Tuesday, April 30, 2013, the last day of April.  Time sure has flown so far this year.  It seems like it has only been a few weeks since we started on our journeys.  We have been to Texas for two projects, home for a short time, and now in Tennessee after being in Kentucky for three weeks.  Staying busy and working all day makes the time pass quickly.

Since Friday we have done a little bit of sight-seeing around the area.  Of course Friday was a day to rest and do laundry.  We started a little late in the morning since we slept a little late, me till about 0630, and Sharon till about 1000.  We finally got out of the RV around 1300 and headed into town to the laundry mat, and to get some lunch.  Since Pizza Hut is right next to the laundry mat, we ate lunch there again like we did last week.  We then made our weekly trip to WalMart.  NOMADS are big WalMart shoppers.  WalMart even has some RV supplies.  That makes getting some of the supplies we need for waste tanks, electrical, and some plumbing, easy.  There are more WalMarts than there are RV supply stores.

The rest of Friday was spent relaxing, primarily since it was raining.  It rained for three days straight here.  There was a lot of flooding in the central part of Tennessee.  We are located on Kentucky Lake, part of the Tennessee River.  The water level got very high.  The swimming beach here at the camp had some picnic tables floating along the shore.

Saturday we decided to get out and do something besides stay in the RV and watch the rain.  We headed for downtown Camden, TN.  We were told that there were several nice second hand/antique shops in town.  Don't know where these people have been, but the shops were not worth the time we spent getting out of the car to go in.

We left town and again headed for WalMart.  This time I had a real reason to go to WalMart.  One of the nose supports on my glasses had broken off.  I went to the vision center to get a new set of supports.  A very nice young man helped me.  I picked out a set from the display, and when I went to pay for them he asked me if I would like for him to put them on for me.  Of course I said yes.  the  screws that hold them on are very small.  I would have a hard time seeing them without my glasses on.  After he finished, and $2.08 later, I was on my way able to see comfortably again.

We had read about the World's Largest Fish Fry in Paris, TN, so we headed for Paris.  We have been to the world's largest chicken fry in Kentucky, so I was looking forward to what the world's largest fish fry would be like.  I was not disappointed.  The Jaycee's in Paris sponsor the event.  There had been a fishing competition during the week, so there were a lot of people out for that.  The fish tent that everybody told us to go to turned out to be a very big steel building.  The Jaycee's had built the building primarily for the fish fry.  I don't know how many people ate fish there Saturday, but when we left the place was full.  The fish, cat fish, was very good.  It was served with french fries, hush puppies, beans, and cole slaw.  I was an all you could eat meal.  For $12.00 you got all you could eat, and I definitely got my monies worth.   The building was full of picnic table to sit at.  I chose a table with a nice looking couple that I thought I could get some local information about the fish fry and the rest of the area.  Well, wouldn't you know it, the couple was there for the weekend for the fish fry.  And to make it even worse, they were from Altoona, Alabama, not far from where we live.  Oh well, better luck next time.  Another couple came to sit down at the table with us.  I asked them if they were from the area, guess what, your right.  They were from West Virginia.  I did get to talk to some of the men that were serving the fish, but they were too busy to spend much time talking.

We headed back home full of fish, but still wanting to know a little more about Paris.  Guess I will have to google it.

The Nathan B. Forrest State Park is adjacent to Lakeshore Assembly.  We had planned to visit it earlier in the week, but never got there.  The rain had stopped for awhile, so we decided it was a good time to go.  In the park there is a small museum that has some history about the local area and the exploits of Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest.  General Forrest's troops gave the Union army all it could handle in this part of Tennessee.  His biggest accomplishment was destroying a train depot in Johnsonville Station.  Forrest had deployed his artillery across the river from Johnsonville Station and bombarded the city.  The Union forces had a large supply dept there that was supplying General Sherman as he marched through Georgia.  Forrest actions denied Sherman of many supplies that he needed.  But Forrest's actions were too late in the war to help.  There was also a very nice display of pictures of the area prior to the flooding of the area and the making of Kentucky Lake.  The TVA dammed up the Tennessee River, flooding towns, businesses, and farms.  There was a lot of animosity from the local people when this was done.  A lot of this was done along the Tennessee River during the early 1930's.

Sunday started out with the team going to church together at the Eva United Methodist Church.  the church has attendance of about 70 each Sunday.  That is pretty good for a small country church.  The preacher preached a good sermon on getting our priorities straight.  He preached on what we should make as our first priority, and that is making Christ number one in our lives.  Good sermon.

We all went on our own ways after church.  We decided to go to the Johnsville Station National Park.  The park is small, but the history is big.  We were able to see some of the old building foundations from prior to the flooding of the area, and some of the old railroad beds that the Union army had used.  We were met at the entrance to the park by a Union soldier.  He was all by himself, guess the rest were afraid that Forrest would return.

We did get back to work on Monday morning.  Monday and Tuesday we did three different projects.  We started a couple of them last week, so we continued on them this week.  Jerry and I continued on the tile project.  We finally were able to start installing tile on Monday morning.  Joe and Ash started working on building a small storage building.  The building will be used for storing drinks for the camp snack bar.  The ladies have been tasked with replacing the material on the seat covers of over 100 chairs.  They have gotten off to a great start.  Following are some pictures of what we have all been doing so far this week.

Here's Jerry installing the tile around the edge of the floor.  Jerry would make the measurements for the cuts, and I would cut them.  Jerry had the most fun, he got to play in the mastic.

This big tile cutter is great.  I love working with power tools, and this one is the best.  Not only does it do a good job of cutting the tile, but I get to stay cool from the water it sprays out to keep the tile lubricated and cool as it is cut.

Ash and Joe are hard at work building the storage building.  Jerry and I would go and see how they were doing sometimes, and of course we would give them much needed advice on how to do it.  Then we would leave before the nail gun was used for something other than nailing up the walls.

Diana and Kyoka are putting new material on one of the seat cushions.  They are fastening the material on with staples.

Sharon is re-attaching the cushions to the chair frame.  First she has to drill new holes for the screws, then she will screw the cushion onto the frames

 

Libby is at another table putting new material on a cushion.

 

This is what the chairs looked like prior to new covers.

This is what they look like after new covers.  Pretty nice aren't they.

Well it is time to go for tonight.  I will get back to you with more later.

Remember above all things,

God Loves You.

Gary

We have finished our first week here at Lakeshore with a trip to the 1860's Log Cabin Restaurant.  We all gathered for a nice evening of eating and fellowship.  The restaurant is built from five different old log cabins and one old barn.  The owners of the restaurant live in the upper floors.  Since it is only open Wednesday through Saturday, guess they aren't bothered much by the coming and going of customers.

Since I just posted on Wednesday, I will be short with this one.  Just a few pictures to let you know what we have been doing.

We start each work day with devotions.  Here is the team gathered in the Yurt for devotions.  Starting with the first couple on the left is Pat and Joe.  Pat and Joe are our team leaders.  They call Georgia home, although both grew up in Birmingham, Alabama.  They are now full time RVer's and winter in Yuma, Arizona.  Going on around the table is Jerry and Kyoka.  Jerry and Kyoka are from Ohio.  they two are full time RVer's, but they summer in Ohio at their daughter farm.  Next is Brenda.  Brenda is a new NOMAD.  She hails from Nashville.  Next to Brenda is Libby.  Libby is also a new NOMAD.  She also is from Nashville.  She and Brenda met in a hiking club and became NOMADS together.  Next are Ash and Diane.  They call Oregon home, but they too are full time RVer's.  They have family scattered all over the country from California to Florida.  Next is Sharon.  As you can tell her halo has fallen. 

Libby and Sharon are preparing the wall in one of the cabin showers to be painted.  The area above the shower head will be the painted area.  The rest of the wall down to the floor is going to get new ceramic tile.

                          This hole, and the ones behind the faucets, will be covered with tile.

 

Here I am chiseling out some of the concrete around the water pipes.  We are going to have to cover the pipes with something that will allow access to the pipes in case of a leak.  We are covering them with tile, but not encasing the pipes in concrete.  Just to let you know, the fuzzy look of the picture is dust in the air.  We created a lot of dust from the concrete.

 

Jerry is working on the other hole.  The blocks below the brown painted area we roughed up using a grinding wheel to allow the tile mastic to hold.  The day we did that Jerry and I breathed green dust all day.  When we worked on the holes in the wall, we breathed gray dust all day.

The ladies spent a lot of time re-painting the bunk beds in several of the cabins.  This is the cabin that we are installing the tile.  Good thing the painted first, dust is now covering everything.

The dogwood trees are blooming everywhere.  We pass this one every morning as we leave the camp ground for work.

You all have a nice weekend and I'll see you later,

Remember that,

God Loves You

Gary

Today, Wednesday, April 24, is our third day here at Lake Shore Assembly and Retreat.  Sharon and I arrived here last Friday after a short trip from Loucon Assembly.  The drive only took us about three hours down the Kentucky Turnpike to Hwy 641 that took us to Eva, Tennessee, where Lake Shore Assembly is located.  We got the RV set up and met with the team leaders for this NOMADS project.  We went into Eva that evening to do laundry and get some dinner.  We normally stay away from the chain restaurants, but there was a Pizza Hut right next door to the laundry, so we ate there.   Saturday was spent taking care of a few items on the RV.  It is amazing the little things that go wrong on a motorhome.  Of course it doesn't take much for an 18,000 pound house on wheels to cause some problems.  Things that are not fastened down good get shook up pretty good.  But, nothing that I couldn't fix.

One other couples arrived on Saturday afternoon.  Now we are almost complete.  The other team members would be arriving on Sunday afternoon.  By Sunday afternoon everybody had arrived.  Now, to you that may not sound exciting, but after working a project with a partial team, it is exciting for us. 

Monday morning we met with , Corky, the maintenance chief.  He welcomed us to Lake Shore Assembly, and discussed with us the projects that we would be working on.  The initial project plans called for us to build a couple of storage sheds, but things change.  Lake Shore had been planning to upgrade the RV campground for sometime.  When they found out that we would be willing to do the work they bought the supplies.  The project was putting in sewer lines for the RVs to hook up to.  For those of you that aren't familiar with the plumbing of an RV, RVs have holding tanks for waste water.  There are two tanks, one for grey water, that's dish water and bath water, and another tank for black water, that's the other waste water.  These tanks have to be dumped on a regular basis.  This usually requires disconnecting all power and water connections, and getting the RV ready to drive.  Once this is done the RV is driven to a dump site.  Having a direct sewer hook up keeps you from having to go through that disconnect, and the mess of a dump site.  We were able to complete the sewer line installation in two days.  Most of being able to complete the work in two days was due to one of the maintenance staff using a ditch witch to dig the line for us.

While the men were working on the sewer line, the women were painting and cleaning.  The camp is  getting ready for summer camp so all of the cabins have to be prepared.  Many of the bunk beds had to be painted, and all of the shower/restroom areas had to be cleaned and painted.  The ladies were offered the opportunity to work with the men on the sewer line, but they decided it was too hot to work outside.  Sounds like a good excuse to me.

Today the ladies continued with the painting and cleaning.  An additional cleaning task was added to their cleaning.  The conference center and dining facility had to be cleaned in preparation for a women's conference that starts tomorrow. 

Two of the men started the work on the storage buildings, well not really work, they spent time figuring out the materials that would be needed for the project and then ordered the materials.  The other two of us men have been assigned to put new ceramic tile on the walls in a large shower, and on the floor of the rest of the bathroom.  First thing we had to do was rough up the painted wall in the shower.  We used two grinding tools to do this.  It took us all day to do this.  We spent a lot of time taking breathing breaks.  The dust created from sanding the walls was really bad.  I think I will be sneezing green paint dust for days.  We did get all the sanded enough so the glue for the tile will stick,

That's where our project is for now.  Here are some pictures of the team working, and sometimes not working.

 
Here are all of the RVs parked at the campground.  There are a total of six, from small to large.  The only real difference between any of them is the size.  They all come equipped with sleeping, eating, cooking and bath facilities.

This building is a Yurt.  It is perfect for us to meet in since it is fashioned after the type of tents that nomads of many years ago used to live in.  It is a portable structure. This one is set up pretty permanently.  It is used as a classroom where classes on wildlife and plant life are taught.  We are using it for our group meetings and morning devotions.

 

Here are some of the team members.  From left to right, Brenda from Tennessee, Kyoka from Ohio, Pat from Georgia, Sharon my wife, and Jerry, Kyoka's husband.

 
Here are team members Jerry, and team leader Joe, discussing how we are going to get started with the sewer project.

                                 Joe and another of the team cutting some of the sewer pipe.

One of the Lake Shore staff members using the ditch witch to dig the sewer line trench.  The ground is very rocky making this a much harder task than you would think with a machine like that.

                                            Some of the sewer line has been installed.

I don't know what they are looking at, but this is the end of the sewer line where it ties into the septic tank.

Joe on the left, Jerry in the middle, and team member Ash on the right.  We have just enjoyed a nice lunch provided by the kitchen staff at the camp.

As you can see we have gotten off to a good start here at Lake Shore Assembly.  Many things to do here to help the camp get ready for the summer. 

I'll post again sometime this weekend, so have a nice rest of the week, and remember

God Loves You

Gary

We finished our last day here at the Loucon Training & Retreat Center.  It has been a wonderful three weeks.  As I have said before, the staff here have been great host.  They have made us feel very welcome with their hospitality, and the fine meals that they provided for us. 

The work project was also very rewarding.  We were unable to complete the cabin, but we did get a lot done.  We only lacked the two short walls putting up the wall board, and installing the overhead lights and smoke alarm.  That will get done with another volunteer group coming here in a week. 

I have mentioned the many things that we did in the process of building the cabin, but the learning process was the best.  Earl and Bud did a fine job of directing and teaching us how to do build the cabin correctly.  Yes, we did make mistakes along the way.  Yes, things did get out of square.  Yes, we did have to measure twice, and still cut twice.  Yes, we didn't have any injuries.  (Got there.)  Yes, we learned how to use new tools.  Yes, I could go on with the yeses, but I won't.  I think you get the picture.  Talk about pictures, let me show you some and how the work went this week.

Anita is taking a break from cleaning one of the cabins.  There was a large crowd of youth here over the weekend.  Each cabin has to be cleaned and sanitized after each use.

Sharon is dusting blinds.  Four windows in each cabin, about 40 cabins, that's a lot of blinds to dust.

Kay is vacuuming the air conditioner/heating units.  The filters are taken out and washed, then dried completely before putting them back in.  That keeps mildew and mold from forming.

That's me up on the ladder, with Gabby holding in steady.  We are trimming some of the wood prior to installing the fasia on the end of the roof.

Bud is trying to steady our walkway.  We have had a lot of rain, so the board walk was installed to let us get into the house without having to walk in the mud.  It is pretty dry in this picture, but the threat of rain was coming.  You can see the windows and door installed.

 

This is the inside of the house showing the paneling on the wall and on the ceiling.  The paneling is what is usually put up on outside walls prior to intalling siding or brick veneer.  It makes for a good wall in a cabin.

 



You can see the wiring hanging from the ceiling.  The wire closest to the door will have a 4' florescent light attached.  The center wire will connect to a smoke alarm.  Good thing they have a smoke alarm, I installed all of the wiring.  Don't worry, I had Bud check it out before we covered it with the paneling.

Some of the gang relaxing prior to our closing ceremony of the week.  You can see Sharon, in pink, taking advantage of a good nap time.

This is a picture of the closing ceremony.  Heidi, on the right, and Anita in the green shirt, made homemade ice cream for all of us.  Heidi had some special toppings that made the ice cream really good.

Well, this is the last from Loucon.  Hope you have enjoyed your stay here with us.  We will be off to Lake Shore Assembly and Retreat Center in Eva, Tennessee tomorrow.  I am looking forward to the next stage of our journey.

Until next time, and remember,

God Loves You

Gary

This was our last weekend here at the Loucon Training and Retreat Center, so we decided to do a little sightseeing and hiking on the camp grounds.

On Friday we did what all people should do when in Kentucky, visit the birthplace of our 16th president, Abraham Lincoln.  Sharon and I have visited many of the Presidential homes and libraries, but I think this is the first birthplace.  The museum at the National Park visitor's center was very nice.  It contained several displays depicting the inside of what the small cabin Lincoln was born in might have looked like.  We also viewed a 15 minute movie about his family background and early life as a young child before moving north to Indiana.  The large statue of Lincoln's parents, sister, and Lincoln as a baby is very life like.  In 1909, a group of local citizens started the building of a memorial to Lincoln.  President Theodore Roosevelt attended the ground breaking ceremonies.  Several years later, President William Taft attended the dedication and grand opening ceremonies.  I believe that it was about 1936 when the facilities taken into the National Park Service.

Here are some pictures of our visit to Lincoln's birthplace.

                              The statue of Lincoln as a baby with his parents and older sister.

This is what the cabin Lincoln was born in may have looked like.  This display is made from descriptions given in diaries and journals of the time.

This log cabin is a downsized cabin like the one Lincoln was born in.  When the memorial building was built the architect decided to cut the original building down to fit in side the memorial better.  The original sized of the cabin is depicted by the barrier around the cabin.  It was believed that this cabin was the actual cabin that Lincoln was born in, but in 1946 researches determined that it was not.  But, it is from the time he was born.

The memorial is very impressive.  There are 56 steps from the lower area up to the memorial.  That is how old Lincoln was when he was assassinated.

After we left Lincoln's birthplace we headed into Hodgenville, KY, for lunch.  We had been told that the best hamburgers around were at the LaHa's (pronounced Lay Hey's) Red Castle restaurant.  We found it on the corner of the town square.  The burgers are very much like White Castle or Krystal burgers, but much better and a little bigger.  We had a couple of burgers, fries, onion rings, and cokes served in the can.  As you can see from the pictures the place was a little small, but nice.  Also, it is really a little greasy spoon cafe.

As you can see the Red Castle is not very big.  When you enter the front door it is only about 12 feet to the back.  There is a bar with about six stools to sit on.  We decided to eat in.  Most of the business is take out.  There were several people that came in while we were there and ordered burgers to go.  The burgers are made from hamburger that is bought fresh daily.

These three ladies were our cook and wait staff.  The young lady in the middle is the cook, the girl on the right cooked the fries and onion rings, and also put the hamburgers together.  The girl on the left was our waitress.  It is a good thing that they work well together, you can see the edge of the counter bar and across from it the cook grill.  Oh yeah, we were served on very nice dinner plates.  Each burger was given it's own special piece of wax paper to rest on, this kept off of the counter.  Nothing special about this place, but the food is great.

When we finished with lunch we went across the street to the Lincoln Museum.  The museum is owned by the city of Hodgenville.  As you can see by the pictures it has a little of everything.

Looking across the square at the Lincoln Museum.  We are standing in front of LaHa's Red Castle.

                                                 Avery nice paining of Abraham Lincoln.

                                                     Lincoln in debate with Douglas

                     Lincoln and his son Todd in the photography studio of Matthew Brady.

            Abraham Lincoln and wife Mary on the night of his assassination in the Ford Theater.

                  The upper room of the museum.  This room is full of items from the Lincoln years.

That ended our day outing for Friday.

Saturday started out with me taking a walk around some or the camp to take some pictures.  I have talked a lot about the camp, but have not shown you what it looks like. 

Later we made a trip to Walmart for some much needed what ever we could find items.  We always find something to buy, and this time we did.  Won't go into what we got, but we really needed it.

After a late lunch we decided to take a hike on some of the hiking trails and go to one of the many water falls on the property.  The staff presented us with a map of the grounds when we got here, a hand drawn one that stated not to scale.  Well it is not only not to scale, but not very accurate either as to where the trails go.  We decided to hike to Whispering Falls.  The map shows two trails to get to the falls, one that is very short, and one that is a little longer.  We, or I should say I, decided to take the long route.  Well, the trail started out very well marked, but when we got to a section of the trail, the trail ran out.  We came to an area that had been cleared due to downed trees from an ice storm last year.  The trail ran into the clearing, and seemed to stop.  I wandered around the edge of the clearing until I found what looked like the trail.  We headed down the trail.  The further we went the less of a trail the trail became.  I was worried because we came across a creek that was on the map.  The trail became less and less of a trail.  I knew that if we just followed the creek as the map indicated that the trail would eventually reappear.  Don't you believe it.  I was able to navigate us to a water fall, but not the one we were looking for.  We had to make a decision as to whether or not to go back the way we came, or keep going along the creek.  I knew that the creek would take us to the lake on the edge of the camp grounds.  Well, as I started looking for a way through the think forest I decided we needed to head back up the mountain, not the way we came, towards the main camp.  Sharon was not really prepared for a trail blazing hike, she was wearing shorts.  The trail blazing took us through a lot of briar's and brush.  Sharon stayed right with me as I work our way up the mountain through the woods.  After being gone for about two hours we found our way back to the clearing where I thought I had found the trail.  We never did make it to Whispering Falls.  Don't know if Sharon will take another hike with me for awhile.  She did say that the next hike we went on she wanted to take a machete, she didn't say what she was going to do with it.  Any guesses?

Getting started on my morning walk to take pictures of the camp.  The sun is just coming up over one of the cabin areas.

Wild turkeys that are everywhere on the camp grounds.  This is just across the field from where the RV is parked.

                                            One of the many pick-nik areas on the grounds.

The camp dining hall is in the background.  The cherry tree is loaded with blooms.  All of the flowering trees were at full bloom, or just starting to bloom

                                 In the distance you can see one of several outdoor chapels.

                                                              Some more turkeys.

A group of youth that were here for a weekend retreat.  We attended church with them this morning.  The service was led by the youth, and very good praise band.  A young man from Campus Ministries at Kentucky Wesleyan College gave the sermon.

The easy, well marked trail that we started out on.  The path was wide and easy to follow.

The trail is getting harder to follow.  You can see the thick brush that we are now walking through.  Sharon still has a smile on her face.

I think Sharon has lost her smile and is looking for that machete

                                                                The falls we found.

I found out later that the trail we were supposed to be on had not been taken care of for some years.  I think that I will make them a new map, one that does not show that trail.

One more week here at Loucon.  We will finish up with the cabin and then off to our next project.

You all have a nice day, and remember,

God Loves You

Gary