RVICS Volunteer Experience Palacios — post 3

Expect the Unexpected

From changing plans to sore body parts, you never know how it’s going to go

If you aren’t a paid Medium Member you can assess the post here.

I’m thrilled to be sitting in my recliner, looking out our front window at the sunshine and the gulf. The breeze is so slight that trees are barely moving. It’s quite a change from yesterday. The weekend was also much colder.

Friday was a laid-back day to recuperate. We didn’t do much of anything.

On Saturday we met the gang for lunch. There aren’t very many restaurants in Palacios. Our leaders chose a seafood and steak restaurant, or so it said. The big Valentine’s Day Parade was taking place, and the folks in the area also celebrated the Chinese New Year. Apparently, the cooks at the restaurant had a lot of work to prepare to join the parade, so the only food they were offering was fried.

So much for having a ribeye. 🙄 I’m not a seafood fan, but I do enjoy fried shrimp with lots of tartar or cocktail sauce. Tommy ordered the shrimp, and I went for the chicken wings. Sadly, neither was anything to write home about. Our batting average for good restaurant meals in Texas is abysmal!

The sign I passed on my morning walk said the parade was at 1:00, so I was surprised when Helen said it wasn’t until 2:00. We were done with our so-so lunch, and it wasn’t even 1:00. Since I spilled an 18-ounce iced tea on my lap, I suggested that we go back to camp so I could change.

When we owned Johnny’s Bar & Grill in Hollister, we saw at least three parades outside our restaurant’s doors a year. I asked Tommy how he felt about returning for the parade, and he was as thrilled about it as I was. I wound up swapping my wet jeans for a pair of sweats, and my butt hit the recliner. I texted Helen that we were bugging off for the parade. She was great about it. 🥰

One of the beautiful things about the RVICS organization is the group’s diversity. Everyone comes from different backgrounds and lifestyles and is gracious regarding activities. The rest of the gang loved the parade. The restaurant had fireworks and dancing dragons in their parking lot before we left, so we didn’t feel like we missed out on much. I never heard firecrackers that loud. They were wrapped in a long train of red paper. It was pretty trippy.

As full-time RVers, we no longer have a church home but always scout one out to enjoy on Sundays. We’ve found that MANY churches that closed their doors because of COVID-19 failed to open back up. They don’t bother to take down their websites and Facebook pages, and we have often found ourselves standing outside of a closed church.

The church search is such an adventure. I found a non-denominational church less than two miles away and an Assembly of God about very close. We followed our GPS to the non-denominational church, and the street we were directed to turn on looked like it led to a seedy RV park or just a funky neighborhood. Tommy made a U-turn, and I punched in directions to the Assembly of God.

The building didn’t look like a church, and there weren’t a lot of cars around it. A sign was there, but we couldn’t tell where the front door was. According to their website, the service started at 10:30. We arrived a little later because of our detour to another church. A young girl was coming out of the building, and we asked her where the door to the church was.

She directed us inside a building where they were having Sunday School. We were informed that the church service started at 11:00. They also told us they “might” have a translator. Hanging out for twenty-five minutes to attend a service when English was not the spoken language did not appeal to us. We headed home. To say that our weekend didn’t go as planned would be an understatement.

We did church TV and enjoyed an excellent message. While Tommy kicked back I whooped up some appetizers for the Super Bowl. Our leaders, Chris, and Helen joined us to watch the game. That didn’t pan out as we thought, either. Our beloved 49ers lost to the Chiefs. Two terrific teams met up. Even if it didn’t go our way, it was one heck of a game.

On Monday, it was cold, and the wind was blowing like crazy. We were initially supposed to be working outside washing down buildings with bleach water. We were grateful when Rob said he was changing things and had us ladies wash windows. There were plenty of windows to keep us busy, even if we stuck to only cleaning the inside. The tricky part was cleaning the ones in the bunch of houses.

I’m pretty sure the bunks are nailed to the floors because they were not moving. We had to climb up on the bunks to clean the windows and sills. I said we, but it shortly became me that took on the job.

I am the baby here at 64 years old. It was our pal Sandy’s 73rd birthday. She made it up on one of the bunks and REALLY didn’t like getting down. The gals kept apologizing for making me do the climbing, but I was okay with it. I have no problem with heights and am the whooper snapper in the group.

Just because my mind had no problem with it doesn’t mean my body agreed. I hurt from head to toe when we were done for the day. I was too whiped out to think. I never thought that the job of cleaning windows could hurt that bad. Happily, I woke up feeling pretty good this morning.

Thank you, Jesus, we painted today. There was no bunk climbing, but many ups and downs, moving my ladder to cut in at the ceiling. I have a new appreciation for scaffolding. We had it on our last assignment. It makes things much easier.

I’m thrilled that we accomplished so much today and that I still had the energy to write my post. We might be painting again tomorrow, but who knows?

As Tommy said this morning, “The only thing you can plan on is that the plan might change.”

Thanks for hanging with me. I hope you are having a great day. Here’s my last post about our assignment in case you missed it.