First week in Marble Falls Nov 2010

Former Lodge which burned down



Where the Lodge Used to Be


New start in Marble Falls

Somewhere along the road while we were driving the second last day, we lost one of the small windows in the bedroom of the R.V. along the highway. It must have simply popped out. John taped in a piece of cardboard until we can get a new one.

There is no doubt that the hill country around Marble Falls, Texas, is some of the most beautiful scenery in America. It was like coming home to drive down the hill to the MDS campsite where we will spend the next month. By Saturday evening, all of the volunteers had arrived. There are 6 couples, all Canadian. We have become friends with two of the couples on other projects, have met one of the couples previously and have briefly become acquainted with the Project Directors on another occasion. This is the first Senior RV experience for the one couple from Winkler, Mb.

When we first joined the Senior RV Program, we were advised that the key requirement of a volunteer is flexibility. This is certainly true here in that we were expecting to begin putting up metal interior walls in one of the two new buildings that are being constructed to replace the former Lodge. Upon arrival, we could see the project is way behind schedule and that the concrete slab for first building had just been poured. We will be lucky if it is ready for interior walls in two weeks!

Accordingly, we went to “Plan B”. The site preparation where the Lodge used to be had not even begun. As crew foreman, John shot in the elevations and determined that 7 feet of fill would be required on the west end of the building site!

There was heavy equipment on the site available for use and two of our volunteers had some experience driving the dump truck, backhoe and packer. They were both in their glory, never dreaming they would be playing with these big machines for days on end. We learned that to run some of this heavy equipment was on our Project Director’s “Bucket List”!

The other men were put to work doing odd jobs around the camp. On Monday, the ladies had a new double washroom building by the soccer field to paint, inside and out. When that was done, we cleaned up the “Lewis Cabin”, a two room rustic cabin with twelve double bunks and a full bath on each side. We are expecting a group of volunteers from a church in Winkler, Mb., to arrive on November 14th to do the concrete floor for the new main building. The Winkler volunteers will be staying in that cabin while they are here.

When the ladies ran out of work painting and cleaning, they were assigned the important task of sorting out many boxes of plumbing supplies which had been donated to the camp. That was an interesting job, as about all we could do was sort them into the proper sizes. We had a few good laughs for the afternoon, as none of us are familiar with the various connectors and fittings, and there were so many different kinds.

Our first pot luck of the month was Thursday night, and as usual, there was a great feast and more than enough food for everyone.

Some members of the volunteer group known as RVICS (Retired Volunteers in Christian Service), are also camped in RVs at the top of the hill and are lending their assistance to the camp for maintenance and upkeep.

The weather this week was up and down like a yo-yo. The weekend was beautiful. The day after we arrived, Saturday, we enjoyed a two hour pontoon boat ride in 80 degree weather. What a lovely afternoon! It was hot enough to enjoy a leisurely Sunday lunch on the deck at River City Grille overlooking the Colorado River. Monday we were painting in sweltering 85 degree heat. Tuesday, it was cloudy and 65. It rained that night and was so windy it felt like our RV was going to end up in the lake! Wednesday morning it was just above freezing and then it rained all day. Thursday was a nice sunny day again.

There are several large pecan trees near our campers and one evening we went out and picked an ice cream pail full. Pecans in the roadside stands are $10.00 a pound!

We discovered Hallowe’en in Texas is just as much for the adults as for the children. Hundreds of costumed adults partied in the streets of Marble Falls. At lunch on Sunday, the waiters and waitresses were all costumed. Our waiter was a Mutant Ninja Turtle – I asked him if it was easy being green. He laughed and said “Not really, the green keeps coming off.” Our son Darren knows all about that from the time he won tickets for the Grey Cup Semi-Finals with the Riders by painting himself green and appearing in the CKBI parking lot in -15 degree temperatures, with snow falling, dressed only in cut-offs and work boots!

We have not been overly impressed with the T.V. we get down here. We can pick up about a dozen channels, a third of which are Mexican (Spanish). However, we were thrilled to have a front row seat (in our R.V.) Thursday evening for an hour long Statler Brothers special. It was absolutely awesome! We also watched an excellent documentary about Gulf War casualties and the emergency care they receive. It was a real eye-opener.