What's Next?

Don and Vicki...

"You've just finished two weeks at a Habitat for Humanity build. What's next?"

"We're going to Disneyworld"!

Habitat for Humanity, Dade City, FL - Part 5

Habitat for Humanity, Dade City, FL - Part 3

From this... we will make a house! Amazing isn't it?

Wednesday morning we're up and at 'em once again by 8:00 am. A quick devotion and we go over the updates for the day, etc. We head over to the build site and they bring the lumber that has been pre-marked, cut, etc. for the house. It's kind of like putting a puzzle together as everyone helps to unload the trailer!

We lay out the walls on the concrete and once that's done, we start nailing...a wall at a time! We actually put up the north and south wall in two parts because of the weight and size. I learned all kinds of things about constructing houses and can tell you the various names of the parts of a wall! Aren't you impressed? Once we had the first half of the wall done we set it up. We couldn't bolt it down tight because the concrete really hadn't had the time, with the rain and the weather, to set up properly. We braced it inside and continued on. We were able to get both halves of the north wall up.

Today another homeowner provided us with lunch. A soup that had pieces of corn on the cob and chicken in it. Lots of other stuff too, but I don't remember what it was! :-) It was very good! The home owners are all so appreciative of all that the members of Habitat do for them.

Valentine's Day!

Had a nice surprise this afternoon when our friends, Rick & Joanne Stone showed up at the Dade City Habitat for Humanity Build that we are at. They were just in time to see Don fall off the back of a truck Lew was driving! Lew thought that Don was trying to pull a fast one on him, Don thought that Lew was trying to knock him off the back. Guess you learn that you shouldn't be riding on the tail gate of a truck! Good thing was that he landed on grass, Lew was only going about 15 mph and the other is that Don wasn't hurt. He may be a litte sore tomorrow though!

Enjoyed some time to relax and catch up for the past few days and then we all headed out for dinner. It is Valentine's Day after all! We drove to Zephyhills and had dinner at Chilis. We did have a wait of over an hour, which Don handled well!

We were able to show off the house that we are working on and the steps, gate and hand-rail that Don & Lew have been working on the past few days at the Train Depot which is where the office is for East Pasco County Habitat for Humanity! I'm going to keep this short and hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to share some of my pictures of our "build"!

Habitat for Humanity, Dade City, FL - Part 2

Tuesday morning...up again at 8:00. The concrete is supposed to arrive around 9:00 am for the foundation. Don is working on the steps at the train depot. I went over to the build site to take pictures and have kind of been dubbed as "the official photographer"! The concrete arrives - almost 1-1/2 hours late and the fun begins! The foundation takes 3 loads of concrete and the guys work quickly to get it into all the nooks and crannys (sounds kind of like an english muffin...doesn't it?) They get the foundation poured and the slab for the shed when it starts to rain. They delayed pouring the concrete the day before because of the threat of rain and no rain...today there is no call for rain and guess what!

We quickly start to cover what we can with plastic which means that some of the concrete had to be walked on! Wet cement means large footprints that sink into the cement. The guys backtracked through their footprints and smoothed them over! Since it was raining, nothing more that I could do. I drove over to the train depot to check on the progress of the steps and found Don and Rick (Lew was sick and wasn't there) under the overhang still working. The steps, are quickly becoming the "steps from hell"!

Habitat for Humanity, Dade City, FL

Some of you may know that we are currently in Dade City, FL where we are part of the East Pasco Habitat for Humanity Build Team. We are working on House #43! We arrived here on Sunday with our friends, Dottie & Lew Anderson who actually "talked us into" this! We were also supposed to be joined by Marie & Dave Ostrander (other Monaco friends of ours) but Dave was diagnosed with cancer about a month ago and is currently undergoing treatment in Dallas. We were met by our Team Leader, Barri Amor and quickly got settled in. We have electric, water and even sewer! There are 9 members from FMCA Habitat for Humanity and 7 Habitat for Humanity RV Caravaners (FMCA is an organization strictly for motorhomes, hence the RV Caravaners).

On Sunday evening we had a "get acquainted" meeting with our team so that we could meet everyone and hear where they were from, how many builds they had done, etc. Don and I are the only "first timers". We found out that our "house" has been beset with problems, failing the soil compaction test, weather, etc. In fact, the foundation hadn't even been poured yet! We also were told how the build normally takes place and basically what we could expect. We "work" from 8:00 - 2:30 or 3:00 with a break at 10:00 am and lunch at 12:00. Different people and groups feed us lunch each day. We "work" Mon - Sat. with Sunday off (usually). At 8:00 am we meet, get a brief synopsis of the day, are told about any changes, etc. and have a daily devotion. Gather our tools and materials and off we go! We also go over work safety and then our meeting was over! Heavy hors devours are the norm and this night was no exception!

Monday morning dawns bright and clear. The biggest problem was there was no work since the foundation hadn't been poured yet. The concrete that is supposed to be delivered later this afternoon has been postponed because of the possibility of rain. It will be delivered on Tuesday. Odd jobs were handed out around the build site, a previous house, loading supplies, steps at the HfH office (a historical train depot) and a few others. It was also "suggested" that some of us may like to go to Webster to see the Flea Market there, which is only open on Monday! We were asked to be back by noon, though, since a local church was bringing us lunch. Eight of us headed off to Webster, Lew started off helping to load lumber on the trailer, and Don joined up with another guy to build the steps at the train depot (that's a whole other story)! Webster is about 1/2 hour away but it has to be the biggest flea market I've ever seen! It stretches forever and has booths here there and everywhere! Didn't purchase too much. Dottie and I started off going down rows of produce. We decided to hit that area on our way back, but ended up running out of time and only had the chance to quickly purchase a thing or two when we were leaving! I'm sure there were lots of great bargains, but in a motorhome you only have so much room and when that gets filled, well...you get the picture! :-) Got back in time for lunch and I can't remember what we ended up doing after that! After time to get cleaned up, we met around 5:00 for a brief meeting and heavy hors devours! Hey, I could get used to this...after heavy hors devours, you don't need to cook dinner! :-)

Wildwood, FL

Finally made it to the Monaco Service Center in Wildwood, FL. We are a few days later that we were supposed to with no kitty and less money. We ended up having to purchase two new tires after our alignment at Josams showed extreme wear on the two front tires of the motorhome. Unlike car tires...the tires had to be ordered and run about $500 - EACH! Yikes! Wait until we have to call our financial advisor for some extra $$ this month! I always tell him that I feel like I'm asking my dad for money...even though it's our money!

We had to be at the tire dealer at 8:30 this morning. It wasn't too long before they had the new tires mounted and back on the coach and we were ready to roll. Wildwood is about an hour north-west of Orlando. We had to wait until 4:00 to find out if we would get a space, but we lucked out and got one. Our service writer has said that we should be able to stay here until Monday when we meet up with everyone to go into the Brooksville FMCA SEA (South East Area) rally.

Lots of coaches from the rally are here, but since it's a few days after the rally...they are slowly leaving as their work is finished. One of the first things I saw was this sign...

Haven't seen an alligator yet, but there is a picture in the lobby of the "Monaco Alligator". While we were waiting for a space, I tookTess to an open space and gave her a bath. Figured since she was clean, I could take her picture! These trees are at the "back side" of the pond. I have no idea what it is that's hanging off the branches, but it's certainly worth a picture!

Not A Good Day...

This has not been a good day. I had to say good-by today to one of my best friends, Maggie. Yes, he was a cat, but he was a great friend. The past few days you could see that he wasn't doing well. It had been a struggle to get him to eat and he wasn't eating enough to sustain himself. I had said when I first found out that he had bone cancer that I didn't want him to be in pain or to suffer, but even with the pain medicine I was giving him, it wasn't enough.

Maggie's tumor had grown but he didn't seem to let it get in his way. He still liked to jump up on the counter to have a drink of fresh water (that's where he is in the first/top picture). The past few days he was very restless and no longer sleeping with me during the night. He'd lay down for a few minutes, but then leave. Not his normal self.

I have to say, that the veteranarian that I found here in Orlando, was top notch. She made sure that Maggie was comfortable even with that big lump on his leg. Maggie was ready...he didn't even struggle when we laid him down. He laid quietly as I rubbed his neck and his ears...one of his favorite places for me to scratch. It was over in just a minute and he was at peace and no longer in pain. I wish I could say the same...my heart is hurting but I know that I made the right decision. The vet told me that I made the right decision as well. She told me that you could see he was losing weight and his muscles were losing their tone. I knew it and apparently Maggie knew it as well.

Good by Maggie...I'll miss you.

May 1992 - January 2007

Winter Garden, FL

Decided to find out where we were going to need to go on Monday when we have our appointment at Josam's to get the motorhome aligned. First though, we had to drive to the AAA office to pick up the Florida Tourbook that they forgot to give me when I was there the other day! It was 16 miles from our campground to AAA. It took us more than 45 minutes to get that far! We never saw anything to make it take so long, but there was lots of traffic and lots of lights! I finally called them to see if they would leave the book outside if I didn't make it - I did make it...with only a minute to spare! Florida traffic on Saturday sucks!

From there it wasn't too bad finding Josam's, but it was even easier to get to the motorhome! Before we went home I decided to drive through the historical district of Winter Garden. There was a small museum and an even better Railroad Museum. The museum curator for the Railroad Museum was a neat guy to talk to and Don was able to tell him of some of our visits to various Railroad Museums in our travels and those while in California. Trust me when I say he had lots of things in a small place! At the Winter Garden Museum we discovered that on Jan. 23, 1998 a TORNADO came through and created a wide path of destruction! TORNADO? We thought only hurricanes were in Florida! Between museums we stopped at Downtown ?? for an ice cream. It was pleasant sitting outside and interesting to see all the people riding through the middle of town on the bike trail. The bike trail is where the railroad used to run through town!

Went back to the motorhome and waited for awhile before barbecuing hamburgers! It took awhile since we weren't very hungry after having ice cream, but boy, was that ice cream worth having! :-)

Stuck...in the mud!

Today was the last day of our "Shipwrecked in Orlando" rally. One by one everyone left the fairgrounds. Everyone left on their own power...except this one! This guy (who we don't know...and he probably wants to keep it that way) drove into soft, wet dirt...otherwise known as mud! With the weight of most of our motorhomes it proved to be too much and he got stuck! A tow truck was called and there was quite an audience as the tow truck pulled the motorhome out of the mud! I told Lew that if he had gotten donuts we could have sold them and made a profit off those that were watching!

We had a great time at the rally! It's always fun to meet up with friends that you have made at other rallies or on the road. Of course, we drink and eat way too much! On Monday, the day "before" the rally, Monaco had heavy hors devours and wine. This is when they opened up the coaches for all of us to get a "preview" of them. Tuesday morning was our first breakfast, seminars, crafts, the vendors opened up for business, and once again the coaches are available for viewing. Later that afternoon we enjoyed "Rum Runner Punch", went in for another great dinner and finished off with some great entertainment! Wednesday morning was breakfast again, a craft class where we made a sun catcher with crystals, beer and wine (we skipped this - it was too cold AND rainy), dinner and another night of entertainment! Thursday morning we once again had breakfast, but this day we had to get there in the rain! Luckily it was only sprinkling by the time we went to breakfast and the rain seemed to stop for the rest of the day. I left to do some shopping (Target, Bath and Body, Pier One...had fun browsing!) and made it back in time for dinner. Once again, we skipped the Champagne social they had but made it in for dinner and entertainment. I think I forgot to mention that there is a "happy hour" before dinner so missing the socials isn't a big deal! Our entertainment at this rally was a performance by a country group out of Branson, a comedian and a Motown "impersonating" group. They were all fun to watch!