RVing With a Purpose

Saturday, January 6, 2018

Today we awoke in Live Oak to below freezing temperatures as expected, 27. It was certainly better than the 23 predicted. However, we had our happy face on, because we knew that the low tonight in Enterprise should be 36 and tomorrow night 51. We are finally far enough south! Highs in the 70s and lows in the 50s are fine with us.

We left Live Oak Lowe’s at 7:15 after a quiet night of good sleep. Forgetting we lost an hour yesterday, the sun was just coming up as we again headed east on I-10. After just a few miles we headed south on I-75. We stopped twice, once at a rest area and then to top off FRED’s fuel. We don’t like to park for three weeks without a full tank. After getting fuel we drove across the Ocala National Forest on the Black Bear Scenic Byway. Unfortunately, the only bear we saw were on the warning signs telling us to watch for bears the next 30 miles. Then by 11:15 we were at Florida United Methodist Children’s Home in Enterprise, Florida, our home for the next three weeks. We were met by our leaders, Kathy and Terry who helped us get parked. We didn’t take time to set up before we saw Ruth and Mike and Jo and Mark for a few minutes. We saw them all last at annual meeting in September and are so glad to be with them again. We are really looking forward to getting caught up with both couples. We then spent the afternoon, setting up, cleaning up, doing some laundry, unwinterizing, etc. We are now settled in and will have our first team meeting at 4:00 tomorrow afternoon. We might get a bike ride in before that time. Please be in prayer for all the pastors and services tomorrow. We are so blessed to have the privilege to worship in this country, one we shouldn’t take for granted.

Friday, January 5, 2018

Another cold below freezing night. It was a really nice sunrise though. We liked our site because we could lay in bed and look out the window out across the water and see the sunrise. Such a peaceful way to start the day. It was another bright sunny day, with a little less wind. We slowly packed up and got ready to head east. Next week is suppose to be nice at Gulf Shores. Last week was nice. We had bad timing this time. Oh well, with Anne not feeling well maybe it was all for the best. She did get more rest since it was too cold to do the biking we had planned to do.

So today was travel day. We left Gulf Shores about 10:00 CST headed for Live Oak, Florida. It was an easy drive with the only significant traffic around Tallahassee. We stopped a couple of times, found a geocache at a visitor’s center, filled up FRED and arrived about 5:00 EST. We will be on eastern time now for the next 6 weeks. Anyway, totally uneventful day.

When we arrived at Live Oak, we went to Lowe’s. We checked inside for permission to overnight in their lot. We stayed here two years ago on the way south. We like it because they close at 9:00 and it’s nice and quiet. After checking in we had supper of split-pea soup (that had been cooking all day in our thermos) and crackers. Then we enjoyed some hot chocolate for dessert. We will leave by the time Lowe’s opens in the morning. We only have about a four hour drive tomorrow. Hopefully it will be as uneventful as today. And tonight should be our last night below freezing. So looking forward to warmer weather. Hope you are having a great weekend and praying for safe travel for all the other NOMADS headed to their projects this weekend.

Thursday, January 4, 2018

Last night was another cold night. The weather all over the country is truly bizarre. We do hope and pray that you are all staying warm and safe. Please, please remember to check on family, friends and the elderly. We are leaving tomorrow and will drive to Live Oak, Florida. It’s been snowing there and predicted to be 25 degrees there tomorrow night. I-10 was closed due to snow IN LIVE OAK, FLORIDA yesterday but has reopened so we aren’t expecting any problems. We are so looking forward to much better weather in Enterprise. 50 degrees will seem balmy.

We started the day going to the morning session at the Nature Center again. Today was a session on raptors, specifically the red tailed hawk. Since we have a red tail that stays around our house we enjoyed learning more about him. It was another great session.

We then returned to FRED to do a little work. We bought some vinyl carpet protector material to make floor protectors to go under the slide rollers. We cut that to size today and will try it out tomorrow to see how it works.

After finishing that project we headed back out to try to get some good photos of the eagles. When we arrived the female was on the nest again. We got a few head shots, changed positions and took a few more. After watching about 20-30 minutes she stood up stretched her wings and stood on the edge of the nest. Then she sat right back down on her eggs. Less than ten minutes later she again stood on the edge of the nest and this time spread her wings and made a quick circle around the nest, landed and was back on the eggs. As she was flying we could hear her calling. We decided that it was past time for Dad to be there to relieve her so she could go get some food. But he was no where to be seen. A few minutes later she again left the nest making an even larger circle and more calling. This behavior surprised us because naturalist Kelly had told us that she never leaves the nest until Dad was there to keep them warm. We think he was in trouble. She again returned to the nest. Just a few minutes later we heard and then saw the male eagle coming toward us. He landed in a nearby tall pine tree. Mom took flight and landed beside him on the limb. They talked to each other a little and then Dad flew to the nest and settled in for his time on the nest. Mom then flew off toward Lake Shelby to find a good meal. Such a treat to get to observe these two eagles. Thank you God for blessing us with opportunity to watch your creation.  (Just a reminder, click on any picture to enlarge the view.)

Next we went to the Gulf State Park Pier. Its the longest pier on the Gulf. Since the weather has been so cold we hadn’t even been to the beach and Anne just couldn’t leave tomorrow without a little visit. We decided to just take a walk out on the pier. However, surprisingly it was closed. It never closes. We walked on out to the water. So pretty and clear. Sand so beautifully white. We have visited beaches all over the world and none are any prettier than the Gulf beaches. Later we saw on Facebook that the pier had to be closed due to the cold. We suspect they had some frozen pipes.

We returned home to have a nice dinner and relax before our travel day tomorrow. We had an unexpected treat. A lady knocked on our door and it was a fellow NOMADS. She saw our magnetic signs and stopped. She and her husband aren’t working projects right now due to some health problems but hope to be back on projects again this summer. Such an unexpected treat !

Another cold, but wonderful day.

Wednesday, January 3, 2018

Wow. We stayed above freezing last night. The first night in forever, it seems. Time to celebrate! This has been such an abnormally long cold spell. The sun came out after lunch but with the wind, the 43 degrees still didn’t feel very warm. We thought tonight was going to be okay too, but they revised forecast and are now predicting 26 again tonight. Doesn’t make us happy.

This morning we went to the Nature Center for a presentation on alligators. It was very well done. They have two little alligators, about 12 inches long, that they used for presentations. They came from Alligator Alley, a nature preserve in Gulf Shores and are on loan for educational purposes. We learned that the gators have 80 teeth when they are born – 40 uppers and 40 lowers. These gators, still being only 4 months old, have tiny needle like teeth. While they may not be able to do the damage of the larger gators, we were told that a bite even at this young age is very painful and once they bite they will not let go. You have to get something like a pencil the pry the jaws open. The presenter held the little one but let us touch them, feel the tail and the back. When these little guys are about one year old they have to go back to the preserve because they become too dangerous to keep at the Center. Mama gators lay lots of eggs each year but probably only one baby will live to reach sexual maturity at 6 years old. They stay with mama until age three. So Mama will have babies, one, and two year olds all at the same time and then kick the three year olds that have survived, out, to go find their own territory. Of course, right now due to the cold weather, there are no gators out in the open in the bogs and canals. They don’t hibernate, but sort of burrow up in the mud to stay warm. We have fairly often seen gators in bogs/marshy areas when we have been here in warm weather. We also got to see the barred owl, hawk and great horned owl again while at the nature center.

Later in the day we went back to the outlets for a little more shopping. We did find a few items we decided to bring home. Then we stopped at the Original Oyster House for dinner. We always enjoy eating there, looking out over the water, and have never been served a bad meal.

Late this afternoon, Kelly, the park naturalist who led our First Day Hike, stopped by for a visit. We invited her to come see some of our photos of eagles from Alaska. We really enjoyed her visit. Nice lady. She and her husband, who we also met Monday, do a lot of wild life photography. They hope to go to Alaska some day, after the kids are grown. Of course we would love to go back some day. Come back tomorrow to see what we did. We don’t know what it will be. We are flexible.