We got out right on schedule, Thursday morning last week, for our long drive (1100 miles) to Lancaster, PA to help with a big renovation at our son’s house. We were thankful to beat out a huge storm system and had a safe trip all the way, getting there in just two days. You know the “road less traveled”? Well, we weren’t on any of those! It was interstate all the way but we were so delighted with the beautiful selection of spring blooms, that it seemed to make the miles fly by (that and a good audio book!).
We had beautiful wisteria draping the trees -

Red Bud lining the highway

and fields of yellow (weeds, maybe?) that flocked the meadows.

We had our first glimpse of mountains after months of relative flatness (TX and So. Alabama)

and mist in the morning as headed into the Appalachian Mountains

(and apparently we had a lot of bugs on the windshield, too. Sorry!).
I tried to capture the beautiful sunrise on the morning we headed out pre-dawn, but alas, trying to capture the sunrise from a moving RV out the side window leaves just a bit to be desired.

But I’m always trying for you guys!

Right now we’re in Lancaster, parked at the home of a friend from long ago. Gary & I were Martha’s youth group leaders, and we connected on Facebook about a year ago. I contacted her about getting together (like for coffee!)while we were in Lancaster when she generously offered her driveway for our home to sit on while we were in town! What a huge blessing! And to make it all the more sweet, we were able to join them on Saturday night for their Sibling Saturday. Gary & I knew the whole family (from our “previous life”) and it was such a delightful evening! It was so fun to share memories and stories – new and old! We’ve been so busy with Josiah’s project we’ve hardly had the chance to say boo to them since, but I know I’m looking forward to another good visit before we pull away!

So, the Big Renovation. Josiah and his lovely wife are making some drastic changes in their downstairs, taking out a wall, removing the dropped ceiling, and changing the wiring (so it actually makes sense!). DIL Abigail has asked that I not share too many pictures until it’s done (but then again, this is the same DIL that took our grandson, Weston, to her Mom and Dad’s in Philadelphia during the construction. While I agree with the wisdom (she also took the dogs – a GREAT idea), SHE TOOK THE GRANDBABY!!!) So here’s just a little peek of what’s been going on -

Yes, this rubble has been my constant companion the last couple of days, and since they won’t let me play with any of the power tools (or even the sledge hammers!), I’ve been taking bucket loads of the stuff to this -

Bucket after bucket after bucket. Sigh.
Since they removed a dropped ceiling and then took the paneling off the walls, we were able to get a good feel for the previous “life” of this house (which was built turn of the century – 1905-ish). All the walls were wallpapered several times over!
These three were on the top layer -
Dining room -

Living Room -

(and I loved the picture “ghost” – well, until I scraped it off anyway)
and the Hallway -

Bring back memories, anyone?
But underneath that layer were some really fancy – and quite well thought out – wallpaper choices -
Dining Room

Living Room

Hallway

I think she was working with a designer, don’t you?
(There was a third layer in the hallway, but I couldn’t scrape off layer two to actually see a pattern. But trust me, I KNOW it was there!)
As we work through the layers of these old houses (the house we raised our family in was built in the 1860′s), I am always intrigued by the stories of the people that lived there before. I’m afraid the wallpaper choices are the only stories I’ll be gleaning from these wall, and the next folks that do a reno won’t even have that! After I was done hauling all the rubble to the dumpster, they did let me remove wallpaper.

Thank goodness for Ibuprofen (and we have a Costco size bottle!).

Exhaustion has set in! Tomorrow, while the boys work on the drywall (thankfully there is not to much rubble for me to cart, and the walls have all been scraped clean), I’ll be heading to Doylestown and Philadelphia, where I’ll be catching up with friends, getting my hair cut by my “regular” girl (you ladies can appreciate that, I’m sure), and playing with Weston. Can. Not. Wait. By the time I return on Thursday I know the room will be transformed!

Sweet dreams, friends……..

Last night we had our “exit meeting”. Yep, at the end of each project we all get together and review our month together. It’s always good to go back over the month and reflect on the high points and maybe discuss any potential problems. (This report is very helpful to the office as they manage our almost 170 projects.) But since you probably don’t care so much if our parking spots were “as described in the Sowergram” or if our materials were on hand, I thought I’d do my own End of Project Report – mostly with pictures!
I’ve done a lot of interesting stuff this winter – office work, bric-a-brack dusting, surfboard painting, curtain making and even a bit of computer research. This month the more traditional SOWER work caught up with me. Good old fashioned housekeeping. Ah yes, we’ve been making beds and disinfecting hard surfaces, vacuuming and cleaning bathrooms.

This is Nola, my bed making buddy.

And then the vacuuming! (or staring out the window waiting for your turn!)
When we weren’t getting rooms ready for guests or cleaning conference rooms, we were working in the new building cleaning up construction debris and dirt, getting ready for the carpet.

And then it was back to the housekeeping!

We were always working in teams

so even though the work was, well, housekeeping, we were still enjoying our time together. (They have a very particular bathroom cleaning regime, which is a good thing, but since I started on the beds, that’s where I stayed. And (truth be told) that was OK with me!) I certainly have a renewed sense of appreciation for clean motel rooms!
The guys were totally concentrating on the new building

and I’m happy to report that Gary was totally earth bound. No ladders at all! Instead, he was mostly on his knees!

The guys tiled and grouted 12 motel room bathrooms, a break area, the entry way and the common bathrooms off the entryway. Lots of knee time there!

They did a great job on all that tile work, and then while they waited for the carpeting to arrive they worked on installing the ceiling on the front “porch”.

(Please notice that Gary is the guy working the saw, and is not up on the scaffolding!)
And when the time was right -

he was back on his knees with the carpet glue!

One of the fellows was doing a fair bit of fiberglass work (he’s an expert and there were lots of places he could help with), but many days all the guys were working together. I think they all were having a good time!
Ok, so that’s the work end of things! I’ve already shared about the fun weekends, but did I mention the Ice Cream Social we had?

Lots of options there! And lots of fun too! We had a couple of game nights and if the camp was serving meals to guests we were blessed to eat together also!
So that covers the work and some of the play…..how about some of the flora and fauna?
You remember our view? -

Well, most morning it actually looked more like this -

Beautiful mist and a sweet pair of courting geese. Now, I’m not really a Canada Goose fan, but it was so fun to watch these two do their little dating dance and defend their little lake. About the only guy they would let hang around was the beautiful blue heron, who would just look at them as if to say – “Just what is your problem?”

Occasionally we would see an osprey dive bomb into the lake and then soar away with a fish in its beak. That was pretty cool, and undocumented by me. You trust me, right?
One of the programs they run here at Camp Baldwin is an Estuary Life program. We had a little tour of their room/lab -

Hello, little alligator!

Greetings, Mr. Turtle!

Getting a little close, doncha think, Mr. King Snake?

OK, just a couple more random photos…..
I posted a sunset picture at the end of my last post which was a picture of the camp’s dock on Wolf Bay.

Here a couple more shots that I took that night -
To the Left -

To the Right -

Straight on (closer to the water)

And even looking back

As I was busy clicking away I kept seeing fish jumping out of the water. One at a time, and at least 5 feet in the air. Here’s my best attempt at catching the action….

According to the Estuary Life guy it’s a Leaping Mullet. I’ll let you Google it!

Well, thanks for hanging in there! I know this has been too long, and a little random in its organization. Sorry.
But since we really are wrapping up things here at Camp Baldwin, I figured I’d better get it all done at once. We leave on Thursday and are headed to Lancaster, PA, where we’ll be helping our son do a major downstairs renovation before we head into our April SOWER project in Montrose, PA. Pennsylvania = Family and Friends. (Can you see me doing little happy dance!)

One last picture -

I love this shot. I only wish he had taken more time to actually do this!

So – did you have a fun St. Patrick’s Day? We actually did nothing, absolutely nothing, that had anything to do with the “holiday”. We failed to wear green, stayed out of the pubs, and didn’t consume anything green. But we did have a pretty great day!
Our destination for the day – Pensacola and the National Naval Aviation Museum.
Oh, my – what an wonderful museum!

And I’m not really “into” airplanes!
We were able to join a guided walk-around tour (given by a retired military pilot who was great!) and even though it took a little extra time, it was well worth it!

They started at the very beginning (of military flight, not the Wright Brothers)

and took us right to today’s fighter jets

and even the Blue Angels!

(The Pensacola Naval Air Station is home to the Blue Angels and this week they are having a free demonstration/practice session. Unfortunately, we just could not work it into our schedule. Rats.) But we thoroughly enjoyed our walk through the history of Naval Aviation!

(this was the type of plane that shot down the Red Baron in WWI, and Snoopy was just a little bit of whimsy – do you remember the 1966 song Snoopy vs the Red Baron? Here it is on YouTube if you’d like a little flashback!)





OK – is that enough of the airplanes? EXCELLENT museum and here’s a real bonus – it’s FREE!
We also made a quick stop at the Pensacola Lighthouse -

and soberly drove through part of the Barrancas National Cemetery.

We thoroughly enjoyed our brief foray into Pensacola (need I mention we also checked out a Home Depot, Lowes, Wal-Mart and Sonic?) – it was a lovely day all around!

Tomorrow we start our last week here at Camp Baldwin, so I really need to get going on my “wrapping it up” post about the project! But in the meanwhile, if you’d like to see a couple more Pensacola pictures (mostly from the museum), check them out here.
Hope you had a lovely weekend, , and I’ll leave you with this sunset from this evening.

We have really enjoyed our three day weekends that have become a part of our lives since we’ve been working SOWER projects. We especially enjoy a three day weekend when the first of those days is excessively rainy.

And I mean excessively!
But the second day of the weekend dawned bright and sunny and after taking care of some chores (laundry and such), we finally were able to take off and explore some of the beautiful Gulf Shores area of Alabama! Our primary destination -
Fort Morgan.

Ah, what a beautiful drive….

along the coast and past a wonderfully eclectic assortment of beach houses.

As you can see on the above map, Fort Morgan is right on the tip of the peninsula, and has been active off and on from its original construction in 1814 until it was finally turned over to the state of Alabama in 1947. It is probably most well known, though, for its role in the Civil War and the Battle of Mobile Bay.
So come along on our walking tour of the Fort -


Lots of dark corridors

and arches

and some pretty darn steep steps!

But then there was was a pretty sweet view of the fort….


and the water.

(I don’t think the oil rigs were part of that original view…..)
After we finished up exploring the fort, we walked down to the water.



We had given some serious thought to taking the ferry over to Dauphin Island, but in the end decided that the $35.00 was better spent on some great seafood in Gulf Shores! But we did manage to get in a nice little hike in the Bon Secour Wildlife Refuge – the Pine Beach Hike. We could have gone all the way to the beach, but 4 miles round trip seemed a little much considering my footwear – sandals! So, we opted for the 2 mile RT hike to the head of Little Lagoon.


That’s Little Lagoon on the left and Gator Lake on the right. You were wondering, right?
We were a little disappointed about the lack of visible wildlife, but we did spot an osprey flying from tree top to tree top. I managed to snap a couple of shots of him – though they aren’t very good.


Um, I think he has some dinner there. Cool.
I did find this interesting moss -

Reindeer Moss (lichen actually). Just so you know.
After our walk, that seafood lunch was looking better and better, so off we went to Gulf Shores. This is a true “shore town” with lots going on, especially since this the beginning of Spring Break Season.  There were lots of restaurant choices, but we settled on Bahama Bobs and we weren’t disappointed.

And after we had our fill of shrimp and pangus (new to us, but very yummy!) I took one last walk to the beach.



Quite a different feel than down at Fort Morgan, but still a beautiful beach.

And quite a beautiful day!

(And if you’d like to see a couple more pictures of the day – check them out HERE!

But let’s face it – it was JUST a rainy Saturday. No devastating weather – like tornadoes- made it to our little corner of Alabama, and for that we are very thankful. Very thankful.
So today we just did the bare minimum of exploring our new surroundings. You know, scoping out the Home Depot, Lowes, and Wal*Mart, picking up some groceries, and locating the highly recommended seafood place down on the waterfront.

(and it was delicious!)
We arrived here at Camp Baldwin, in Elberta, Alabama yesterday morning after a two day drive up from Palacios, TX. It was a pretty direct, almost all interstate drive, but it did have a couple of points of interest along the way. And most of them had to do with water. Lots and lots of water.
Like the 18 mile Atchafalaya Basin Bridge that went on and on….

With the early morning mist, it definitely had and eerie look.

We crossed the Mighty Mississippi =

and any number of other rivers/swamps/bogs that I forgot to document….



Pretty sure this is the Pascagoula River since I managed to catch the sign this time!

There was the tunnel UNDER the water in Mobile

which opened up to the Mobile Bay -

and the battleship Alabama -

A good part of this bridge was wiped out during Hurricane Katrina, but all is good these days.

We are always thankful for a safe arrival, and coming in safely to Camp Baldwin was no exception. The camp is located right on Wolf Bay,

but they also have a sweet little lake and that’s where we’re parked!

I’m pretty sure I’m going to like this view!