Author: rvingwithapurpose

Wednesday, December 25, 2019

Merry Christmas! Hope every one had a great day. It was a very nice day in the Florida Keys. We were able to sleep in this morning which was nice. And for those family members that sometimes doubt Max’s Christmas spirit – he did help decorate FRED this year.

The team planned a pot luck for 1:00 so we all spent our morning preparing food. It was a fun gathering. We invited Dennis, one of our homeowners who had no plans for today, and he really seemed to have fun and joined in the laughter. We had turkey and dressing and all the trimmings along with pecan and key lime pie. It seemed a good time was had by all and we definitely did not go back to our RVs hungry.

We needed and enjoyed a long walk after lunch and then drove around exploring the island. We stopped at a little nature trail at Blue Hole. It was a very short walk to the overlook and the “pond” really wasn’t very impressive until we looked straight down and saw two alligators directly under where were were standing on the overlook. One of those gators was really big. We did not look at them for long with only one of the reasons being the mosquitoes.

We also drove to a joining key uniquely named “No Name Key.” After driving to the end of the road we think there may be a reason it doesn’t have a name.

It was a good day. We celebrate Jesus’ birth and thank God for sending Him to save us.

Tuesday, December 24, 2019

The team spent all of Christmas Eve 2019 at Big Pine UMC. We decided early on in the project that we would spend some time working at the church to thank them for being such welcoming hosts. The church was flooded during Hurricane Irma but is mostly rebuild. There are still a few things that need to be completed. The sound booth needs flooring and a door to cover the HVAC unit. And there is always painting to be done.

Then tonight was the traditional Christmas Eve service with carols and the reading of the Christmas story from the Gospel of Luke.

Monday, December 23, 2019

Last night was along night for the team. During our team meeting we learned that our county was placed under a tornado watch. We told the team what to do if we went under a warning and after our work was done we all headed back to our rigs. Max was in storm mode as there was a water spout headed straight toward Key West. Anne went to sleep – for about 15 minutes when we were suddenly placed under a tornado warning. All our team received their phone alerts and all gathered back inside the church as we had requested. Max didn’t think the worst of the storm was going to pass our way and thankfully it did not. When we experience severe weather when we are traveling, we learn how blessed we are with the TV and NWS coverage we have in our area. Since Key West is 150 miles from Miami, the stations there – the closest TV stations – don’t really cover the lower keys. The tornado warning wasn’t canceled until 11:00 but most of the team was so wide awake by then that there was little sleep to be had. Key West received 5.5 inches of rain from the storm and the streets were flooded. We had a lot of rain but no wind damage. This afternoon some of the side streets in Big Pine Key were still under water.

Today Max took Glenita and Steve to Sugarloaf Key to continue work on Bob’s house. Today they hung 2 sets of closet doors, repaired a hole in the ceiling drywall, touched up some paint. The rest of the team – Larry, Kathy, Elaine and Anne returned to Dennis’ house. Larry installed the four new kitchen ceiling lights while the rest of us did the final sanding/prep on the walls in the kitchen and living room. He also did some work on the hall and bedroom drywall. After lunch the ladies, with the help of Dennis, began the priming of the walls. By the end of the day one short section of wall was all that was unprimed. We were very pleased with the appearance of the walls with the primer in place.

Today was Elaine’s birthday and the 10 year old daughter of our homeowner Bob was scheduled to sing at Boondocks, a local restaurant, so the team decided to head to Boondocks after work. Unfortunately the young lady was ill and unable to appear but we all still had fun celebrating Elaine’s day. Since we are all so tired, we made an early night of it and headed home with everyone planning an early bedtime. Hope everyone is ready for Christmas.

Sunday, December 22, 2019

It was another windy day with a little rain.

We enjoyed another Advent service at Big Pine UMC this morning. The sermon was about Joseph and how little is written about him, but what an important part he played in the life of Jesus.  Interestingly, one of our team devotions this week was about the same thing.  After the service we had some fellowship time with our new team members, Steve and Glenita. It was great to learn more about them.  The rest of the day was spent walking and getting ready for tonight’s team meeting.

We walked past the Monroe County Fire Department Big Pine Key station which is just a block or so from the church.  We found this beautiful mural painted on the side of the station. Look closely and you can see the flag is made up of firefighters in SCBA’s.  Beautiful.