New Opportunity in Louisville, GA

While staying these last 2 weeks in Louisville, GA at the Old Town Plantation, we had a conversation with the owners of the farm and B&B.  We were discussing our dilemma with trying to find a place to "perch" for awhile somewhere in Georgia so I could do my House Calls job without having to drive too far within a day of work, so I could return home almost every day.  We have also been trying to help Sebastian to decide on whether he wants to go to school in Georgia for automotive or HVAC repair and also get a job somewhere in Georgia. 
A few days later, Martha, the owner comes by our cottage with an interesting proposition.  She wanted to know what we would think about becoming part-time "caretakers" and helping them out around the place especially when they needed to be out of town periodically.  We could live in a small house on the property with free rent and electric in exchange for approximately 13 hours per week of work.  There may not be work every week so it would be sporadic---like when they were gone, we'd feed the dogs, water some plants and be here for emergencies.  Occasionally, if there were cottage guests at the time that they needed to be gone, we'd cook the breakfast in the mornings.  We could still keep any jobs that we had.  And if we did any work above those hours, she'd pay $20 per hour!
She even talked to the local HVAC repair owner [heating and air conditioning] about possibly hiring  Sebastian to work with him and train him in the business.  There are a couple of tech schools about 30 minutes away that Sebastian could learn more in HVAC if he liked it or in automotive repair if he wants to.  
Sebastian could also help take care of the basic work around the farm if we are gone at the same time as the owners. We told Martha and Thomas that we'd like to try it out for the next 6 months.  It just felt right to take them up on this offer. 
We had been searching for some place to call "home" again in Georgia.  For a time, we thought maybe Savannah.  But prices for housing seemed to be on the high side there.  We really wanted to be close to Anthony, Melissa and Jazmin in Gainesville as well, but again trying to be there enough for them and do the House Call job seemed to be at cross purposes. 
We finally just let go of trying to make any decisions and had sort of committed to going back to Gainesville as our home base when this opportunity presented itself out of nowhere!  But it feels right to try this out. I do have a lot of time off from my job and we could travel back to Gainesville as often as we want to or need to for the next several months anyhow.  And then, things could change from there in ways only God knows right now!

OLD TOWN PLANTATION & RETREAT IN LOUISVILLE, GA

We've been in Louisville, Ga this past week and will stay for another week.  I only have 3 days of work and then we'll be flying off to NY to visit family for about 7 days. We'll get to enjoy Tom's renovated house longer than we did after we finished it in April!
We are staying at the Old Town Plantation and Retreat.  It is a bed and breakfast but they don't have individual rooms like most B&Bs, but have cottages.  Ours is called the Courtside Cottage b/c it is next to the tennis courts.  Tennis anyone?  Not us, no rackets and weak knees! 
The houses are on several hundred acres of land---just beautiful countryside.  Martha and Thomas, the owners are just really the nicest people. This land has a very historical background also, dating back to the 1800's.  There are several houses on this property that are very old cracker-style houses.  One was torn down b/c it was too costly to fix up but they left the chimneys!

See some of the pictures below.....check out the Picasa Link for more.  They'll be up for awhile there as well.

Courtside Cottage

 

We walked down this tree lined lane to find the river and a good fishing spot but never did find the river.

Restored old Library with remaining chimneys from torn-down house.

SAVANNAH, GA

We are back in Savannah!  We were at Red Gate RV park about a week ago also then went to work in Emanuel, Jenkins and Candler counties for 3 days.  We stayed in Statesboro again at the Parkwood RV Park.  It was simpler to stay there and travel to the other counties which surround Statesboro.  Anyway, then we came back to Savannah last Saturday and have been here since. We are still in our RV staying at Red Gate RV Park.
Bob is taking the last 2 days of his insurance agent classes and then will take the test before we leave Savannah this Saturday coming up.  We'll be dropping off the RV in Jacksonville but may head to G'ville first to drop off all the extra stuff we have been carting around due to the RV!

 

We did some sightseeing in downtown Savannah a week ago, walked along the river front and also around City Market area. 

Savannah feels like a "small" big city.  Traffic didn't seem too bad for a Saturday.  Sundays probably are even slower!

Red Gate Farms is where we have the RV parked.  It has a lot of land that is still owned by the same family for the last few generations.  Lots of amenities---pool, clubhouse with 60" screen TV and laundry facilities.  It has been very convenient to Savannah and the water as well as Bob taking his classes.  I will be working from  here also for 3 days this week, seeing members in Bryan, Evans and Liberty counties.

One of 4 fishing ponds

Home away from home

Bob-firing up the grill

Horses!

Swings overlooking the pond

TYBEE ISLAND!

We just spent last week at Tybee Island for 3 days.  Wow, what a great place!  It had a cute downtown area with cute beach type shops.  The beach was nice and they had a pavillion with a pier.  We went to a different section of the beach where the "back" river meets the ocean and it reminded us of the panhandle area in Florida! The water was still warm enough to go in and do some surf fishing.  Didn't catch anything though....
We rode our bikes around the campground and some of the neighborhood area.  We also went kayaking one morning but I'm afraid I just don't have the upper body strength I need to make that more fun than work!

The Tybee Island Light Station [aka--lighthouse] was really neat to see.  Also around that same area, there are bunkers from the Civil War era, I think.  Houses and other establishments are tucked in all around them. Kind of strange in some ways---should have been a state landmark to be preserved, you'd think.....

On Sunday morning, we went down to the beach to watch the sunrise come up on the horizon, only there was a bank of clouds in the way.... I didn't get up as early as I should have to bike there in time, so the cloud bank gave me extra time!  It was so neat to be on the beach watching for the sun.  Other people were there as well.
We definitely want to go back to Tybee Island!
We have rented an RV for 3 weeks, not sure about living in it that long but since I had a lot of days off, we thought we'd take advantage of the time and go to a bunch of parks in between working while the weather was still nice.  So we'll make the best of it.  Can't wait for cooler weather though!
After one more week in Statesboro, we'll go down to Skidaway Island and then closer to Savannah to an RV Park.  Bob is going to an Insurance Agent class for 2 days in Savannah.  He'll have another 2 days the following week as well.  So we'll be in Emanuel, Candler and Jenkins counties for 3 days then have another 4 days off.

STATESBORO, GA

We have been in Statesboro for about a week now.  I worked four days doing House Calls and now have the weekend off. Yeah! We are staying at the Statesboro Inn which is a bed and breakfast; but we are staying in their 2 bedroom cottage in the back of the property.  It's kind of cute but has too small of a refrigerator.  The young owner acquired this property about 3 years ago.  The Inn may have seen better days in the past.  There are just little hints that this may be a bigger job for this guy than he expected maybe.  Anyway, we are here until next Friday.  Then we will take a jaunt down to Jacksonville, FL and pick up the RV that we reserved.  We thought we'd try it for a few weeks to see how we will like it.  We may buy our own in the future. 
The town is a fairly good size with about 40,000 people.  The university here called Georgia Southern has about 19,000 students. 

Statesboro Inn-main house

Our "cottage"

Labor Day Weekend-Canton, GA

We are in Canton, GA visiting Fred and Linda, Bob's brother and his wife.  We met Sebastian on I-85 coming from Panama City, FL.  He followed us up the rest of the way.  There was a traffic jam on 575 and we decided to get off and follow some back roads; it still took us another 45 minutes but maybe we would have been sitting in traffic due to a car accident if we hadn't gotten off.
Today, we drove over to Lake Acworth area and Red Top Mountain.  We took a trail from the visitor's center and walked over to the lake trail.  Beautiful day and beautiful weather.
Fred & Linda have got us hooked on the Wii again this year.  They have been doing games for exercise almost every day and Linda has lost 10lbs doing it and Fred has become more limber! It's got us wanting to use our Wii more for a fitness routine.  It's challenging and fun at the same time.
Tomorrow we were thinking of going to Andy Stanley's church at Northpoint Church.

EASTMAN, GEORGIA

We have now been in Eastman Georgia for 1 week doing the House Calls program.  We are staying at the Dodge Hill Inn, in one of their cottages called "Mary's Manor".  It is a cute little house and comfortable for us for the next couple of weeks.  See pictures below.

So far we've been to a state park nearby and rode our bikes and fished but didn't get anything!  We went to the town of Dublin, GA to look around.  We had an awesome lunch at a place called "Ole Time Country Cookin".  It was delicious!

Fruit cup for Breakfast!

Mary's Manor where we stayed

I'm "getting into" my job more and more.  I feel like these are "my" patients.  I do enjoy teaching one on one. I am scheduled for 8 patients daily but have had at least 1 or 2 "no shows" each day this week.  I was concerned that I would have all 8 patients and I would be out  driving around till 6pm especially when it gets dark early.  But if the future is like this past week, then maybe I won't have any difficulty with 6 or 7 members per day!