RVing With a Purpose

Wednesday, October 4, 2023

We were in the WalMart parking lot in Murfeesboro, TN when we last left you.  We were up and on the road to Ellijay before daylight and arrived before lunch.  We needed to arrive early because we were ambassadors for this event, meaning we had other attendees we needed to meet and greet as they arrived.  We were assigned nine couples to welcome, give them a welcome bag and generally be their point of contact for any questions or concerns for the weekend.  We especially needed to be sure that our five people who had not previously attended a Switch It Up Huddle felt welcomed and included in all the activities.

Huddles are all about making friends and building community of RVers.  Talona Ridge RV Resort is such a great resort with caring owners and staff.  The view of the mountains is wonderful and there is usually a great sunrise and sunset to photograph from the top of the resort.   We had 157 people taking part in various activities such as skeet shooting, High Tea, the Give Back, white water rafting, visiting the apple barns and orchards, a winery tour, motorcycle ride, paddle boarding and kayaking, catered meals, fire side music, hiking, pickle ball, and probably several other things we forgot since we couldn’t do them all. (Some of the pictures are from the Huddle Facebook page since we couldn’t attend everything.)

We always do a community give back at the Huddles and this year we worked at the Gilmer County High School.  It was a more physical project than some give backs have been, but we still had about 75 people involved with landscaping, clearing trails and painting. Things looked much better when we left, and the school officials were very appreciative.  Other Huddles we have done things like work at the local food bank, bring supplies for and then bag up supplies and goodies for all the teachers at the Elijay schools, or work at children’s homes doing such things as repairing bikes, painting/staining, cleaning, etc.

Sunday morning we had another wonderful time of worship together.  It is always so special to worship with all our RV friends.  Switch It Up, which began as a YouTube channel and still produces great and fun videos, has become so much more than “just” a YouTube channel.  We are working to become a group of people (RVers) coming together to inspire others, create community, and impact the world.  Many of you know that we lead/facilitate a weekly Bible study.  Our group is a part of the Founders Club of Switch It Up crew.  We hope to start other groups in 2024.  We would appreciate your prayers.

After a few extra days at Talona Ridge to rest and get caught up on some business items, we headed back to South Carolina to visit Randy and Debra and get ready for our next project.  We will be heading to Oklahoma in a few days to lead a NOMADS team on a DR (disaster rebuild) for people who suffered flood and wind damage in 2022.  Please keep us and all our NOMADS friends in your prayers for safe travel, and then safe work in OK. Love you all!

Monday, September 25, 2023

We arrived at the De Quoin, Illinois State Fair campground on Thursday afternoon for NOMADS annual meeting.  It was our first since Anne came off the Board so this year we got to relax, take in some sights and spend time with old friends. We, of course, made some new friends too. We visited, helped with the registration bags, the charity auction, and taught a first aid class.

On Wednesday afternoon we said our goodbyes and pointed Fred back south toward Ellijay, GA because we needed to be in Ellijay by noon on Thursday.  We broke our no-driving-at-night rule and made it as far as Murfeesboro, TN shortly after dark.  We pulled into the Walmart parking lot where there was another Phaeton that had a temporary tag.  As we were going into the store we saw a couple headed out with pillows, linens etc.  We guessed they had just purchased the other Phaeton, so we followed them back out into the parking lot and made some new friends.  They were on the way back to their home in California with their new RV.  They planned to make the drive in 3 days.  We thought we were up early to leave the next morning – 4:30 – but our friends from California were already gone.  We hope they had a safe trip and maybe we will meet somewhere down the road.  We will catch you up on our visit to Ellijay in a few days. Thanks for following our travels.

Sunday, September 17, 2023

On our way to our NOMADS Annual Meeting in Du Quoin, IL we stopped for a few days at The Land Between the Lakes in western Kentucky. We stayed at Canal Campground near Grand Rivers.

While in the area we drove around Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area, did some hiking and visited the Elk and Bison Prairie.

Since the campground is only a few miles from downtown Grand Rivers, we visited Patti’s 1880 Settlement one afternoon.

We made it to the Du Quoin State Fairgrounds for our meetings and we will give you an update on that in a few days.

Monday, September 4, 2023

With our last post we left you in North Carolina on Day 53.  Day 54 was thankfully an uneventful day of driving to Camp Sumatanga, in Gallant, AL.  This is the campground we use most when we are back “home.”  Sumatanga is a church camp, one where NOMADS work that is about 30 minutes from where we lived prior to going full time.  While in Alabama on Monday, day 55, we visited with friends, checked on our remaining property on Pine Mountain, took care of some business, had dinner with friends and Tuesday, day 56, Anne got to visit her hairdresser.  By mid-day Tuesday we were back on the road in route to Johnston, SC, our second home, at Randy and Debra’s.  That too, was another uneventful travel day, unusual for crossing Atlanta, and before bedtime we were back in Fred, making Day 56 the final day of our 2023 Summer Road trip.

We had 56 wonderful days of seeing beautiful sights we had never seen before and just feeling very blessed by the entire experience.  Following are some statistics and thoughts on the trip.

Total miles driven in our Coachman Beyond Class B, 8,393.3 miles averaging 15.3mpg

Fuel Cost $2,315.00

Total engine run time 216 hours

Nights spent in BB – 55. The most we have done in the Class B on a single trip. We decided we could travel in BB for pretty much any length of time.  It is small but quite livable.  We sleep great in BB.  However, we are not ready to give up Fred for our daily living and working of volunteer mission projects.  We enjoy being spoiled by the space we have in Fred.  Whichever RV we are in is home but Fred definitely wins out for comfort.

Days boondocking (using no hookups), 40 days with 27 of those being the most consecutive days we have ever boondocked.  We obviously had to stop at various places over those 27 days to empty tanks and take on water.  We located most of the dump stations using iOverlander.  We have found we can easily go 4-5 days between dump stations.

Days in campgrounds 15.  We had four nights in Wolfville, Nova Scotia while visiting Melody and 4 nights while visiting Acadia National Park so we could use the free shuttle into the park, 2 at Camp Sumatanga and the other 5 were just for visiting other friends and for our convenience.  Total cost, $791.00 – $53.00/night average – not too bad. It is a little more than we usually pay for campgrounds per night but again, we did some of those for our convenience and enjoyment.

We began this trip with several goals.  One – to visit with friends across the country and have fun seeing all the beautiful locations we visited.  Met that goal.  Two – to sleep at least one night in the RV in every state east of the Mississippi that we had not previously visited.  Goal achieved.  We added 11 states (Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey, Rhode Island) and 3 provinces (New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island) to our map and now have spent at least one night in the RV in every state east of the Mississippi. We still have 9 states in the west to visit in the RV.  We have been in most or all of those but not in the RV.  We are making plans to head west. Three – check some items off our bucket list.  We checked a number of things off, such as visiting Acadia National Park, and the Canadian Maritimes.  Four – to find at least two geocaches in each state and province we visited.  We now have at least two geocache finds in 48 states, missing only Washington and Oregon. We will hopefully pick up those when we head west.  We also have geocache finds in 6 of the 9 provinces and in 1 of the three territories in Canada.

One of the best parts of the trip was the new friends we made.  We met some wonderful people everywhere we traveled.  Especially fun was meeting two couples we previously knew only from their YouTube videos – Carrie and Dave of One AdVANture At A Time and Lynn and Owen of VAN TREKKING lifestyle.  All four were such a joy to meet in person.  Hope our trails will cross again.

Thank you for following along with us on this trip and for your prayers for our safety.  Stay tuned for our future adventures.