RVing With a Purpose

Sunday, February 13, 2022

We spent the first afternoon on Jekyll Island just driving around and getting the lay of the land, finding the campground, and the major attractions such as the historic district, the GA Sea Turtle Center, and some restaurants we had been told to visit.  Jekyll is a rather small barrier island, one of several, just off the coast of Georgia.  Interestingly, it is a Georgia State Park and managed by the Jekyll Island Authority.  The Federal Reserve System was planned on Jekyll Island and Jekyll was also the site of the first transcontinental phone call.  Prior to WWII the island was owned by the Jekyll Island Club and was a resort for the wealthiest of the US families such as the Vanderbilts, J.P. Morgan, Rockefellers, and Pulitzers.  Many of the cottages of those days have been maintained/restored and open for tours.  We enjoyed the many bike/walking trails all around the island which went along the shores, through the huge and many old oak trees full of moss, the salt marshes with many different birds, and to the beaches.  We particularly enjoyed Driftwood Beach on the north end of the island and spent several mornings walking along that beach while the tide was out.  The many twisted, weathered and gnarled trees created a beautiful landscape.  Not your usual beach.  Certainly not the white sugar sand beaches of south Alabama.

We visited the Georgia Sea Turtle Center which reminded us of the Raptor Education and Rehabilitation Center in Antigo, WI where we volunteered last summer, just mainly for all the sea turtles although they do rehabilitate some other turtles and tortoises  and occasionally a bird or two. Very interesting place.

Of course, we love to eat and since this was “vacation”, we enjoyed several nice meals, including shrimp and grits from the Wharf, and shepherds pie from Wee Pub Beach Resort along with some really good ice cream and gelato from the local sweet shops.

From Jekyll Island’s beaches you can see the St. Simon’s Island Lighthouse.  Friday was spent exploring St. Simon’s including the light house museum and climbing to the top of the light house.  Great view from the top!  We also spent a little while exploring Fort Frederica National Monument and realized that we need to allow more time for it if we return.

From there we began our drive south to Enterprise stopping overnight in St Augustine at the Cracker Barrel.  Our first CB overnight.  We were very surprised that there were 16 other RV’s in the parking lot when we woke up Saturday morning.  We had a good night’s sleep and a great breakfast before we made the final leg of the trip, arriving at the Florida Children’s Home shortly after lunch.  We would use the CB for overnight stops when in the van again but certainly the parking was really tight for the folks in the class A’s.  When we travel in Fred we will probably continue to use Walmart and rest areas for quick overnight stays.  We are now ready to learn what we will be doing for the children’s home over the next three weeks. Time to get back to work.

Tuesday, February 8, 2022

After our three wonderful weeks at ECHO in North Fort Myers working with a super team, we needed to return to Alabama to do some mundane stuff.  On the way north we stopped in Tampa to visit with some friends who were at the RV show there.  We really didn’t see or do much of interest at the show except the people we went to visit.  It was great to see friends from all over the country.

Back in Alabama we had doctor visits, dental visits, court hearings for the aunt’s estates, and Anne worked on many NOMADS Board items.  We also made a trip to South Carolina to spend a few days with Randy and Debra – always a special time.  While there Randy and Max installed a rack on the van that will give us a little more storage and tool carrying possibilities.

We decided that we needed a little down time, so we left Alabama early to stop at Jekyll Island for a few days on the way to Enterprise Florida for our next NOMADS project.  Driving the van, we decided to take the back roads and drove US Hwy 280 from south of Birmingham to Pitts, Georgia – a tiny little Georgia town with a neat Harvest Host site, Oliver Farm Artisan Oils.  The owner was super nice to open his store on Sunday afternoon so we could make some purchases.  They make pecan oil and pecan flour as well as other specialty oils and items which we are looking forward to trying.  Georgia is the number one producer of pecans so there are ample resources for the oil.  They extract the oil and then take the “meat” that is left and make flower from it.  Unfortunately, they did not have any pecan flour in stock so we will have to order some. We have several recipes we are anxious to try.  We will let you know how they turn out.  From Pitts we landed on Jekyll Island, a place many of you have visited but one we always just drove past with the intent of visiting someday.  Today is someday.

Friday, January 21, 2022

It was another wonderful week.  It began with another inspirational worship service with the ECHO Crew Monday morning.  It was so great for our team to become part of the ECHO community over the past three weeks.  After devotion we all started back to work, basically where we left off on Thursday.

Max and Anne returned to the Appropriate Technology Center bathroom and finished the removal of the ceiling and declared that job complete only to find that we also had to install the new ¾ inch plywood on the walls and ceiling.  We worked with two ECHO volunteers on that and made two new friends.  Anne moved onto other work and Steve took her place for the last few days.  Our portion of the bathroom work was completed Thursday morning.  The plumbing and the rest will be completed by other ECHO volunteers.  We learned at a Volunteer Brown Bag Lunch on Wednesday that Worldwide ECHO has only a total of 75 employees.  Greater than 50% of the work of ECHO to end hunger around the world is done by volunteers.  Pretty amazing and we feel honored to be part of their team.

Also finished this week was the bridge between the visitor center and the library.  A good portion of the team worked on that bridge at some point so I won’t list names for fear of missing someone.  However, the final four that spent so much time on that project were Dan and Marlis, Phil and Steve.  They did an excellent job rebuilding the bridge.

Almost everyone on the team worked on the new plant tables at some point.  The highlight of that work this week was the moving the plants off the rusty old tables, removing the old table tops, then moving the new structures into place and placing the plants on the new tables.  The last two tables were quite large and HEAVY!  Eight of our twelve team members moved the first one and had to stop and put it on the ground and rest numerous times while moving from where they were built to the propagation area.  We were all huffing and puffing and straining and didn’t know how we were going to move the last one into place.  Susan enlisted the help of our two ECHO volunteers who worked with us on the bathroom.  It was totally amazing.  None of us could have imagined the difference it made to have two more helpers.  It lightened the load for us all to a level we could much more easily handle.  We all agreed there was a big lesson to be learned for all of us.  It would even make a good sermon.  More hands certainly made the work so much lighter.

There was also a lot more accomplished at the A-frame cabin.  We totally stripped the second floor.  All the appliances and cabinets that were removed from the walls were taken to storage.  All the trim was removed, the tile removed from the walls and all the floor tile broken up and removed.  The tile was very labor intensive work done with sledge hammers, scrapers, pry bars and brute strength. One half of the flooring was on top of cement board that was screwed down with hundreds of screws that also had to be removed.  Lots for sore arms and backs at the completion of that work.  Most of the team worked on that big project at some point.

There was also more pressure washing this week again with most of us doing that at some time too.  We were glad to be able to get the buildings looking better in preparation for the 40^th birthday celebration for ECHO taking place in February.  Wish we could be here for that celebration.  Wednesday night we had a team dinner at the campground with every one contributing to the potluck.  It was a time for the team and celebration for all we accomplished.  Thursday we celebrated again with ECHO as they treated us to a Chick-Fil-A luncheon.  Another special time with the team and our ECHO friends.  This was one of those projects where it’s very had to say goodbye to everyone.  But it had to occur and we left Riverside Campground this morning and arrived in Tampa shortly before lunch.

We are boondocking at the state fairgrounds and attending the RV Show until Sunday when we will be back on the road to Alabama.  It’s been a great week!  Safe travels to all the NOMADS on the road this weekend.

Sunday, January 16, 2022

We have had several folks who saw news of the tornadoes in southwest Florida contact us to make sure we were okay. We are. A cold front passed through this part of Florida this morning spawning a few tornadoes and damaging an RV resort as well has several other locations. A tornado warning was issued for the area to our southwest so the team turtled up our RVs and gathered in the nearest substantial structure – the bathhouse/laundry. Fortunately, all the severe storms passed either to our north or south.

Thank you for your concern and prayers.