RVing With a Purpose

NOMADS 2024 Annual Meeting

September 26, 2024

Well, it’s been one month since our last post. When we last posted, we had returned to Randy and Debra’s home at the completion of our summer trip to New York, Michigan etc. It was a wonderful trip.

We spent almost three weeks in South Carolina enjoying family time. We caught up on some chores like changing the oil in BB and helped Randy and Debra take down some trees in their yard but mainly we just enjoyed our time together.

One of several trees we took down during our short visit

We always enjoy making sawdust with Randy and David.

In between cutting trees and working on a deck, we took a day trip to the Revolutionary War battlefield in Ninety-Six, SC.

We departed SC in BB on Thursday, September 12, with our first overnight on our property on Pine Mountain in Alabama. Max drove BB and Anne drove the truck loaded with tools. When we stopped at the Alabama Welcome Center we saw a new Beyond in the parking lot and we met Jeff and Susan the owners. We enjoyed visiting with them for a little while especially since they were just two hours into their second trip in their new Beyond. Great to see Beyonds in the wild and quickly make new friends.

Our chance meeting with new Beyond owners Susan and Jeff

Shortly after leaving the rest area Max began to feel something was wrong with one of our tires and we stopped by our Ford dealership on the way back to Pine Mountain. So glad we did, because we discovered we were having tread separation on both our front tires. Several of the Beyond owners on a Facebook group we follow have recently had tire problems at about the same mileage (34,000) and their posts were one of the reasons we stopped so quickly to check the tires. The interstate is so rough sometimes that you don’t know if the problem is the road or your vehicle. End result, we replaced all 6 tires. Thank you, God, for your protection and thank you Beyond owners for sharing your information. Because of their posts, we probably avoided some significant damage to BB due to blow outs.

Thursday evening we visited with friends and left the truck on the mountain. Friday, we drove to Shreveport, Louisiana and overnighted in the Cracker Barrel parking lot. It was a quiet night, a good breakfast Saturday morning and we arrived in Mineola, Texas around 10 am.

We had never been to Mineola and found it to be a very nice, friendly, cowboy town and the Civic Center/RV park was a great place for our meeting. Saturday evening, we drove to Canton, Texas to have dinner with some Switch It Up friends. We were so excited to see them that we forgot to take any pictures. It was great to spend time with Mark and Debbie. Hope we see them down the road sometime soon.

Our NOMADS Annual Meeting began Sunday morning with our worship service. From then on we were busy with classes, meetings, great food, great entertainment, our fund raiser charity auction and most importantly, great time renewing old friendships and making new friendships. We think this was one of the best annual meetings we have attended. The Board and committees did a great job and deserve a big thank you.

Our theme this year was Circling the Wagons for Christ.

We walked early each morning while it was cool.

This year Wayne presented a great class every morning based on the book “When Helping Hurts” by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert

Our morning devotion was brought by a different person each day.

The annual remembrance service is always a solemn reminder.

Isaac Witty provided a hilarious comedy routine for the group, but he also followed the routine with his powerful testimony of God’s work in his life.

There are always several educational sessions, such as this one on drywall finishing …

The passing of the gavel is a big moment each year – especially for the outgoing chairperson.

This map of projects shows all the opportunities we have to be the hands and feet of Christ around the country.

This was the first year NOMADS experimented with streaming the business meetings.

The two of us always assist with the auction. We check in and set up all the items.

In addition to bidding on items, we assist with the silent auction.

And assisting as a spotter and bid recorder during the live auction. The live auction is a lot of fun and shows the extravagant generosity of the NOMADS attending the meeting.

This year the live auction was streamed so people who couldn’t attend could participate.

On Tuesday night the board bought most of the tickets at The Historic Select Theater for a showing of this old movie. It was such fun watching it with a bunch of RVers.

One evening we were treated to a partial lunar eclipse.

In addition to the classes and meetings there are always fun activities like cornhole …

… and of course, plenty of delicious food.

The week ended with a wonderful choir concert.

Next year the meeting will be in Tennessee. We left Mineola Thursday afternoon in route to our next adventure which will be the topic of our next post.

GAP Update

Sunday, September 15, 2024

Back in June we worked one week with Constructors for Christ to start the build of a new distribution center for God’s Appalachian Project (GAP). To read about our week there click here. During the next 4 weeks other mission volunteers with Constructors for Christ continued to work on the building. We started with a concrete slab and at the end of the five-week project the building looked like this:

To read the story in GAP’s newsletter click here.

In the five weeks that Constructors for Christ worked on the building 318 mission volunteers from 71 churches and 10 states answered the call to be the hands and feet of Christ in the Appalachian community. This is the real church.

As always, we receive more blessings from these projects than the recipients of our efforts.

Door County and Beyond

Monday, August 26, 2024

On Saturday, August 17, we said goodbye to Antigo, WI and began making our way south. We drove through Green Bay and found our way to Door County. A number of years ago Anne’s mother told us we needed to visit Door County and since then several friends have recommended a visit. Door County is a small peninsula on the east coast of Wisconsin. Some people call it the “Wisconsin Thumb”. To the west of the Thumb are the waters of Green Bay and to the east is Lake Michigan. The Thumb is 75 miles long. There are many restaurants of all types, a lot of busy, touristy, communities, and also some very beautiful and tranquil areas. Our first stop was at Bailey’s Harbor Range Light. “What is a range light?” we asked. It consists of two lights aligned one above the other as ships approach the harbor. Ships that keep the lights vertically aligned or “on range” safely pass the rocky shoals as they enter the harbor. There were also two docents at the lighthouses where the two lights are located. The main house has been very nicely restored. The docents were great. They were volunteers and get to stay in the lighthouse while they are working as docents.

The front range light is several feet shorter so the rear light can be seen over it. When we first stopped, we thought it was just a model of a lighthouse, but after our visit decided these range lights were some of the most interesting we have seen.

The docents live in the rear range light

Looking from the rear range light over the front light into the lake.

When the lighthouse was restored more to its historical condition, these old newspapers were found under the carpet.

We were blessed to make contact with some friends from Wisconsin who happened to be staying at one of the local RV parks for two weeks, and we met them for an early pizza dinner. It was in Sister Bay which is a beautiful village on the west shores of the Thumb. We were so excited to see our friends that we forgot to take any pictures. (Oops).

We were treated to fireworks while boondocking in Sister Bay.

Sunday morning we drove on out to the tip of the Thumb where there is a ferry to take you to Washington Island. We didn’t visit the island, but we understand it would be worthwhile for another time. We did drive the iconic “Curvy Road” Highway 42 between Timberline Road and Ports des Morts Drive. This road is known for its 15 serpentine curves as it nears the ferry dock. This road leads right to the Washington Island Ferry and then leads to what is known as “Death’s Door”, which is a section of water between Door County and Washington Island where there have been over 275 shipwrecks. (Maybe a reason to not go to Washington Island.)

The Curvy Road

We could walk across the causeway to the lighthouse, but on some days it is covered by water and the visitors ride across in a farm wagon.

Next stop was at Cave Point County Park in Sturgeon Bay. This was a popular local park with free admission. This park is known for its Dolomite/limestone ledges, underwater caves and great view of Lake Michigan. At times water sprays from blowholes 15-30 feet.

There were quite a few locals at Cave Point County Park. It seems to be the local swimming hole.

We made one last, quick stop in Algoma on our way back south. We went there to walk the breakwater to the light house, but ended up just walking around the quaint village streets.

It didn’t take us long to figure out we weren’t going to walk this breakwater.

An interesting looking building in Algoma

We seem to always find beautiful churches

Once we left Door County, we drove south to Bloomington, IL for the night. From there on Monday we drove to Pawnee, IL to visit with friends at Midwest Mission. It was great to visit with friends there. On Tuesday we made one last stop to visit more of our Bible Study/Switch Crew friends in Roodhouse, IL. So great to see them! From there is was a drive south back to Camp Sumatanga in Alabama.

Some of the flags at Midwest Mission showing counties they have served

On our way back into the state on I-65, we stopped at the new Alabama Welcome Center.

We visited with friends, shared meals with friends, and went to church Sunday at our home church, which is always such a blessing. Sunday afternoon we returned to Debra and Randy’s home in South Carolina. We don’t know exactly how long we will stay here but it will be family time and we will probably post no more than once a week (if that). Thanks for traveling with us.

Great trip and the Beyond performed flawlessly.

Visiting Friends in Wisconsin

Thursday, August 15, 2024

Since leaving the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, we drove to Wisconsin and turned southwest landing in Antigo late Tuesday afternoon. In May of 2023 we were last here in Antigo. It was our second time to work a project with “A Year To Volunteer” at the Raptor Education Group, Inc. REGI is a nonprofit organization that rehabilitates injured birds and educates the public about birds in general. They specialize in raptors. We met with Marge, the Director of REGI, Wednesday. It was so good to see her and the staff again. We had a great time catching up with each other. Today we returned to REGI to sit in with one of the tour groups visiting the center. This tour was hosted by Samantha, the Director of Education. She does such a great job with the tours and all the birds. While most of the birds they take in are rehabilitated and released, the birds used during the tours are non-releasable for various reasons so they become ambassador birds for REGI. They live a very comfortable life and are very well cared for. One of the owls we saw today we saw last year, shortly after he was rescued. He had grown so much! Those of you who have read the blog for very long know how much we love owls. Well, owls and eagles and hummingbirds, etc. We just really enjoy birds. Today’s favorite owl was the Northern Saw-whet Owl. Too Cute! Saw-whet Owls are some of the smallest owl species in North America. They can be found in dense thickets, often at eye level although they can also be found some 20 ft up in trees.

Eagles in an enclosure we worked on last year. REGI takes in about 100 eagles a year along with many other birds.

It was great to see Marge and her staff again.

We are probably going to take another rain day tomorrow to just catch up on things and then move again Saturday. Hope you are all having a great week.