NIGHT OUT

ok last night the group went out to dinner and what a good time was had...it was alot of laughs..we had a great waitress who played jokes on us..like bringing a cup of coffee and pretending to trip and it spill on the one who was gettingthe coffee...crooked forks came with the salad-etc...then about 30-40 red hat ladies came in and they were about as entertaining as the waitress..they all wantd to talk and ask us where we were from..when they heard NEW YORK they asked about all the snow...

olga is one of the new home owners who came every day and worked very hard for her house and wanting to learn new skills...she only has about 70 hrs left to do and lar and i donated our hrs to her so she should be done...she plans on coming back to work even thou her hrs will be completed..just a good lady who has been waiting for 3 years for a house..she lost her mother this past summer and said that coming to work for her house and at habitat got her out of depression...these stories sure makes us feel good that we can help someone out who is also trying to help themselves...

so this 2 week build has come to an end and we've met new friends..played in the mud and even hammered in a few nails...so now we are headed for a wee bit of R&R and hop it dosen't rain..last night we had heavy rain with high winds...

the one picture is of the make shift dump that was made by lar for all of us to dump in... have a good weekend

LAST WORK DAY

today is the last wake up day of work here in galliano..it has been a good build as we can see some things that have gotten done...it is not as organized as some we've been on and the site supervisor needs to go to some classes on how to be a "BOSS" he leaves something to be desired...

last night we went to a supporter of habitat house for dinner and a nice evening was had by all..the only problem with it was it was an hr's drive from our site...but we were home by 9...

there is another group of builders at another site so it was nice to meet them ...not sure how much will get done after we leave as there is NOT another care-a-van group on the schedule to come here but there are some college groups and one comes next week after we are all gone..some of the group are headed to another build..we have checked into austin ,teexas again and right now aren't sure about that build as thye only seem to work 2 days a week..if not austin then we may find one someplace on our travels..still gooing to austin tou need to visit matt and lindsey..

yesterday lar-tony-ken worked on finishing a door in one of the houses a double one to be exact...as things gok it wasn't a perfect fit right of the bat so they had to ;modifity it and it finally fitr..

caroline and i spent part of the morning helping with siding till it got that there was more than needed so we went to the trailer where all the tools and supples are stored and it was a mess...you can guess what we then did..spent the rest of the day cleaning and straighing it up..hope the amer corp kids that come back today that are in charge of it notice that it is idfferent...a person can now find what is needed and it is labeled...

it has been a good 2 weeks but we are ready to move on to something different..heading to a state park on the beach..about an hr away from here..grand isle is the name of the park..we aren't sure if we will have wi-fi and hope to be surprised as we have before...so again don't worry if you don't hear from us..enjoy the snow in the northeast....

TUESDAY BRRRRRR

today was a cold day to work everyone was all bundles up and the wind blew all day which made it even cooler to work outside all day...but we did it...lar spent the time finishing up the vinyl siding on the house he and tony have been working on and i bet they did a hip-hip-hooray when they were done...i was walking mitch or mught even been in the shower when they finished...

now for me i spent the day working on siding on a house across the street from where lar was...we got up as far as we can go..even with scaffolding..and NO i did not go up on it...i was the ground goooooooofer...someone has to do it...i have done some work on the ladder but only so high..

tonight is game night but with some heavy appetizers...now what are heavy appetizers well they just take place of dinner...soup-c heese and crackers-meatballs-etc you get the idea.....

not sure what tomorrow weather will be...have heard that maybe rain..and we have heard that there is a possible nor'easter at home..so at home they get snow and we get rain-wind-chill-etc...going south this winter has not meant warm temps...yesterday has been the best so far this winter...i even worked in short sleeves by afternoon and wore shorts to social hour after work...

go figure

SUNDAY-DAY OFF

up and oon our way by 9am this morning...the plan was to go to another national park..then go into new orleans..and we did it...the national park was most interesting and the movie we watch there was good and tony and lar sang thru the whole thing...when there was music the words were on the screen so they just sang along..didn't take the time to hike one of the trails as we wanted to go into new orleans and thought we run out of time (which we did)...

then on to the navy base so tony could buy some red dog (beer) ( he is retired air force) and can get onto all the bases also camp at them if they have a fam-camp...after the red dog was in the car it was time to continue the adventure...

so on to the ferry that goes across the MISSISSIPPI RIVER to new orleans only costs 1.00 per each car not per person for both ways...so away we went to find a parking space..finally we found one and it was time for coffee and bignets (fancy donut)at cafe demound (a famous place in new orleans)..after the coffee it was time to walk around for awhile which we did...and of course a visit to the national park in the city...there are two and one of them was closed today..go figure on the weekend for a national park to be closed..so we missed that stamp...

so this weekend we got three....the start of getting stamps has begun...caroline has many more stamps than i do so she and tony are giving us pointers as to where we can get the most...and which national parks and near each other and easy to get to..

tomorrow will be the second week of work here then we move on ...our plan is to go to grand isle a state park not to far from here on the coast here in lousiana for 5 days then make our way to austin...not sure if we will have wi-afi at the park so don't worry if there is nothing posted after sat...hope to get alot done this week enjoy your week...

TRYING AGAIN

i am tryingto send the picture from yesterday

PICTURES

ok here are the pictures that were suppose to go with the last posting...i think the problem must be due to having a low connection...sorry still no pictures will try later...

SAT-DAY OFF

first i'll tell you about the pictures..one is of lar and his new canadian friend thomas...they worked most all week together and i think thomas took a liking to lar and tony...as he looked them up every day to see what they were going to do..

then we took a day trip to houma and thibadaux to sight see and look at some of the houses that tony and caroling woked on 2yrs ago in an area called bayou blue where oprah and bon jovi donated many dollars to rebuild...in the project there are to be 76 houses as we were told..not too many more to build

the houses with the white pillars are housses that oprah paid for the landscaping and also furnished the furniture for them..

then we went on to a nationa; park where I got the first stamp of the trip...not the hope is to get many more..

can you believe that i am in shorts...it is warm right now but who knows for how long (as soon as the sun goes down i think the long pants will go back on)..so i guess we are finally feeling that we are in the south..even heated up the rig --glad i opened up a vent for mitch...yesterfday was the last day for the college kids from canada and they have a 28 hr ahead ofthem..they hadn't left by 11 am..their plan is to drive straight thru..they have to stop at the border to pick up their passports...they had trouble crossing the border as the US thought they were comingdown her to work for pay...and who would come all that way to volunteer..they were at the border over 4 hrs when they came donw..hope they don't have that kinda of probelm going back...

rain is in the forecast for sun afternoon and mon so right now we will probally have another day off aas there isn't much inside work to do as the plaster guys aren't done with their work yet...maybe it will be a cleaning day but i sure shouldn't count on it now as you all know how the weather man predicts....time will tell...

PARTNERS IN CRIME

ok today's pictures are of us and our partners in crime...i am with caroline and lar is with tony...the other picturwe os of 2 home owners and a sister...

caroline and i tried to do at least 3 jobs today and every time we ran out of supplies and there just easn't anhy more...oh well now what do we do..get into trouble..hahahahaha...lar and tony worked on soffetts along with thomas from canada...they had a good day..

finally caroline and i decided to go to wal-mart..today we are have a pot luck dinner...one is making a pot of chilli (can you image NO beans) and the rest of us is bring stuff to go along with it....

this has been a NO windy day..it has been windy almost evey day so far but today it was warm..not early morning but by afternoon it was...the college were in shorts by afternoon...not us older people...time for dinner..more later

PARADE

the picture is of lar presentingthe boing award to roxann last night at the social hour..you'll have to work for habitat to really understand the boing award just a fun thing to ptresent after a day's work to someone to pass on the following kinda an ice breaker to get to know the others...

the beads are NOT anything that i collected but a couple of the cother couple did on sundazy night...we met friends who are collecting them for their daughter for next years parade so they are goingto give them to her...

todays parade was fun and we were invited top a party befofre it which we went..the same people we met the other night lots of laughs-good food-and plenty of beads...i only kept a coupe of things i caught today as what am i going to do with 100 pounds of beads...just the special ones..the pink stuffed dog is for mitch..."christine h. does it look familiar???? i think it is like wee-wee!!!!!!!!!

tomorrow up and to work at 8 am.....

FIRST DAY ON THE BAYOU

first day of work was most interesting and i think we got alot done..we worked with ameri corps kids and also a group of college kids frm canada....

because this is a bayou (means swamp) it is wet and muddy and i mean muddy like no mud back home sticks to everything and is all over the work site even the road on where we are camped so yesterday afternoon a could of us swept-washed the road to help NOT track mud into our rigs --a first having to scrub the road but if it helps so much the better..

yesterday lunch was prepared by one of the home owners..local food...cat fish-b-b-q pork jamibalya..good stuff..i told lar if we are going to eat this big a lunch then for dinner it will be a salad or something light...no 5-10-15 pound build for me..that's how some of the builds are rated by what you "COULD" gain if not careful..lunch we are told some days will be provided by some of the oil companies wh obring in a big b-b-q and cook on site..will let you know if and when that happens...

we are working o 6 houses and most of them are in the same stage..so it will be interesting how much we all can get done..

parade again today it is fat tues and a holiday...they don't celebrate and close schools for presidents day they take the week off for mardi gras...interesting place to be at this time...

WE'RE HERE

we have arrived here in galliano..took us some time to et here as there are all kinds of mardi gras parade in all the small towns so we

go stuck behind floats that were going to the parade...stopped at a truck stop to unhook tony and carlone's car then hop in to go check out where they are going to put us and the work site...well there was a huge crane there planting a house (they are doing modulars right now)..so we could not get into where they wanted us so the first night waas spent in a wal-mart with 2 other habitaters...

last night was a ladies parade where all the throwers were female so of course we had to go...we got a couple of bags full of those crazy beads..so we were giving some away...lots of lsughs as we were taken under the wing of a local boy who owned the store we were parked next to and he told us to move the car into his lotnext thing don't you know he is bringing us chairs and told us to go inside and get some fish and gumbo so we did more laughs and we are invitred to go park there tomorrowe for tomorrow noon parade,,NO work as it is fat tues so it will be a parade and it will be work to collect the beads...oh we do have some wi-fi here..found some but one of the big rigs has it and gave us all the password so i guess you'll be hearing from us..

we worked with a bunch of ameri corps worked and also college kids from canada..more later

ON THE MOVE

we are on the move today...moving on to galliano where we will be for 2 weeks and right now we aren't sure we will have wi-fi...we were surprised here in the state park but at the habitat site who knows...sok don't be worried if you don't see anything on the blog for a bit...it will be due to not having wi-fi...hopefully there will be a library handy and okf course we aren't sure of the either..;

so that's it from here...

MOOSE

moose you say waht did they see one running around there in lousiana????? while NO there aren't any wild moose in lousiana..but we did have moose for dinner...judy one of the original habitat group gave us a package of moose...bill would NOT eat it so she knew who would and that was lar and tracy so she gave it to us...we thought why not share it with tony and caroline so that is what we had for dinner last night moose burgers...we enjoyed them judy!!!!!

it poured all night and it still raining this morning..snow is expected to arrive later today so not sure it there will be a parade tonight..last night on the news alot of the schools were closed today we think they were closing on the forecast...not sure what we will do today thinking what else but maybe go to the laundry mat...that is always fun haahha.....

THURSDAY

here we are in the "SOUTH" with snow in the forecast!!!!!!!!! can you believe that...oh well is washington is breaking the record with snow i guess we can get snow...we a re suppose to get maybe 2-3 inches so we will just roll with it...my guess if we get it then they will cancel the parades...myabe even close schools...

doing "RIG" projects helping tony fix some small things and going out on adventures..have not gotten the bikes out to ride..too cold-rainy-snow-so i guess that's all the excuses i can think of right now...

have heard from the volunteer person in galliano and right now we aren't sure if we work mon and tues due to mardi gras festivities..we do know hat there is a parade in galliano on tues at noon and we plan on attending it...when in rome do as the romans do so when in galliano do what they do and that is go to a parade..will let you know how it was...not sure if we will have wi-fi there

TUESDAY

last night it rain cats and dogs and this morning it has been cool or some would say cold...but we think it is kinda ok...

spent some of this morning tryingto hlep tony figure out some projects that he needs to et done and plan our day..we decided to gko out for cofe demount--and bignettes a french donuts which a covered with lots and i mean lots of powdered sugar we were all covered with the sugar by the time we got done with them...

the we drove to slidell where we did a build after katrina and we wante d to find the houses we worked on..which we did..the pictures are of the houses also the campground by the church that put us up and also the fish market where we bought all those wonderful lousiana shrimp that we had a b-b-q ...we ate and ate shrimp...mmmm good

back to the houses they all look like they are being taken care of and the lawns aren't covered with junk and stuff....it was nice to see them...we didn't see anyone we remembered who was a get one of the houses but noice to see them anyway...lucky that tony remembered how to get there with lar's help..so a good day was had by all

tonight we are getting together for dinner and of course with will have shrimp included...we are having jumbalia (sp???)..also planning on a parade schedule for later in the week...thursday we plan on going into the big easy for the day and hope it has calmed down some for the saints win...

SURPRISE

here we are in a state park outside on new orleans...and NO we are NOT going to go into new orleans for this afternoon's parade to welcome back the 'SAINTS' for winning the super bowl game...it will be way to big a zoo for us..

the surprise is that we have wi-fi here in the park and it seems to be good...never did expect it here but sure am glad we have it...the park is still rebuilding after the hurricane and for the most part it is in good shape now....they are rebuilding the restrooms and it also appears that alot of work has already been done in other buildings around and also the beach area...

it has been good to met up with our friends caroline and tony..it has been a couple of years that we have seen them...just like old home week--great being with them again...last night out to dinner..didn't find a real local place but a good place ..good food and friends...today not sure what we might be doing...there are projects around both rigs that need to get done...caulking that has worked it's way loose..tony and caroline have a battery in their car that needs to be replaced and we may go out to find one...heavy rain in the night and we are hearing that home may be getting some snow today and tomorrow....but not as much as washington got this past weekend...hope the shovels are ready to go...

SUNDAY-MARDI GRAS PARADE-GAME

so what do we do to waste time before the big game this afternoon at 5:30 (we are on central time) well you just go to a mardi gras parade....so this morning we did a few chores around the rig ato rady for moving on tomorrow then off to get propane as 1 tank was almost out...after that we headed to long beach for a parade at 1pm...spent 45 min people watching interesting...most had either a beer-cigarette-or something black and gold on..(we have noticed more smokers here in the south than the north)...lots walking around with a beer or drink of some sort in hand...we just watched..and sid NO wy at home would this be allowed..open containers law...not sure what condition they wil be in kick off time...first was the big fire truck then lots of floats..cars with people throwing beads...we caught some but we still have lots at home from other parades and what are we going to do with more beads..give them away i guess...

i even got a stuffed cow for mitch..from chic-a-flick...had to step on it so NO one would grab it away from me for mitch...

just to let you know that tomorrow we head for a lousianna state park where we meet friends from spokane and we spend some time together before reporting in galliano,la for a build..i am not sure we will have any wi-fi so i don't want you to worry about us..remember no word is good word..we may have to find a library or some coffee shope to get wi-fi.... we sure hope we can get some coverage..

the game is about to start and we don't really care who winds but we sure are in saints counrty and it is a good thing we aren't wearing any blue..(might not have gotten any beads if we had on indy shirts)...so all's going according to some sorta schedule if we are on one...so go watch the game and may your team win...or yojur numbers come in...

SATURDAY

;jefferson davies house restored

his house after katrina hit

today we spent the day driving on route 90 along the coast where katrina came and did her damage..what was most interesting is that we were here before and saw the sights of all the sights and casino's..then we id return after she hit and saw all her damage..now we see the recovery that has taken place...lots of emoty building sights that have been cleaned up and just left to be emoty..we talked to several local people and some say t is becazuse some took the FEMA money and left town with it --some others say it is because if they reuilt on the same sights the insurance would be out of sight...(which i believe.)...the waterfront is just beach and no restaurants.tourists traps-and other buildings...so i believe that for most it is because of the insurance...

today we visited jefferson davies home..which was destroyed and has been rebuilt costing many millions of dollars..the furniture had to be sent away to special places the restore furniture..the rooms were painted the same colors as when he lived there and it took 3 years to do the repainting as it was special...the colors were the same ...

the bridge that went from tr 90 into biloxi had been destroyed and now there is a new one..you can see where alot of work has been done but there is also much more to do..

when we talked to some locals we mentioned that we had been here before and had volunteered at some of the other otwns and their remarks were they could not have done all the work with out the volunteers very much appreciated...makes a person feel good to hear that...

i am pointing to the high water make in biloxi...24 feet high was the water surge....way over my head

MISTAKE

i'm not sure what happened but i wasn't thru...oh well i can finish up now

after biloxi we head for fountbeau state park in lousianna where we met up with tony and caroline are habitat friends from the state of washington who wint er in yuma and are joining us on this build in galliano...we will be there till feb 13 when we move on to the work site..

we hope to take in a parade or 2 while there...caroline and i know how to beat off the others that are watching the parade and get in our territory...step on them haahhaha...had to be there in slidell ...

now if it would warm up a tad we would feel like we were in the south..then when it does we probally will be wishing that it would get cool again..just can't be happy..hope all's well with all that are checking in on our adventure...

i did have somne pictures included with this post but for some reason they didn't go..i think it might be because we have low wi-fi..oh well will try them again...

LAUNDRY DAY

rain lst night and more expected today so why not do laundry besides it needs to get done one of these days or lar will be without..haha...yesterday after the rig got put back in order we took a ride to pasagola where we worked after katrina..we were most interested in the church wwe stayed in their parking and ate our meals there..we had heard that due to insurance reason the best was to tear it down but those that attended ti wanted to restore it back to the original way it was...we were glad to see that they won out..it was still standing and a welcome sight..

we then took a ride to the guld shore to see what had been built ..there wwere many emopty houses --foundations with for sale signs on them and many new really big houses or mansions...most were built on stilts or out of concrete and NO not blocks..

the city itself looked like it had bounced back but in riding aroundtown we could see many areas that there was nothing going on ..people had just left and not come back... somne areas appeared to be depressed..we could not find the houses that we worked on but we saw plaenty of others..and who knows we may have seen one of them and not remembered we are seniors you know..haahah

tomorrow we head for biloxi,mississippi for 3 days and hope we can find a campground..most are filled in the area due to mardi gras parades so we may have to stay in a wal-mart or even a casino..just the parking lots...we don't know much about poker or the slots....

ADVENTURE CONTINUES

yesterday tuesday we left the campground in penscoloa around 9:30 and checked out..the man at the desk asked wher we wer heading lar said mobile..he laughed and said that isn't very far oh we know it said lar..mobile was only about 1 1/2 hr away..aout on interstate 10 we headed and started west toward mobile...about 1/2 hr on the road lar hear a strange noise and we both looked out our side mirrors i said there is nothing on my side and he said something is flapping on my side..over he pulls and we get out to loook...sure enough we had a real blow out (flat tire)..on the drivers side...(funny the night befre he noticed a bulge in one of the tires and said i think i'll change it so nothing happens and when we get to mobile we will buy a new tire...ok i say he knows..)so there we are on a interstate and traffic is going by a fast pace..we have AAA so why not call them ..so we did after waiting for about 2 hrs finally they arrive...only one person stopped to see if we had a problem and offered to help..told them that the triple A was on it's way and thank you...lar thought that on a busy interstate it would bebest to have some help..dave arrived and it took about 45 minutes to change the tire as they had to jack it up put some blocking under the rig and finally it was canged..lar had decided that not only would we get 1 tire but new ones all the way around..dave followed us to the tire store as he knew wher it was ..becuse the spare was the one with the bulge on it and we all thought it would blow and then we'd be in big trouble....the firestone store was only about 6 miles away...arrived at the store and they did have tires we could use so 4 we ordered and finally around 5:30 we arrived at a campground...all the camp sites were full but the lady said there is one that has been paid for and the people aren't arriving till the 10th so as long as you want to stay only 3 night we will put in that one...thank you we say...so today we will do some repair on the rig and maybe even do the laundry...

so when someone says it is only a short distance beware..it might be a short distance but a long time to get the distance...

we sure know that the good lord is watching over us

MONDAY

ok here's waht we did on sunday..oh i guess first i'd ought to let you know wher we are..we are in penscola, fl almost to alabama..sok back to what we did yesterday we went off the the naval air museum..we have been there a couple of times before and the price is right FREE so we went...they have done alot more work inside so there was much more to see--we even tokk in one of their movies we saw the one on storm chasers interesting and not a job i'd like to do.....then we found a sam's club and did a wee bit of shopping not buying too much as we don't have alot of room...back home for dinner and then watch the pro bowl...didn't see it all as we were both falling asleep--we need to get back on schedule as we have changed time zones...

now for today it was cold this morning so we just hung out till around 11 then found another rails to trails bike trail about 1/2 hr away...so we did another 17 miles...

now lar is changing a tire on the rig and he noticed one buldging and we for sure don't want a blow out on the highway..better save than sorry..so that's waht we've been up these last couple of days.....