Wow, heat wave! It was 41 when we got up this morning. It was a partly cloudy day, but even so the temperatures were in the lower 60’s this afternoon. With the wind you still needed a jacket, but so much better. We know a lot of you still haven’t gotten above freezing so you probably don’t want to read this, but we are so glad to be out of the deep freeze. Finally.
Today was Sunday, so of course we had a slow paced quiet morning and most of the team went to Osteen UMC for worship. One of our team members, Bob, is interim pastor there. He is a retired UMC pastor and currently lives a little south of here. Osteen is just about 7 miles from our campsites at the Children’s Home. The church is small, 65 members, and mostly elderly. They were very warm and welcoming and Bob brought us a good message from Mark 1:4-11 on the baptism of Jesus by John. The team members seemed to enjoy our visit and after services ten of us went to a local restaurant, The Osteen Diner. Original name don’t you think? There was a wide variety of selections, from wonderful breakfast fare to sandwiches and entrees. We had the country fried chicken special which was wonderful. We would definitely go back here again. We have enough for lunch tomorrow in the refrigerator. After lunch it was time for a quick nap, and a little laundry. Our last team members arrived just before 4:00. Good to have the entire team safely parked. Of course since we aren’t leading this team, we don’t have to keep up with everyone. Our first team meeting was at 4:00 where we did the official introductions and were given general information about the project. We will start at 8:00 in the morning with devotion and then we will meet the maintenance staff and have a tour of the campus. We are looking forward to getting started. Seems like a fun team and should be a good project. Hope you had a great weekend and stayed warm.
Today we awoke in Live Oak to below freezing temperatures as expected, 27. It was certainly better than the 23 predicted. However, we had our happy face on, because we knew that the low tonight in Enterprise should be 36 and tomorrow night 51. We are finally far enough south! Highs in the 70s and lows in the 50s are fine with us.
We left Live Oak Lowe’s at 7:15 after a quiet night of good sleep. Forgetting we lost an hour yesterday, the sun was just coming up as we again headed east on I-10. After just a few miles we headed south on I-75. We stopped twice, once at a rest area and then to top off FRED’s fuel. We don’t like to park for three weeks without a full tank. After getting fuel we drove across the Ocala National Forest on the Black Bear Scenic Byway. Unfortunately, the only bear we saw were on the warning signs telling us to watch for bears the next 30 miles. Then by 11:15 we were at Florida United Methodist Children’s Home in Enterprise, Florida, our home for the next three weeks. We were met by our leaders, Kathy and Terry who helped us get parked. We didn’t take time to set up before we saw Ruth and Mike and Jo and Mark for a few minutes. We saw them all last at annual meeting in September and are so glad to be with them again. We are really looking forward to getting caught up with both couples. We then spent the afternoon, setting up, cleaning up, doing some laundry, unwinterizing, etc. We are now settled in and will have our first team meeting at 4:00 tomorrow afternoon. We might get a bike ride in before that time. Please be in prayer for all the pastors and services tomorrow. We are so blessed to have the privilege to worship in this country, one we shouldn’t take for granted.
Another cold below freezing night. It was a really nice sunrise though. We liked our site because we could lay in bed and look out the window out across the water and see the sunrise. Such a peaceful way to start the day. It was another bright sunny day, with a little less wind. We slowly packed up and got ready to head east. Next week is suppose to be nice at Gulf Shores. Last week was nice. We had bad timing this time. Oh well, with Anne not feeling well maybe it was all for the best. She did get more rest since it was too cold to do the biking we had planned to do.
So today was travel day. We left Gulf Shores about 10:00 CST headed for Live Oak, Florida. It was an easy drive with the only significant traffic around Tallahassee. We stopped a couple of times, found a geocache at a visitor’s center, filled up FRED and arrived about 5:00 EST. We will be on eastern time now for the next 6 weeks. Anyway, totally uneventful day.
Beautiful travel weather
When we arrived at Live Oak, we went to Lowe’s. We checked inside for permission to overnight in their lot. We stayed here two years ago on the way south. We like it because they close at 9:00 and it’s nice and quiet. After checking in we had supper of split-pea soup (that had been cooking all day in our thermos) and crackers. Then we enjoyed some hot chocolate for dessert. We will leave by the time Lowe’s opens in the morning. We only have about a four hour drive tomorrow. Hopefully it will be as uneventful as today. And tonight should be our last night below freezing. So looking forward to warmer weather. Hope you are having a great weekend and praying for safe travel for all the other NOMADS headed to their projects this weekend.
Last night was another cold night. The weather all over the country is truly bizarre. We do hope and pray that you are all staying warm and safe. Please, please remember to check on family, friends and the elderly. We are leaving tomorrow and will drive to Live Oak, Florida. It’s been snowing there and predicted to be 25 degrees there tomorrow night. I-10 was closed due to snow IN LIVE OAK, FLORIDA yesterday but has reopened so we aren’t expecting any problems. We are so looking forward to much better weather in Enterprise. 50 degrees will seem balmy.
We started the day going to the morning session at the Nature Center again. Today was a session on raptors, specifically the red tailed hawk. Since we have a red tail that stays around our house we enjoyed learning more about him. It was another great session.
Great raptor presentation
Feeding Hawkeye
We then returned to FRED to do a little work. We bought some vinyl carpet protector material to make floor protectors to go under the slide rollers. We cut that to size today and will try it out tomorrow to see how it works.
After finishing that project we headed back out to try to get some good photos of the eagles. When we arrived the female was on the nest again. We got a few head shots, changed positions and took a few more. After watching about 20-30 minutes she stood up stretched her wings and stood on the edge of the nest. Then she sat right back down on her eggs. Less than ten minutes later she again stood on the edge of the nest and this time spread her wings and made a quick circle around the nest, landed and was back on the eggs. As she was flying we could hear her calling. We decided that it was past time for Dad to be there to relieve her so she could go get some food. But he was no where to be seen. A few minutes later she again left the nest making an even larger circle and more calling. This behavior surprised us because naturalist Kelly had told us that she never leaves the nest until Dad was there to keep them warm. We think he was in trouble. She again returned to the nest. Just a few minutes later we heard and then saw the male eagle coming toward us. He landed in a nearby tall pine tree. Mom took flight and landed beside him on the limb. They talked to each other a little and then Dad flew to the nest and settled in for his time on the nest. Mom then flew off toward Lake Shelby to find a good meal. Such a treat to get to observe these two eagles. Thank you God for blessing us with opportunity to watch your creation. (Just a reminder, click on any picture to enlarge the view.)
Mama on duty
Mama getting impatient
Mama spreading her wings
Mama flying a loop
Mama returning
Mama calling
Dad finally shows up
Dad on the left, Mama on the right
Mama joins Dad
Some adult conversation…
… and an affectionate peck on the shoulder
Dad takes off to duty
Dad arrives at home
Dad on duty
Next we went to the Gulf State Park Pier. Its the longest pier on the Gulf. Since the weather has been so cold we hadn’t even been to the beach and Anne just couldn’t leave tomorrow without a little visit. We decided to just take a walk out on the pier. However, surprisingly it was closed. It never closes. We walked on out to the water. So pretty and clear. Sand so beautifully white. We have visited beaches all over the world and none are any prettier than the Gulf beaches. Later we saw on Facebook that the pier had to be closed due to the cold. We suspect they had some frozen pipes.
We returned home to have a nice dinner and relax before our travel day tomorrow. We had an unexpected treat. A lady knocked on our door and it was a fellow NOMADS. She saw our magnetic signs and stopped. She and her husband aren’t working projects right now due to some health problems but hope to be back on projects again this summer. Such an unexpected treat !
Today was Sunday, so of course we had a slow paced quiet morning and most of the team went to Osteen UMC for worship. One of our team members, Bob, is interim pastor there. He is a retired UMC pastor and currently lives a little south of here. Osteen is just about 7 miles from our campsites at the Children’s Home. The church is small, 65 members, and mostly elderly. They were very warm and welcoming and Bob brought us a good message from Mark 1:4-11 on the baptism of Jesus by John. 
The team members seemed to enjoy our visit and after services ten of us went to a local restaurant, The Osteen Diner. Original name don’t you think? There was a wide variety of selections, from wonderful breakfast fare to sandwiches and entrees. We had the country fried chicken special which was wonderful. We would definitely go back here again. We have enough for lunch tomorrow in the refrigerator. After lunch it was time for a quick nap, and a little laundry. Our last team members arrived just before 4:00. Good to have the entire team safely parked. Of course since we aren’t leading this team, we don’t have to keep up with everyone. Our first team meeting was at 4:00 where we did the official introductions and were given general information about the project. We will start at 8:00 in the morning with devotion and then we will meet the maintenance staff and have a tour of the campus. We are looking forward to getting started. Seems like a fun team and should be a good project. Hope you had a great weekend and stayed warm.
RVing With a Purpose 