RVing With a Purpose

Thursday, July 12, 2018

We slept a little late this morning so it was already 78 when we walked. Hot and humid! After our walk and breakfast, it was a laundry day. We will be be leaving for Red Bay Saturday morning if all goes as planned so it was time to start getting ready to depart. It’s time for Fred to get some exercise and we really have hitch itch.

Today was also the day Anne’s cousin Ross and his wife came for a visit. They live in the Houston, TX area so we don’t get to see them often. It was so great to see them. It seems that lately we have only seen each other at family funerals so it was nice to just visit. Ross spent a good deal of time with Anne’s family as a young man. His dad died in an on the job accident and Daddy Dwight really tried to step in and be a father figure to Ross. Ross had looked on Yelp and decided they would like to go to a little local restaurant, Nick’s, for dinner. As a total surprise to Ross, the restaurant was just a few blocks from Anne’s family’s childhood farm, the place Ross spent so many summer days. When he realized the location, we of course had to go by the old farm house and the 40 acres Daddy Dwight eventually developed in to a subdivision. This brought back so many good memories and time of sharing. Ross had to go on to Birmingham tonight but such a good, even though short, visit.

 

After Ross left, we went to Cookout for milkshakes and brought one back for our across the street neighbor. The visit over milkshakes led to more memories of when we were all growing up in the subdivision and the houses Daddy Dwight build in Wood Manor. Again a time of good memories. A little sad, missing Mama Ruby and Daddy Dwight, tonight. But know we are blessed with wonderful memories.

Oops!  This didn’t get posted last night

Wednesday, July 11, 2018

Today was another hot sunny day in Tuscaloosa. We have had frequent afternoon storms with another day of flash flooding, something that is unusual for Tuscaloosa. Today was another afternoon storm. It does drop the temperature significantly and we certainly won’t be having to water the grass anytime soon.

Since we have been still busy with business and estate stuff, we thought we would share something from the beginning of our great adventure, our new life of RVing With A Purpose.

Back around 2010 or so we first met Sandy and Roger at our church. We noticed they were driving a large truck with a fifth wheel hitch and signs on the doors for NOMADS. We didn’t own an RV at the time but knew we wanted that to change as we looked ahead to retirement. We got to know Roger and Sandy and they shared with us all about their travels and work with NOMADS. Jump forward to March of 2014 as we were preparing for Max’s retirement, Roger and Sandy invited us to join them for a project at SIFAT in Lineville, Alabama. Not yet retired, we could only commit to one week since Max was working to make a smooth transition to the new leadership for Blount County. SIFAT stands for Servants In Faith and Technology. We knew nothing of SIFAT and had a totally different idea of technology (like computers) before our visit. Be sure to check our their website to find out about their technology. Anyway, we started our week meeting our fellow team members on Saturday, worshiping with them on Sunday, and of course lunch afterward and the Sunday night team meeting. We started Monday sorting donated medical supplies. After that we built new railings for the administration building and ended with some painting. It was a wonderful week that started us on our new adventure and we have never looked back. Such a blessing.

 

Sunday, July 8, 2018

We were up early this morning, but not to go for a walk, and not as early as usual. Today we met our wonderful friends, Barry and Donna for breakfast before church. We had a good breakfast at Huddle House in Oneonta but the company was the best. So good to get to spend a little time with them. It will be nice when we finish up in Tuscaloosa and get to resume our afternoon walks and weekend bike rides with Barry and Donna.

After breakfast we all went to Lester Memorial for a wonderful service. We have a new pastor, Harvey Beck. His first Sunday was last week, which we missed, but we sure enjoyed the service today. The sermon was from 2 Timothy and was titled “The Word of God is Alive”. Love that we have another pastor who preaches the Word. We also had a great Sunday school class today.

After church we went back for another visit with Jean and Helen who were both again doing well and then back to Tuscaloosa for a late lunch at Red Lobster. We had another afternoon thunderstorm and then a walk. It was a good day.

Saturday, July 7, 2018

It was 72 degrees when we got up this morning. We had a great walk with a nice breeze. By the end of the walk we were still pretty hot but so much better than when it is 79 like last week. Don’t know if it had anything to do with last night’s storm or not but the Canadian geese were all together on our side of the lake this morning. Of course, we also saw all our baby ducklings that we see every morning on the greenway.

After our 3 miles, shower and breakfast, we closed up Fred and headed back to Blount County. First stop was our local farmer’s produce stand for more corn, tomatoes and watermelon. Then we visited with Aunt Helen and Aunt Jean for a while. They were both outside in the courtyard enjoying the cooler morning as well. It was good to see them outside. Aunt Helen even told us today that she wished she could go home but she new it wouldn’t be safe for her to do that. She said that she was afraid she would be there by herself and fall again. Glad that at least for a few minutes this morning she was thinking clearly and understood. She is still bragging about how good the food is and how good everyone is to her. Wish things were different, but guess they are as good as they can be.

After our visit we came back to our sticks and bricks to check on things. No damage from the recent thunder storms and only one limb to be moved from the drive. There has been more rain in Blount County than Tuscaloosa and the grass really shows it. Max immediately started cutting the grass and Anne went to Helen’s to start picking the blueberries.

One of our larger deer stood out the drive a ways and just stared at us. Love seeing our wildlife. Then there was the week’s worth of mail to handle, a large stack this time. We had three pieces of mail and all the rest was for the ladies. Hopefully we can get some of that reduced over the next few months. We are looking forward to being back a Lester Memorial in the morning and will be meeting Barry and Donna for breakfast before services. Hope you all have a wonderful Sunday and don’t forget to be praying for the services tomorrow.