RVing With a Purpose

Monday, January 21, 2019

It was another cold morning – relatively speaking – 36 degrees. Cold for south Texas! We had ice on the windshield. That’s not suppose to happen when you go to a project in south Texas. Oh well, it warmed up to be a beautiful day with a high temperature of 76. Nice!

We really didn’t want to get up this morning. Some of you probably know why. Yep, we had to see the lunar eclipse last night. Got some pictures. Love the super blood moon. The last one we photographed was in Kalamazoo, MI at annual meeting a few years ago. It was a little more photogenic but this one was still good.

Stel and Jodi brought us our devotion today. It was Psalms 13. Stel reminded us we can worship God with our questions. Good point.

We then all went back to work pretty much where we left off last week. Rita, Max and Anne headed back out to Gilberto’s. We started the day with the hopes that we would finish the flooring tomorrow. Unbelievably, we have the floor finished. In spite of having to move the refrigerator, stove, washer, dryer, and freezer and work around all that stuff, somehow, we got all the flooring completed, and all the trim back down that we have. We will have to buy a couple of pieces tomorrow. Stel, Jodi and Dave came out late this afternoon and helped finish up and move all the appliances back in place. We really appreciated their help.

Jodi, Bev, Stel and Diane worked at the church today. There was trim to be cleaned and painted as well as flooring to install. Not sure what else was done. We will find out at meeting tomorrow. Dave, Roger and John went back to Josefina’s and continued work on the siding for the house. Hopefully we will be over there tomorrow to get some pictures. We are tired but it was a good day.

Sunday, January 20, 2019

Yesterday, was a beautiful, blue sky, sunny day. It was cold and windy all day. The winds were 25-35mph sustained with gusts to 40mph. We were so glad we were not moving Fred yesterday. We did drive to Mercedes, TX, about 70 miles south of Falfurrias and 10 miles from the Mexican border. We went to Mercedes to attend a NOMADS gathering and lunch meeting. The wind pushed the truck around but we had no problems. We met a number of NOMADS we did not know so it was a good visit. We met people who have been NOMADS a good while, come to Texas every winter and haven’t been to an annual meeting thus we had no opportunity to meet until yesterday. We also met some of our new members that joined last month. We had a wonderful meal of green enchilada chicken casserole, rice and beans, a wonderful salad, a fruit salad with some of the best blueberries we have every eaten and, of course, very tasty cupcakes for dessert. On the way home a few miles south of Falfurrias we had to stop to go through a Customs and Border Patrol checkpoint. We noticed a long line at the checkpoint when we headed south so were prepared for a wait but there wasn’t much of a line by the time we returned. It appeared that they run your tag and by the time we moved forward to the officer, he asked if we are citizens, did we have anyone in the back of the truck and where we were going. He then told us to have a good day and we thanked him for his service and returned to Falfurrias. It was a fun day.

Today started off cool but ended as another bright and beautiful and warmer day. We worshiped with our friends at First UMC Falfurrias for our last time today. They invited us to stay and have brunch with them in the fellowship hall. It was another great meal as covered dish meals always are. This afternoon we rested and did a little work on Fred. We are starting to get ready to move on Friday. It will be a very busy week this week because we so much work to complete. Suspect we will put in some long hours this week. Hope you all had a great weekend.

Friday, January 18, 2019

Today was another mostly gray day. A sprinkle or two of rain was all we had. Late this afternoon there was little sunshine and we ended with a beautiful sunset. We have no idea what the sunrise was like because the fog was so thick. Besides, we slept in as did all the other NOMADS here. We are always tried on Thursday nights because we push to get things finished for the weekend, and then when we got home we all worked until about 8:30 on the flooded church. We all deserved a late wake up. Even the puppies let their masters sleep in this morning.

First thing this morning Max went in the church to check to progress of the drying. Things were definitely better but still wet. Dave decided to try to pickup some more water with the Rug Doctors but was only able to get a very small about picked up today. The rest will have to be handled by the fans. Stel talked to our church contact and they are pleased with all we did and don’t think we need to do any thing further. We suspect we may need to leave the fans on until sometime next week.

Today, as usual for Friday, we cleaned, did laundry and tried to catch up on some of the business items. This afternoon we all went to Baffin Bay Seafood for an early dinner. Of course some of us heard it as Bath N Bay the first time Stel was trying to describe the restaurant. The whole conversation got pretty funny. Baffin Bay is another place in the middle of nowhere about 32 miles east of Falfurrias. It was worth the drive. We would definitely return. One of their specialties is fried drum ribs. Sounds pretty odd to us. Per the internet, drum is a fish similar in size, taste and texture to red snapper. Well, that is fine but ribs from a fish? Really strange. We did order a platter with grilled drum and grilled shrimp both of which were very good. Dave had the courage to order the specialty. Now none of us think it is much of a specialty. It really was ribs – small fish ribs – and not much fish attached to the rib bones. We all decided a person could never fill up on drum ribs because you burn more calories eating them than you are taking in. Fortunately, Dave had some other seafood too. Thanks team! It was a fun evening.

Thursday, January 17, 2019

Today was another cloudy, gray day. No rain, but it’s been a while since we have seen the sun. Actually two of our home owners commented today on how they hoped the sun will be out tomorrow. Fortunately, the forecasters have changed the predictions for the weekend and we will not be having any low temperatures but will have 20-25mph winds.

Max, Anne and Rita have continued to work on the flooring at Gilberto’s home the past two days. We are making progress. We now have all the bedrooms completed. We completed the living room and hall today. It is looking good and the family is very pleased. Monday we will be working in the kitchen and things will move slowly because of all the things that require moving – refrigerator, washer, dryer, deep freezer, stove and china cabinet. The pantry will also need to be partially emptied so we can replace the flooring there. Gilberto’s wife Eva is very sick and we are anxious to complete the work so that she can have some peace and quiet. Besides, we only have four more work days in Falfurrias.

 

Diane, John, Roger and Dave went back to Josefina’s to continue working on the exterior siding and trim. We drove over there this afternoon to take a look and take some pictures. We visited with Josefina for a few minutes. The house is looking really good and she is very pleased. The peacock blue with white trim looks really good.

 

When we returned to the church we discovered that the church was flooded. A pipe had broken and when a member was driving by this afternoon she saw water running out the front door of the sanctuary. YIKES! We quickly started helping clean things up. We rented two Rug Doctor machines to pick up water as well as using some of our personal wet/dry vacuums. Some of the church members brought some fans and Rita and Anne drove to Kingsville (over 60 miles round trip) to purchase two large fans. There were many gallons of water removed by the rug doctors and we left the fans running tonight and we will see how things are in the morning. The leak was caused by a compression fitting that failed. This was not one that the NOMADS installed but is was in the same area where we have been working. Hopefully things will dry out more over night.

We have now completed week two of this three week project. A lot has been accomplished. We still have a lot to complete. Tonight we are all very tired.