Author: rvingwithapurpose

Sunday May 7, 2017

This morning was another cool morning in the North Carolina mountains here at Hayesville. The wind continued to blow most of the day so even though the sun was out and it was a beautiful afternoon, it was still cool. Sitting inside and looking out at the lake it looked like we should be spending the afternoon outside but when you went out it was just a little too cool.

The team decided we would go to Young Harris, GA today for church at Sharp Memorial UMC. Sharp is the largest of the three we have visited during this project and has a very pretty traditional sanctuary with pipe organ. Today all the music was done with the grand piano. The people were friendly and welcoming and since they have an active member who is a NOMAD they were all familiar with what we do and teams visiting while at Hinton. Many of them thanked us for our work at Hinton. The service was traditional following the usual order of worship. As is the custom in many Methodist churches the first Sunday of the month, we also celebrated Communion today. The sermon was on Jesus as our shepherd using the passage from John 10:1-11. During the introductory portion of the sermon the pastor described sheep as filthy and dumb animals that will just walk off a cliff and die without a shepherd taking care of them. At the end of the sermon the pastor said something about us going out into the world being good sheep – not sure exactly how he said it but we both took it as mummmm – go be sheep – dumb, filthy sheep. :). Pretty sure that wasn’t what he meant but we both got a laugh out of it.

For lunch we stopped at Mary’s dinner on the way back to Hinton. For having 9 in our group today and showing up right after 12:00, we had pretty fast service and the food was quite good. We would certainly go back there. We split a blackened chicken chef salad and a cup of black bean soup. The salad was fresh and the chicken not too spicy and the soup excellent. We tried to eat sort of light because Phillip, the chef here at Hinton, said he was serving us tacos tonight with fresh guacamole. The team ate at Hinton again tonight and it was very good. Guess we will be eating Phillip’s cooking every night this week since we don’t have a kitchen without FRED. We will be glad when we get our new rig and be Rver’s again. After dinner we were standing around by the RV parking talking to some of the team members when Els, the hospitality manager, walked up and made a joke about us not being allowed in the RV area anymore. You see, we just happened to be standing on the outside of the yellow tape marking the RV parking and everyone else was on the inside. Another good laugh. Hope you all have a good week.

Saturday May 6, 2017

Today, although pretty cold early, was a very nice day in Alabama. We got a little later start than we had planned but after not sleeping in the noisy Scottsboro Walmart parking lot on Thursday night we slept a little late today. We have determined that part of that lack of sleep may have been some anxiety over the sale of FRED. As Anne’s Dad use to say, “you haven’t sold it ‘til the money is in the bank.” You never know when there is going to be a last minute problem. So thankful all went well. We have spent so much time in the past month getting FRED ready to sale, showing him, selling him and then emptying him out while in Hayesville – no easy task – that we would have been pretty crushed had that sale not gone through.

When we did get on the road today in the pickup, we still had to go by the assisted living to take some supplies to Aunt Jean. So yesterday after selling FRED we had quick visits with Aunt Helen, Juno and then today Jean. Anne talked to her Mom but we just couldn’t squeeze in a trip to Tuscaloosa. We will soon, though. We also went to Dairy Queen last night with Barry and Donna. It was so great to just spend a little down time with our great friends. Really quick trip home but we squeezed a lot into the short time we were there.

The drive from Trussville to Chattanooga was a pretty drive. It was 71 and sunny in Chattanooga when we drove through. We had one traffic slow down for an unknown reason but much easier going through on a Saturday. We could see distant clouds building as we went through town. By the time we got off the interstate in Cleveland it was cloudy. The drive down through the Ocoee gorge was nice. They were releasing water in the river today and the rafters were out in full force. All the outfitters had buses on the road. By the time we got to the most popular put in point it had started very light rain. We have done the rafting trip down the Ocoee several times and that water is cold on a nice hot summer day. Many of the rafters had on wet or dry suits today. They still looked cold. Glad it was someone other than us on the river today. It was a much easier drive through the gorge today compared to the wind and rain of Thursday afternoon.

It was raining by the time we got to Murphy and intermittently from there to Hayesville we had really heavy rain. So it was 71 and sunny when we left Trussville and four hours later when we arrived in Hayesville it was 51 with a cold rain. What crazy weather we are having. We stopped and ate pizza at the local pizza place – Roma’s – before returning to camp. Good pizza and we have enough left for another meal. Arrived back at camp safe and sound, a little tired, and settling in for a quiet evening. Looking forward to taking the team to church tomorrow at Sharp UMC in Young Harris Ga – just across the state line. Remember to pray for your pastors.

Friday May 5, 2017

Goodness, it has been cold and rainy all day today. One person we talked to said they thought it was colder now than it was in February. We agree. It was just a raw day. The predicted low tonight is something like 44. Looking ahead it’s suppose to be 38 Sunday night in Hayesville. Too cold for May!

So now we need to tell you what has been going on. It has really been somewhat hard to write this blog some days because we were so busy but didn’t feel we should share yet. So finally, here it is. Yesterday at 4:15pm we left Hayesville and drove to Scottboro, AL. It poured rain most of the way, but stopped long enough for us to negotiate the interstates through Chattanooga. We spent the night in the noisiest Walmart parking lot we have ever experienced. It did not quiet down until after 2:00 this morning. Our last night in Fred was not a good sleep night. This morning we met Don and Pat at the Redstone Federal Credit Union and finalized the sale on FRED. Yep, we sold FRED. We purchased the motorhome on April 23, 2011, brought him home two days later and affectionately called him FRED because he is a FRont Engine Diesel. He had 19155 miles. Today when he pulled out of the parking lot with a new owner he had 51396 miles. FRED traveled the most miles in 2014 when we went to Alaska and back (click here). We spent the most time in the rig in 2016 at 32 weeks. Even if we had kept FRED until the end of this year, 2016 would have still been the winner timewise. We loved FRED. He served us well and in some ways it was hard to see him drive off to his new home. We have worked late into the night every night for the past week, packing up all our stuff that was in the rig and deciding what needed to stay at Hinton and what should be in the first load home. We are tired! So what led up to this? We did not make this decision quickly. We have been looking at newer motor homes for about 3 years. We decided that it was time for a replacement that would hopefully serve us in our mission work and travel fun for the next 10-15 years – till it’s time for us to downsize or hang up the motorhome keys. We have purchased a Tiffin Phaeton 36GH (in case you want to google it to see what we are getting) that will be ready for pickup the first week of June. So, today we are excited to have closed the sale as that brings us one step closer to our new rig. It’s also a little sad.

We know it will all be good but right now it is strange to be without a motorhome. We will be returning to North Carolina tomorrow in the pickup to finish the last week of out Hinton project and will be staying in the basement of the Lake House next week. Our next mission project will begin Father’s Day weekend and will be our first project in the new rig. Here is hoping we get a much better night’s sleep tonight.

Thursday, May 4, 2017

Today was a rainy dark day, all day. This area is still short on rainfall and can use the rain but… messy and dreary. The wind has been gusting to 45mph and there have been some pretty good size limbs down across the campus. Fortunately no power outages.

Carol challenged us with her devotion using the Beatitudes from the Message Bible. If you have been reading and hearing the Beatitudes for your whole life, sometimes it’s really neat to read those old familiar verses from a different translation. Makes you consider other possibilities.

Today was another day much like the others this week. Everyone is working very hard to get this remodel completed for Hinton. Dave and Bryant first worked to block off parking in front of our RV’s with saw horses and caution tape. The Emmaus Walk will be this weekend at Hinton and with that many people on campus, parking is a real challenge and from past experience we have learned to try to prevent people from parking right next to the RV’s and to protect our parking spaces. After working on parking they also continued to work on the lighting for the tool shed and completed that task. Oneta put another and final coat of paint on the porch swing. Gene and Carol sanded the kitchen dry wall and did some additional mudding in the living room area. Anne and Max painted the lower stair well. Then Anne and Jackie finally got a coat of paint on the kitchen. YEA!! It will need another coat Monday. Cheryl and Jackie also painted the bookcase in the living room. Sandy and Steve continued to work on the upper stair well which is now about 95% complete. We also tried to clean up really well today since we won’t be back until Monday.

Most of us are pretty tired from working this week but still have a pretty busy weekend planned. Hopefully we will find time to catch some rest one of the days. Tomorrow should be a very interesting and busy day so be sure to check back in tomorrow our you will miss out.