RVing With a Purpose

(Monday, November 6, 2019 – Just noticed we forgot to publish this on Saturday.)

Saturday, November 2, 2019

Today was a beautiful Alabama fall day. It has been just plain cold this week. The past two days the lows have been 28 and 30. Tonight the low is predicted to be 35 and we will warm up the rest of the coming week. We had lots of rain early in the week and our drought is officially broken. That’s a good thing, but it was a little too much rain too fast and then it was abnormally cold. The coming week should return to a more normal Alabama fall.

Last Sunday afternoon, Max’s sister Marsha arrived as we prepared to spend a week working on LOL stuff. Later in the day Max’s brother Randy and sister-in-law Debra arrived. It was great to visit with family again. Monday morning we began our week’s work. The first task was to empty Aunt Jean’s storage unit. There was just no reason to continue to pay rent since she is not going to ever return to assisted living. Jean’s only other relative, a niece, Lois, meet us in Trussville to start the monumental task. There were lots of memories, laughing, and a few tears shed throughout the day as we decided what each person wanted to have as a remembrance. Doing this task before her death in some ways was a little easier. We shared fun stories of our times with Jean as we decided what we wanted to donate to our local charity and what items we just couldn’t part with. By mid afternoon we were on the way to Hope House with donations and Lois was on the way home with her items. Max and Randy had to return Tuesday morning to pick up the final few items and officially close our account with the storage facility.

The reminder of the week was spent on the mountain emptying Aunt Helen’s and our basement of Max’s mom’s items. Thursday, Anne went to Tuscaloosa to close on the sale of her mom’s house. Another bitter sweet day. Otherwise, the five of us spent an exhausting but good week visiting and sharing more memories while emptying the two basements. There were several more trips to Hope House with goodies we hope their clients can use and when they headed home today, Randy and Marsha had their vehicles loaded with precious treasures.

We are so very thankful for our family. We are all ready for some rest but it was good week.

Saturday, October 26, 2019

Today ended another busy week trying to get things taken care of here in Alabama. Of course on Sunday we went back to our home church, Lester Memorial. It’s always good to be back to worship at Lester and be with our Sunday school class afterwards. The aunts were glad to see us when we went for a visit after church. They again had no complaints and had nothing but good things to say about their caregivers.

We contacted our friends Rita and Dave Sunday afternoon to arrange to go to Camp Sumatanga for a quick visit Monday morning. Rita and Dave are doing a great job leading the NOMADS team working at the camp. It was great to have a few minutes to thank the team for coming to Alabama and working at our camp. We have worked with several of the team members on other projects so it was of course great to see those guys again. While at camp we stopped by the office and visited with Daphne, the interim director. We went back home by way of Oneonta and stopped by our local produce stand and they had a few small watermelons that had been picked Saturday. So… yes, we got one more last melon. Such a treat to be having good melons this late in the year. Tuesday and Wednesday, we stayed at home and worked on various business items for the LOL’s and for us. We also started working on cleaning Fred. Front cap is clean and the back cap is washed and waxed. Got to get the sides done before we get back on the road. Fred has been in lots of rain and picked up lots of road grime since we last gave him a good wash. Thursday we made a play day and went to Huntsville for some shopping. Friday and Saturday have be total wash out rain days so we have again been working at home. We still have lots to do at our house.

Today was the Covered Bridge Festival in Oneonta and the annual Pancake breakfast for the Blount County Children’s Center. Unfortunately, the rain meant most of the outside activities were called off but we enjoyed visiting with old friends and fellow employees from Max’s years at the court house and of course some great pancakes. It’s been a good week.  Hope your week has been good too.

Friday, October 18, 2019

We have had a very busy week. It it may not be very interesting to anyone else but we will give you a quick run down of our week. Beginning on Monday, we headed to the nursing home to check on the LOLs. They had a few problems our last week in Sebewaing. We received multiple calls for various incidents, so we had to go see them and check on things for ourselves. Unfortunately, Helen and Jean are declining. The dementia is taking its toll. They both did still know us so we count that as a blessing. It’s now difficult to have a conversation with them because they seem to change the subject and we can’t figure out where they are coming from. Also, such a blessing is that they for the most part seem happy. Monday we also picked up our mail, went to the grocery store, and returned home to trudge through the mail and do laundry.

Tuesday was time for Anne to have a dental checkup, then back to Oneonta for more errands, a hair cut for Max while Anne went to the court house to pay Fred’s taxes and get his tag and registration for another year. While there she also paid the property taxes because we will be working the Florida Disaster Rebuild in December when those are due. Went home with a real dent in the bank account. Then to the library to renew our library card so we can continue downloading the books we enjoy listening to on long travel days. We were excited to drive by the produce stand and find they still had some Blount County watermelons. And they are still GOOD! According the ladies at the stand it will probably be the last one we get. They have picked the last ones. We are savoring this last one.

Wednesday morning we pulled out in Fred headed to Tuscaloosa. We have a contract on Anne’s mom’s house and we went to finish the job of emptying the house. We have been working in Tuscaloosa when ever we weren’t on a project for the past year. Anne’s brothers spent last weekend, while we were driving back from Michigan, in Tuscaloosa working at the house. That work is greatly appreciated. We spent Wednesday through Friday making the final donations and cleaning the house. We took a break Thursday night and went to Sam’s to pick up a few things. When we walked out of the store we saw one of the most beautiful sunsets we have ever experienced. Regrettably, taking a picture in the parking lot was not an ideal location but we will share what we have.

As of this afternoon Wood Manor is ready for the new owners. Now we hold our breath, praying nothing goes wrong between now and the Oct 31 closing. It was sad for Anne, leaving Tuscaloosa this time. We said goodbye to the neighbors. They were always so good to Anne when she lived there and to Mama Ruby and Daddy Dwight. But, it’s time for someone else to enjoy the beautiful home Daddy Dwight built for the family. And time for us to move on.

Sunday, October 13, 2019

After three weeks we finally adjusted to the nightly trains and Anne slept right through all the commotion Thursday (our last night) night. It was probably because she was so tired. Anyway, we were up by 6:30 Friday morning so we go begin saying good bye to our team. First on the road at 7:00 was Hilary and Michael. They were headed home and had a long drive through what could be some bad weather. Suzanne was next out about 8:00 and then it was Jenny and Tom who changed their travel plans because of the early snow storms coming across Colorado. Bruce and Jackie left a short time later. We left next headed south, leaving Reid doing some work and cleaning on his RV before his short drive back home. We really enjoyed working with this team and are praying for safe travels for them all and all the other NOMADS traveling this weekend.

We saw some really nice fall color on the drive from Sebewaing to I-75 in Saginaw. Much prettier than the foliage a few miles north where we were working.

We drove about 4 hours to a rest area on I-75 near Bowling Green, Ohio,  Friday afternoon. It was a fairly large rest area next to a busy interstate but we still slept pretty well. Saturday we drove 9 hours and made is just inside the Alabama state line and spent the night at the welcome center. It was a very quiet and restful night before we drove on home this morning. This afternoon we have been opening up our and Aunt Helen’s house and getting organized again. Tomorrow morning we will be at the nursing home checking on the ladies. We will be very busy during our time at home the next few weeks. Hope you all had a great weekend.