rving – Page 18 – RVing With a Purpose

Uskichitto Week 2

Sunday, March 2, 2025

Last weekend we did laundry, rested, and bought groceries. There was lots of rain on Saturday and Sunday, so we were inside most of the time. There was even water over the road when we drove to church. When it wasn’t raining, we explored the portions of the camp we didn’t visit during the work week. We didn’t know there were high and low ropes courses and a BB gun shooting range. We also found our way down to the river where in better weather we would have loved to be canoeing. Unfortunately, the heavy rains had the water too high and fast to consider that possibility.

We began the work week with our team splitting up with Max, Anne, Shannon and Mariel continuing to work on the flooring in the pavilion while Gabriela, Lou, Dennis and Pam worked at the dining hall preparing the exterior for painting. Lou also worked on the tractor. The flooring was completed Monday with the exception of a small path leading to one bathroom. The concrete we had to pour to level the bathroom needed more cure time and the team will finish that up during Week 3.

Anne painting around the walls so we could roll the rest of the floor

On Monday the camp also had someone cut down a couple of large dead trees that were a danger to a couple of cabins, so on Tuesday NOMADS did all the clean-up/removal of all the debris/limbs.

It took a while with this saw (just kidding)

Wednesday and Thursday we all worked on the dining hall. There was some damaged wood to be repaired, gutters to be removed, lots of cleaning and scraping, and then lots of painting. By Thursday afternoon all the repairs had been completed and the first coat of paint had been completed. A special thank you to the camp board members and church members who provided some wonderful Louisiana meals this week.

Dennis and Pam getting the front wall ready for painting

Gabriela painting the grooves in the siding

Dennis and Pam spent a lot of time on the back of the building

See how much better it looked at the end of the week

The last of the trim getting its first coat of paint

The walls and trim at the end of the week

Friday morning at 6:00 am, we turned Fred back in the direction of South Carolina. We hated to leave the NOMADS team and Uskichitto Retreat Center, but were thankful for the two weeks we were able to contribute to the project. We were especially glad to reconnect with Mariel, Shannon, Dennis and Pam, and to meet Gabriela and Lou. It was a really good two weeks.

Another delicious meal provided by friends of the camp. This is pastalaya.

Pam made four flavors of ice cream for the team so we had an ice cream dinner Tuesday evening.

Our team. Notice how much better the wall behind us looks.

We made it back to Randy and Debra’s home early Saturday afternoon and we will spend the next few weeks with them except for a quick run to Florida and Alabama. Randy who is doing much better will be having some same day surgery Thursday so please continue to keep him in your prayers.

Uskichitto Week One

Saturday February 22, 2025

When we last posted, we had just arrived at Uskichitto Retreat Center (pronounced “Whiskey Chitto”) in LeBlanc, LA. The retreat center has five cabins to house campers for summer camp season. The cabins are also used during the off season by businesses, clubs and church groups for weekend retreats, meetings and work sessions. We have full hookup camp sites and laundry facilities. This a three week NOMADS project, but we will only be working the first two weeks. Mariel and Shannon are our leaders. It’s so good to work with them again. We haven’t seen them since the annual meeting last year. We have team members, Pam and Dennis who we worked with at Camp Sumatanga last year and Lou and Gabriela who we just met. They are relatively new members from Iowa.

There is lots of work to be done at the camp, but our highest priority is replacing the flooring at the pavilion. Monday morning it was all hands-on deck to empty out the pavilion of all the sound equipment, furniture, etc. and remove the toilets and sinks from the restrooms and store everything in a nearby building. That done, we began using various tools to remove the old flooring. Most of the tile actually came up fairly easily. It was all the glue that remained on the floor that was the problem. The camp director rented us a machine that made the job easier but there was still lots of time spent on our knees scraping. It was decided that we would be using epoxy paint with color chips to replace the old tile. After scraping all the old glue up there was dust and dirt everywhere. Then, we began the process of cleaning the concrete mopping numerous times to get it clean. With that huge job completed, Thursday afternoon we etched the concrete and then mopped the concrete until clean again. The mop water had to be clear. That’s where we left it for the weekend.

The power scraper motor quit after about an hour of work. Fortunately the tile was loose enough to scrape up manually.

Mariel “helping” Dennis with the power grinder

Our tools of the trade for most of the week

How we had fun all week

When there was a little down time throughout the week, a few of us were able to complete some smaller projects, the repair of some leaky faucets, replacement of some steps, repair of a “soft” spot in a bathroom and window cleaning in the cafeteria. We worked hard this week and we were rewarded with a fantastic Cajun meal Thursday night prepared by some of the ladies from Squryes UMC. The weekend will bring rest, laundry and perhaps some sight seeing.

It took a while to repair the leak in this shower.

Lou repairing a picnic table while all the mops were occupied.

There are many crawfish mounds around the grounds, but we didn’t try to catch any bugs …

… however, Mariel did rescue this cute chameleon from he dining room.

Merry Christmas – 2024

December 25, 2024

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO All!!!

We hope you and your family have had a wonderful Christmas season. We pray that in the middle of all the hustle and bustle you have taken time to remember what is really important. And it’s not just that it’s Jesus’ birthday. We are celebrating the Wonderful Counselor, Almighty God, Everlasting Father and Prince of Peace coming to earth. It’s the beginning of The Story, the fulfillment of prophecy. If you have been too busy, this evening would be a great time to sit down, take a deep breath and maybe pick up your Bible and read the Christmas story again.

We have spent our “vacation time” resting, reading, catching up on some work, working puzzles and watching Christmas movies. There have been lots of beach walks, and bike rides, eagle sightings and lots of good food. Most importantly God has blessed us by allowing us to spend this time listening to Advent devotions and enjoying the beauty He created here.

Our campsite this year

This heron has been a daily visitor to our campsite

We have taken several walks on the beach even though some days have been quite cool.

For most of last week the purple flags were out at the beach meaning that venomous sea life was present. They really weren’t needed because it was too cold to get in the water.

The pier is open again so we can walk on it any time. Since we are staying in the park, we don’t have to pay to walk it.

We see sharks every time we walk on the pier.

We attended a park presentation on raptors and got to see Archimedes the screech owl.

Of course, we have made several trips to the eagle nests. Yesterday we finally caught both of them on the nest at the same time.

On one of our hikes we stopped to watch this osprey eating a fish.

These grilled steaks fed us for a couple of days.

One day we took the afternoon to make Aunt Inez’s Tea Cake cookies.

We made them bite-sized this time because they are easier to eat on travel days. They probably will not survive another whole week to our next travel day.

Believe it or not, we actually worked our Advent puzzle the way it was intended – one small section at a time. We have really enjoyed it.

We tried a new recipe for for breakfast today – cinnamon rolls baked with eggnog.

Our traditional Christmas dinner of snow crab legs

As we have the last few years we took the time to watch our favorite Christmas movie again.

Catching Up Again

Sunday, November 24, 2024

Sorry for the long absence. We have been busy, just haven’t told you about it yet. In addition to regular RV maintenance and repair, we spent one week in Alabama for our annual medical appointments.

While in Alabama we attended a hilarious production of “Exit the Body” by the Covered Bridge Players in Oneonta.

We have continued to clean up trees in South Carolina.

It took about half a day to get this cedar stump out of the ground

One of our debris piles by the road

The day before we headed back to Alabama for our annual medical appointments, the state contractor came by and picked up one load of debris. The rest is still there.

We spent a few days with our friends from 1 Strange Adventure at our favorite RV Resort, Talona Ridge. We always enjoy our time at Talona in Elijay, GA. The trees were not at peek but it was still a very nice and relaxing visit.