Last evening
Chad Gresh asked if we get up early to hit the road on travel days. I said yes; as early as our eyes open and the
bathroom calls. No rush for us since we look forward to driving no more than
about 100-150 miles in a day and take the non- expressways of America to boot.
And NO DEADLINES.
By 11 am we
were pulling out of Cracker Barrel and drove the 1 mile to Sherwood Forest RV
Resort to dump and refill our tanks. That takes about an hour when it includes,
as it did today, propane. We’ve kept the
furnace going at 68 degrees the past couple of nights. But not tonight. We are now 30 miles west of Fort Myers and
the temp IS higher.
We are
parked in a wonderful park-like setting in Alva UMC’s grassed over hard sand parking lot.
They offered us a concrete pad which had been a house slab till they
bought the property and removed the building.
This little church has some big plans!
Founded in
1886 as the community itself was being formed by a Dutch sea captain, Peter
Nelson. The records of the founding of
Alva are kept at the Alva Museum, the library and the United Methodist Church. We’ll
be checking them all out ourselves but this website is short and interesting.
Bonnie, the
church Administrator and her husband David met us at the church soon after we
arrived and showed us our parking options.
When asked if we could stay past Christmas Bonnie thought a moment and
said , “You can stay forever.” Then
David mentioned that no one at the church knew town rules on our staying in a
coach but we said that was no problem.
If someone tells us we must move we can be moved in 20 minutes. Now THAT would be a deadline!
The church
sits just above the Caloosahatchee River, one block from the river
drawbridge. River traffic once was sail
and steamboats but today includes mostly motor commercial and pleasure craft
between Lake Okeechobee and Fort Myers and the Gulf of Mexico.
We are 50
miles from Sanibel Island on the gulf here in Alva, and immediately surrounded
by cattle country and citrus groves.
Tomorrow
evening there is an Alva UMC Bible Study
at 7pm we hope not to miss. This looks like a delightful Christmas of seeing
and learning new things and meeting new friends. We will and are missing family
and friends in PA, but staying at churches means we find new friends wherever
we go.
-Ken
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