Tag: RV

The Gratitude of a Community

A Year to Volunteer has taken over Sam Houston Jones State Park for the next two weeks!  This group of ninja volunteers is ready to help with the continued restoration efforts from the devastation caused by Hurricanes Laura and Delta in 2020.

This beautiful park needs a lot of TLC.

Sandy and I were here for a short time between the two storms and the one thing that stood out then was the resilience of this community.

This time around, it’s the gratitude of this community.

From the owner of The Laundromat in Sulphur who let us do Laundry for free when he heard that we were helping, to the A-Plus RV Park who let us dump and fill our tanks, to the Deputy Sheriff who is patrolling the park, to the members of the Henning United Methodist church that we attended with our dear friend, Lori Carter Pritchett who all thanked us for being here to lend a hand, it was nothing but gratitude that was expressed to us.

The material things in this community may have been crushed by those storms, but its spirit was not.

Many people outside the area have forgotten about it, but there is still so much more work to be done.

You may not be able to volunteer for two weeks, but there are other ways to help.

Research how to give and how to help.  I’ll try to get some of our friends in the area to put some links to ways to help in the comments.

Just because it’s not in the news everyday doesn’t mean that the job is complete.

Do what you can with what you have.

Peace.

Read More

A Sense of Belonging

I have always felt a little bit like a round peg in a square hole.

I have a lot of acquaintances, but very few really true friends.

Before traveling full-time, I was heavily involved in our community.  In addition to running my own nonprofit organization, I also served on several other community and nonprofit boards.  But honestly, other than my service on the Berks County Latino Chamber of Commerce board, I never really felt a part of our community.

Maybe it’s because I see things differently than most people.  Perhaps people misunderstand my introverted personality.  I’ve written about this in previous blogs.

Maybe it’s because so many people left me when I needed them at the most difficult times of my life.  I can’t really say for sure; I just know how I have felt.

Read More

We’ve had a couple of Lazy Days Lately!

We were wondering what we were going to do on Wednesday.  Daddy said that we had an extra day before we were scheduled to visit with Lori and TP in Louisiana.  We were going to get gas and then head to the opposite Mississippi Welcome Center for the night.

While we were at the Pilot, mommy and daddy got a text from Shar from A Year to Volunteer.  She told them that she heard that we were in the area and we needed to get our butts over to their project.  Now we knew what we’d be doing on our extra day!

Mommy and daddy were thinking about asking Shar if they needed help because we found out that we were close by, but they didn’t want to be a bother.  Well, Shar made it very clear that they should never feel like that again!

When we got to the project, Shar met us at the end of the road.  We picked her up and she sat next to me in the house on wheels.  I rubbed all up on her so that Domino would know that I was with his mommy!  I’ve had to smell him on my mommy and daddy enough before, now it was his turn to smell me on his mommy!

Read More

I Loved CAP Kid Camp!

Sure enough, as soon as I went out on Saturday morning to do my business, I went right to work making people smile!  First it was a CAP Kid dad, then a CAP Kid Mom and sister and then after breakfast, it was off to the races!  Daddy and I went down the trail to the archery range first and all of the CAP Kids in that group and even some of their parents came over to pet me.  I was making all of them smile!

Then we went to the high ropes course to see the other group of CAP Kids and bingo!  I was at it again!  Letting people pet me and handing out smiles like it was my job!  Well, actually, it is my job and I’m really good at it.

Alice and Zelda might have loved me the most, but it was really too close to call.  All of the CAP Kids loved me a lot.  I loved all of the CAP Kids equally, I didn’t have any favorites at all.  They were all tremendous!

Now I knew why mommy and daddy were so excited about this CAP Kid Camp.  It’s because these CAP Kids and their families are super-duper special!  You see I found out that alopecia is an auto-immune disorder that causes people’s hair to fall out and I don’t mean shedding like I do.  It really falls out.  Depending on what type of alopecia they have, it can be anywhere from small spots to losing all of their hair.  But you know what, these kids were awesome with or without hair.

Read More

A Sense of Accomplishment

I was able to get my newest book, The Journey of My Mother’s Son, Volume I through the editing process and into production.  The cover design has been approved and I’m just waiting on the production team to get everything formatted and ready for print.  Although this is now the third time that I’ve gone through this process, there is always a huge sense of pride and anticipation that goes along with seeing a project through.

The children’s book that I assisted on for Youk has now been sent off to the illustrator and we’re just anxiously waiting to see some of her amazing illustrations come back for review.  It’s a creative process and collaboration that is new to me, which is very exciting and refreshing.

The cover design for my next two books have also been completed and both of the manuscripts have been started.  I am really looking forward to completing this book series and sharing these stories with others.

Read More

Edward Medlin – An Entire Life Lies Ahead

Edward was the youngest member of the discipleship program at the Dream Center of Southeast Texas while Sandy and I were there to volunteer.  At only 18 years old, he originally thought that he’d be entering into his freshman year of college, but God had other plans for him.

He had to get his life right and his addiction under control before God could use him as He had planned.

Read More

Loving the Nomad Life

Many times, throughout our lives, before going full-time, we’ve had conversations with friends talking how they’d love to have a house on the beach or in the mountains or fill in the blank.

The beauty of our nomadic lifestyle is that we can have all of those things and more.

There have been times when we have had our home on a mountain.  There have been times when we have had our home on a beach or within walking distance to the beach.  There have been times when we have had our home in the woods.  There have been times when we have had our home in a desert.  There have been times when we have had our home near a city.  There have been times when we have had our home in the middle of nowhere.  There have been times when we have had our home in the yard or driveway of friends and family.  There have been times when we have had our home on a farm.  There have been times when we have had our home in a minor league baseball stadium parking lot.  There have been times when we have had our home in a rehabilitation center.  There have been times when we have had our home in the middle of a strawberry festival or RV show.  There have been times when we have had our home in a Wal-mart, Cracker Barrel or rest area parking lot.  The list goes on and on.

Read More

It was a House on Wheels Festival!

Every time that mommy and daddy would come back from being inside the second fence, they would smell like some delicious food.  Like funnel cakes, French fries, crepes, pizza, ice cream and all kinds of other stuff.  But they never seemed to bring anything back for me!  What was that all about?  On the rainy day, they did bring some food back to the house on wheels, but they still didn’t share any with me.  They brought back Italian sandwiches with onions and I can’t have onions!  Why would they do such a thing?

Mommy and daddy really enjoyed themselves at the House on Wheels Festival.  Every time that they came back to our house on wheels, they’d talk about how much fun they had and all of the friends that they got to see.  Everyone that they saw at the House on Wheels Festival were people who volunteered with them on one of their A Year to Volunteer projects.

They got to see Phil and Shar every day except for on the rainy day.  I knew when they’d see Phil and Shar because I could smell that Domino character on them when they’d get back.

Read More

Beauty in the Broken

There isn’t one single person on this earth who doesn’t have scars and broken pieces.  Some of those scars may have been self-inflicted.  Some of them may have been caused by other people’s actions.  Some may be easy for others to see and understand.  Most are hidden deep under layers of complexity.  In the end, how we got the scars and how easy they are for others to see really doesn’t matter.  It’s how we heal from them and how we move forward from them that does.

To each other though, we must be more empathetic.

Read More
Loading
Skip to content