Slow Start but Big Finish

First, welcome to our newest and 91st Followers:

Cindy and Walker

Thanks for joining the crowd on the Roadrunner Chronicles!  And you might want to check out their blog.  Click here

We had regular devotions and singing and prayer with our NOMADS group this morning, then headed out to our project houses.  Only our house was at a 'stop work' of sorts.  We are waiting on the house to get inspected while the other NOMADS house had more than enough workers.

So we decided to run by McDonalds for some coffee.

While we were there, we got a call from Joe to meet him at the other NOMADS house.

We drove over to the house and took a look at the work they were doing.  They are making great progress and hopefully will have it completed by the end of next week.

Also we met another team there that was painting the outside of the house and working downstairs. They are on Spring Break from Boulder Colorado and their group's name is:  BUMMP - Boulder United Methodist Mission Partners.  It is a partnership of United Methodist Churches in the Boulder area that was formed in 1976.  They have a long history of traveling to areas of the world where they can help.

The Galveston Area draws volunteers from all over the country.

Our team drove over to our 'new' project house.  We have a few doors to install, some electrical work, a window to repair and a few other things.

It was good to get engaged and put in some good work again.  Sometimes the most tiring days are the slow ones where you don't fell like you are making a good contribution.  So we were glad to get going again and we had a good work day.

After work we joined Carol and Howard who invited folks to Leon's for dinner.  It is a local 'mom and pop' type of place.

Most had other plans but Pam and I joined them and had brisket.  It was pretty good.

Later we made some phone calls and talked with Adam and Kelly and with friends in Detroit.

Meghan Update:  She had an unscheduled visit to ER yesterday and to the doctor to get some relief on a pain that turned out to be a gall bladder infection.  Thanks for continuing to pray for her and her family.  Your vigilance is welcome.  Check her blog for the latest.  And signup 'For the Love of Meghan' on Facebook.

Thanks for your many comments and all you readers for viewing the Roadrunner Chronicles today!

Mostly NOMADS Trash Day

Yesterday was another slow day for us on the job site at our NOMADS project house.  We had the usual devotions, singing and prayer at our daily meeting, then went over to our assignment.  The electrical inspector had not been there yet so we were left with a few odds and ends to do.

We split up into two groups.  Norm and Pat stayed upstairs and worked on putting some green sheet rock in the upstairs bathroom.  The rest of us put up a three sheets in the downstairs bathroom temporarily.

Around break time at 10:00

Alan showed up with a 16' trailer which we loaded up with debris from our last three weeks.

When we were done, it was almost full.  And the side of the house had no more rubble.  It looked pretty nice.

We worked some more upstairs and before we knew it, it was time for lunch.

We ate outside in front of the house since it was such a nice day.

After lunch we went back upstairs and worked a little bit on some odds and ends.  Shortly after 2:00 PM Waylon showed up with a new air conditioner.

He is quite an interesting guy.  He has been working Disaster Relief things here since shortly after Hurricane Ike.

He and his boss have worked on 300 homes since that time and have been working this particular house for over a year.  Waylon shared a bit of his story and how he has been getting things right with God over the last few months.  He has found his niche here in Galveston with the air conditioning business and is making quite a difference.

We are a little concerned about our progress the last few days.  Can you imagine people in and out of your house for over a year?  We are working as fast as we can but we are dependent on the electricity getting checked out.  Once that is OK we can kick it into gear and put up the rest of the sheet rock and make some real progress.

Right now, we may not be able to finish before the project gets closed down the first week in April -- another 10 days.  We will see.  We hate to leave it this way.  Not sure what happens to the two remaining houses if they are not finished.  Maybe the committee who oversees the repair work will contract the rest of the work out.

It was another beautiful day in Galveston.  Can't have too many of those.  And my back is getting better, so I'm grateful for that.  I used some ice/cold and heat treatment all day along with a back wrap brace thing and my back did good.

We are getting excited about the weekend.  We fly out of Houston on Friday for Detroit and will see Adam and Meghan this weekend.  Kelly is going to go with us so that will be fun.

We also called the Tiffin factory at Red Bay to make sure they had us on the calendar for the week of April 5.  We are getting new pull-down shades and most of our dual paned windows replaced.  They confirmed the parts are on order and we should be ready to go when we get there.

Hope your weekend is going well.  Thanks for viewing the Roadrunner Chronicles.

Using TRICARE in Galveston

Yesterday Pam and I went to a doctor her in Galveston.  She has been having some blood pressure issues so we decided to find a doctor and see what's up.

Becaue I retired from the military, we are members of the military medical health care system - TRICARE.  TRICARE is grouped into three regions across the country:  East, South, West.   Galveston is in the South Region and our home of record (Sioux Falls SD) is in the West Region.   It also has two plans:  Standard and Prime.

The way TRICARE Standard (vs TRICARE Prime) works, is that we look up the region we are in - TRICARE South - and choose a doctor from the list.  With TRICARE you pay a yearly fee to be enrolled.  We also have a deductible threshold with TRICARE Standard of $300/yr and a medical payment threshold of $3000/year.  In the event we have a number of doctor visits or are hospitalized, those costs are the most we could have to pay except for the co-pays.

We found a doctor and scheduled an appointment in Internal Medicine at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) here in Galveston.

They had to verify our insurance and call our home office in the TRICARE West region.  Sioux Falls SD, our home of record, is in the West Region.  Sure enough we are on the rolls.  UTMB made sure they had the right information with TRICARE West to arrange for billing.  

Pam liked the doctor who seemed to be attentive and very interested in her history.  We copied off some medical records and other information from her doctor in Virginia that Pam will take to her doctor here.  She wanted to confirm some things and may prescribe some additional items.

AFter the visist, we stopped by Wal-Mart with the prescription and picked it up later in the afternoon for $10.  So far so good and we'll see how it all works out.

Other RV full-timers have other doctor arrangements but that is ours.  How to find a doctor was one of the big mysteries we contemplated before we got on the road.  A year before we left Fairfax, we switched our coverage from TRICARE Prime to TRICARE Standard just to check out the process and see if we liked it.

 With TRICARE Prime, you choose a medical treatment center.  In our case, it was Bethesda Military Medical Hospital when we lived in Virginia.  We were assigned a primary care doctor there and we could call and schedule an appointment when we needed to.

One of our fellow NOMADS, Paula, is a nurse and lent us her blood pressure cuff and we will be monitoring things the next few days  morning and evening until we get one of our own.

Meanwhile, my back is slowly getting better.  We made it to the work site but there isn't a whole lot to do at the moment.  It is still very stiff and I don't want to aggravate it.  Midway through the afternoon, I decided more could be gained for me by getting a heating pad on my back so we left early.

On the job site, we are finishing up some small sheet rock jobs while we wait to get the electrical wiring in the house inspected.  We notified the inspector we were ready and are waiting until he comes by.  Hopefully that will be done today.  We could use a sheet rock lift for the ceiling pieces, so Norm built one.   That will speed things up for us once we get rolling on it.

The requirement from the inspector is to leave the entire ceiling alone and one side of each wall so he can see where all the wiring is.  After Hurricane Ike, so much damage was done to the house that the entire wiring had to be redone.

The plumbing also has to be redone and it is being contracted out.  We watched some of the results of their work yesterday.  It is very common in Galveston to have plumbing and water pipes showing on the outside of the house.

Kelly went back to Dallas about mid-morning and Adam called in the early evening.  The weather has gotten significantly better and it was another beautiful day in Galveston.

Thanks for viewing today.  And thanks for taking the time and effort to leave a comment.  We appreciate  that too on the Roadrunner Chronicles...

Sunday in Houston Again

We really like the First Baptist Church in Houston.

The message is clear and relevant, the worship is good.

And my nephew goes there.  Since Kelly is in town, we went back to see cousin Mark.

Kelly's friend from Baylor, Megan, also joined us.  After church we went out to lunch at Mama's Cafe.  I got to meet Megan's boyfriend Mark, who sat across from me at the table.  He is a good guy and easy to talk to.

After lunch, we went by Megan's place to meet her new pup - Buckley.  He is not quite house broken yet but a good little pooch.  Plus he is not a yapper which is nice.

Pam did all the driving while I took it easy and let me back get better.  I am still walking gingerly but it is making progress. I am hopeful I'll be back to 90% is another day.  I'd say I am about 50% - 60% now.

We had an early team meeting yesterday so we could have a potluck of sorts.  Carol made enough gumbo for everyone and we enjoyed some fellowship before our weekly orientation meeting.  We met three new couples and everyone heard each others stories:  where they were from, what they did in their former life, how long they have been NOMADS and "anything else you want to tell us" which usually means kids and family.  I really like that part.

After that, Kelly and Pam went to the store for a few things and I put the heating pad on my back.  I watched the healthcare vote which is pretty depressing.  How are we really going to pay for all this?? It is pretty scary to me but all we can do is see how it works out.

Speaking of work - we are ready for another good NOMADS week.  Hope yours goes that way too and thanks for viewing the Roadrunner Chronicles.

Slow Saturday

I woke up with a doozy of a bad back.  I forgot how much strain I put on my lower back when I use the Weed Eater for longer than 30 minutes.  I don't think I've used one since we moved out of our Fairfax home last May.

So I was paying for the three plus hours of weed whacking I did on Friday...Thank goodness for an electric heat pad and a recliner...

I managed to get up a couple of times to go out and say good bye to our fellow NOMADS Tom and Dotty.  They have been here working with us for the last three weeks.  They are making their way back to Kansas City Missouri and will time it right to get there when the weather warms up.

First a picture of Paula taking their picture.

Then a picture of all the ladies on the project here last week.  Paula and Don had already left for their bike ride into town when they posed for this one.

Dale and Elaine had left on Friday and we got three more 'new' couples in the early afternoon.  Introductions will be forth coming.

I watched NCAA games most of the day while Kelly and Pam ran errands in town.  When they returned Kelly went to see friends in Houston and Pam did the laundry here at the Community Island Church RV campground.

We also watched some golf.  Mostly I just changed the settings on my heating pad and spend most of the day semi-horizontal.  Ugh...   Hopefully this thing will get better today so I can be of use tomorrow when we get back on the job site...

That was it for a slow Saturday...nursing a sore back.  (I thought I was immune from these kinds of things because I am the youngest person here among the 18 people on the NOMADS project...but then what do I know??)  :)

Hope your weekend is going well.  Thanks very much for viewing the Roadrunner Chronicles.

Next Sunday - Adam and Meghan's Civic Ceremony

Welcome ~

Kit and Jerry!  

They are the newest Followers to the Roadrunner Chronicles!  Thanks for signing up and bringing us closer to our goal of 100...

We work Monday through Thursday with the NOMADS and then have three days off.  It is a good schedule and feels like there is enough time to get things done around the 'house' and still make progress on the Disaster Relief house projects here in Galveston.

Yesterday morning we started things off with a group gathering at the Sunflower Cafe again.  We ate there last week too.  It is a great place to have breakfast on Friday morning and have some extra fellowship.

While we were there Adam called from Detroit and set up another four-way family phone conference on his iPhone.  Kelly was driving from Dallas to Galveston and also on the call.

Adam announced that he and Meghan are getting married in a civil ceremony on Sunday!  ---Like eight days from now next Sunday!

That will be followed by a more traditional wedding in July.

When Kelly arrived in the late afternoon we did some searching for airline tickets and got all set up.  We fly into Detroit on Friday.

After a leisurely breakfast, we went back to the coach and I changed clothes to do some weed eating.  Pam washed the car, then went over and gave the horses some carrots.  They are the friendly sort and like the attention (and treats).

Then I got to weed whacking.  This weeds are high.

 The equipment worked fine.   Last year, when I would do yard work back home, it seemed as if my weed eater was always breaking.  But not this one.  The cord was on the thin side and it took quite a few swipes to cut through TALL overgrowth.

It was slow and I think a machete might have worked better.  It was three plus hours of slow progress  ...maybe need a bush hog or something like that.  I used what we could get our hands on.  But at least the narrow entrance into the church RV campground is a little more visible.

Late in the afternoon, Kelly drove up.  It is so good to see our kids again!  We love every chance we get.   I cooked some chicken on the grill and we watched some NCAA basketball before we called it a night.

Thanks for viewing the Roadrunner Chronicles.

End of our 2nd NOMAD Week in Galveston

It has been busy the last couple of days with our NOMADS work involved with Disaster Relief in the Galveston Area.  We have 16 people divided into three teams working on three house projects.

On Wednesday, Joe (overall project leader) came over to our project house and gave a short class on how to properly apply joint compound (mud) to cover up the seams and corners of the wall board (sheet rock).

That was useful and we learned a lot of tips and techniques that will help us make our work look more professional.

One challenge at our house was building a decent looking arch in the door passage from the dining room/family room to the kitchen.  The one that was there came to a point instead of a curve at the top so we  took that down and build a new frame, then applied a 3 3/4 inch section of sheetrock.  We used adhesive and clamps to secure it in place.

At mid morning, we had done all we could until the house passed the electrical inspection.  One wall in each room has to be exposed (left open and uncovered) so the inspectors can see the electrical wiring.  We moved our 6 person crew over to the house we worked on last week.

The main tasks out side were to re-brick and cement the porch column and rebuild the stairs.  The bricks were a bit tricky.   We had to build a frame and mold, re-cement the bricks securely and then cover the top with mortar.  We'll see how that comes out after it dries.

The steps on the front porch were a complete re-do.  Much like the back steps we did last week, they had to be all torn down and rebuilt with new stringers and boards.  Tom and Joe did a great job and the front of the  house looks great.

The inside of the house where they did a lot of painting, ceiling tile and trim work--

As we were cleaning up the debris pile and finishing up for the day, we posed for a group picture with the owner.

Next we headed over to Salsa's Restaurant on Seawall Boulevard.

The couples that are getting ready to leave get to pick the place where we go out to eat.  Tom and Dotty and Dale and Elaine are leaving us this weekend after being here three weeks.

The weather has been great the last couple of days.  After we ate, Pam and I went for a walk on the beach.  We saw a few sand castles.

Did you know what NOMADS stands for:
- Nomads on Mission, Active in Divine Service

OR

- Nutty Old Methodists Actually Doing Something  :)

- Nice Old Methodist Avoiding Deep Snow :)

Thanks for viewing the Roadrunner Chronicles.  We appreciate all of you and especially those that have signed up to "Follow" our travels.  We welcome you and look forward to the next 11 (to reach our goal of 100)...

Hope you are having a good week.

Meet the NOMADS

First-- a Meghan Update:

We spoke with her in Petrolia, Canada (her home) on Friday and she sounded good -- a little tired but her same upbeat self.  She had a week off from chemo and was enjoying that.  Yesterday Adam was saying that she had a wisdom tooth issue and talked with the doctor on Monday and she was going to take some antibiotics for that and delay the second round of chemo another week.  So please keep praying and sending encouraging words to her on FB or her blog.

Back here in Galveston, I wanted to introduce you to our fellow NOMADS.  You may be wondering what they look like and who they are so here goes:

Dotty and Tom:
They are from Kansas City, Missouri and have been NOMADS for  a year and a half.  We were here with Dotty & Tom in October but never worked on the same house with them until now.  We are working on the same house now with them and it is nice to get to know them.

Jerry and Kit:
They are retired school teachers and call Bracketville, TX their home.  They live in the same RV community and are friends with Joe & Frances.  This is their first NOMADS project and we are working on the same crew with them on the same house.  Kit posted a bit about yesterday's work on their blog

Russ and Nancy:
They have been doing NOMADS work for five years.  They are full-time RVers and are residents of Florida.

Dale and Elaine:
This is their first NOMADS project and they are from Ottumwa Iowa where he was a healthcare administrator.  We worked together with them on our first house last week before we got reassigned to our current house project.

Paula and Don:
They are from Midland, Michigan.  This is there first project.  He is a retired chemist and she is a retired nurse.    We haven't checked but they may be the youngest on the team.  They look like they are, plus they go for bike rides after we quit for the day and have way more energy than the rest of us...

Wayne and Lois:
He is a retired Methodist pastor and they have been doing NOMADS since....  They are from Michigan and had to return home yesterday suddenly when they learned of the death of Lois' sister who had been ill.  Our hearts and prayers go out to them and their families.

Joe and Frances:
They are from North Carolina but call Bracketville, TX home where they have property in an RV park.  They are our project leaders and have been here since the end of February.  We met Joe & Frances on our first NOMADS project last July in Pontiac, Illinois.  We also worked here with them last October.  We knew they were leading here now and wanted to be a part of their team.

Carol and Howard:
They have been NOMADS since 1999 and are from Texarkansas, Arkansas.  Carol is a retired medical technician and currently serving on the NOMADS advisory board.

Yours truly: (oops I forgot to have someone take our picture, so here is a recent one...)
We joined NOMADS in January last year but didn't start full-timing until May 2009.  Our first project with NOMADS was in July.  We also were here in Galveston on another Disaster Relief project in November 2009.

So that is a look at our group--we have a great team and everyone gets along well.  We have a few times during the week we all get together for a meal.  Many go to church together and it is fun to get to know each other.  Everyone has a story.

Speaking of which---what are you (our readers) doing for spring break?  It would be nice to hear about it.


Also, Pam wanted me to mention someone on the team here was a clown in the circus--guess which one??

Thanks for your comments now and then--nice to know you are out there...  And we appreciate your emails.   Thanks for viewing the Roadrunner Chronicles today!

How to Become a NOMAD

Instead of telling you what we did yesterday I was thinking that there may be some folks who are interested in knowing more about NOMADS.  I thought I'd give you the short "brochure" version:

One said earlier in the week that they toured the country for a while in their RV going coast to coast.  Volunteering with NOMADS gave them purpose.  In our case, it has become more of a calling too.

NOMADS stands for:  NOMADS On a Mission Active in Divine Service.

At our site here in Galveston, we have nine couples working on three houses.

We have some folks from Michigan, Missouri, Arkansas, Texas, South Dakota.  I think five or six of us are full-timers.  Others RV about six months and volunteer a couple of times during the other six months.

We have learned a lot about different parts of the country since we have joined NOMADS.  During the last nine months, we have spent time in Pontiac Illinois, Greensburg Kansas, and here in Galveston.  We have come to appreciate a lot of new things about each area.

At each job site/project we bring our own tools and use some that others have brought.  Some people have a whole pick up truck full of tools and equipment while some don't have any tools.  We have drills, a Skil saw, hammers, a couple of tool belts, clamps, paint brushes...  

We work Monday through Thursday each week with devotions and a team meeting starting at 7:30 AM  and ending at 4:00 PM.  We are usually at the job site by about 8:30 AM.  We have a morning and afternoon break and an hour for lunch.

NOMADS is sponsored by the United Methodist Church and one of their many outreach programs.  We are not Methodists although we represent them as NOMADS.  NOMADS are not required to belong to the UMC but it is a Christian faith-based organization.

NOMADS is always looking for new volunteers.  They have over 1000 members, but the need is great.  Yesterday's news of the flooding in the Northeast and in the Midwest made me think of all those homes that will need to be repaired.

The government can't do it all.  Here in Galveston, over 2000 homes remain on the list to be repaired from the damage done during Hurricane Ike in 2008.  Building and construction here in Galveston is strong.  Many commercial builders and volunteers like us are on the island.

If you'd like to know more, let me know or call the NOMADS office at:  1-866-466-6237.  Or take a look at their website.  Click here.
We'd love to see more NOMADS out here!

Thanks for viewing the Roadrunner Chronicles today!