Enjoying Beach Therapy with 80 degree temps

Each Sunday our directors ask one couple to choose a church and restaurant that the group would go to. We have been to a black Southern Baptist Church, the contemporary service at the United Methodist Church and the very large Olive Baptist Church. The Sunday lunches have been at Denny's, Rio Bravo (Mexican) and a Chinese buffet.

Each couple shared a large fried ice cream - a great treat to end a Mexican meal.

Last Sunday afternoon we walked through Pensacola's waterfront area which included a Memorial Park and recently built ball field/ football field.

"The Sanctuary" is both a shelter and a memorial. The arm and the hands form a shelter and represent protection, our gift to our children.

This work week began with completing the drywall in the living room and the back porch room ceiling. Then while I cleaned up, Jim worked at fixing plumbing in the bathroom. All the doors had arrived so Tuesday we tackled painting them, which took us about two days to complete.
Originally all the rooms all had a sand texture, so we had to figure out how to blend the new bottom four feet. Our tool trailer did not have a  texture sprayer so a new one had to be purchased. Jim was assigned to work magic with texture on these walls.
Thursday two of the bedrooms were dry for paint so the ladies primed the two bedrooms.

A sunset beach walk.

We were told that the many high-rise condos built on the Perdido Key shoreline are unoccupied. People were often purchasing more than one unit as an investment but when the economy turned down these people walked away losing hundreds of thousands of dollars.

When you are in the Gulf Coast area and there are beaches near by it is good to enjoy them. The waves breaking along the beach with the clear blue sky above and fine, squeaky sand under your bare feet, it sure is good therapy after the days spent working indoors.

On the Perdido Key boardwalk we saw many Monarch butterflies feeding on flowering bushes, we presume before heading over the Gulf of Mexico to their winter habitat in Mexico or wherever.

Water Stories from Pensacola

On April 29, 2014 Pensacola received a record amount of rain, being doused with over 22 inches in one day. The result was the worst flooding in a 24 hour period ever recorded. It is because of this unprecedented rainfall that we are here to help in repairing some flood damaged homes. We are told that on April 10th they had a rainfall that had the soil saturated so when the rain came on the 29th it had no place to go and the people had no warning except that the weatherman called for rain that day. However as it became night and the heavy downpour continued hour after hour the run off began flooding homes in lower areas - even areas that had never flooded before.

We heard the story of Mr. Frank and Ms Mary who are in their 80's. They were at home and their house seemingly being the lowest place where the water gathered and started coming in. When the water reached the height of the electrical sockets they decided they better get out while they could, even though it was four in the morning. They waded to their truck, but the truck got stuck in a sink hole. So together Mr. Frank and his wife walked through fairly deep water to the end of the street where their son was waiting for them. She said her husband hung onto her because the water current was pulling them the other direction toward the drain. They have been staying with a daughter a few streets away. They lost all of their furniture to the flood water - none of which was covered by their insurance. Their house was mucked out about a week later by another organization. After that it had been cleaned, rewired, insulated and was now ready to have the drywall replaced. They are eagerly waiting to get back into their home.
In our conversations with Ms Mary and daughter Brenda we heard the comments "Thank you Jesus" and "Your such a Blessing" numerous times.

 The front porch area was great for coffee and lunch breaks.

We are a small crew of 3 couples. So far we have been mostly installing drywall and have started the mudding. On Thursday end of the day we had two rooms left to complete with sheetrock.

One of the curses of a warm climate is insects. Bites from fire ants or termites in your walls. Jim needed to plane down a stud that was not flush. This revealed the holes chewed into the wood by the exterminated termites.

Our MDS base camp is located at Heritage Oaks RV Park here in Pensacola. The park was purchased by one of the partner organizations who are assisting with the flood recovery. When they took over the park lots of maintenance was required as it had become a real eye sore. The lot rentals are being kept low so that people with limited means are able to live here in their own RV's. Although many have old and shabby accomodations for them this is home. We felt a bit apprehensive about our neighborhood, thankfully it has been quiet and peaceful. About half of the property has house trailers (formerly used by FEMA as emergency housing) which are now rental units.

This office trailer was a park model which had been donated and was converted to suit the needs of MDS.

We moved our trailer across the yard next to the MDS trailer when that spot opened up. We will now be able to open our awning and enjoy the outdoor space.

One of our first stops in a new community is at the welcome center where we get maps and information about the area.

We are located just north of the Naval Air Station out of which the famous "Blue Angels" acrobatic team are based. On our exploratory drive Friday we came upon this security check point before entering the Naval base. We will return here to check out their musuem in the future.

Travels to Pensacola FL

As we head south we always wonder how the border crossing will go. Well this time we got a pleasant gal at the window but we did have to go inside for paperwork, and here too we have a friendly border guard that served us. She does the fingerprinting and eye shots twice and within an hour we are good to go. Surprisingly no checking our RV by the agricultural inspector.

You need to use common sense when following your GPS directions, especially when in unknown territory.

This was our first encounter with South Dakota Parks unique and efficient registration system. A direct phone line to their call center eliminates staff at their park entrance in off season.

After the first day of driving we stayed at Watertown SD, where we landed up staying two nights because the wind had picked up overnight and was very gusty. The weather people were recommending that drivers of high profile vehicles stay off the roads.
We prefer to make our travel days about four to six hours without any rush to get to our destination. Instead of interstates we enjoy four lane highways that normally take us through small cities and towns. By comparisons from one community to another you soon realize the pride and care of people in these places. Some with well maintained homes and yards and thriving businesses, while others are run down with many closed old buildings.

After three years of use and much frustration with our Verizon Mobile Hotspot, we now purchased a Straight Talk Hotspot which also uses the Verizon network. With the use of a campgrounds internet connection we were able to register our new unit on our own while in the past we needed to spend 1 to 2 hour sessions on the phone with the Verizon helpline. Although our new unit is not very fast it does help us to stay connected with our world back home.

We had made arrangements to see friends in Henderson NE and S. Hutchinson, so we called them to tell them we would be a day later. Thanks Abe & Alice for the nice visit and the delicious apples.

Next we stopped to see Phil & Estella in S. Hutchinson, KS. They moved their trailer to a country property along the Arkansas River and use it as their cottage. We enjoyed catching up with them and seeing them again.

Harvest season for soybeans was well underway in North and South Dakota while in many places the corn is still waiting. It was interesting to see the crops change as we travelled. In Nebraska we saw many fields of soybeans, corn and sorghum still in the fields. Then in SW Arkansas and Louisiana we saw lots of cotton fields being harvested.

We saw groupings of these flowers in numerous yards in southern Arkansas and Mississippi. Can anyone help us identify these naturalized blooms?

A misty mornings start to our last day of travel.