Where is everyone?

It was such a lovely morning that Fred decided to walk to the job site - 2.3 miles in case you're interested. Perhaps the rest of us should do the same, and then again...

Many hands make light work as the women in the photo below can so readily demonstrate.

No rain, some clouds, 70's (just so all of you in the cold north of here can be a little envious.

Most of the walls are now in place with only a bit more plumbing/leveling to go.

Sheathing going on.

And there's the occasional comment overheard about needing the heating pad and ibuprofen tonight. In spite of it all I suspect most of us will manage to "struggle" to happy hour. (John & I are lucky. The big rig next to us is where we have happy hour.)

A fine Irish day, Texas style...

It's true. Our first "day on the job" was actually misty/rainy. Not wet enough to cancel outside activities but enough to make folks think they'd showered with their clothes on. However, since Texas is still in a drought, no one was about to complain. And, in spite of the damp, all four outside walls of the house are now built and up. Julia, the woman in the center and bottom left photos is who the is the soon to be new homeowner. The taller boy is her son that lives with her and the little tyke is her grandson. She was able to arrange her time as Head Start Director and get her son from school so they could be there when the first wall went up. Exciting for everyone. Plus it stopped raining while they were there.

And, lest I forget to say, a crew of us (some say less hearty, some say saner) stayed in the warehouse and constructed all the inside walls except for the one that has to be built on site. Now, back at the campground, some of us (some say the hearty souls, some say the insane) are gathered in the open air pavilion "enjoying" happy hour. Because I'm writing this blog you should be able to figure out where I stand/sit today.

Planning...

Deja vu? There are 20 of us Care-A-Vanners this session of the build (most of us freezing to death in the 60 degree/25 mph wind). What's different this go around? We actually have 3 people under the age of 30 who decided this sort of thing was fun and rewarding. Jake, the guy on the far left in the pink shirt, does engraving for a living. They ship stuff for him to engrave to wherever he's going to be. So he works for Habitat during the day and earns money engraving at night and on weekends. His girlfriend is part of her family's orchard business in Minnesota so is free to travel during the winter. She thought this sounded like fun (plus Jake isn't so bad looking either). The other young woman, with her own trailer I might add, is from North Hollywood and always wanted to travel around the country camping so here she is. Most of the rest of us are retired and... Anyway, this meeting was our first to discuss the build and what we'll be doing.

Notice the arrow in the second photo. It's pointing to our van (it's maroon) completely outdone by the RV we're parked next to. So why didn't I take a closer photo? I just wanted to emphasize the other part of today's planning. This photo was taken at the front door or the women's rest room (the men's is one door closer). Need I say more?

Of quilts and pins...

As promised yesterday, the picture on your left is of my sister, Becky, in her quilt room. She's standing next to the "implement of torture" (known in some circles as a quilt frame) John put together for her last year. She started by embroidering "a lot" of blocks and stitching them together. Then she managed to figure out how to get it stretched onto the frame along with some backing and some batting without going batty. And now she's spending hours or is that months? or is that years? hand quilting what will end up to be a beautiful quilt.

I, on the other hand, am not a quilter so turn my efforts to laundry. That's it hanging on my mother's line in the windy Texas sun. Notice those beautiful clothespins? They were a gift to my mother and were hand painted by Susan and myself. I'm happy to report, Susan, that they look just as cheerful here as they do in NY (and none of the paint came off - whew!).

Welcome to the heart of Texas!

My mother may be 90 but she still knows how to welcome us with her homemade noodles. John is especially happy this year since he gets my share too (I can no longer enjoy wheat - oh woe is me...)

My mother also has a garden which in Texas means growing it through the winter rather than the summer. Featured on tonight's menu from her garden... Swiss chard (there's a whole pot full besides what you see), lettuce and one green onion which she says she intends to divide 4 ways. (Have you figured out yet that Mother, John & I = 3? The 4th is my sister who will probably make it into tomorrow's blog.)

Bear hugs for all...

One last breakfast with Joe & Terry & some woolly creature before we hit the road heading west. Looking at the photo tonight I'm amazed Terry looked so good for a guy with a really bad chest cold and who tried to knock himself out the night before with equal amounts of grapefruit juice and vodka, and who has no idea how he's going to get from Pensacola to Orlando. Turns out Florida is just a tiny bit bigger than he thought. Even Joe's connection to the Navy couldn't get Terry a lift on one of those Blue Angel aircraft. Perhaps it had something to do with that humongous bright red suitcase Terry brought. If you folks in Syracuse don't see him back in a week, perhaps you better organize a rescue team.

As for us, we said goodbye to Florida, Alabama (again), Mississippi, Louisiana, and now we're in Houston. Mississippi & Louisiana both have beautiful new welcome centers with free coffee. Stopped in Ponchatoula, LA for lunch where they have 3 shakers on the table - salt, pepper, cajun seasoning plus big bottles of Crystal hot sauce & Tabasco instead of ketchup. Other than that, I10 across those states is absolutely uninteresting. Makes us appreciate beautiful upstate NY!

The pickers...

Pensacola - one would have thought that as many times as we've visited Joe we would have seen most everything in the area. Not so. Fort Pickens awaited us just across the bay with the "whitest sand beaches in the world". It is part of the Gulf Islands National Seashore so "we're" not protecting it, rather than the other way around. The fort took 5 years to build and is made mostly of handmade bricks (2.5 million of them) with a little granite from NY and some rocks from Maine. The part of its history we'd like to forget is it was built with slave labor. However, the people who built created many beautiful, graceful arches and vaulted ceilings that have withstood the elements for almost 200 years now. The canon the guys are standing next to was never used. And no wonder. The canon balls weighed 3 to 4 hundred pounds each. (Somehow I doubt the guys in the photo could never have loaded it, yet alone gotten those balls up the stairs. I did have another photo of the guys by the entrance in their "picker mode" but decided it was "inappropriate". Your imagination can wander if it must...)

For years Terry had heard from friends about the Flora-Bama bar that sits right on the border of, can you guess? A field trip was in order. As you can see the experience is totally transforming. You folks in Syracuse will definitely NOT recognize Terry when he returns. Tomorrow we part company and John & I are heading west towards Texas...

Taste sensations...

After Terry "survived" the sleepover with Vicki & George's 3 cats, George thought the least he could do was see us off with breakfast at the nearby "down home cookin'" diner. Top of Terry's (not our) must try list was livermush with a sides of grits and gravy. (I'm experienced and stuck with the omelet.) Not sure if it was the breakfast or his night with the cats but Terry managed to sleep through S. Carolina. A a slight snore now and again from the back seat was often the only thing that reminded us we had a travelling companion on board this trip.

Georgia brought a pit stop and Terry revived enough to have his first (and quite possibly last) taste of boiled peanuts. If there are any boiled peanut lovers out there, please forgive me. Somehow I think you have to grow up with this taste sensation to enjoy them.

If you remember your geography, Alabama is between Georgia and the Florida panhandle. It's also where we cross into the central time zone. We stopped at Auburn for lunch where we managed to score some delicious turnip greens with hot pepper vinegar, a sure sign we're in the deep south.

Did you know Auburn is the only city in the US that has a line item in their budget for toilet paper removal? If you're curious why, I'm sure you can find it on the internet. Some day they just may ask that question on Jeopardy. Auburn also has the shopping complex noted on the sign. Top of the list is Kinnucan's that offers "adventure living". (Even though it looks like it's snowing it's only drizzle - we are in Alabama after all.) One assumes if you need a little liquid encouragement for "adventure living" you can find it at ABC beverages. And, if you've frequented both of those, you might find the last one, "Rehab Works", helpful.

Finally, finally, finally (1,400 miles since Sunday morning) it was hello Florida. We made it just in time to enjoy the last of happy hour with Joe and his neighbors, Delores & Jerry. The weather is warm and we (and our butts) are more than happy to stay in one place for a day before hopping in the van again.

Plus Joe is treating us to some excellent local Gulf seafood. It was worth the trip!

A trip down memory lane...

Even though it's always hard to leave John & Judy's wonderful hospitality (and good food!) we had places to go and people to see. Goodbye New Jersey! Goodbye Pennsylvania! Goodbye Maryland! Goodbye West Virginia! (We think Terry was awake for at least two of those states..)

Then came Virginia. Always thinking of food, two weeks ago John had decided that Staunton looked like the place to head for, for lunch. If you are as old as we are, you might remember the ads for the Staunton Military Academy that claimed to "turn boys into men". (They apparently gave up in the 1970's.) Taking the exit we began to recognize places from our past. "Isn't that the gas station where the VW wouldn't start?" "Isn't that the auto parts place where we got a new battery for the VW?" "Isn't that the place where we spent the night while the VW got fixed?" However, today, as opposed to when we were in the VW, we actually made it into downtown Staunton. And we were there for lunch. When we were in the VW we had only hoped to make it that far by evening. What a difference a couple of years (and another vehicle) makes!

Tonight we're in North Carolina with friends Vicki & George. George is posing in the new "Doo Rag" he got free with a bottle of gin. (If you're like me and didn't know what that was, you can look it up.) Also, my apologies to Vicki who's a professional photographer. This snap obviously doesn't do justice to any of them but I blame it on my camera.

Our sights are on Joe and Florida for tomorrow night.

Off again (in more ways than one...)

Wouldn't you know it? Just as we set out for what has turned into our annual trip south to visit friends, then family, then helping Habitat build a house, the price of gas starts going up big time. Please take note. We "added" gas to our enormous tank at $3.749 gallon this morning. For you gamblers out there, you might want to start a pool to see who can guess closest to what the price will be (in NY) when we return in a month.

So what's going on in the second photo? Sure doesn't look like Patty, does it? Strange things have happened before, but this year, Terry is "hopping" a ride to Florida. Lucky for all of us we don't have to camp out in the van on the way!

Bottom left photo - Those of you who've followed our adventures before might recognize one of the oldest hot dog stands in NJ. It started business 2 days before John was born so that's REALLY old! Cousins John & Judy met us for lunch so we could all get revitalized by mugs of fresh buttermilk. But what on earth are they doing on the left? You'll be relieved to know that's a french fry Judy is holding up and not just her finger.

Bottom right - J & J's neighbor with laundry on the line. It doesn't show up so well but part of the laundry is bright red sheets. These NJ folks take Valentine's very seriously!

And upper right - Cousin John's soon to be newest addition to his furniture creations. And, no, we/you didn't have too many beers with the Johnny's hot dogs for lunch. He's making the dresser, complete with drawers, waved on the front. It's going to be another beautiful piece of furniture!

Heading off to NC tomorrow!