Author: rvingwithapurpose

Friday, December 6, 2019

We have been in travel mode since Tuesday morning. After a wonderful visit we left Johnston, SC and our family a little after 8:00 enroute to Gainesville, FL. We had a pretty easy drive south. We drove SC 25 to I-16 to I-75 to Waldo, FL – just north of Gainesville. We stayed in a commercial campground, Dixieland RV Park. This was our first commercial campground in quite a while. Everyone was very nice but we remember why we like COE and state park campgrounds better. The sites are always so close together in commercial campgrounds. We began Wednesday with breakfast at Classic Cafe, a little restaurant at the park. They gave us a 15% off coupon when we checked in so of course we needed to give it a try. We enjoyed our breakfast. It was good but not really anything special. We also did a little shopping, and stopped and looked at some RVs. In the afternoon we visited Lake Alto Preserve and did some nice hiking out in the woods around the lake. The trails were nice and wide, probably so hikers can spot alligators sunning themselves. One of us was happy we saw none. It was a nice quiet day in the preserve. Very relaxing.

Thursday, we were again in travel mode and drove south to Midway Campground in the Big Cypress National Preserve on the Tamiami Trail. Except for a long delay due to a wreck causing traffic backup north of Naples it was an uneventful day. We did notice that the sun became brighter and the temperature much warmer the further we drove. It was 38 degrees in Gainesville Thursday morning and by the time we arrived at Midway about 5:00pm our camp hosts greeted us in shorts and short sleeve shirts. Nice! Today will be another play day before we head on down to the keys and prepare to go to work. It is a beautiful Florida morning – no jackets today. Don’t know when we will actually get this posted because we have a very sketchy signal here at Midway.

Sunday, December 1, 2019

This week was a very busy, but wonderful week. We are so blessed.

Monday was FRED’s annual checkup at the Freightliner Service Center, so we were up early, and in line at 7:45 am to register FRED in for his appointment. Quick and easy. Then the waiting began. To pass the time we went to some of the local stores and outlets to begin our Christmas shopping. Actually didn’t make any purchases. Surprising. We had lunch at Daddy Joe’s a local seafood and barbeque restaurant. It’s a funky little place with an interesting décor. We had the prime rib sandwich which was very good. We would definitely go back. After our late lunch we returned to wait on FRED, expecting his work to be complete by 2-3 o’clock. When we were still waiting at almost 5:00 we were beginning to get concerned. Shortly after 5:00 our technician came to tell us FRED was back in his campsite and everything was complete. We were surprised that they found a kink in the coolant tubing that required them to actually unbolt the engine and pick it up a little, re-route the tubing and refasten the engine. Fortunately for us all of that cost was covered by Freightliner because it had to happen during the build and we are just fortunate that it never caused a real problem.

After a good night of rest, we left Gaffney Tuesday morning in route to Johnston, SC to spend the holiday week with Max’s brother and sister-in-law, Randy and Debra. Except for a long delay on the interstate due to construction we had an uneventful travel day and enjoyed the start of our visit. So good to see our family. Wednesday we all four went exploring and shopping in a close-by town -, this time actually making some purchases for the great nieces. Thursday was a quiet day at home, with most of the day spent in the kitchen cooking for Friday when we actually celebrated Thanksgiving with Randy, Debra, David and Jen, Phillip, Lauren, Dorothy and Tabitha. It was a great day with lots of food and fun. We decorated Christmas cookies with Dorothy, played some games and visited. Saturday it was back to the four of us and we just enjoyed the day together and worked on a Christmas puzzle and Max entertained one the cats by throwing leaves in the air just outside the window. Today, we really enjoyed worshiping with Randy and Debra at their church which was beautifully decorated for Christmas. It’s been a great visit. We have one more day here in Johnston before we head south. We will update you next when we are on the road. Hope everyone had a great holiday, remembering to be thankful everyday.

Sunday November 24, 2019

This was a very busy week preparing to be back on the road again. We spent Monday cleaning gutters, cutting grass, and closing up our house. Tuesday was errand day to Oneonta and to see Aunt Helen and Aunt Jean one last time before going to our winter NOMADS project. We had also picked up a few additional shirts for them to go with the things we had taken previously. Hopefully they will be set until we return. Wednesday was errand day in Trussville. There were the final supplies/groceries, one last stop at Lowes and then buttoning up Aunt Helen’s house.

Thursday, we were on the road again. We headed to Atlanta where we stopped in Austell to get a steering stabilizer installed on FRED at Safe-T-Plus. We overnighted in their parking lot with another RVing couple there for the same thing (They also have a Phaeton). Friday after a test drive, we headed on east. We decided to make a stop at National Indoor RV Center to look around. It was time for a break. After stretching our legs for a while we headed on east.

We had planned to overnight just inside South Carolina but after a late lunch at the rest area we decided to drive on to the Freightliner Service Center in Gaffney, SC. That was one of the best decisions we have made in a while. We arrived about 5:00, plenty of time to set up before dark. Saturday would have been a horrible driving/set up day. It rained all day. Lots of rain! Thank you, God, for giving us that little nudge to move on down the road Friday. Even though it was nasty weather, we still made our required trip to Sunny’s Donuts to stock up for the weekend.

So we are in Gaffney and tomorrow FRED will have his annual checkup with all the fluid changes that go along with that. He also has one recall to be handled. Hopefully he will get a clean bill of health and we will be ready to travel for another year. It’s funny. It’s almost like going to the doctor. You hold your breath until they come tell you all the tests are normal. Hope everyone had a great weekend. We enjoyed streaming Lester Memorial’s service this morning on YouTube. Miss everyone already.

Sunday, November 17, 2019

Wednesday morning we awoke to a cloudy and cold day in Gunter Hill COE campground but thankfully we were just far enough south that we had no freezing. By mid-day we were able to get out and walk through the park and do a little hiking on a trail. We would recommend Gunter Hill to anyone traveling in the Montgomery, AL area. Great level, concrete sites with nice spacing between sites and the Catoma Loop we were on had full hookups. Nice. We really enjoyed our mini vacation and escaped the 19 degree weather at home.

 

We returned home on Thursday to resume our work around the house and FRED. Saturday morning we went with some friends out to “the Star” and worked to get it ready to lite. The Star is a huge star on the side of our mountain that we light from Thanksgiving until the new year. It’s so large that pilots of airplanes on the flight path to land at the Birmingham airport will sometimes point it out to passengers. The star was originally the project of Max’s parents Sunday School class, many years ago. We have sort of inherited it so we still have friends that go with us each year to cut debris and replace bulbs. There is some climbing and repelling involved so we are really trying to recruit some younger help. Saturday was a gorgeous day for a hike and we all had a fun morning hiking to the star and working a while. Donna is going to order us more bulbs and once the power is turned on this week hopefully everything will be ready.

 

We also did another small modification to FRED Saturday afternoon. We needed another electrical outlet for the vanity and Max got that done. And we got some over-the-door hooks that we hooked on the bed frame to keep shoes out of the closet. Nice!

 

Today was another great day of worship at Lester Memorial. It was our last Sunday until March so we will really miss the Thanksgiving and Christmas services and festivities, but it is time for us to prepare to travel and get back to work helping restore lives and homes damaged by hurricane Irma.