Travelling week - Deep in the heart of TEXAS!

Crossing Alabama, Mississippi

 and Louisana....

 We finally arrived in TEXAS.

Even their welcome center is BIG!

Well, they may drive friendly, but it sure is FAST.  Speed limits appear to be only a mild suggestion.

We drove through Houston for what seemed like days, and waived at Beth Moore. 

Then on to San Antonio and spent several days in the area.

 The Alamo

and the beautiful grounds

Then the beautiful "River Walk"

and on the the Buckhorn Saloon and Texas Ranger Museum

As we left San Antonio, we stopped at the Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch for an African Safari, Texas style.

 Below: Aoudad

 Gemsbok

 Giraff

 Damaraland Zebra

 Bison

 White Rhino

 and Ostrich for a few...

and finally, we arrived in Bastrop, Tx and learned that our NOMADS campsite is in the heart of the most severely burned area.  We had time to get settled and be ready to go to work on this fire disaster recovery project.

 We arrived at the campground on 2/22/14

More info about the project in a few days.

Crystal River, Fla. - Week 3

To begin the week, Gary, Mike, Ruthie and Jodi went to the home of a member of Crystal River UM Church and repaired her fence by replacing posts, boards, by straightening and reinforcing collapsing walls, clearing underbrush and doing general yard cleanup.

The next day, Stel & Jodi, stained the new boards and posts, attempted cleaning up on the existing fence and scrubbed the deck and shed leading to the fenced yard.

 

The rest of the week, Mike, Ruthie, Gary & Stel finished their work on the barbeque shed at Crystal River UM Church to include finishing the doors, windows siding and soffit so that the next crew can paint it and finish some inside work.

Jim and Chic spent this week on their knees as the prepped and began installation of additional patio blocks at the church.  They got a lot done and the next crew will be able to finish it  hopefully in short order.

The rest of the crew (Joan, Linda, Pat, Kathy) with on and off help from Chic, Jodi and Ruthie, worked at the new Mission Retail Store, getting things ready to move in.  They cleaned, painted, tore out, built, wired, fixed and whatever the leadership needed for the last 2 weeks.

Friday, we all headed to Fruitland Park, Fla. for the annual Florida NOMADS Reunion Luncheon.  It was a great time meeting new folks and re-acquainting with others.

On the way back to Crystal River, we stopped at "Texas theme" entrance to The Villages.  This is quite the place.

Time to say goodbye to the team,

and to Crystal River UM Church