nomads mission volunteers – RVing With a Purpose

Long Busy Summer

Monday, October 5, 2026

My, my. How time flies! Looks like our last blog post was made July 2nd. We had completed our Constructors for Christ project in Bowling Green and had arrived at Cypress Landing RV Park in Dozier, Alabama. One of the friends we made while there said we came out of the RV about 15 minutes after we arrived and started working and didn’t stop for ten weeks. That’s a pretty accurate description of our summer at Cypress Landing. Two of our good friends purchased Cypress Landing at Gantt Lake about 2 weeks before and asked us to come help in getting the park cleaned up and set up and running. So, we did. We helped with all sorts of work while there. In addition to regular cleaning, we helped tear out a bathroom and converted it into a laundry room, helped remodel the General Store and helped change a laundry room into a gathering place for our Switch Crew friends and family. Anne learned how to work at the front desk in the store and take reservation requests. Max worked on all kinds of projects, and we both made some wonderful new friends and were able to work with a lot of Switch Crew friends we have made over the past six years. The park is looking better every day, and we would encourage everyone to stop by for a visit.

Helping square a pavilion that was built very crooked

We installed a new AED that was donated to the RV park.

Another of our projects was improving the connection pedestals …

… by raising the power connections to keep surge protectors out of the mud.

Of course there was also a lot of fun, such as testing the new Go Boats.

When we decided it was time to take a break, we headed back to South Carolina to visit with Randy and Debra and change out RV’s. We loaded BB up with supplies and headed to Talona Ridge RV park in Elijay GA, another great place we like to visit. There was a Switch it Up Huddle that we enjoyed for a few days, and especially enjoyed the “give back” project at Convoy Of Hope, before we needed to go to the NOMADS annual meeting in Elkhart, IN.

The Huddles are always a time for gathering with friends.

Our Convoy of Hope project consisted of sorting and inventorying thousands of donated shoes.

While in Elhart, we took BB back to the mother ship (Coachmen Class B Factory Service Center) for some work and she is now doing better than when she was brand new. The folks in Middlebury are always so great to work with us and keep BB in great shape. We are anxious to take her on another trip.

The NOMADS annual meeting was probably the best we have had since COVID. It was a great group and lots of new people in attendance. There were several service opportunities on various days, along with time set aside to visit the surrounding area. With only about 150 attendees our charity auction (funds used to support our mission projects) raised over $66,000.00. Extravagant Generosity! Next year the meeting will be in Mineola, TX and plans are already being made.

The NOMADS Memorial Service we made sure to attend to honor friends we lost this year

Worship is always a major part of our meetings

We always enjoy helping with the charity auction.

We had several service projects this year. One was sewing bags for Midwest Mission, …

… and one was building beds for Sleep in Heavenly Peace.

We returned to South Carolina and changed back into Fred, visited with Randy and Debra, headed to Atlanta to visit Anne’s brother Jim for a few days and we are currently back in Blount County (home), for a few days. It’s time to pay taxes, vote, purchase a new tag for Fred, visit with friends and then we will be on the road to Oklahoma. We will be working a three week disaster rebuild in Muscogee. We will try to keep the blog updated a little more often.

One of many beautiful sunrises we have seen on the road

Utah to Alabama

Thursday, June 11, 2026

We departed Capitol Reef National Park in Utah on Thursday, June 4th, knowing that a lot of our remaining time would be driving. Of course, we did not get an early start with the cinnamon rolls, hiking and getting BB ready for some back-to-back travel days. The night of June 4th was a Boondockers Welcome stop in Grand Junction, CO – about 200 miles for the day. Not great mileage but we stopped to make phone calls and handle some business that took longer than expected along the way. As usual, our hosts for the night were welcoming and we had a nice visit before turning in.

Eastern Utah sure looks a lot different from the western side.

We were up early on Friday, June 5th driving I-70 easterly across Colorado and into Kansas. We stopped for the night at Ellis Lakeside Campground, in Ellis, Kansas. This small campground is a city owned campground that was a whopping $25/night with full hookups and lake front site. It was a quiet, peaceful place to sleep after a long 568 mile day. We don’t do those long days very often anymore but it was all interstate and we were trying to get away from some of the heat.

Vista at the rest area near Vail

Shortly after entering Kansas we stopped and logged the oldest active geocache in the world

Near the city RV park in Ellis is a Railroad museum.

Saturday morning after a visit to the local bakery, we headed to Archie, MO. We stopped at the I-49 RV park to visit some friends, Connie and David. Connie and David are in our Bible Study group and we see them most weeks online but it sure was more fun to spend time with them in person! Thanks Connie and David for your gracious hospitality.

Monday morning, June 8th, we left our dear friends and started driving again. Destination for Monday was Craighead Forest Park, Jonesboro , AR. – 345 miles. On the way, when it was time for a 2 hour driver change and leg stretch, we saw a sign for Mammoth Spring State Park and pulled in. Wow, what a find! It was right off US 63, and sort of served like a welcome center just after we entered Arkansas. We took advantage of their really nice walking trail and a nice display of the old generating plant on the spring river. It just so happened that this is the same Spring River that we took the Explorers canoeing many, many years ago – probably 40 years ago.

Mammoth Spring was flowing 8.59 million gallons of water each hour when we were there.

The old generator at Mammoth Spring provided power to area from 1925 to 1972.

Back on the road refreshed, we drove on to Jonesboro and another very nice public park on another lake that was only $15/night with hookups. Another great place to hike and another quiet night.

Our site at Craighead Forest Park in Jonesboro, AR

We enjoyed the lakeside trail at Craighead forest park.

On Tuesday, June 9th, we made our way back to Alabama and the River Ridge Retreat in Guntersville. This is the park where we had the Huddle back in April. We have rested a few days here, and tomorrow will move on to Camp Sumatanga, our church on Sunday and then back to our starting point in South Carolina. After getting BB cleaned out and Fred ready to hit the road to our next mission project, we will give you all the statistics on this trip.

When we left River Ridge in April the ospreys were sitting on eggs. Now one of the nests has two chicks …

Scenic Byway 12 to Capitol Reef National Park

Thursday, June 4, 2026

Wednesday, June 3 we left Bryce Canyon National Park en route to Capitol Reef National Park. We were surprised and very pleased with the drive on Scenic Byway 12. We drove 12 almost all the way to Capitol Reef. We both agree that this is the best scenic highway we have experienced. The scenery was amazing. We can’t say enough good things about the drive. Highly recommend! We hope the pictures come close to what we actually experienced. We hope to return to spend several days driving and camping along Highway 12 between Bryce Canyon and Capitol Reef national parks.

Arriving at Capitol Reef National Park we first stopped at the Visitor’s center with the next stop being the Bakery at the Gifford Homestead. That’s where you purchase your pie or pies in our case. Anything you read about Capitol Reef will surely make mention of the pies. They sell out every day – usually before 3pm. They also sell cinnamon rolls, but we had to wait until Thursday morning for those because they were already sold out. They say you must be there before noon to get the cinnamon rolls so we were there by 10:00 on Thursday. Of course, Capitol Reef is much more than the bakery and we did some nice hiking and drove the scenic loop as well before departing for our next destination.

Our Thursday morning hike was the Hickman Bridge Trail

Lots of steps at the beginning of the trail

One of several domes which contributed to the park’s name

This is the first bridge we came to on the trail. When we came back out some one asked us if this was the Hickman Bridge

Hickman Bridge. Anne is in front as a size reference.

Unlike yesterday’s hike, today we went uphill first instead of last.

We made it back to the the bakery in time to get two cinnamon rolls. (We weren’t fast enough to get pictures of the pies, but they were the same size as the rolls.)

One of the features the early settlers called “reefs”

We have seen a lot of red rocks on this trip but we keep finding something different on each drive.

This formation made us think of barber poles.

Since we didn’t have all our logistics planned out we made use of the campground dump station and water fill before we left.

Still interesting but somewhat less scenic after we left the park

Our next few days are going to be heavy driving days hoping to avoid some of the heat.

Bryce Canyon National Park

Wednesday, June 3, 2026

After leaving Kodachrome State Park, we had a very easy drive day of about 1 hour to our destination at Bryce Canyon National Park. We visited this park a number of years ago but since we had a friend camp hosting there this year we decided to revisit the area and visit our friend John. We got set up at our site, had some lunch and then visited with John. Later in the afternoon we hiked from our camp site, to the Rim Trail, to Sunset campground, picked a site for Tuesday night and back to our campsite – 4 ½ miles. Didn’t plan to hike that far when we started but…we just kept going. There is a lot of beautiful scenery and many improvements since our last visit such as the new General Store.

Tuesday, we relaxed and worked on preparing for our Wednesday Bible Study. About 10:00 we visited with John again and then drove the scenic drive through the park – so nice. At the end of the road we stopped and hiked the Bristlecone Pine Loop – about 1-1/2 miles. Bristlecone Pines are very interesting trees, looking a lot like a bottle brush and can live for as long as 5,000 years. The remainder of Tuesday we got set up at the new campsite, Sunset Campground, visited with our neighbors and finished our preparation for Bible Study.

Wednesday morning we packed up BB for another travel day but not before we decided to hike the Navajo Loop Trail. We had done a portion of this trail on our last trip but today we did it all. It is only 1.5 miles but has over 500 feet of elevation gain at the end. It is a hard hike by our definition but the Park seems to think it is moderate. It is a great hike – very pretty but…we may be sore tomorrow.