What old people can do.

Dooly Campground
Vienna, GA

We have completed our second week of volunteering with NOMADS at Dooly Campground.  We have a week left to go and lots more we want to get accomplished.

2010 was our first year of volunteering at various United Methodist agencies through the  NOMADS ( nomadsumc.org ) organization.  Dooly was our 3rd project.  When we returned here two weeks ago, we were delighted to see so many improvements.   Likewise, our team of 9 are adding our skills and talents to further improvements.

Our parking site:

Some of our projects:

This is the Ritz, Marriott and Hyatt.  We stained and polyed their bathroom floors.

We gutted their bathhouse area.  Then painted walls, build new partitions and ceilings, added electrical outlets and more plumbing.   No, this is not where the toilets usually sit.  EEW.  We promise to place them in their proper locations.

We improved the ball field area by painting the restroom and improved some RV sites for future use.

We built tables from reclaimed wood and built new pews for the Tabernacle.

What a perfect time to visit Georgia with the Dogwoods in full bloom.

We fixed plumbing in various areas, repaired three washers and dryers, made curtains for the Conference Room and Motel 6 and Super 8 dorms.  Also installed cellphone charging stations, replaced damaged ceiling tiles, removed and replaced floors tiles and did a whole lot of small stuff.

Amazing what 9 old people can do.

St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge

St. Marks, FL

While traveling, I am always on the lookout for a National Wildlife Refuge.  Searching for one nearby by, I found info on

So this morning we drove the 65 miles south to this refuge on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico. There are 75 miles of trails winding through diverse habitats.  We walked two trails each about a mile.

After visiting the Visitors Center and looking at the displays we drove the 8 miles through the refuge toward the Gulf to see the historic St. Marks Lighthouse

Over time minor and major storms have struck this section of the coast severely damaging or destroying the keepers home but the tower continues to stand almost 200 years later.  The lighthouse will be open to the public once this building is repaired from the damages of time, termites, age and weather.

On our walks and the drive we saw, among others:

Greater Scaup

Common Gallinule

Double Crested Cormornant

Little Blue Herons

Young nesting Eagle

Heron

Great White Heron

Peligans

We ate the lunch I packed at the refuges picnic area.  These beggars came for handouts.  I did not use the zoom on the camera to take their pictures.  They actually came this close.

Well yea, they got some of our lunch.  I suppose they knew from experience this would happen.

Aside from winged wildlife there were also these:

Until next time.....

Eastbank COE

Bainbridge, GA

Here we are "on the road" again.   But first....

We had some clean up time back home.

This is just one of many piles of debris, limbs, dead trees, etc which we are in the process of cleaning up.   A bit of diesel and a match and then this.

Which all comes down to this:

There are more piles waiting for us when we get back there in 4 weeks.

Here is Leonard on my Valentines day gift.

It's red.  It's mine.  Ideal for a Valentine.

Yesterday we hooked up the RV and drove 307 miles to Eastbank Corps of Engineers park on Lake Seminole.  This lake lies within the borders of both Georgia and Florida and has 37,500 acres of water and 376 miles of shoreline.    This is a typical COE park.....clean, well tended and beautiful scenery.  Close to perfect.....50 amp electric and water, if only it had sewer.  (So tonight it's the shower house.)  And the added benefit of the Golden Age Federal Pass of 50% off making it just $12.00 a night.  Gotta love it.

We are parked right on the edge of the lake on a level 100 ft site.

This is the couple who live next door:

We'd invite them over for dinner but we didn't bring Len's gumbo pot with us.

The dam across the lake.

The campground is in Georgia but the drive out of the park puts us in Florida.

We will be here til next Friday when we move about 110 miles north to Vienna, Ga to start a three week NOMADS (nomadsumc.org) project

Until next time.