I admit it, I'm less than enthusiastic about keeping up my blog.  It kinda lost its appeal a while ago, but I will keep it up because I know at least a few people read it consistently.  Also, I know after my travels, this will be a far better record of my adventure than just my memory.  So, I'll try to be more timely with my posts, if only so I can remember what I did. I had been looking forward to the Habitat RV Care-A-Vanner rally in Springfield MO for quite some time.  I've worked with, and become friends with, so many great people over the years, and many of them were attending the rally.  Also, I had heard about so many others and couldn't wait to meet them.  I was not disappointed, I had an awesome time!  I think there were about 200 people there and we were broken up into 8 teams.  Each team rotated among 8 different houses.  We had one new build, the rest were rehabs or a Brush with Kin...

For my first Habitat build of the year, I went back to Tuscaloosa.  Last year I spent about 2.5 months there.  It was really great to see the home owners, Lee and Paulette, actually living in the house.   Lee was on site almost every single day, working right along side us.  He and I got to be pretty good friends and he welcomed me back with a giant hug.   I came specifically to work with the college kids for collegiate challenge.  The first week I was with Stephen.  He's one of the younger site supervisor's but very knowledgeable and patient with the kids.  His house was close to completion; we were just waiting on the dry wallers so we could paint and lay the floor.  They were delayed for some reason so we spent the first part of the week building sheds for his house and the one next to him. The first group of kids were from Mizzou, or the University of Missouri as they were better known. They wer...

I have been really, really bad about writing the past few months.  Since I haven't been traveling, it feels like not much has been going on.  When I think about it though, I've been pretty busy.  The weather has been cold and or rainy overall, so I haven't been to the beach or any of the typical Florida activities.  I have been doing a lot of hiking with several different groups and have met some awesome new friends. Finally the weather report showed a glorious weekend coming up, and my friend Jayen suggested a beach day.  I couldn't say no!  It was one of the great warm sunny days when the entire northern half of the country was snowed in.  I hate to gloat, but that's the exact reason I came to Florida!  We had a great time; we sat on the beach, looked for seashells, ate some food and generally had a nice, restful day.  We didn't swim, however, the water was too cold for me.  In the 3 months ...

January - my 52nd birthday and the 2 year aniversiary of my travels.  I’m still loving it, so I guess I'll keep going.  I've seen a lot of the country, but there are still so many places I want to get to.  The first year I hopped all over the country with no real plan.  While it was fun, it was too quick and too random.  I started on the east coast, then went to Texas,  back east to Tennessee, Louisiana, then back out west to California and Oregon then cross country in a week to get back to Florida.  2013 I had more of a plan.   I worked my way up the east coast, but did venture over to Kentucky and Indiana for 2 Habitat builds. The Indiana build forced me to forgo the last month of summer in New England, so I feel like I rushed it and didn't get to everywhere I wanted to go.  This year I plan to visit fewer places and stay longer each time. This allows me to se...

I’m in Dade City for my last build of the year.   It’s just an hour from Ocala, so I’ll probably come down once a week and build with them as a local volunteer.   The campground is actually a field in a neighborhood.   There were houses here once, but they came down and a Habitat neighborhood was built.   This affiliate gets most of their work done in the winter, by Care-A-Vanners.   They have 6-8 spaces and they are full during the winter months.   We spent the 3 weeks I was here building a house with 2 showers, a kitchen and laundry room for the RVers.   The front of the house has one large room that will be used by a local volunteer to live in.   They actually have a pretty nice set up here, the house will have a pavilion out back and they have a large BBQ/picnic area overlooking a pond that is home to a lot of different birds.   Once this house is done, they will remove several sheds and double the camping spaces.   One side will b...

When I arrived in the park in Ocala, I was surprised to find that I was the only camper there.   It’s a very small campground, only 23 sites, but I thought there would be more people there.   The reason this is one of my favorite places is because its right on the Florida Greenway, a series of hiking trails connecting to the larger Florida Trail.   So of course bright and early the next morning, I went for a long hike.   On the way back, there was a guy behind me who struck up a conversation of sorts.   Apparently he was lost, as in, on the wrong trail.   He said he should have ended up at a completely different trailhead then the one we were headed to.   Rather then turn around, he kept going.   He also told me he was hunting mushrooms,   the kind that cures cancer. He walked on the trail for a while then I let him pass me while took a water break.   The rest of the hike he would appear out of the woods with mushrooms in his hand, the...

I had a great two weeks in Nashville, for most of my visit the weather was great and there were so many sights to see.      I headed to downtown Nashville with a long list of things to do.   As I was looking for someplace to park, who should walk in front of my truck but Trace Atkins!   I just stupidly sat there thinking this can’t really be him, can it?   All I can say, if it wasn’t, it was his twin.    After a quick stop at the visitors center, I had tickets to the Grand Ole Opry, Country Music Hall of Fame, Studio B and Ryman Auditorium.   Of the 4, I think the most interesting was the Country Music Hall of Fame.   I’ve listened to country music all my life, so I knew who almost all of the people were.   The biggest exhibits were of the old timers, like from the 50’s and 60’s.   They did have some cool displays like Elvis Presley’s gold piano and the car from Smokey and the Bandit.   I also took a tour of Studio ...