Meet the Care-A-Vanners In Sioux Falls

A few months ago, we went online to Habitat-for-Humanity's Care-A-Vanner build list.  It showed a listing for Sioux Falls and we had a few weeks in our schedule open, so we signed up.  We love Sioux Falls!

The build called for five couples and we ended up with four couples.  Turns out that was a good number and we all had some great memories from our time together.  I thought you might be interested in knowing who the other three couples that made up our team so I put together some information about them:

Carole and Scott are from Casselberry FL.
They have been full-timing since 2015. Scott was a police officer and later a college professor in his career days and Carole was a realtor before they hit the road.

They thought about full-timing in 2010 and actually bought their 1993 Dodge Xplorer in 2015 after a long and winding road of research and discovery.  Scott and Carole had been looking at all shapes and sizes - from the big class A motor homes to travel trailers.  When this popped up they drove a few hours away to look at it and after about an hour, made the decision.

The RV was repainted and christened 'Ripley' after a town in Ohio they were passing through while on a road trip.  There was something about that name that 'stuck'.  Ridley is unique and fits the couple well!  They put up their canopy that serves as their kitchen/living room.  Scoot and Carole have been on the road a couple of years and love to volunteer and workamp.  They have had some interesting jobs including house sitting in Alaska and Seattle.

They found some information about Care-A-Vanners on an Airstream forum.  They saw our post a few weeks ago about the need for volunteers at this build and contacted us to let us know they were going to sign up.  We're glad they did and thoroughly enjoyed our time with them.  They liked being on the build and said they'd been participating in future builds.

Brenda and Kit are from Gardener Maine.
He was a career social worker and she had a clinical psychologist practice.  They are long time Habitat for Humanity volunteers and have been on many oversees efforts building homes with HFH and the Fuller Center out of Atlanta GA.

They have been volunteering for years and in the past couple have sold their home in Gardner.  They also have a 'casita' in Benson Arizona at the SKP Saguaro CO-OP where they spend the winter months.  While they are on the road, it gets rented out.  The facility is part of the Escapees properties throughout the U.S.

The name of their Tiffin Allegro Bay is "BHOWER", which stands for Bigger House on Wheels Includes Everything.  Their previous RV as a 5th wheel which they named HOWER.

They are going to be volunteering next week in Brookings SD with another Care-A-Vanner group, then in November will be leading a group from the Fuller Center on a house building project to Sri Lanka.  They have been on similar efforts to Nicaragua, Guatemala, Ecuador, and Boliva.

The third couple in the group is David and Jo Ann Lininger.
They left their home in Missouri and have been on the road full-timing almost three years.  They have  three kids in the surrounding states and I believe they said they have 11 grand children.

They have been active in their church building ministry called, "Laborers for Christ" and have split their volunteer time over the years between that group and the Care-A-Vanners.

Among their many skills, I think it was Jo Ann who seemed to 'connect' first with the home owners at each house we worked.  There were two houses and two families and she befriended both very quickly.  It was fun to work along side of them.

From Sioux Falls, they were traveling to the headwaters of the Mississippi River.

Here is a group photo of the team along with the home owners, staff members Heidi (on the right saw horse) and Paul (far right).

We have many fond memories of our time in Sioux Falls!

Thanks for joining us on the Roadrunner Chronicles!