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Family and Friends, On the Road, Pictures of the Adventure, RV Life, The Adventure, The Cabin

Phew and Ahhhhh

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Playing the Catch-Up Game when it’s been over two weeks since my last post is a little tricky, so I thought I’d just fill in this little ‘schedule’ that I put together with some pictures to go with each slot. Here goes –

Sometimes this nomadic life gets a little complicated!
4/22 – leave Lindale, TX
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4/22 (late) – Arrive in Franklin, TN, and spend time with our friends the Stoners
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4/24 (early) – Leave Franklin

4/24 (late) – arrive at Lizzie, who has been waiting patiently outside of Charlotte (SC) for our return from Texas.
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4/28 – Say goodbye to our friends in SC, and head to Chambersburg, PA with Lizzie and the truck.

 

 

 

 

4/29 – Arrive in Chambersburg, PA
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4/30 – Appointments and Fitzpatrick family time (no pictures of the Doctor stuff – but all check-ups and routine tests were A-OK! Thank you, Lord!)
5/1 – More Fitz Family time

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Squeeze in a quick visit with my college roommate & hubby!

 

 

 

 

5/2 – Leave Lizzie on the street and drive to Columbus to meet little Tucker, and love on the rest of our Ohio Family
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A rainy day baseball game, prom pictures, baby snuggles – and not a whole lot of pictures! Though short, it was still a very sweet visit!  Looking forward to seeing them all again in July at the family reunion at the Cabin!

 

 

5/5 – Return to Chambersburg (where another family joined in the fun)

 

 

 

 

5/6 – (early)Hook up the truck to Lizzie and head north to Canton, NY

 

 

 

 

5/6 – (late) Arrive in Canton, park Lizzie, plug her in, and then meet up with friends for dinner! (How crazy that we know TWO couples through SOWERs that live in Canton, NY!).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5/7 – Bid Lizzie farewell (for a bit), and head in the truck to the Cabin

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Ahhh…
We’ve been here for a full week now – and it’s been all good! I’ve been sleeping in, and then awakening to a crackling fire (May mornings are chilly in Vermont!), hot coffee, and a sweet time of devotions. Gary, of course, has other ideas of vacation!
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Can you spot him on the mower?
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Getting that floating dock ready for the Family Reunion this summer!

So in the last three plus weeks, we have seen all of our kids and grands, my sister and almost half of her family, did our annual doctoring stuff, got the tires rotated and our eyes examined,  ordered new glasses for both of us, and logged over 3000 miles (Lizzie and Truck together).  It’s no wonder we’re feeling ready to enjoy some Ahhh…Cabin time!
And as you can tell, it’s been much easier not to blog than it has been to blog – so we’ll just have to see how the rest of our time here goes.
Thanks for stopping by, and extending grace for my current intermittent blogging habits!
Steph

On the Road, Pictures of the Adventure, RV Life, SOWER Projects, SOWER Projects 2023, The Adventure

Moving Day

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We got an early start,
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driving separately since our first stop was to have the truck tires rotated at a Costco outside of Charlotte. Once the tire chore was done we hooked up the truck and set out for our final leg!
Did some big roads
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and some not so big roads.
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The drive was not without a bit of stress – we each chose the wrong way to go (once per leg of the trip), but they were correctable without too much trouble. We arrived safely in late afternoon, and are now settled in our lovely new neighborhood! The other two couples are arriving tomorrow and then we’ll all be good to go!
So thankful that once again for traveling mercies – something we never, never, no never, take for granted!
Steph

 

PS – for a little more info on where we are, hop over to the Where Are We Now page!

Family and Friends, On the Road, Pictures of the Adventure, RV Life, SOWER Projects, The Adventure

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Miles that is.
It was a wild and wonderful, exciting and exhausting 10 day road trip where we spent time with family and friends and accomplished some SOWER business and slept in way too many beds! So before I get even more behind in this blogging thing – here is a quick recap!
First it was Family in Waco!
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There were games to be played, chickens to watch (out for), piglets to ooh and ahh over (they are pretty darn cute!), and a bathtub to replace! (The kids know it’s important to keep Pops busy!). It was a lovely visit – and here are some pictures from our time there –

From there we headed to Lindale (TX) and the SOWER office for Gary’s last SOWER Trustee meeting. But before the official meeting activities began, we made time to go see some of our friends over at ALERT.
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I’m so glad we were able to do that!

Although he was officially off the board (his tenure was up), since he was the president he needed to run the meeting until a new president (from the current board) was elected. So we got to hang out with our SOWER friends, eat out too many times and visit with the other spouses and friends that live in the adjacent community. It really is lovely when you get to work alongside friends!

Once Gary was excused from the meeting, we enjoyed one last meal with the crew and took off the next morning for points East. But it wasn’t a direct shot back to North Carolina! We stopped at four SOWER projects along the way for our annual Area Rep visits. We’ve been the AR for these four projects for several years, so we always look forward to catching up with the hosts, hearing how God has been working in their ministries, and how our SOWER ministry can serve them better.
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And sometimes God blesses you with a beautiful sunrise just as you wrap up your travel days.
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We were officially on the road home by noon on Thursday. Of course, we were still west of New Orleans, so there were many miles to cover. But Gary decided he just couldn’t do another motel, so we just drove until we got here – at 6:30 the next morning. Oh, we stopped a couple of times for some naps along the way and while I must admit that driving through Atlanta at 2:30 in the morning is a good strategy
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I’m hoping we don’t do that again. Ever.

Yesterday was a total recovery day – didn’t really even totally unload the car until today. But I think we’re mostly recovered and looking forward to worshipping the God who kept us safe over those 3085 miles tomorrow and then to start work here on Monday morning. Don’t forget to check out a bit about where we’re working over on the “Where are We Now” page!

But right now it is way (and I mean WAY) past this girl’s bedtime! Thanks for your patience as the last two weeks were so quiet. As we welcome October tomorrow, maybe I should do a post every day? What do you think?
Thanks for stopping by –
Steph

On the Road, RV Life, The Adventure

Making the move

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Today was Moving Day! We hit the road a little after 8 AM, and after a (more expensive than we expected but oh-so-necessary) stop to fill up our propane tank (think furnace), we were on our way! Somehow even when Google Maps says it’s less than a 5-hour trip (about 230 miles), we managed to get it done in just under nine. But that’s our way. We braved the traffic north of Dallas to make a Costco stop (oy!) and also fit in a couple of short nap breaks. Once we crossed the Red River into Texas
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the speed limit upped to 75 (no, we were not on the interstate), but we just continued to lumber along at our nice steady 62.5. Google Maps does not factor in our lumbering speed. But aside from a bit too much traffic north of Dallas (exacerbated by this week before Christmas timing, no doubt)as we worked in that Costco stop, it was a lovely boring drive. We beat the sunset by about 10 minutes (phew!), got plugged in, pushed out the slides, turned on the heat, and took a real nap (well, the driver did anyway)! We made peanut butter toast for dinner,  scanned for our new channels (yes, we have to learn a new set of channels almost every month), and pretty much just vegged for the rest of the evening!

We have a nice three-week break before our January project and there are some exciting things ahead. Although Lizzie will stay right here for the whole three weeks, just a week from today  Gary and I will be taking a little road trip to Destin, FL to meet up with our kids and grands for the Big Conrad Family Christmas Holiday.  The next three weeks look like this –
12/19 -12/25 – Hanging out in Lindale, TX
12/26-1/3 – DESTIN with the Fam!!!!
1/4-1/6 – Back in Lindale
1/7 – Move to ALERT International (Big Sandy, TX)

Now if we can just live through the Arctic Blast heading this way! So, so thankful for that full propane tank (and a modest collection of space heaters)!

Sweet dreams, friends!

Steph

 

 

On the Road, Pictures of the Adventure, RV Life, The Adventure

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UntitledMiles, that is.

From the front of Toby’s house (after we watched them drive off to church)
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to our parking spot for the next several weeks –
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it was mile after mile after mile.
It started with some lovely country roads
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and ended with some classic Texas (70mph) 2-lane highways,
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but in between, there was highway mile after highway mile after highway mile.
So long, Ohio!
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Hello, Construction!
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We took a short detour for a long overdue RV wash. Thank you, Blue Beacon, that was a very well-spent $42.00.
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We crossed the Mississippi just before dusk
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and settled in at a truck stop for the night.
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Day two on the road was just more of the same…
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It was a crazy hot day, so it made sense to pull into a campground for the night to plug in and cool off!
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YAY for pull-through sites at a campground right off the interstate! (Sunrise RV Park in Texarkana, AR for those RV’ers out there. Not fancy, but it sure fits the bill for a quick overnight.)
This morning we crossed into Texas
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and we were parked and plugged in at the SOWER office RV area by noon! Phew!
It’s still crazy hot here (sorry for those of you who have been in this heat all summer and a 95-degree day actually feels like a relief, but this girl has been in VERMONT!), but we are certainly enjoying having the slides out (first time since we left Odosagih on August 18th!). I’m still living out of my suitcase (when the slide is in I can’t get to my drawers), so tomorrow will be spent unpacking from our time at the Cabin and finding homes for all the treasures I managed to accumulate during the last month.

Thanks for coming along for the ride! It was a long one, but as always we are so thankful that our biggest challenge was a couple of single-lane construction areas. We never take a boring ol’ trip for granted, believe me!

Steph