From Sea to Shining Sea and Back Again

Pacific in May, Califonia coast

 Atlantic in September, Maine coast

 Pacific in November, Califonia coast. 

We are still about 700 miles from home but it has been nice to see some familiar territory. We took a couple days off of the road to stop in Lake Havasu City Arizona. We checked in on Dan's mom's house. It is on the market so we may not see it again. While in Lake Havasu City we went to visit some long time family friends. Elizabeth, at age 90, was preparing to cook Thanksgiving dinner for her grandchildren who are coming with their children. One of her other dinner guests will be Doug. She thinks of Doug as just a kid since she has known him since he was a teenager. Doug is 87, he is the other long time friend we visited. He shared an interesting story from when he was 15 during WWII -- He took off from LA with a couple buddies on a greyhound bus for Idaho. After they got there, they decided to "ride the rails" hobo style to get back home. They were arrested and released about three times (including once in Bend Oregon) before they opted to hitchhike the rest of the way. Doug and Elizabeth have both buried their respective spouses; they lead quiet slow lives. The visits left both Dan and I feeling a bit melancholy about that time in the future when either of us would face life alone. 

 We spent one night in the desert at Red Rock Canyon in California. I took this photo of this hat accessory to block sun. This lady was looking for a deck of cards and we had a spare we could share. In exchange for the cards I asked her to model the hat for me. I may try making one of these sun shades. It is adjustable and may be worn with or without a hat.  

 She was sweet to "model" for me. 

We scooted on across to San Simeon. We stayed at a state park there then took a tour of Hearst Castle. 

 Here are a few of my photos. It is a spectacular place. 

Dining room

Fountain

Dan & the ocean view. 

 Roman bath. 

Waterless Neptune pool (it was under repair)

 A different style of "selfie". I took this looking into one of the guest rooms through the window. 

We spent last night in the dark redwoods at Big Sur State Park. We hurried back out into the sunshine this morning. 

 Now we are soaking up the last bit of November summer at New Brighten Beach. We reserved our spot ahead of time since it is a holiday weekend--unintentionally we are back in the same campsight where we spent a week in May as we were making wedding preparations. 

How random is that!

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. We will go over the mountain to Los Gatos to join my Aunt & Uncle and family for a holiday feast. 

My the Lord find us grateful and ever mindful of the needs of others. 

Amen

Two weeks in Hobbs, NM

This has been home for the past couple weeks. Our little camper along with five other larger rigs parked in a big empty lot near a dead pecan orchard. We are Care-a-Vanners - a subset of Habitat for Humanity. This was our fourth build experience with CAVs. We met some new folks and got reacquainted with others whom we have worked with at other builds.

 We had some crazy weather. Over two inches of rain in one day and less than a week later many hours below freezing and even a few snow flakes. 

The work was the usual variety. We had all kinds of projects - painting, mudding drywall, tiling floors, framing, finish carpentry, etc. I spent most of my time building closet "innards". Here are a couple of my accomplishments. 

 Today I helped hang some doors and install baseboards. 

 Dan spent most of his time next door and saw lots of progress - 

Last Saturday above - one week later below: 

 I helped on the framing just a bit. In the picture above I am using a Ramset, it is a kind of gun that I hit with a hammer to drive a nail into the concrete slab below the framing. Every strike and bang of gunfire set the neighborhood dogs to barking. You may notice I am quite bundled the temps that day while we worked ranged from 21 at the beginning of the day to a high of 30 when we quit in the afternoon. 

 Here is the ice on the water faucet at the campsite. We had it running to prevent broken pipes. These were the coldest nights we have ever spent in the camper. 

There are times when my muscles ache and I am tired and cold I wonder why I am doing what I am doing... Today I was privileged to share a moment with this woman and to remind myself  of the answer. 

 This is Victoria and two of her children. She is standing in here future front doorway. As I showed above there was a lot of progress made on her house this week. When she saw her new home for the first time this morning she "welled up" with joyous tears. I lack the words to describe it, but that was what I call a "kingdom moment". And that is why we do what we do. 

CAV Crew with future homeowner, Anita. It was Anita's closets and pantry I was building shelves in. Anita is in front in blue; if the CAVs keep on schedule she will be in her home by Christmas. 

For most of our travels it is just the two of us so it was lots of fun to spend time with these new friends. When weather permitted we had afternoon "happy hours". Several evenings we went out to eat.

Here are Dan & Scotty holding the table for the rest of us at Dickey's Barbecue for our final evening together. 

Our work days begin with a devotion and prayer circle which concludes with all of us together saying - "Habitat is not a hand out, but a hand up!"

Good times with good friends make good memories. 

Happy trails to all. 

Two weeks in Hobbs, NM

This has been home for the past couple weeks. Our little camper along with five other larger rigs parked in a big empty lot near a dead pecan orchard. We are Care-a-Vanners - a subset of Habitat for Humanity. This was our fourth build experience with CAVs. We met some new folks and got reacquainted with others whom we have worked with at other builds.

 We had some crazy weather. Over two inches of rain in one day and less than a week later many hours below freezing and even a few snow flakes. 

The work was the usual variety. We had all kinds of projects - painting, mudding drywall, tiling floors, framing, finish carpentry, etc. I spent most of my time building closet "innards". Here are a couple of my accomplishments. 

 Today I helped hang some doors and install baseboards. 

 Dan spent most of his time next door and saw lots of progress - 

Last Saturday above - one week later below: 

 I helped on the framing just a bit. In the picture above I am using a Ramset, it is a kind of gun that I hit with a hammer to drive a nail into the concrete slab below the framing. Every strike and bang of gunfire set the neighborhood dogs to barking. You may notice I am quite bundled the temps that day while we worked ranged from 21 at the beginning of the day to a high of 30 when we quit in the afternoon. 

 Here is the ice on the water faucet at the campsite. We had it running to prevent broken pipes. These were the coldest nights we have ever spent in the camper. 

There are times when my muscles ache and I am tired and cold I wonder why I am doing what I am doing... Today I was privileged to share a moment with this woman and to remind myself  of the answer. 

 This is Victoria and two of her children. She is standing in here future front doorway. As I showed above there was a lot of progress made on her house this week. When she saw her new home for the first time this morning she "welled up" with joyous tears. I lack the words to describe it, but that was what I call a "kingdom moment". And that is why we do what we do. 

CAV Crew with future homeowner, Anita. It was Anita's closets and pantry I was building shelves in. Anita is in front in blue; if the CAVs keep on schedule she will be in her home by Christmas. 

For most of our travels it is just the two of us so it was lots of fun to spend time with these new friends. When weather permitted we had afternoon "happy hours". Several evenings we went out to eat.

Here are Dan & Scotty holding the table for the rest of us at Dickey's Barbecue for our final evening together. 

Our work days begin with a devotion and prayer circle which concludes with all of us together saying - "Habitat is not a hand out, but a hand up!"

Good times with good friends make good memories. 

Happy trails to all. 

Milestones and Some Catch-up

We are still 2000 miles from home, but we have completed a circuit of sorts. 

We were in Hobbs, New Mexico for two weeks in April and left here after church on Easter morning. Today we returned to Hobbs for another two week work commitment with Habitat for Humanity. The map above has the states colored in which we visited this year. We don't expect to color any more in for 2014. 

This map covers our camper travels in the three years since Dan retired. There is an obvious blank thru the middle and in the far SE. Delaware, Rhode Island, Alaska & Hawaii are also blank. 

 It was a cool rainy morning when we left the little campground at Hot Springs Nat'l Park. The campground was almost full, complete with generator running neighbors. We soon found some peace and quiet...

With the helpful advise from a Salem Facebook friend we had a nice visit to Northeastern Texas. 

 Our first stop was Laura's Cheesecake shop in Mt Pleasant. The bakery is in the back corner of a thrift store. We bought a couple slices of cheesecake to go and a couple peanut butter cookies with Reese's Pieces in them, over the top good!

 Second stop, we bought a pound of brisket at Texas Bar-B-Que Corral in Mt Vernon. 

 Third stop, Walleye Campground at Lake Cypress Springs. We were alone in a large nice park with hot showers and a great view. 

 I sat outside and quilted in the late afternoon. There were some large jumping and splashing fish and some busy squirrels otherwise just quiet. 

 A heron was hanging out on a boat slip across the water. We ate our brisket before I remembered to take a photo. 

 Here is the cheesecake in two portions topped with the last of our blackberry jam. All delicious. This upper eastern corner of Texas does not resemble any of the cliche images I have ever seen of the state. Lush green pastures and farmland, friendly folks where ever we went. While we were there we started to get the bug to do some Habitat for Humanity work again. We checked with several local affiliates but each only worked on Saturdays if they were building at all. Since it was early in the week we decided to move on. 

 Here is the Red River as we crossed it going into Okahoma. (There is a reflection of my hexagon quilt in the window) Our destination: Chickasaw Nat'l Recreation Area. 

 We found yet another quiet park with hot showers and a nice lake. 

 I waded for the first time since Acadia. 

 Dan found a large clam shell on the beach. 

He even plans to bring it home. 

 I reached a "milestone" on my hexagon quilt... I attached all of the side pieces I have worked on since June. As a reminder this is the "before" image:

 These are most of what I attached. 

I am much closer to the end than I am to the beginning of this project. 

We traveled west across southern Oklahoma. We slowed down to look around in Lawton, the home of Fort Sill, where Dan had his survey training in preparation for his time in Vietnam. The town has grown and Dan did not see anything that stirred any memories from the 19 year old that he was in 1968. I found a nice quilt shop and little more fabric for my next project. 

 From Lawton we turned back south to Texas. Here we found the familiar landscape of the desert southwest. 

We traveled to yet another empty campground where we spent a quiet night with coyote seranaders. The next night, Halloween, we were at free park in Brownfield, TX with hook-ups for electricity. We appreciated the electric heater when we woke to 40 degrees this morning! 

Twenty eight miles down the road we came to the real "milestone" of this post:

The old Ford hit 200,000 miles! We have had a few "fixit" events on the way, but for the most part this red rig has been quite reliable. 

Entering New Mexico. We left Hobbs on Easter. From there we traveled on to California and our daughter's wedding to our wonderful new son-in-law. Since then, we have made a grand circle through our country and returned to Hobbs in time to celebrate All Saints Day. It was no "ordinary time" for us.