OUR PLANS...GOD'S STEPS

In our last post I shared that we were about to begin a two week break in our Habitat building schedule. Several things have happened this past week which have led us to plan out a slightly different path for the second half of our winter here in the south. I will share that a bit later.

We have settled into a nice, small RV Park called Sunny Pines for our two weeks of R&R. It is located right in Sebring. We arrived here on Saturday, Nov. 22, after we broke camp at the Cloverleaf 4H Camp where we stayed during our two week build here. We had the opportunity to break out our bikes and do a little riding at a local state park called Highlands Hammock State Park over the weekend.



The park has a campground, picnic areas, hiking and bike trials as well as a museum about the Civilian Construction Corp, a music performance area and several walking paths which take you out into subtropical areas of the park.



Our plans were to stay at Sunny Pines for our first week and check out some of the local points of interest, like the state park, and then move toward Vero Beach where our next build takes place. Within a couple days we felt that a change was coming our way. The more we experienced the folks at the park and the area, the more we felt that we were to stay here longer so we asked some of the residents if there were any sites open later in the winter. They told us that they understood that the park was all sold out but we went to the office anyhow. The lady in the office told us that there were a couple sites still open so we decided to return here after Christmas to “settle in” to one area for a little different experience.

We will still head to Vero Beach at the end of this week to join a two week Care-A-Vanner build there and then head north for Christmas with our families. After we return, Frannie plans to volunteer at the Habitat Home Store in Sebring part time and I plan to rejoin the local volunteers who work part time with the local Habitat building team we were with last 2 weeks. We may both look for some part time work as well to defray the cost of our site. We’ll share more as it develops. In going through all of this I was reminded of Proverbs 16:9 which says, “In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps.”

We can, and should, make plans for our lives but we should always be mindful of the Lord’s direction and the “course corrections” He often brings into our plans. As believers we have the promise of His direction. There are lots and lots of verses which remind us of the need to trust God and to know that He will guide us. One of my favorites is Proverbs 3:5,6 : “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths.” (or “make your paths straight”) I hope that you, too, are really trusting God to “direct your paths”. I’m tellin’ you, He really will.

The park here has many activities scheduled throughout the week for the residents including worship right here in the park on Sunday mornings. We attended worship here last Sunday and enjoyed the “family”.



We joined many at the park for a group Thanksgiving dinner along with 80 other people! The owners provided turkey, ham and dressing while all of the residents contributed other dishes or desserts to complete the meal. It was a nice time where all of us, away from our own families, could join together as a “family” and share a meal to remember the day. It sure was different but it was nice to be with others in a similar situation. As usually happens, we all ate too much and found time for a little nap later in the day.

We will continue to keep you posted as to our “going ons”. We are enjoying the weather down here (upper 60s to mid 70s and sunny) and we receive regular reports about the weather we are “missing” up North. Just a couple days ago our son, Jason, sent us a picture, via his cell phone, of the snow storm he was driving in so we sent him a picture of Frannie, in her shorts, standing next to a lake behind our park. And speaking of Frannie, here she is with another edition of:

“WHAT I LEARNED ON THE ROAD”



Hi all,

Earlier in this article, Bob referred to the Highlands Hammock State Park, and after seeing numerous signs for Hammock Falls, Golf Hammock, etc., I wondered what exactly a hammock was. (no, this isn’t the hammock you sleep in) A hammock is a forest of broadleaf trees surrounded by pinelands or marshes. Now, isn’t that interesting?

God bless you all. We hope you had a great Thanksgiving with family. All of us have so much to be thankful for. We know that we’ll be seeing our family during Christmas but we hope to continue “seeing” you here at our site as we continue “on the road”.

ANOTHER ONE IN THE BOOKS

Today marks the end of the second Habitat "build" on this winter tour. On this final day of our two week stay there was only the three of us "Care-A-Vanners" and our site construction supervisor, Frank.



Frannie worked on small jobs at ground level and did a major clean up around the site while Frank, Kent and I continued sheathing the roof in preparation for a metal roof.



This build was very different than our first in that we got a chance to not only do some serious painting at one site but we walked onto a concrete slab last Monday morning and spent much of our two weeks building a new Habitat home from the ground up. During our stay we worked with two on site construction supervisors, Robert and Frank along with visits from the overall construction manager, Alan, and our local volunteer coordinator, Nadia. This particular affiliate utilizes Care-A-Vanner teams throughout the winter with major groups coming in January and February after they have spend Christmas in the north and headed south for the duration of the winter.

Frannie and I will spend a week in this area doing some exploring and site seeing. We have located the Highlands Hammock State Park which has bike trails and many walking paths and boardwalks through various sub-tropical environments. We plan to spend some time enjoying the out of doors without a hammer in our hands. Hey, we'll carry a camera instead and share some of what we see. How does that sound?

Before I close out this edition of "On The Road", Frannie has another installment for you to read. We have had many comments about not only this blog but the fun facts that Frannie is discovering and sharing here as well. Please feel free to make comments via the blog or through email. We love to here from y'all.

NEW THINGS I LEARNED ON THE ROAD:



Since we are staying at a campground in Lake Placid, Fla.,a little background history might be interesting, especially for the northern New Yorkers. Lake Placid has endured a number of name changes since the early 1900’s,the last being Wicco, changed by the railroad. By 1926 the Florida building boom resulted in tourists flocking to the town and business sprang up everywhere. In 1927 Dr. Melville Dewey, creator of the Dewey Decimal System for cataloging library books,(you do support your local library…don’t you?) arrived in the area. Finding the area similar to his native Lake Placid, N.Y. due to the lakes, Dr. Dewey had visions of a resort town as the semitropical branch of the Lake Placid Club in the Adirondack Mountains, which he had formed in 1893. In 1927, at Dewey’s urging, the town’s named was changed to Lake Placid by legislative act. Now, wasn’t that interesting? Stay tuned for more interesting and useless facts as we travel “On the Road.”

CHANGE OF PACE

Monday, as I metioned in Sunday's posting, we drove about 45 miles to a closed Captain Dan's restaurant in Okeechobee, FL. We took two large box trucks, two pickups and a trailer along with a crew of 8. We spent the morning stripping all the furniture and appliances that we could and hauled it all back to the Sebring Home Store where it filled most of the downstair storage area and most of an upstairs storeroom as well.



The next time you sit in a Red Lobster or similar chain restuarant try to imagine removing all of that "stuff" and hauling it away. That still won't get you the full picture. There was also about 6 huge deep fryers, prep tables, dishes, trays, cleaning items, etc. all packed into those trucks. And I haven't metioned that there was lots and lots of very old grease coating much of the frying and kitchen equipment

The amazing thing about this job was that by Tuesday afternoon, when we stopped in at the Home Store after work, all the booths and two of the large freezers had already been sold. This will be a nice addition to the sales at the store. It's just one of the many ways that Habitat generates income to help with their goal of providing affordable housing.

Tuesday, it was back to our main building site where we completed work on roof rafters and then started laying plywood on them in preparation for roofing.



Today (Wednesday) we were shifted to another build which we had worked on some last week. We were joined by about 20 retired folks from a local Methodist church for a work day of painting a house we had insulated last week. Along with the volunteers, the Habitat construction supervisors, Frannie struck up a conversation with one couple which resulted in an amazing discovery. The couple had not only known both of Fran's parents as well as my dad. They had rented a store front to Fran's mom at one time. As I got into the conversation as well, we discovered an that an old friend of my family who had gone into ministry was also a common acquaintance as well. What a small world it is. Here we are, 1200 miles from our family and we meet people who lived where we grew up and knew both of our parents.

This whole group of volunteers from the Methodist church volunteer regularly as a group for a "work day" where they join the Habitat builders for a day. A smaller group from within this group is made up of retired men who worked as electricians. They come out on additional days whenever another house is ready to be wired and they provide that service to Habitat. It is great to see so many people who don't just "fly south for the winter" to sit around but who also get involved by sharing their time and talents in such a selfless way. Hey, maybe there's something you can do in your own communities where you do the same thing...share your time and talents through some type of volunteer work. God calls us to be servants, following Jesus' example of servanthood.

One of the other people we met was the wife of the couple who will be buying this particular house. She joined us for a day of painting and was picked up by her husband in the afternoon. It's always great to meet and work with some of the people we are actually building for.

Tomorrow we are back on the main build site where we will be joined by a group of High School students who are doing community service work as well. Last Saturday they joined the crew laying down sod around another nearly completed house and tomorrow they will join us to help put on a roof and maybe even some siding. Friday afternoon will complete our commitment here in Sebring. We will then take a break before heading out to Vero Beach to begin yet another build. We'll be seeing you "on the road".

THERE'S A CHILL IN THE AIR

This post won't be too long today but we wanted to say "Hi" to all you who are following our journey. We are having a little more trouble finding places with WIFI where we can connect at a time convenient to our schedule. This afternoon we are sitting in a Panera Bread store in Sebring sipping our coffee and tea and catching up on our emails of the last 3 or 4 days. If you have written to us we appologize for taking so long to reply.

Yesterday we took some time to look around the city of Sebring. We went to an outdoor flea market where there was everything from fresh picked fruit to squares of freshly cut sod, yup SOD. I guess it's like instant lawn, one square foot at a time. Well we discovered Red Navel Oranges. They are very tasty and the inside is as bright red as fresh red grapefruit...so......we bought a 1/4 bushel and are enjoying them. We took time out to sit in the city park at Lake Jackson where we enjoyed the fresh breezes, watched geckos scamper accross the sidewalk in front of us and soaked up some more Florida sunshine.



I shared something with a couple from our former church in Fowler which I will share with all of you. We tried a different church this morning. It met in the clubhouse of a local RV Retirement Community. There were nearly 400 people there and it was a really nice service. Their pastor, a retired Lutheran, was a very humble, down to earth man. He was being honored for his 30th year in ministry and for completing his 5th year at this church. He and his wife gave their testimony as to how God called them out of a “normal” job in the auto industry and working into ministry in a very unusual way. I kept looking at Fran and smiling. His first church asked him to come and preach for one or two Sundays and, the next thing he knew, he was candidating and was called as their pastor where he served for many years. Can you imagine that?

Tomorrow we will be heading to Okeechobee to remove all the equipment and furniture in a restaurant there which was donated to Highlands County Habitat for Humanity.



It will be a nice change of pace and a BIG change in temperature. Last night a cold front "blew through", littereally. Our trailer got to rockin' and rollin' during the night. We felt like we were trying to sleep on the old Iron Pig. If you know of us and our past that last sentence will make sense. Anyhow, along with the winds we now have forcasts with the highs around 72 degrees. That will certainly make working out in the sun a little different for us "soft" Yankees.

We are seeing truck loads (10 wheelers) of oranges on the highway fairly regularly.



Some are picked very green while others have the more common bright orange color all of us Yankees are used to. As I said before, a future post will include more of what we have learned about the citrus industry.



Today we just wanted to check in with all of you who follow our blog. We are overstaying our welcome here at the Panera bread store so we will close out this edition of "On the Road" and get out there "on the road" ourselves. Actually, we are still wearing our "church clothes" at 4 in the afternoon so it's probably about time we headed back to our home on wheels.

Thanks for checking in on us. We love you all and look forward to meeting you again soon out here "on the road".

WHEN YOU'RE HOT, YOU'RE HOT!

Well, we started work at our new build this week and have logged 4 days now. I would have posted sooner but the Public Libraries here were closed both Monday and Tuesday so this is our first chance to get back on line.

First comment, “boy it’s hot”. Our co-workers who live here all year round say this is just nice and cool to them. We have been in the high 70’s or low 80’s all week with a high of 89 today. With lots and lots of sun we are using lots and lots of sunscreen and drinking lots and lots of water on the job. Every now and then we just have to find some shade while at work too.

And speaking of work, we are having the unique opportunity at this build to start a standard size Habitat house from the ground up. Monday, we stepped on to a finished concrete pad and for the last four days we have been building and raising walls and adding plywood sheathing to the outside.



Things get a little toasty on the concrete but the ice water helps. We work with a different group of local volunteers each day. They come out each week on the same day to offer some help. We are meeting people of all ages, all skill levels and all walks of life. Today I was able to work with a man from Haiti, along with a fellow from Michigan who comes down here with his trailer to work for about 5 to 6 months during the winter. He has a dog, cat, trailer, van and a big Harley which he rides to work most days.

We have had several changes in our work schedule this week. We left one job to set up another home for the pending sheet rocking crew. On another day we left the house raising build to move to another house to add insulation. Just this morning we started our day at yet another location where we poured a concrete driveway and sidewalk. After that job was accomplished the whole crew headed back to the house we are raising and worked the reminder of the day.

As with our last build the local Habitat affiliate, Highlands County Habitat for Humanity, also has a Home Store where they sell used furniture, dishes, books, fixtures, construction items, etc.. The funds which are raised provide income for operating expenses plus money to put toward more homes. I was told by one Habitat member that these stores can generate enough income over a two month period to provide funds for another house. These affiliates work through local donations and fund raisers as well as grant money to provide these homes. As a matter of fact, I was told Tuesday by the Construction Director that he was contacted just an hour or two before with a donation of a complete restaurant’s fixtures. Plans are underway for our whole Monday crew to load up the trucks and head to Okachobee, FL where we will strip out the restaurant’s equipment including kitchen equipment as well as booths, tables ,cabinets, etc.. All of these will be brought back to the home store to be sold. It’s amazing how these different “fund streams” grow together to create the necessary funds for building yet another home.

I am mindful of a scripture verse. In Proverbs 29:18 it says: “Where there is no vision the people perish.” I am reminded that Habitat, and those who serve in this ministry, have a vision of what can be done when people get an idea, dream large and then get busy. Two of the homes this affiliate has recently worked on were older homes which were donated. The one Frannie and I got to walk through Monday morning was actually moved off the lot where it was built and relocated to another part of the town. As you can imagine there was, and still is, lots of remodeling to be done. But someone who is looking for a home can purchase one of these at a much lower cost and still have a solid, nice, comfortable home in which to raise their families. We continue to learn more about this ministry with each new experience. We will continue to share what we learn with you so that you may get a better picture of what Habitat is all about. Who knows, it may inspire you to become involved with a local Habitat affiliate or, like Frannie and me, maybe you, too may want to go “on the road” to learn more as you offer yourselves in a similar way. Hey, who knows, maybe someday soon we will literally meet each other “on the road”. Next time I'll write more about the acres and acres of orange groves we drive by every day. We have tasted some of the local fruit and it is delicious. Until next time, God bless .

THINGS I LEARNED ON THIS TRIP! by Fran

Periodically I will share new information(to me, at least)that I will be sharing with you. Today's subject is GATORS: Gators don't just chomp away at you. They grab you in their jaws, drag you underwater and hold you there till you drown.(pretty picture, isn't it?)Then they carry you to their dining room for an undisturbed feast. Snowbirds (read Bob & Fran) will be glad to know that gators are summertime eaters. They give up eating in winter months and just coast along on stored up fat. This info came from the brochure "A guide to living with alligators" (living with?)

INTO THE FLORIDA SUNSHINE

I need to appologize about todays posting. I am having trouble downloading the photos I wanted to show you so there won't be any in this article. Check back in a day or two and I hope to have that corrected. In the meantime, here's our latest post.

We arrived in Florida on Thursday and stayed in the Gainsville area. As we entered the state on Interstate 75 we decided to stop at the Florida Welcome Center and, walking into the center we were greeted by a woman behind the counter who asked everyone who walked in: "Hi. Would you like a nice cold glass of fresh Florida orage or grapefruit juice?" She was right. It was cold and delicious. It tasted like a glass of Florida sunshine. (Sound like an OJ commercial don't I?) Oh yes, the temps reached up into the low 80s ad it finally happened. Frannie and I put on our shorts.

On Friday we completed this leg of our journey when we set up our 2 week camp in the parking lot at Camp Cloverleaf, a 4H camp located in Lake Placid, FL and operated by the University of Florida. Several years ago when the local Habitat organization was trying to establish a place fo Care-A-Vanners to "hook up" they worked with the university, 4H and local leaders and set up a number of "hook ups" (electric & water) right in the parking lot of the camp. We arrived a couple days early so we set up at the end of the parking lot closest to the camps buildings and Lake June beyond. Since there is a private group there for the weekend we were unable to walk the grounds to take some pictures to share but they will appear in a future post.

On our journey through Florida we drove by many cotton fields, bursting with white and waiting for harvest. It was amazing and quite saddening to realize how many years the harvesting of these large fields were accomplished through slave labor. Isn't it interesting that just this past week our country elected the first African-American to the highest office in the land. Regardless of your political leanings, it is a huge step for a nation who, not that many years ago, held members of that race in such low regard and contempt. Scripture reminds us that, in God's eyes, we are all the same. The Bible says that He only sees two groups of people here on earth, those who are saved and those who are not. I hope that all of you reading these blogs are in the first group. If not, please email me at so I can share more.

As we drove further south in Florida we finally started seeing the orange groves we had been looking for. In the central Florida region there is so much new development taking over the former groves of citrus trees but as we got below Winter Haven we started seeing more of them. Actually, there is a large grove accross the street from our home at the 4H Camp.

Today (Saturday) we decided to look around the city of Lake Placid, Fl. It is a beautiful little town which is filled, and I mean filled, with huge wall covering murals. When I get the downloading problem fixed I will post some in this article.
They are amazing. As Frannie and I walked about town we discovered that every trash can was painted or shaped in some unique way.

Tomorrow afternoon we will be meeting with our Highlands Habitat for Humanity hosts. We expect that we will also be meeting our co-Care-A-Vanners before then. We are told that there are only 4 units for this build. In the past there were many more. We are hoping that through our blog and our sharing with others about this winter's experience that more of you may want to try out this interesting experience. We will, as always, keep you posted as to how things are going and what we are learning. In the meantime, thanks again for coming along with us on this journey and we look forward to seeing you "on the road".

GEORGIA ON MY MIND

We spent today driving through Georgia...well most of the way through it. We stopped tonight at Perry, GA to let the truck, and us, rest up for the night. Gotta let those horses have some down time ya know. We saw a lot of color in the trees today which surprised us a little. The reds and yellows were much brighter that we had seen since the glorious colors of NY and PA at the start of our trip.



We had been told by our hosts last night outside of Greenville, NC that they were experiencing serious draught conditions. One of the ponds on their property had dried up completely and one was so low that the floating swim platform was resting on the dried up sloping bottom of the pond.



As we drove down Interstate 75 today through Georgia we passed large lakes which were down 10 feet or more, exposing lots of shoreline and leaving cottage docks which lined the lakes sitting high and dry.



One unexpected "event" happened today when we stopped to fuel up at a Flying J Truck Stop in Jackson, GA. I (Bob) noticed something hanging down under the truck as we walked back out from our rest stop. It was the tailpipe of the truck which had rusted through just behind the muffler and was hanging close to the ground. So....we drove around to the back of the parking area among all the "big dogs" like the tiger striped truck in the photo below.



I crawled under the truck and wired the tailpipe back to the muffler. A couple hundred miles later it is still holding. Guess we'll see if it makes it all the way to Florida?



Weather has been great, 73 degrees and sunny, and we continue to meet interesting people all along the way. The forecast for tomorrow is sunny with temps nearing 80 degrees. We're lovin' it! We plan to head out in the morning and drive into Florida. We may or may not try to go all the way to Sebring. A lot will depend on when we get out on the road and what happens along the way. Either way we will be there by Sunday when we have our orientation with the Habitat Team from Indian River Habitat for Humanity on Sunday afternoon. Traffic wasn't too bad but we always appreciate the prayers of our friends and family as we travel down the highway at speeds up to 70MPH with 4 tons trailer following closely behind us. By the way, diesel was under $3 today and regular gas is nearing the $2 mark down here. Hope you folks up north are enjoying a break in the price as well.

Today we want to give a big Georgia "Hey!" to two of our young friends and their mom who are following our journey via this blog. They are Colter, Alayna and Sheila Davison who live up in Fowler, NY. "Hey, y'all. Ha y'all doin'?" We're so glad y'all are followin' us transplanted yankees down here in the sunny south."

Love to you all, excuse me...love to "y'all" and we'll be seeing you "on the road".

HEADIN' SOUTH

We left Siler City, NC on Monday morning and headed south. We settled in at an RV park located outside Greenville, SC. Since we don't need to be in place at Sebring, FL until Sunday, we decided to spend Tuesday in Greenville. We found a city which has worked very hard to bring beautiful development to the downtown area.



Much of the four lane Main Street has been reduced to two lanes to provide lots of space for trees, benches and wide walkways. The tall trees form a canopy which cover Main Street much of the distance along the development. There are many new, tall buildings as well and at least two huge buildings currently under construction with others being planned.

The Reedy River flows through the downtown Greenville area and was, at one time, lined with mills and heavy industry. Now this same area is filled with paved walkways, amazing foot bridges, beautiful shops and artist studios, many of whom are working at their craft just outside their studio doors.



There are ducks meandering up and down the river looking for a handout from those enjoying the waterside benches. And everywhere you look there are water falls and fountains. There are falls in the river as well as multilevel, manmade waterfalls flowing down between huge buildings. There is a children's fountain area with a railroad theme complete with pulsating bursts of water which they can play in, railroad tracks painted on the sidewalk and an old steam engine just peaking out from a tunnel. There are several other fountains located along Main Street along with plazas with chairs and tables where people gather to relax, chat, read, drink coffee or whatever. There is a wide variety of shops all along Main Street with just about anything one can imagine on display for sale.



Bob sampled the coffee from one of the many coffee shops while Fran was drawn to an ice cream shop which mixed items such as crushed candybars, chocolate chips, crushed nuts, etc. into one of the many different flavors of ice cream available and served in a waffle cone or bowl being made fresh before your eyes. Oh yes, she didn't eat ice cream alone! Temps today rose to about 72 degrees with lots of sunshine.



Tomorrow we will, once again, hit the road as we head south on Interstate 85. We hope to be well into Georgia by tomorrow night leaving one more driving day needed for us to reach our destination. So, until our next post we'll say "thanks" to all who keep us in their thoughts and prayers and look forward to seeing you, as always, "on the road".

GOODBYE NORTH CAROLINA - FLORIDA, HERE WE COME!

Our first Habitat build is now “in the books”. We had a great experience working with all the folks at the Chatham Habitat for Humanity. Daily we had the opportunity to work with the other members of our ‘Care-A-Vanners’ team as well as local volunteers, a great trio of Americorps youth, and Habitat staff.

Though the make up of the crew was different daily, two faces who were almost always there together leading us were the construction supervisors, Gabriela and Jack.



These two leaders worked daily with all of us, guiding us in not only what needed to be done but how to do it. They demonstrated skill and great knowledge of their craft while, at the same time showing patience and a positive attitude as they encouraged the volunteers all day long. You would often hear Jack saying “great job, guys”, “awesome work”, “way to go” and other uplifting words to make the day’s activities better. He would begin the workday with, “There’s three things we want to do today: work safely, have fun together, and get some things accomplished.” These two professionals were, in large part, responsible for our having such a positive and enjoyable experience. Our sincere thanks go out to both of them.

We had the opportunity to work with a wide variety of local volunteers. There were old bikers, a father & daughter team, a group of local men, a ladies group, individuals and groups who travelled on a once a week basis from up to 40 miles away to help build affordable housing for families who need it.



We met, and worked with, some of the families who will be buying the very homes we were helping to build. We learned that Habitat does so much more for these families than just build houses. They provide training and classes in areas such as job skills, credit counseling and personal finance, community relationships and community building. We worked in a section of housing where people were living in, and maintaining, very nice, modest homes where you could see small gardens, flower beds, well kept yards with children playing in safety. We are beginning to get a better picture of the larger mission of Habitat…building a sense of community, of home, one house at a time.



If any of our newfound friends at the Chatham Habitat for Humanity read this blog we want to offer you our personal thanks for your warm welcome and encouragement. And also to our new friends, Nancy and Richard Peter, who hosted our Care-A-Vanner team at their horse farm…thank you so much.



We want to send a special southern greeting to our nephew Ben Wypij who, along with his family, follows our blog. “Hey Ben, how y'all doin’? Aunt Fran and Uncle Bob send a big "HEY" out to y'all."

Now we head south to warmer temps (we hope) and new experiences at our next Habitat build. Please keep checking in on our progress and please pray for safe travel as we head out on Monday morning. We look forward to hearing from you and seeing you “on the road”.