It was a beautiful morning in New Lisbon, WI. It was 62 degrees when we did our walking before church. It warmed on up this afternoon to the mid 80s and then we had more afternoon rain and cooler temps. Nice.
We worshiped with the congregation at Winding Rivers UMC and were made to feel very welcomed. The pastor is on vacation and will be back Thursday so a lay speaker from another church brought the message from James 2:15-17. We sometimes say “I believe in God But…..I want to be independent or I want to be happy at all costs, or ….. whatever it is for us. Is our faith dead? Good message from Pastor Carla. She is also an UMCOR trained case manager for the flood rebuilding efforts. We were impressed with the small congregation. They are very active in their community with all types of outreach activities including, of course, the flood assistance. Tonight the church fed the team a wonderful meal before our team meeting. We got to spend some time getting to know the church members better and then time getting to know our team members. Our leaders Barb and Jack gave us general information about the project and area and we will lean more about our particular assignments tomorrow. There are about 150 homes in need of repairs which is why we already have NOMADS teams scheduled for next year. It was a good day and we feel like we will enjoy working here.
This congregation lives out what is printed on the sanctuary wall.
Disaster map showing the damaged homes from last year’s floods
Wednesday was another beautiful summer day with some scattered showers but no rain for Pine Mountain. We spent the day finishing up on our packing and closing down the houses. Now that we have to close down Doc’s and our house we sometimes get confused as to what exactly we have done and not done. Wednesday afternoon we headed to Cullman for a retirement party of a dear friend. We were able to visit with a number of friends from Anne’s work days. It was great to spend time with old friends. When we returned home to Fred, just after getting into bed, Max received a notification that the road we use to leave the mountain was going to be closed from 8am -4pm Thursday. We do not usually take Fred off the mountain by any other road because the other roads are so rough and winding. Flexibility. We reset the alarm clock for an early wake up. Fortunately, we were almost ready to roll.
Where we spent Thursday night. That is a very large hemp field across the road.
We pulled out of the driveway at 7:27 and were On The Road Again!! Felt so good. We saw the paving crew at the foot of the mountain setting up for their work day. Thursday we had an uneventful drive through north Alabama, and Tennessee to Crofton, KY where we “moochdocked” with some NOMADS friends. We backed Fred into their driveway and parked along side their RV. They have their house up for sale and are living in their rig in their driveway for now. It was great to see Mary Ann and Gene again. We also got to see Carol and Dave, some other NOMADS friends who also live in the little town of Crofton. Mary Ann and Gene grilled hamburgers and provided a great meal for us all with lots of good time to catch up with each other. We had not seen Carol and Dave for a couple of years when we had stopped by their house on the way to Illinois. Great visit! Thanks so much Gene and Mary Ann. Love you both!!
Wisconsin added to our RVing map
Friday morning we were back on the road about 7:00 to head on north, through Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois and spent the night at the Wisconsin welcome center about a mile into Wisconsin. Overnighting is legal in Wisconsin rest areas. It was our first night in Wisconsin in our RV so we now get to add another state to our list. It was a nice large rest area with lots of room to walk. We walked last night and again this morning. We stopped several times, once for fuel and the others at rest areas changing drivers and walking. We took a longer break for lunch and stopped for the day at about 5:30.
Properly prepared for driving
One of the bridges we crossed on the way
Very nice Wisconsin welcome center for Friday night
A geocache we found at one of the rest areas. Some one had trimmed the limbs that were supposed to be covering it.
After a good nights sleep we had a relaxing breakfast and then talked with a host in the visitors center to get information on Wisconsin, specifically the area around New Lisbon where we will be living and working for the next several weeks. We left the rest area about 9:30 and arrived at Winding Rivers UMC about 12:00. Our leaders, Jack and Barb, helped us get parked and set up. Then, especially for Dave, we went to Culver’s for a late lunch and ice cream. Yum, yum. It was really good, Dave. Later this afternoon we talked with Jack and Barb about the NOMADS work here in New Lisbon. We are looking forward for another great project.
We stopped by a local cheese store on the way to lunch and tried a few samples. Is this what you call “traveling with the mouse”?
Our home for the next few weeks
Currently we are watching the clouds roll in. According to the radar we have a nasty storm headed our way. We can’t see the storms moving like this at home due to our hilly terrain. Wow, it’s cool to watch. Yes, we already have the weather radio programmed to our area (it has not gone off) and our 911 address posted on the refrigerator. The temperature has dropped 10 degrees in the past 15 minutes and it is raining like crazy. We will post again tomorrow since we are back on the road. Hope everyone is having a great weekend.
Today was another beautiful Alabama summer day. It’s hot but we had enough clouds and breeze to make things more comfortable. It was a packing day for us. We emptied the truck when we got home to work around the various houses and take donations to the various agencies. Today we reloaded the truck with tools and bikes as well as repacking the belly of FRED with all the tools we have been using the past month. There were some pretty big smiles as we worked today. We also worked to pack clothes and other inside items. There was a quick trip to Oneonta for a few errands and tonight we are close to being ready to roll the wheels again. Good thing because the truck and FRED are pretty full.
Sorting, boxing, trashing consumed our time the first of last week. Still working to clean out our house to prepare for selling the house and property. We made good progress. We also prepared for our visitors. Randy and Debra arrived on Thursday and Philip, Lauren, Dorothy and Tabitha arrived Friday. Randy and Debra came for a visit and for some work. The four of us worked on Granny’s house with Randy and Max pressure washing on Thursday and the four of us were able to paint the exterior on Friday. We were very pleased with the end product and even more pleased that we were able to complete all but a little touch up on Friday. We were all very tired Friday evening. It was so good to have everyone for a visit this weekend.
Pressure washing the house
Spraying the walls and trim
Spraying soffit and fascia
And there was even more ivy to cut down
House almost finished
Yesterday it was great to get to worship with our visiting family. Such a blessing to have a family that worships together. Another wonderful service. It will be our last at Lester Memorial for a while. We will miss everyone. We are now in count down stage. YEA!! We will be back on the road again in 3 more days. The blog will hopefully get more interesting and we are excited to get back to work – a different type of work. But until then there is much to do to get everything ready to leave.
We worshiped with the congregation at Winding Rivers UMC and were made to feel very welcomed. The pastor is on vacation and will be back Thursday so a lay speaker from another church brought the message from James 2:15-17. We sometimes say “I believe in God But…..I want to be independent or I want to be happy at all costs, or ….. whatever it is for us. Is our faith dead? Good message from Pastor Carla. She is also an UMCOR trained case manager for the flood rebuilding efforts. We were impressed with the small congregation. They are very active in their community with all types of outreach activities including, of course, the flood assistance. Tonight the church fed the team a wonderful meal before our team meeting. We got to spend some time getting to know the church members better and then time getting to know our team members. Our leaders Barb and Jack gave us general information about the project and area and we will lean more about our particular assignments tomorrow. There are about 150 homes in need of repairs which is why we already have NOMADS teams scheduled for next year. It was a good day and we feel like we will enjoy working here.
RVing With a Purpose 