On January 5th, after another wonderful visit to Gulf State Park, we headed back to South Carolina to move into BB. On January 10th, we headed back to Tampa where some friends had asked us to volunteer at the 2026 Tampa Campout hosted by YouTube channels Finding Our Someday and Less Junk, More Journey. One of our favorite activities was the give back where the guests assembled birthday party kits for a local food bank. The kits are in high demand as they allow families to enjoy birthday parties when they could not otherwise afford them. Each kit includes a cake mix, a Sprite soda (to be used in place of milk), frosting, candles, a tablecloth and a hand written card. The volunteers set up the supplies and assisted the guests in assembling the kits.
Another favorite was the time we were able to spend with old friends and the new relationships we made over the course of the week. We were also blessed with a great group of volunteers to work along side. We are very grateful for the opportunity to serve with FOS and LJMJ – such sweet families.
Our first task at the Tampa Campout was to help with greeting and parking the incoming guests. This is the strangest arrangement we saw come in.
Tampa Campout opening with the hosts
Some of the Tampa Campout volunteers
Setting up for birthday party kit supplies
There were two opportunities to make birthday party kits at the Campout …
… and one at the RV Supershow.
Some of the finished kits
We took a couple of days off during the Campout to go to the RV Supershow …
… where we visited with our friends at Sunshine State RVs.
As has become our tradition we spent the month of December, 2025 (and a few days in January, 2026) at Gulf State Park in Gulf Shores, Alabama. The weather was not a nice as it has been in other years but we still enjoyed our “sabbath month.” With lots of hiking, biking and geocaching on the miles of trails we had a great time. One of our favorite things to do in the park is to look for wildlife.
We saw lots of pelicans …
… a Great Blue Heron beside our campsite …
… a gopher tortoise …
… Lefty – the famous Gulf State Park alligator …
… eagles …
…and more eagles.
We are sure there were eggs in the nest. After we left, people posted pictures of two eaglets.
As a special treat this year we were given the opportunity to help finish an outdoor raptor enclosure for the owls, hawk and kestrel kept at the nature center and used for educational programs.
Max planing down a door to fit the opening
Anne working on another door
Anne and Ron in the workshop cutting lumber for the enclosure
A shelter box we helped build for the enclosure.
Anne testing the kestrel enclosure
American Kestrel in its new enclosure
This is a transport box on which the naturalist needed a sliding door installed.
And the finished transport box
We also enjoyed several activities (and food) around the area, the best was when Barry and Donna came to visit.
We really enjoyed the visit from Barry and Donna.
This year we even made a visit to the famous Bamahenge.
Christmas carol night at the park
We attended the Christmas program at Gulf Shores Methodist Church
And watched the annual Christmas parade of boats
An unusual geocache we found
An interesting neighbor for a couple of nights. It is a famous 1956 Diamond T fitted with a camper.
We cooked up the last of the halibut we brought from Vermont.
Our special recipe cinnamon rolls
Like last year we worked a few pieces of this puzzle on each day of Advent.
Christmas Day walk on the beach
Our annual traditional Christmas portrait
Once again we enjoyed the annual First Day Hike at the park.
Hello everyone. Seems it’s been over a month since we last gave you an update. We have been here, there and everywhere and kept thinking we would get a post uploaded but it just hasn’t happened. Sorry. What follows is a synopsis of what’s been going on with us.
We left our work in Ashville and spent five days in Lexington, KY with some Impact Maker friends at the Kentucky Horse Park. We met some new friends, human and animal (beautiful horses) in a beautiful setting.
Kentucky Horse Park
One of the miniature horses at the park
The horse drawn trolley ride at the park
From Kentucky, we went to a Switch Crew Founders Club (SCFC) event at Talona Ridge RV Resort in Elijay, Georgia. We love Talona Ridge and enjoyed more time with friends. It was more than just fun as we spent a good deal of time planning the next 12-18 months for the organization.
Sunday moring worship is always a highlight of the Switch It Up events.
Some of our friends dressed up for Halloween
One night we were treated to a 1920’s style mystery play.
Sunset at Talona Ridge with some of the Christmas lights.
From there we returned to Alabama for a little time at our home church and Camp Sumatanga and doctor and dental appointments. We finally got to meet our new pastor, Mark Puckett, in person. So thankful for him and always thankful for time with our Lester Memorial family.
In between our two events at Talona Ridge, we made a quick trip back to Alabama for medical appointments. While there we took time to hike to the top of the mountain at Sumatanga with Donna and Barry.
After a brief week in Alabama we were back at Talona for a gathering of other friends and YouTube influencers, Cindy and Harold Strange and family. It was another fun time of renewing friendships packed in three days.
This was our second year to attend the 1 Strange Adventure Gathering.
We even won a few prizes.
Then it was time to return to Randy and Debra’s home in Johnston, SC. We went to Gaffney, SC for two days for Fred’s annual checkup. Thankfully, no problems were found and we spent the remainder of our time enjoying catching up with our family. Debra and Anne enjoy preparing lots of good food for the family Thanksgiving and Max and Randy always have projects to complete. It was nice to have some time to just relax.
Of course, we had another great Thanksgiving week with family in South Carolina.
We spent a few days clearing out a few more trees around the house.
Randy’s new grapple sure makes cleaning up trees easier.
We are so very thankful for the time we have had with friends and family over the last several months. We still have more of you to see and we will be working on that in 2026. We are currently in Gulf Shores, AL and will try to keep things more up to date. May God Bless You All and keep you safe!
Week Three of the NOMADS Asheville Disaster Rebuild had us welcoming Les to the team after we said goodbye to Anne, Dale, Cliff and Ann, leaving us with 5 hard working NOMADS for this week. Angela and Jake continued to be big assets to our team but we will miss Anne and Ann and Cliff and Dale.
We returned to Kim and Nick’s home Monday and worked the entire week there. They have been a joy to work with. They are both hard working. It’s always so nice to have the homeowners working alongside. On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, Jake and Angela completed the installation of all the flooring and most of the baseboard while the rest of the team worked on drywall and other tasks.
Jake and Angela were our Fantastic Flooring Team this week.
Les getting the last corner ready for drywall
Anne spent most of the week finishing drywall, yet still had time to help everyone else with their tasks and visit with the homeowners.
On Thursday, we began the installation of the new windows, completing two of them. Since there was very little window casing on site, Jake and Les used what was available to make one example trim setup for the other windows. Les spent some time preparing to lead the team for the next few weeks. We made sure he met Jordan, UMC construction coordinator, and Danielle, the construction coordinator for Rebuild Haywood, the county where we are working, and our contacts at the church. We and Angela and Jake completed our services in Asheville and departed Friday. We pray that Wes and the incoming team members have a wonderful time of service and most importantly that they stay safe.
Removing kitchen window
Kitchen window removed (The homeowner took this picture and sent it to us.)
The opening for the living room window had to be enlarged to fit the new window.
Jake and Les installing new kitchen window
New living room window from the outside
Inside of the new living room window. We didn’t have the window casing trim, so Jake and Les installed sample trim for next week’s crew.
RVing With a Purpose 