swimming pool and enjoying a dip in the warm water before we started to work on the project. The reality was the only free day we had before going to the worksite the skies were cloudy and the high temperature for the day was 50! Hopefully it will get better.

New Year's Day Linda had the opportunity to visit two of the colleagues she worked with in Honduras. She had a very good visit, and it was worth the challenge of dragging the RV through some very narrow roads in the Georgia mountains.

Tomorrow we will meet the rest of the team and start looking at the job assignments. Helping others is certainly an important part of the work of NOMADS, but for Linda and I visiting new churches, the opportunity to experience spiritual growth, and developing new friendships makes all of the hardships of traveling worth the challenge.

New Years Eve in Chattanooga

With the forecast for inclimate weather on the horizon, we decided to leave early. Monday morning in very cold weather, I managed to get the trailer hitched to the truck and we were off. Even though we did get a late start in the morning, we were able to reach Clarksville, In the first evening. Clarksville is just across the Ohio River from Louisville. We had a nice dinner and a warm hotel room for the first night.

The second day of our travels was shorter than usual, but we managed to reach Chattanooga. Upon arrival the temperature was 50 and the forecast was for night time temperatures to be in the 30's so we decided to stay in the RV. We found a nice park and parked the unit. The only problem was that when we started to open the RV the main slide did not extend, so we spent most of the afternoon waiting on a service technician to correct the problem. Once the unit was set up and opened out, we found that it must have been cold in the RV. Our water, Linda's eye drops, the liquid soap, and the bananas were  all frozen. It was good the Cracker Barrel was close by so we could at least eat!

When we arrived there was still snow on the top of our RV and several people asked if they could climb up and get some....Most lived in places where they had not observed snow for many years and they had the desire to just make a snowball and throw it at someone.


While waiting for the repairman, the couple in the neighboring RV saw our NOMADS signs and asked about it. We described the organization, and we certainly could see we had generated some interest! We had some very interesting discussions that afternoon.

It was a quite New Years Eve for us! We watched some old TV shows, watched the dog sleep and wished each other a Happy New Year!

We will continue our journey south tomorrow, it will be a short drive since we are going to visit some of Linda's old colleagues that now live near Atlanta.

Best Wishes to everyone for a Wonderful 2014!

Getting Ready !

The weather has been cold and snowy in Wisconsin, so we are ready to head south. Today, in Wisconsin, the temperatures moderated and this gave us the opportunity to get packed. Our orignial plan was to leave on January 1, 2014, but the weather forecast did not look so good, so we made the decision to leave early. We will depart on Monday and start out trip south.

The I-24 bridge that crosses the Ohio River is under reconstruction and there are very long delays and very narrow traffic lanes, so we have decided to travel to Bloomington, Il; then to Indianapolis, IN; and on through Louisville, Ky. We should make Louisville by the end of the first day. The second day will take us through Nashville to Chattanooga where we will stay New Years Eve. On New Years Day we do plan on visiting some old friends of Linda and then travel on to Rockledge on January 2. We will be working with the United Methodist Church there on some projects for home bound members of the church. We will keep  posting as we make our trip south.

We pray for a safe trip and a successful project.

Rock Cut State Park -- A close Call

After trying our new trailer we decided to make a trip to Rock Cut State Park. Reservations were made, we packed up and even invited my nephew and his family to come our and have dinner with us. It was a pleasant experience, the park was nice, the staff exceptionally helpful and we were enjoying our selves until just after lunch the second day. A Class A motorhome on the next site caught fire and we had to leave...everything was left behind.

The heat was so intense we had to leave the area, but our trailer did not burn, but it did suffer significant heat damage and smoke damage. Now the fun of working with the insurance companies will make life interesting.

New Equipment

We finally took the plunge and updated our travel equipment. On June 27 we took delivery of a new Chevrolet Silverado that had a much greater towing capacity than our GMC had. On June 30 we took delivery of our new travel trailer. The new travel trailer is much larger thatn our Viewfinder and we are going to enjoy the extra space! We plan on loading the trailer and heading to Ottawa Lake Campground on June 30 to break it in! Linda's son and grandson will be there so we should all enjoy life!

We are ready for the road!