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.
Saturday had us welcoming one more couple, Cliff and Ann, to our team and no one departed. Great team, all experienced in DR work. We all attended church at Covenant Community Church and again we were warmly welcomed. We use one of the upstairs rooms of the church for our Sunday afternoon meetings and with eight of us we also had our morning meetings in that room. Monday we all headed back to Sandy’s house to continue work. By Wednesday afternoon, we had completed the walls, ceiling, baseboards, and flooring in both the living room and office. We had also installed baseboards in two other bedrooms. Now with the addition of Ann and Cliff, we had two Anne’s, one Ann and one Angela. Sandy named us the “A” team. She liked it because she just needed to remember the guys names. Anyone who called out for Anne got a lot of responses, or maybe no answer at all. We completed our work for Sandy Wednesday afternoon and had her Bible presentation.
Week 2 team picture
Anne M preparing walls for paint
Dale and Anne A painting the living room
Cliff painting trim
Jake cutting trim
Cliff making custom trim
Jake and Angela had to do a lot of custom detail work installing the flooring
Ann W and Max painting the living room ceiling
Anne A painting and Angela caulking the living room
Office finished
Living room finished
Bible presentation for Sandy
Thursday, we split into two teams with Cliff and Ann and Dale and Anne going to Jessica’s home that is close to completion. It needed DryLock painted in the basement, basement steps replaced, trim installed in one bathroom. They got the steps and most of the painting completed Thursday.
Steps before
Ann W painting waterproofing on the basement wall
The crew testing the new steps
MIldred the emu lives at Jessica’s house.
Max and Anne and Jake and Angela went to Kim’s home. We will be taking care of all the drywall, and flooring in the front of the house and demolition and rebuild in the back portion of the house. We will probably be working there for another week.
Anne A sanding drywall
Jake starting flooring in bedroom
Jake and Angela did a great job on the bedroom floor.
Angela and Jake installing bathroom flooring
The weather was beautiful with near perfect temperatures for working and we are hoping that continues. It’s peak leaf peeping season and driving the Blue Ridge Parkway is a great way to leaf peep.
RVing With a Purpose 