RVing With a Purpose

Celebrating in Chatham

Saturday, August 22, 2020

Yesterday morning we met with the director at MMDC to discuss work plans for next week and beyond. We then said goodbyes to Richard and Dianne who are heading back to Arizona after a visit with family. Since yesterday was our 38th anniversary, we spend the rest of the day celebrating. We went to one of our favorite places in Chatham, Scoop Du Jour ice cream shop. We had our favorites from last year, blueberry waffle cone, and caramel collision. It was just as wonderful as we remember. As most of you know we both love to cook and since we still aren’t going into restaurants to eat, we grilled some steaks back at home. We had a very good day.

Richard and Dianne leaving. Since we saw them last, they bought a truck just like ours.

Today we walked the Interurban trail for about 3-3.5 miles. Tomorrow we plan to bike it. We also said goodbyes to Matt and Breanna and worked on cleaning tar spots and splattered bugs from Fred and our truck. We are very glad the state of Illinois is repairing their roads because repairs are definitely needed but we hated driving through fresh tar on the way here. Nice quiet day.

Saying goodbye to Matt and Breanna. We really enjoyed working with them.

Cute little Dekay’s Brown Snake we saw on the trail

Even More Gumby

Thursday, August 20, 2020

We woke up to a cool morning but the day rapidly turned hot. At least it felt hot on the roof.

As we mentioned yesterday, we were asked to change directions and come to Midwest Mission Distribution Center to finish out the interior of some new office space. So what did we do? We installed metal roofing. Semper Gumby! Under the direction of fellow NOMADS Richard and Dianne and with the help of some of their family members, Matt, Breanna and Garrett we installed about three quarters of the metal. To avoid the hottest part of the day, we worked from 8:00 am to about 1:00 pm, then took a long lunch and worked from 4:30 pm to about 8:00 pm.

All volunteers at MMDC have to fill out the liability release and now the COVID paperwork. We also have to take and record our temperatures each morning before work.

Matt and Garrett nailing down the valley tin

Richard, Matt and Breanna cutting metal. Electric tin cutter made cutting all the angles easier.

Matt and Richard cutting the last piece of roofing for the day

We were treated to a beautiful sunset as we were finishing for the day.

Gumby Rides Again

Wednesday, August 19, 2020

We thought we were hanging out in Elkhart to have some fun and then move on east to Ohio to work at a church camp next week. Yep, that’s what we thought. However, we received a phone call and that plan changed. Got to love Gumby. It really is a blessing to have the freedom to change directions quickly.

Cooking the bacon we bought from Yoder's Meat and Cheese — Cooking the bacon we bought from Yoder’s Meat and Cheese

Yesterday we did some exercise. We did some cooking, We did some relaxing and we got Fred ready for travel. We also met Beth and Tom of the Rventure Awaits YouTube channel. They were parked on the opposite side of the campground from us. They are new full timers and new to YouTube. It’s always fun to meet and chat. Take a look at their videos as they start their full time travels.

And then today we headed west instead of east. Tonight we are parked at Midwest Mission Distribution Center in Pawnee, IL. We have worked here several times before and now we return to help complete an addition to the office space. NOMADS had a project scheduled in April that we were planning to work but of course that was canceled due to Covid. The addition has now been framed in and we along with a few other NOMADS will work to install the roof, and finish out the interior. We will see what tomorrow brings.

MMDC has a full hookup campground for volunteers.

We will be working on the new office space addition on the right side of the building.

Anne and Dianne looking over the work site. Richard and Dianne spent the last few weeks framing the addition.

Shipshewana

Monday, August 17, 2020

The RV park seemed almost empty when we did our walking early this morning and is still very quiet tonight. After breakfast and taking care of a little business, we drove over to Shipshewana, about a 35 minute drive from the campground. It was a beautiful drive and there seems to be a more Amish in that area based on the number of horse and buggies that were on the roads today.

Common transportation in Shipshewana. There are as many different kinds of buggies and wagons as there are cars.

We really had no specific agenda for visiting Shipshewana. We wanted to just look around and visit some of the shops that had been recommended. We started at Yoder’s Hardware. We had been told by someone that if they didn’t have it we didn’t need it. They did have a lot of “stuff” but we left with all our money in our wallets. There were several other shops in that area that we visited. We also visited the E&S Bulk foods. They were very crowded today and we really don’t like crowds right now. The lines were too long to consider making any purchases. However, next door was an outdoor store with many nice furniture pieces for outdoor living. We enjoyed trying them out and the beautiful day. We also stopped at the meat shop, and a bread/sandwich shop and jam store. Of course we made a few purchases. Our chicken salad club sandwich for lunch was really good. We stopped at a park for a little more hiking on the way home. Another nice day!