NOMADS Project 1

Welcome our new followers Teri, Kenny/Angela and Lady Dyna Ryder. Thanks for coming on board. Hope you enjoy our adventure.

Our first NOMADS project was a success. We completed all of the major tasks assigned plus a few others we discovered as we were working. Our new RV friends have all moved on to other places. Overall, it was a great experience and super blessing to see how God put together a team of volunteers who had the experience needed to get the job done.

In my previous post, I failed to give you a little info on Odem  and Sinton.  We parked in the overflow parking lot of First United Methodist Church Odem and worked about 7 miles away at First United Methodist Church Sinton.  Our team project report is available here. I must warn you it is a large file.

Odem was platted in 1909 and contains about about 1.1 square miles of land. The city is located about 20 miles north of Corpus Christi on US Highway 77. The city is at the intersection of two major rail lines that are heavily used today. I am certain the locals are accustomed to the train whistles as they approach the many street intersections. For fine dining, I highly recommend the Seafood Railroad Station.

Sinton is the county seat of San Patricio county so it hosts the county court house as well as the San Patricio County Fair Grounds. Sinton is also at the crossroad of two major railroads as well as US Highways  77 and 181. Colonel George W. Fulton, founder of the Coleman-Fulton Pasture Company, received approval from the board of directors to give 640 acres for the town site of Sinton on the south bank of Chiltipin Creek in the late 1880’s. For fine dining, I highly recommend Back Street Café and Flores Mexican Restaurant.

Our NOMADS team was given a private tour of the Welder Wildlife Foundation. This 7800 acre refuge is one of the largest private wildlife refuges in Texas. For additional information about this gem, please visit Texas State Historical Association On Line. They have an incredible collection of over 400 bird species and 55 mammal, amphibians and reptiles. They have a large library containing over 24,000 individual books and journals some dating to pre 1800. All of this is available for research to college students and research scientists.

At the end of our three week project, Carol and I made a quick overnight trip to San Antonio for Carol to pickup her new Viking Embroidery Sewing machine. We had time to include a quick visit with Carol’s sister Donna.

Thanks for stopping by.

The Adventure Begins

What we figured to be a quiet last week at Colonia del Rey RV Park turned into a scurry of activities. We completed a bunch of small projects that took longer than expected.
On selling the house -  inspections are completed, workers are busy fixing a couple of issues discovered during inspection. We are still on track for a closing in 30 days or so.
One of the projects on my list was mounting a piece of metal art on a display board. The metal art belonged to our pastor from St. Luke’s Methodist Church. That sounds simple enough unless you know I like complicated over simple.
Here is Pastor Pamela and the finished project.  From the intersection, there are 12 segments of Yellow Heart that radiate outward. The natural shine of the yellow heart wood represents the Shekinah Glory of God. (Ezekiel 1:4; Ezekiel 1:27-28; Ezekiel 8:2) and Christ as the glory of God. (Ezekiel 1:28; 2 Cor. 4:6; Rev. 21:23)
The 12 segments represent the 12 tribes of Israel (Gen. 29:31–30:24; 35:16-20), the 12 Apostles (Matthew 10:2–4), and the 12 heavenly foundations in the New Jerusalem (Revelation 21:19-20).
Saturday morning, we had our usual breakfast with Margaret and Margie. This has been a standing breakfast tradition for many years. Margaret is a CPA. She shares a home with her mom. While the relationship with Margaret and Margie began through Carol, it has grown through the years to include me. For the next 6 weeks, we will still be able to see them, just not weekly.
Saturday was also moving day. We packed most of the RV on Friday afternoon to make things easier on Saturday. Slides in, stinky slinky, water and power disconnected, trailer hitched – we pulled out waving to friends as we left our site. We stopped at the office to let them know our site was empty and gave Roxy a Poinsettia plant Carol had received. Roxy said they would plant it on the property. How cool, the Pearson Poinsettia has a permanent home. 
About an hour after we pulled out of Colonia del Rey we arrived at our new location – the overflow parking lot of First United Methodist in Odem, TX. That parking lot has hookups for 6 RVs. Our team will have a team meeting Sunday evening to discuss the work that needs to be done. We may be parked in Odem but we will be working in Sinton about 7 miles away because the work site in Sinton does not have hook ups. We will be working four six-hour days for the next three weeks.

5 Days and Counting

There is a little anxiety in the air around WagginTailsRV. In 5 days, we embark on a journey that will forever change our lives. Today we traveled to San Patricio Fair Grounds in Sinton to check on final arrangements for the Obedience Club of Corpus Christi AKC Obedience and Rally Trials. Had to make sure of the layout for the rally rings for the competition. Carol is show chairperson for this event which means she is responsible for making sure everything goes according to plan.

While we were there, we drove by the places we will be parked and working for the next six weeks.  Our NOMADS assignment begins Monday Jan 9th. So we are on our final week here at Colonia del Rey. In the past several weeks, we have met some pretty cool people. George and Karin Kilgore are from Colorado Springs. They have moved on to San Antonio for a few days, then will head south for Donna, Tx where they will meet up with some friends. George and Pam are from Iowa. He loves fishing and Texas Hold’em. They are here for the duration of winter. Denny and Barb are from Pennsylvania. Denny is a retired steel worker. They recently lost their Golden Retriever so we share Cody with them. Dick and Nancy along with Kern and his wife are retired truckers. Dick and Kern bailed us out of a jam when we went to Houston for Christmas.  They jointly decided they would help me replace a flat tire with the spare tire on our truck.  They will be here for the winter also.  These are just a few of the folks we have met since being here.

On our way back from Sinton, we passed a couple of motor homes headed South into Corpus Christi. After one more stop we finally got back home and discovered the motor homes we had passed earlier where sitting in Colonia del Rey. One of them was just a couple of sites from us. After walking the fur babies and getting a few minor things done around our home, I decided to go meet the neighbors. I took them a copy of the weekly schedule of activities. Dave and Joy along with Tom and his wife were the two couples we passed on the highway. They are from Montana.

Tom introduced himself by saying, “Hello, my name is Tom, Shalom.” That caught my attention. Dave and Tom are entering the world of full time RVing. Joy asked if we were planning on workamping. After a few more questions I had the opportunity to share how God moved us into retirement and this lifestyle we are about to begin.

Last night, before I dozed off, I read my daily devotional that was  based on Hebrews 11:8 - "By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going."
When Abraham left his comfort zone to go where God told him to go, he had no idea what lie ahead other than God had instructed him to go. Abraham stepped out in faith with the confidence that God would fill in the details as needed.

In 5 days, we begin our journey - in faith with the confidence that God knows what He is doing.

We are going to miss this place. God will take us to other places where we will meet more cool people. Life is about to get super good.

Thanks for stopping by.