RVing With a Purpose

Wednesday, August 16, 2017

What a day! We knew our original departure time of 6:00 am was unrealistic given the delays we had yesterday. We had hoped to leave by about 8:00. While we were loading out Max stopped to refill the hummingbird feeder.  He apparently was taking too long because one of the birds perched right outside the kitchen window to try to make him hurry. After finishing the load out we did leave the house at 8:15, but before we got to Aunt Helen’s the septic tank people called and needed us to come to Helen’s. We did not get away from Helen’s until about 9:15, then stopped for fuel at Busy Bee and the gym in Oneonta to hook up the truck. That made our departure time from Oneonta 10:10. We had a 30-35 minute delay between Chattanooga and Cleveland on I-75. Never did see reason for delay. Never saw accident, police, construction. Nothing. Just everyone sitting there, not moving on the interstate. This was after we saw all the signs in Chattanooga “August 21 Solar Eclipse. Plan Ahead” and “Expect Heavy Traffic.” Maybe all of us on I-75 today were just practicing for Monday. When we crossed into North Carolina there was another sign warning of possible traffic problems on Monday. Max is glad he is no longer working in emergency management.

We arrived at Hinton Center about 4:00 and went to the office to let them know we had arrived. It was great to see everyone again and there were hugs all around. We will meet with them tomorrow afternoon after Joyce and Ken arrive to get the work plan for this weekend. Then we left Hinton headed to Standing Indian Campground. It is a National Forest Service campground between Hayesville and Franklin, NC. It’s a beautiful place and Anne’s cousin Nancy has been there for a week and will be there until after the eclipse. We went there to visit with Nancy and were pleased when her son Andrew arrived unexpectedly.

Nancy prepared a wonderful dinner for us all and then made a scrumptious black forest cherry cobbler in her cast iron dutch oven over the fire. We had a wonderful time visiting and eating and then returned home to Hinton to write this blog and get some sleep. It was a great day. Thank you Lord for safe travels.

Tuesday, August 15, 2017

Up this morning working on getting FRED loaded. Walked over to check on Helen and Juno and again the septic tank people were not on scene. So called and waited some more. We were disappointed that they were a no show yesterday. They did finally arrive today but only stayed a short time because they couldn’t find the septic tank. They left saying they would be back with a camera and a locator to find the tank and then pump it out. Still waiting for them to return. Maybe tomorrow.

Alabama had an election today for our senator, to replace Jeff Sessions, so we had to go vote. We think this may have been the first election since we retired that we were actually home to vote. We have been voting absentee every time and in the runoff we will again have to vote absentee. Oh well – it’s not too much trouble and we believe it’s important to vote.

Last night Anne’s brother called and told us that Anne’s mom lost her cell phone. It was later turned in at the desk of the assisted living but the battery was missing. It was never found. Originally we were told that the battery and cover were missing. The battery we thought we could probably replace but not the cover. That left us scrambling to determine our best course of action. Anne’s mom is on our cell plan so we ultimately decided to take one of our old flip phones and have mom’s number transferred to it. Momma Ruby has always had a basic phone and that is all she wants so this should work at least for a few weeks. We then had to make an unplanned trip back to Tuscaloosa. By the time we determined that our old phone was indeed still working as we thought and went to Verizon to have the number transferred we were in nasty afternoon traffic in Birmingham and of course that was also the time for our afternoon rain storm. We made it safely to Tuscaloosa, taught Anne’s mom how to use the phone, went to Home Depot and purchased a small microwave for her room, visited a while and then headed back home (with two Chick-Fil-A peach skakes). Another long day. We aren’t ready to leave yet but hopefully – with no additional unexpected crises to handle, we will be in North Carolina before bedtime tomorrow night.

Monday, August 14, 2017

For those that are relatively new to our blog, Max has an Aunt Jean who is his dad’s little sister. Jean as a young woman during WWII, went to Alaska to work on the civilian side of the building of the Alaska Highway. While cleaning out Jean’s home when she had to move into assisted living we found an awesome photo album of her time in Alaska. She in her usual way told us that no one would be interested in that old thing. WRONG!! We were very interested. She told us we could have the album so we took it to Alaska when we went in 2014. We met with the people at the museum at Denali National Park and at Alaska University in Fairbanks. Both were very interested in our donating the photo album to them. The people at Denali also asked if they could send someone here to interview Jean and capture her oral history of her time in Alaska. They said there was limited information from people who actually worked on the building of the highway and almost none from women. Jean also had some photographs taken in 1944 at Denali National Park – then called McKinley Park – that the park does not have. They have contacted us several times over the past 3 years and tried to send someone but budgetary constraints always stopped them. That visit finally occurred today. This morning we met a gentleman from Memphis University that specializes in taking oral histories to visit with Jean and go through the photo album. She told him about flying to Alaska to work. Laughing, she told about how much fun that flight was because she was the only female on the plane with a bunch of guys. She also remembered a few other things as they went through the album so hopefully it will be of some use to the Park Service. Sadly, Jean could not tell him nearly as much as she shared with us when we first found the album in 2013. Those memories have just faded over the past 3 years. She did seem to enjoy the visit with the interviewer so it was a good day. We will now finalize the donation and get the album to Denali National Park. To bad we can’t carry it back personally. Maybe next time we go to Denali we will see the album on display in the museum there.

After returning home, we worked on getting ready to go to North Carolina and reloading FRED. Still a ways to go on that but we will make it happen. When we walked over to Aunt Helen’s this afternoon we heard another funny story. Seems Juno heard Helen get up about 1:30 this morning and she told us that Helen got up and went to the kitchen and got something, probably a snack. Helen denies this. “I did not get up at 1:30 and if I did I would remember it.” Juno’s response was “I saw the light come on so did your walking stick just walk down the hall by itself.” We all laughed – for different reasons. We also enjoyed a nice walk with Barry and Donna this afternoon. We got in a total of about 4.5 miles today. It was a good day.

Sunday, August 13, 2017

Sorry we didn’t post yesterday but you really wouldn’t have wanted to hear much about what we did yesterday. We had to take care of the backed up septic system in Aunt Helen’s basement. It is unstopped and usable with more work to be done tomorrow by the plumbers. Enough said and no pictures.

So what about today? It was a really good day. We are tired, but it’s a good tired. We got to go back to our home church, Lester Memorial UMC, for worship and Sunday School.  It was a wonderful service with the beautiful music led by four of our youth who are all leaving for college this week. We will miss these young people and pray God’s protection as they move into this next phase of their life. Late this afternoon we had our church picnic at Camp Sumatanga – love that place – and we had a baptism service for one of our youth who will also be leaving for college Tuesday. Such a special day!

 

BTW – thanks to Brandon and Brooke for bringing us some lawn chairs. We didn’t have time to go back home to get ours. In between the two services we went to Tuscaloosa to see Anne’s mom. We were so pleased to see how well she is doing. She was up and walking with the walker out in the hall without a therapist or caregiver. She walked with us to the elevator and then from the elevator to listen to some music and sing with some of the other residents. We went to her house and picked up some additional things to make Crimson Village a little more like home. It did our hearts good to see Mama Ruby doing so well. She even has a very good friend that is considering Crimson Village so if she moves there too it would be even nicer. It was a busy day, but we got to spend it together so we are happy. Yes, we know that some will think that comment is sappy but it’s the way we feel. Any day we get to spend together is a good day. Hope everyone has a good week. It will be another really busy one for us but should be good. We will be getting back on the road in a few days so come back and follow along.