RVing With a Purpose

Saturday, March 6, 2021

While in Gulf Shores last Sunday, we worshiped with our home church via live stream.  We are so blessed to be a part of a church that understands being the hands and feet of Jesus, always working outside the doors of the church.  After worship we quickly jumped in the truck to head to Atmore, Alabama.  We had an easy 1 ½ hour drive on a beautiful day on some back roads we don’t remember ever traveling before.  Nice!  Walmart was very organized and ready for our arrival.  Max’s appointment was at 12:00 and Anne’s at 3:40 but the good folks in Atmore had recognized our appointments and called before we arrived to verify that we were together and told Anne to come on in at 12:00 too.  We were a little early and we both had our injections and were on the way back to Gulf Shores by 12:25. We are so thankful to have received our first dose and an appointment on March 28 for our second dose.  The people at Walmart could not have been more helpful or friendly.  We have had no adverse side effects and hope the second dose is no worse.

Monday morning we readied Fred for a travel day in the rain.  It was a long day driving with wind and rain. We stopped at an Amish bakery and store that is about ½ mile off I-65 at Exit 54 near Atmore. (It was time to stretch our legs.)  The caramel apple cinnamon rolls are some of the very best we have eaten and those of you that followed us to Alaska and back know we have tried a lot of cinnamon rolls.  Their breads looked wonderful too but we just didn’t need any.  We will probably make a stop there every time we go back to the beach.  We arrived back home about 3:30 and worked on getting settled in for a few weeks. It’s always a relief to find everything okay at the houses.  Tuesday morning Donna brought us our mail.  Hard to believe how much there was and we had already received several large batches of mail while we were working.  We have spent the rest of the week catching up on things, and resumed our work preparing the house for sale. Hopefully we can make some progress on downsizing while we are home.

While we were working in the Fort Myers area in January, we discovered an eagles’ nest and have been following the hatching and growth of two eaglets on the South West Florida Eagle Cam ever since.  We check in on our babies everyday.  It’s been such fun to watch them grow.  Remember to pray for all out pastors who will be bringing us God’s Word tomorrow.

Thursday February 25, 2021

We enjoyed our time at Eastbank Campground on Lake Seminole and hope to return sometime.  The weather warmed up each day and there were beautiful sunsets most evenings.  The campground reminded us of state parks.  Sites were a little close and in the A loop where we were are gravel instead of asphalt, but very level.  There aren’t many trails but hiking over to the dam could be done through the woods or by road.  On Saturday, our first hike to the dam, we rounded a curve and there was a beautiful eagle with a fish.  It immediately flew, with his fish.  Of course, we did not have the good wildlife camera with us, only our phones and didn’t get a good pic.

On Sunday we were prepared and while there was not an eagle on the ground with a fish, we did get some nice airborne shots. Love eagles!  Our Alltrails app showed a nice sounding trail in Bainbridge so on Tuesday we headed over there. We enjoyed the paved trail but didn’t see much wildlife.

On the way to Bainbridge we drove by a historical marker in the middle of nowhere – actually in a community called Recovery. So we stopped and took a few pictures and got a short history lesson.

Since Florida will not allow Alabama residents over 65 to receive Covid vaccines, even though they were allowing it when we got on the wait list, and Alabama finally decided to start offering the Covid vaccine to those over 65 two weeks ago, we have been trying to schedule an appointment.  This was one reason we headed north.  We wanted to be able to get to Alabama quickly.  Very frustrating situation.  There are no appointments available in our county until late May.  Actually, when we were searching, there was not an appointment available at any north Alabama health department until May.  We searched all over the state and found that there was a drive-through, no appointment required vaccine clinic in Foley today.  They were to be giving first and second doses and we were told that although the clinic opens at 9:00 we should plan to arrive no later than 5am if we hoped to receive a vaccine.  So, we left Eastbank two days earlier than planned and arrived in Gulf Shores, (15 minutes from Foley) yesterday afternoon with plans to get up at 3:30 and be in line by 4:30-5:00 this morning.  Unfortunately, at 5:30 yesterday the Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH) canceled all first dose vaccines for today’s clinic. So frustrated and angry!  However, after learning this and reaching out to a friend of Max’s we learned that two nearby Walmarts were receiving vaccine today and were beginning to schedule appointments last night.  We were able to schedule appointments for Sunday afternoon!  So…praying all goes as planned and we will have dose one of the Pfizer vaccine Sunday.  Walmart also said they would be scheduling our dose 2 while we are there.  We will gladly return to south Alabama if we can just get fully vaccinated.  We are planning to be leading a disaster rebuild project in South Carolina in May so we really want to have both our injections before leaving Alabama again. Praying.  (Oh, ADPH was on Facebook this afternoon at 2:30 (clinic ended at 3:00) begging people to come – no waiting and still had 300 vaccines to give – but only second dose – aaarrggghh!)

Since we didn’t need to be in line for a shot today, we got to have fun in Gulf Shores.  Walking in the sun and sand, eating shrimp and riding our bikes to the eagle nest makes for a great day!  After a very frustrating day yesterday, we really appreciated today.

Friday, February 19, 2021

When we left Dundee last Friday, we didn’t want to strain ourselves so we went about thirty minutes down the road to The Resort at Canopy Oaks.  We worked two projects, six weeks, and we knew after that we would need some rest so we made these reservations months ago.  Canopy Oaks is a new RV park that opened January of 2021.  It currently has about 400 RV sites and some cabins.  They have lots of land for future expansion.  The landscaping is all new so everything will look better with a year or two of growth but it is nice.  Our site was a large concrete slab with picnic table and brick fire pit beside one of the several lakes.  They have lots of amenities; pool, pickle ball, shuffle board, crafts, tiki hut, pizza and sub shop and a hair salon.  Anne is so happy to finally have a hair cut!  The last one was before we left home in November.  We spent the week relaxing, resting, exercising, and just having some fun.

Today we moved to East Bank campground, a Corps of Engineers facility.  It’s on the border of Florida and Georgia on Lake Seminole.  Gorgeous lake!  It was 71degrees first thing this morning at Canopy and it was 50 degrees when we arrived at the campground this afternoon.  We want to turn around and head back south but … that is not to be this year.

Saturday, February 13, 2021

We have finished the project in Dundee where we worked for the Dundee UMC about two weeks and Camp Endeavor for about a week, but in reality it was three weeks of ten Christians living out their faith by serving others.  We had a great time getting to know two couples we had never worked with previously and renewed friendships with the other two couples.  Good times!  We all worked hard and accomplished many tasks (see the list of tasks below) that will hopefully further the ministries in Dundee.  Max and Anne finished the project with a total of 48 florescent light fixtures converted to LED.  We spent lots of time up in the air the last week.  Others spent lots of time painting, power washing and cleaning.  We pray that Camp Endeavor will get to have their summer programs for deaf and hearing impaired young people and that Dundee UMC will continue to grow their church beyond to doors of the building.  We said goodbye to Gene and Mary Ann and Randy and Nell Thursday afternoon as they headed to other commitments, and Friday we departed along with Mike and Barb.  Bill and Becky were going to have to dodge the snow and ice as they headed back to Ohio and were still watching the weather forecasts when we left Friday.  We pray for everyone’s safe travel.