Sunday morning April 26 we said goodbye to our sweet lakeside home at Johnson Creek and started a long drive across Texas. We made it to Clyde Travel Center, in Clyde, Texas a distance of about 340 miles. Because it was going to be very warm that night and we wanted to run the air conditioner all night, we spent the night in their RV park. It is much like the Love’s RV parks, but less expensive. The next morning we made our way to Abilene, TX, the “Official Storybook Capital of America”. It gets this designation due to its storybook character sculptures which you can find all over downtown. We had to stop to see Mr. Grinch and others such as The Lorax, Horton Hears a Who!, The Cat in the Hat, Green Eggs and Ham Sam I Am, and Yertle the Turtle. It was a fun stop and a great place to stretch our legs.
Abilene’s story book park
Cat in the Hat
Family Photo
Which one?
From there we made it to Lubbock, Texas the home of two more dear friends, Dave and Carol. They had moved into a new house since our last visit. We did some sightseeing such as visiting Lubbock Lake Landmark, a national historic landmark. We had great barbeque and Mexican food but most importantly we sat out on their patio and just caught up with each other. A recent death of a dear friend has reminded us to not take any of these visits for granted. They are all precious. On April 29 we said our “see-you-laters” and continued northward.
Sunset in Lubbock at Dave and Carol’s house
Hiking at Lake Lubbock
The ancient Lubbock Lake was very large. This is what is left today.
We departed River Ridge Retreat in Guntersville, AL on Tuesday, April 21. We will now be making a slow road trip toward Arizona with several stops and visits along the way. Our first state was Mississippi with an overnight stay in Vicksburg at a Cracker Barrel. We thank CB for allowing/encouraging RV’s to stay with them. Of course, on Wednesday we had breakfast with them and then continued our trek to Shreveport, LA, our second state of this trip. We had a great visit with our NOMADS friends Mark and Lisa. We got to tour their beautiful new-to-them home and park BB in their driveway for the night. Unfortunately, we were having such a great time visiting that we forgot to take pictures. Thursday morning we visited some more and had some great doughnuts – thanks Lisa. Before departing, Lisa and Mark shared with us some information on the town of Jefferson, Texas about an hour’s drive northwest of Shreveport. We don’t have a set itinerary, so we made an adjustment to the GPS and headed to Jefferson. What a gem this little town is. We parked BB in the municipal lot behind the police station for the night. Yes, it is approved if you are ever there. We began just walking around the town. There are many antique stores, restaurants, motels, ice cream shops, an old general store with about anything you could imagine and many other interesting places to stop.
Our spot behind the police station.
One of the first things we saw when we arrived
The historic and odd Jefferson Hotel
Beside the Jefferson Hotel
Jefferson General Store is one of the best we have seen.
Inside the General Store
One of the murals in town
We also met with one of the most famous Jefferson residents.
We visited the Museum of Time and Measurement and especially recommend a visit there. Mr. Ingram owns the museum. He and his wife had this huge collection in their house and decided it should be shared with the public and donated them all to the Museum. He has some amazing clocks. He has a large assortment of calendar clocks that we had not seen previously. His wife also had a collection of salt and pepper shakers. Mr. Ingram’s profession was that of a surveyor and there were all sorts of tools for that trade on display, including a four-foot slide ruler (a teaching tool) being a real surprise.
Some of the hundreds of clocks in the museum. Mr. Ingram says they all work, but he only keeps about 40 wound at any one time.
Anne remembered she used a similar old adding machine to do payroll for her father’s construction company. And now they are antiques.
One of the favorite clocks
Some of the surveying instruments Mr. Ingram has collected
There is also a huge collection of salt and pepper shakers. When we asked Mr. Ingram how they ended up in this museum, he responded “My wife.”
Mr. Ingram took the time to demonstrate an old music machine used by a traveling pastor to provide worship music.
Of course, we were very interested in the local cuisine and decided to eat at Kitt’s Kornbread Sandwich and Pie Bar. Oh my! Never had a corn bread sandwich before. Yes, we make cornbread and eat it with soup, etc. but this was different. It was so good!! Now we must learn to make cornbread that holds together and doesn’t crumble. We hope we can come close to duplicating the recipe because the owner will not share it. For dessert we visited the Red Bus Cupcakes. Nope, didn’t have cupcakes – had homemade ice cream. Oh so good!! We also made a stop at the peanut butter store and purchased some White chocolate chip and Cinnamon varieties of peanut butter. We have only tried the white chocolate chip so far. It is very good.
A Kitt’s Kornbread sandwich
Of course, we had to check this out.
Surprised?
By midday Friday it was then time to depart Jefferson, and we headed to Johnson Creek COE park where we had reservations for two nights. We spent that Friday afternoon and Saturday relaxing at our waterfront site. Hope all of you are doing well. May God bless you and keep you safe until we meet again.
We had no new arrivals this week so after recovering from all of Saturday’s banana pudding, the team attended church together on Sunday and enjoyed a quiet Palm Sunday afternoon.
Monday had us returning to the Turpin Hill house. We all worked hard at this location all week. We completed all the flooring, painted and installed all the baseboard we could until the kitchen is completed, installed seven doors, trimmed out nine doors, and installed seven lock sets. We also installed decorative shutters on the front of the house, cleaned all the electrical boxes and panel per inspector’s report, and cleaned up inside and outside the house.
Jim installing baseboards
Sandy and Jim installing decorative shutters
Anne applying floor leveling compound to the laundry room floor
Pat and Anne installing the last piece of flooring
Laundry room floor finished
Jim and Dave – our champion door installers – installed 7 doors and trimmed out 9.
Because the exterior door jambs were thinner than the walls, Jim and Dave had to rip filler strips to make the door casing fit.
The inspector wanted all the electrical boxes cleaned before they would pass inspection.
We spent some time getting the kitchen cabinets organized, but ran out of time before we could install them. Another volunteer group is coming in a few weeks to continue work on the house.
The bathroom at the end of the week
The back bedroom at the end of the week
Kitchen doors and floor at the end of the week
The house at the end of the week
Unfortunately, we never got to meet the homeowner due to his work hours. However, the entire team signed his Bible and we left him a note with the Bible for him to pick up when he gets his mail.
After work on Thursday, we all went to dinner at a combination Mexican and Italian restaurant and after the great meals we all walked across the street for some wonderful ice cream. We are so grateful for this hard-working NOMADS team and all they accomplished. It was really rewarding to see the sharing of knowledge and skills by this group. Thank you Dave, Rita, Jim, Pat, and Sandy!
Week 7 (Our Week 3) Team Picture
Please keep all the homeowners in Augusta and Ashville who are still not back in their home in your prayers. NOMADS currently are scheduled to return to both locations in the fall to continue the work. May God Bless you all.
After saying goodbye to 6 volunteers last Friday, we had three more volunteers arrive on Saturday, Pat and Jim, and Sandy. Week two began with seven hard working NOMADS.
We moved to a new work site Monday in the Turpin Hill area of Augusta. The plan is for the seven of us to work here until the project closes April 2. We are hoping to complete the house by then. This home was destroyed by a very big tree. Christian Disaster Service volunteers rebuilt the house on the original foundation and installed the drywall and first coat of paint before we arrived.
Our next assignment
How the house looked on January 26th while CDS was rebuilding it.
Monday, we got a second coat on all the walls and ceilings and began preparing the floors for laminate flooring. We began installing the laminate flooring in the two bedrooms. Tuesday, we completed the two bedroom’s flooring, and began installing the flooring in the kitchen and living room. Wednesday we finished the flooring in the living room and kitchen and began installing base boards. Thursday, we completed the flooring in the bathroom and continued trim work. We are so proud of this team. They accomplished a lot this week. Fortunately we didn’t have any storms this week but the temperatures were in the 80’s two days.
Living room when we arrived
Front bedroom when we arrived
Bathroom when we arrived
The house had no power so we had to use a generator each day.
Pat painting
Rita helping Dave
The bathtub after Sandy spent a couple of hours cleaning off overspray from the wall and ceiling texturing.
Jim setting protruding screws
Anne and Jim installing underlayment
Flooring teams worked separately in the kitchen and living room but made it all come together in the middle.
Jim, Sandy and Anne flooring
Pat cutting flooring
Rita cutting flooring
One of the bedrooms at the end of the week
Rita and Pat after finishing the bathroom floor
After a lot of hard work last week, and some rest Friday, several of the team went to the State Banana Pudding Festival and Tractor Show in Milledgeville, GA. on Saturday. What a fun day! Lots of great food plus getting to choose our favorite banana pudding. We tasted 10 different puddings brought in by charitable organizations and then voted on the one we liked best. There was all the usual fair foods plus banana pudding ice cream, banana pudding nuts, banana pudding nachos, banana pudding popcorn, banana pudding funnel cakes, and banana pudding pastries.
RVing With a Purpose 