Author: rvingwithapurpose

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.