RVing With a Purpose

Saturday, February 16, 2019

Some of our team members were scheduled to arrive yesterday, so we started the cloudy day by placing the NOMADS banner out by Old Hammond Road along with our directional NOMADS signs. Always like to see the signs out. We also did some more cleaning up of the parking area to reduce the amount of dirt and mud (when it rains) that people will track in their RVs. Anne did more accounting work on the LOL’s business. There was also some additional NOMADS Board work. Rita and Dave arrived around 3:30. So glad to see them again. Later Bob and Anne arrived. So we got those two motor homes parked and then the eight of us went out to dinner at Rice and Roux. Everyone seemed to enjoy their meal. We know we did. We had the sausage and chicken gumbo and fried fish. Good to visit R&R again.

Today we had our final two couples arriving. This morning most of the guys were tinkering around with their RV’s and Max worked on one of the power pedestals. The one for Anne and Bob’s site wasn’t working last night when they arrived. It was getting dark so we just plugged them into the site next to them because it’s much better to work on things in good light. Max found the breaker was loose so he was able to get the pedestal up and running in short order this morning. After visiting with the team awhile, we went to the grocery store to get supplies to prepare our vegetable soup for tomorrow night’s meeting. Soon, Harry and Janet arrived. So glad they made it out of PA before the snow storm hit. They stopped to visit with some of our mutual friends around Atlanta on their way south. A short time later, Nancy and Gary arrived. Now all our team is in place. Thank you Lord for safe travels for us all. We had some great time visiting and catching up and then took everyone on a little tour of the church. After everyone was getting settled in and ready for church tomorrow and work Monday, we went in the church kitchen to start the soup. It’s going to be another great project.

Thursday, February 14, 2019

Happy Valentine’s Day!! It was a beautiful spring-like day here in Baton Rouge. The trees are budding out and the flowers are starting to bloom. Seems early to us Alabama folks but hopefully there will not be a freeze.

This morning we rode around with the construction coordinator to visit some houses we will be working to repair. The first one is about 30 minutes from the church and is a house that has been worked on by many people since the 2016 flood. At first there was a FEMA contract with someone to gut the house and install a bathroom, bedroom and part of a kitchen for about $3,000.00. You get what you pay for so you can sort of picture what they got. Since that time a number of others have worked on the house including a church that has come one Saturday per month and this week some volunteers from Michigan. We will be trying to tie up the loose ends and finish things up. There are still three doors to install with at least two requiring shortening, the ceiling in the kitchen needs some repair, and there are baseboards and crown molding to install. A vent fan for the kitchen needs to be installed as well. We will probably find some other items when we really look at things Monday. Hopefully we can complete that house by Wednesday.

 

Another house needs about 90 more sheets of drywall installed. There is also an old iron bathtub to remove and some decorative beams to remove from the living room. This house may take a little longer. It was a fun morning seeing parts of the Baton Rouge area we haven’t seen before. This afternoon there was more NOMADS board work, and some more prep work for the team.

Since it is Valentine’s Day, we decided to grill some steaks and asparagus along with twice baked potatoes. We haven’t done that in a while and it was a nice dinner. We also bought each other some items from Lowe’s for Valentine’s Day. It was a good day!

 

Wednesday, February 13, 2019

Tuesday was a rainy day, until late afternoon. Everything is wet. Anne spent the day on mail and paperwork. We got a mail “bag” from home. She was also working on NOMADS business. Max spent a good part of the day flushing our water heater, changing the anode and heating element and our filters. The water in Falfurrias was high in salts and really scaled up the heating element and tank. We knew it was a problem when the water heater started to make some strange noises the last week we were there. The area in the parking lot where the flushed water came out is now white with salts. Now all is well and no more weird noises.

Today was a sunny day and warmed up nicely. A jacket still felt nice for most of the day. We had lots of errands to run today. We made a stop at Harbor Freight and left with all our money in our wallet. Truth! We also went to Home Depot and still didn’t buy anything. There must be something wrong with us. We also went to the grocery store to purchase ingredients for our Valentine dinner tomorrow and to Target, Bass Pro Shops and Sam’s. All of those did take our money. We were suppose to go visit houses today but Daryl was busy with other issues and we are scheduled for tomorrow morning. Max worked on the new sewer system and the ditch that is still open today while Anne worked on getting paperwork together for next week and doing another prospective member interview. It was a busy day but a good day.

Monday, February 11, 2019

Today was a travel day. It began at 6:00 am with a dense fog advisory from Stephen Austin State Park all the way to Baton Rouge. We decided not to push to leave early, hoping the fog would dissipate. We pulled out about 8:30 thinking we would be behind the Houston rush hour traffic. Rush hour seems to be longer than your average hour in Houston. There was one wreck and lots of slow moving traffic. It takes forever to get across Houston. Thankful we don’t have to deal with that traffic everyday. Also I-10 from Houston to Baton Rouge is the worse interstate we have ever driven. People say you shouldn’t take your RV to Alaska because of the poor road conditions. That section of I-10 is worse than anything we drove in Alaska. We were tired when we arrived at Francis Asbury UMC about 3:15 this afternoon. However, by the time we arrived it was a glorious sunny afternoon and we traded our long sleeves for t-shirts. Nice!

 

We had a very brief chat with the construction coordinator and volunteer coordinator this afternoon and will be working with them preparing for our team’s arrival this weekend. There are two teams working here this week and the church did a dinner for them tonight and invited us to join them. Nice to share a meal with the volunteers from Michigan, north Louisiana and friends from the church. Looking forward to sharing God’s peace and love as we repair homes in Baton Rouge over the next several weeks.

Sunday, February 10, 2019

Don’t worry, we are fine! No problems. Four days ago it was warm, with a high of 81. Three days ago we were out walking when the cold front came through and unfortunately we were walking in T-shirts. We went from warm and humid to a cold north wind in a matter of minutes. Since the front came through we have had nothing but clouds and intermittent drizzle and rain. Oh well, we have had a great four days anyway.

Thursday morning we did some more hiking and biking. Thursday afternoon we drove out to Fulshear, TX to Dave and Linda’s house. They have a beautiful home in Weston Lakes. Sam and his wife Jade and their puppy had already arrived and we immediately began catching up on everyone’s busy lives. Sam is still working in software development and told some interesting things regarding some artificial intelligence that is currently in development that will be very helpful. Jade, a physician will be completing her residency here in Houston in June and she and Sam will be moving to San Diego. So glad we had some time to visit with them before the move. Jade has a three year fellowship in San Diego and then they hope to return to Texas to be closer to family. Fortunately, Sam works from home so they can live anywhere. Dave returned home after he finished his day at the office. We were surprised to find that, although Dave has retired at least twice, he and three associates are back developing another business in the oil industry. We celebrated Dave’s birthday that was actually Friday but Jade was on call and was scheduled to be at the hospital all evening. Linda made a great Mexican casserole and German Chocolate cake. Fun evening of visiting.

Friday we stayed in the park all day. We met some of our fellow campers and got to share the NOMADS story with three different couples who seem interested in joining. They all have this year pretty well scheduled with camp hosting or trips to Alaska but seem genuinely interested in joining so that they could schedule projects next year. Hopefully at least some of them will join. We also again got to watch eight deer walk through our camp site with no concerns about us being in their territory. Lots of fun to watch. Anne also had some business to handle and NOMADS writing to do. She did another interview with a potential member who will hopefully be a NOMADS member in the next few weeks.

Saturday morning was more hiking and a good deal more NOMADS work for Anne. After lunch we went back to Dave’s and Linda’s so we could spend time with Tiffany and Juan Pablo and their puppy.  They came up from Austin where they live.  It was great to see them again too! They are expecting their first child which is due in May. They are glad that the baby will be here before Sam and Jade have to move, although Tiffany wouldn’t mind if it was about a week late so she can be with her fourth graders for their testing week. Always the teacher. The six of us went to Anthonie’s, a wonderful new restaurant in Simonton, a few miles away for dinner. Everyone was very pleased with their food. Anne had grilled shrimp with grits that was awesome and Max really liked his pork chop, too. Actually three of us had the pork chop and everyone like that choice. Dave had a seafood stew which look great. JP had a hamburger that he and Tiffany said was really good. So a 12 thumbs up from our group. We went back to the house to finish off the birthday cake for dessert. We were sad when we had to say goodbye to everyone but do hope we will see them all again, sooner rather than later.

Today we decided to watch Lester Memorial’s service rather than find a church nearby. We miss our church family. They are such a good group. After early service, we headed into Houston to see Ross and Barb one last time. Today they wanted to treat us to something we had never done so we sent to an Asian restaurant, Kim Son, for Dim Sum. For those of you who have never had Dim Sum, you can watch a You Tube video. We had all sorts of food and apparently not everything you eat has to have a name.

We went to Ross and Barb’s home after lunch and spent some time visiting and enjoying their lovely home. Then, all too soon it was time for us to return to the park and begin packing up bikes and preparing for tomorrow’s travel day. It has truly be a wonderful two weeks of rest and relaxation and great family time. Hope we can stay in closer contact over the next few years. As Ross reminded Anne, we have to do it ourselves now rather than relying on our Mom’s to keep us up to date on everyone in the family. Hope you all had a good weekend and that we hear from you soon.

Wednesday, February 6, 2019

The clouds are still pretty thick and it’s been pretty grey in the Houston area. We have had some moments of sunshine but not many. Still having fog in the mornings. Today it has been much warmer with a high of 81 and more humid. Tomorrow we are suppose to get rain and dropping temperatures and by Friday our high will be 46. We will be pulling the jackets and sweat shirts back out.

Yesterday we primarily stayed in the park exploring. When we first checked into the park here one of the rangers suggested that we should look for the local wildlife – deer and woodpeckers. We hiked and biked several trails and saw both. None of the trails here are very long but most of them have a way of connecting so you can get several miles that way. Unfortunately, a number of the trails are still closed from the flooding from Hurricane Harvey. The nature center here had between three and four feet of water in it and is still closed. They have the buildings cleaned out and have started the repairs but they still have a way to go on buildings and trails. We did leave the park long enough to find the Walmart in Sealy. It’s a small store but big enough.

Today we did a nice morning walk and then went to Brenham, TX, a quaint little town about 37 miles from the park. We met Linda and Dave there for lunch. We planned to eat at a restaurant they like called “Must Be Heaven.” Just our luck, they were closed today. We tried a restaurant around the corner named “Funky Art Cafe”. We all had different kinds of salads – they had many, and everyone enjoyed their choice. We visited for a while at the cafe and then decided to go visit the Blue Bell Creamery. Dave and Linda have been to Brenham many times but never been to the creamery so we all had a good time learning how they make one of our favorite ice creams. Today they were making Rocky Road. Unfortunately, they do not allow photos from the observation deck. It was really interesting to see.  After visiting the observation deck and having all our questions answered by a very nice docent, we went to the tasting room. We could taste anything and then purchase a large cup of ice cream for $1.00. If you ever happen to be in Brenham, it’s a real bargain. You don’t even have to go to the observation deck. You can just walk in and buy the ice cream. There were not many people there today so after getting our ice cream we were able to just sit and visit in the tasting area for a long while.

We noticed a nice looking meat market while driving to Brenham so we made a stop there on the way home. They had beautiful looking steaks and chops as well as all kind of smoked sausage, beef, jerky, turkey. We came home with some pecan smoked turkey we plan to used for sandwiches when we start back to work in Baton Rouge. This afternoon we did some more biking. It was another good day! It was great to see Dave and Linda again and talk about their recent travels.

Monday, February 4, 2019

It was cloudy all day today. No sunshine at all. No rain. And clouds aren’t all bad on a travel day. We might as well get use to the clouds based on the 7-day forecast.

Today we moved from Kerrville-Schreiner Park to Stephen F. Austin State Park in San Felipe, Texas. It is on the west side of Houston about 50 minutes out of Houston. San Felipe is really just a tiny town of 747 people and all that is really here are the historical sites of Stephen Austin, the park and golf course. Dave said something about us being out in the woods and seems he is right. Nearby towns that are larger but still outside of Houston are Sealy, Fulshear, (where Dave and Linda live) and Katy. We are still about an hour from where Anne’s cousin Ross and Barb live. We hope to see them again while we are here too. We had an uneventful travel day and we are settled in. We will see what tomorrow brings.