Sunday morning April 26 we said goodbye to our sweet lakeside home at Johnson Creek and started a long drive across Texas. We made it to Clyde Travel Center, in Clyde, Texas a distance of about 340 miles. Because it was going to be very warm that night and we wanted to run the air conditioner all night, we spent the night in their RV park. It is much like the Love’s RV parks, but less expensive. The next morning we made our way to Abilene, TX, the “Official Storybook Capital of America”. It gets this designation due to its storybook character sculptures which you can find all over downtown. We had to stop to see Mr. Grinch and others such as The Lorax, Horton Hears a Who!, The Cat in the Hat, Green Eggs and Ham Sam I Am, and Yertle the Turtle. It was a fun stop and a great place to stretch our legs.
Abilene’s story book park
Cat in the Hat
Family Photo
Which one?
From there we made it to Lubbock, Texas the home of two more dear friends, Dave and Carol. They had moved into a new house since our last visit. We did some sightseeing such as visiting Lubbock Lake Landmark, a national historic landmark. We had great barbeque and Mexican food but most importantly we sat out on their patio and just caught up with each other. A recent death of a dear friend has reminded us to not take any of these visits for granted. They are all precious. On April 29 we said our “see-you-laters” and continued northward.
Sunset in Lubbock at Dave and Carol’s house
Hiking at Lake Lubbock
The ancient Lubbock Lake was very large. This is what is left today.
We departed River Ridge Retreat in Guntersville, AL on Tuesday, April 21. We will now be making a slow road trip toward Arizona with several stops and visits along the way. Our first state was Mississippi with an overnight stay in Vicksburg at a Cracker Barrel. We thank CB for allowing/encouraging RV’s to stay with them. Of course, on Wednesday we had breakfast with them and then continued our trek to Shreveport, LA, our second state of this trip. We had a great visit with our NOMADS friends Mark and Lisa. We got to tour their beautiful new-to-them home and park BB in their driveway for the night. Unfortunately, we were having such a great time visiting that we forgot to take pictures. Thursday morning we visited some more and had some great doughnuts – thanks Lisa. Before departing, Lisa and Mark shared with us some information on the town of Jefferson, Texas about an hour’s drive northwest of Shreveport. We don’t have a set itinerary, so we made an adjustment to the GPS and headed to Jefferson. What a gem this little town is. We parked BB in the municipal lot behind the police station for the night. Yes, it is approved if you are ever there. We began just walking around the town. There are many antique stores, restaurants, motels, ice cream shops, an old general store with about anything you could imagine and many other interesting places to stop.
Our spot behind the police station.
One of the first things we saw when we arrived
The historic and odd Jefferson Hotel
Beside the Jefferson Hotel
Jefferson General Store is one of the best we have seen.
Inside the General Store
One of the murals in town
We also met with one of the most famous Jefferson residents.
We visited the Museum of Time and Measurement and especially recommend a visit there. Mr. Ingram owns the museum. He and his wife had this huge collection in their house and decided it should be shared with the public and donated them all to the Museum. He has some amazing clocks. He has a large assortment of calendar clocks that we had not seen previously. His wife also had a collection of salt and pepper shakers. Mr. Ingram’s profession was that of a surveyor and there were all sorts of tools for that trade on display, including a four-foot slide ruler (a teaching tool) being a real surprise.
Some of the hundreds of clocks in the museum. Mr. Ingram says they all work, but he only keeps about 40 wound at any one time.
Anne remembered she used a similar old adding machine to do payroll for her father’s construction company. And now they are antiques.
One of the favorite clocks
Some of the surveying instruments Mr. Ingram has collected
There is also a huge collection of salt and pepper shakers. When we asked Mr. Ingram how they ended up in this museum, he responded “My wife.”
Mr. Ingram took the time to demonstrate an old music machine used by a traveling pastor to provide worship music.
Of course, we were very interested in the local cuisine and decided to eat at Kitt’s Kornbread Sandwich and Pie Bar. Oh my! Never had a corn bread sandwich before. Yes, we make cornbread and eat it with soup, etc. but this was different. It was so good!! Now we must learn to make cornbread that holds together and doesn’t crumble. We hope we can come close to duplicating the recipe because the owner will not share it. For dessert we visited the Red Bus Cupcakes. Nope, didn’t have cupcakes – had homemade ice cream. Oh so good!! We also made a stop at the peanut butter store and purchased some White chocolate chip and Cinnamon varieties of peanut butter. We have only tried the white chocolate chip so far. It is very good.
A Kitt’s Kornbread sandwich
Of course, we had to check this out.
Surprised?
By midday Friday it was then time to depart Jefferson, and we headed to Johnson Creek COE park where we had reservations for two nights. We spent that Friday afternoon and Saturday relaxing at our waterfront site. Hope all of you are doing well. May God bless you and keep you safe until we meet again.
On Tuesday, April 14th, we arrived at River Ridge Retreat in Guntersville, AL for the Alabama Switch It Up Huddle. We arrived a couple of days early so we could just get some rest and catch up on some paperwork. Of course, the fact that it gave us two extra days to visit with friends who also came early was a big perk. We also got to meet some of the new members of the crew who also came in early, so it was a wonderful two days. We were parked in a waterfront site and could walk to the pier and watch two osprey nests with babies. Relaxing beside the water – it was great. In fact the entire park, manager and staff were great. We lived about an hour and a half from this park and had never been there. We will definitely make a return visit. It’s such a quiet peaceful place.
Our campsite at River Ridge
We saw several ospreys at the lake, on theirs nests…
… on a pole …
… and flying.
The huddle actually kicked off with a meet and greet and dinner Thursday night. There were about 95 people, including 18 new crew members. Welcome to all of you but especially the new crew members. Of course you aren’t new anymore. Friday morning was our “give back” where we assembled all the items we brought to assemble the dignity kits for Convoy of Hope. The kits will be distributed as part of the first response efforts when needed. Friday was also boat day when we spent several hours on the lake in pontoon boats. Other outings during the weekend included hiking to some waterfalls, ziplining, e-bike riding, hiking, visiting Cathedral Caverns, and UTV riding.
The give-back
Pre-zip training
Dressed for fun
Climbing up to the first zip
Anne on the zipline
The swinging bridges were the hardest part of the zip line tour.
Our fun boat ride
Sunday morning we had an amazing worship service with great music and Sheila shared another great message. I know several of us are still discussing the ark without a rudder. If you don’t know about that, send me an email and we can discuss it.
Sunday morning worship is always one of our favorite parts of a huddle.
We didn’t get to use the chapel at the retreat because of the weather, but it is the only one like it we have seen.
Monday morning after coffee and doughnuts, the huddle was over. We sadly said our “see you laters” and look forward to our next gathering.
After closing down the Augusta Disaster Rebuild for now, we made a quick, 23 hour, turnaround. That means we took Fred to Randy and Debra’s home, about an hour from where we were working, visited, shared a few meals, and transferred everything we need back into BB (Beyond Blessed) and were back on the road to Alabama in 23 hours. That’s the best turnaround we have ever accomplished and yes, we did get some sleep. It was Easter weekend and we wanted to be at our home church, Lester Memorial. We made it back to our property on Pine Mountain, AL by 5:30 Saturday afternoon and took our afternoon walk with our dear friends Donna and Barry. We actually made it to 6:00 am Sunrise Services the next morning. We saw many precious friends and family members the next few days.
Our sunrise service this year was held inside at Palisades Park because of rain.
Even on a rainy day the view from the park shows the glory of God’s creation.
The children’s ministry at the church used metamorphosing butterflies to illustrate Christ’s resurrection and our transformation.
After the early service the butterflies were released.
One of the newly transformed butterflies
On Wednesday we drove back to Senoia, GA to visit Anne’s brother and help him with some medical stuff. On Saturday we returned to Alabama, went to church Sunday, said our “see you down the roads”, took care of some business in Oneonta Monday and made it to Guntersville, AL on Tuesday. It was so great to see friends and family. It was definitely worth the craziness.
While visiting Anne’s brother, among other fun activities, we watched the astronauts return to earth after their trip around the moon.
Some of the business we had to take care of
Since the weather was cool we spent a few nights on our property on Pine Mountain.
RVing With a Purpose 