Thursday, February 22nd

We left the Brooksville Airport and most of our traveling friends on Sunday morning at 0900. The Leiths and Clarksons joined us on our short, but enjoyable, drive to Dade City. Clarksons left us about halfway since their destination was the Peace River Thousand Trails Park. Leiths and we pulled in to the Flying J to top off our fuel and propane tanks. It was busy since many coaches had the same idea as ours. We took almost an hour to get through the lines and get everything topped off. Once we were completed, we were back on the road for the short jaunt to Dade City and the Habitat for Humanity build site.

Our drive from Brooksville was unique in that we drove on county roads that winded through the farm country on quiet, two-laned roads. The views were pristine and peaceful. The speed limits were only 45MPH, making the drive slower. We avoided all the heavy-traffic highways and took our time. From the Flying J to Dade City the road was about the same as we passed through several small areas of western Dade City into the downtown area and continuing on to eastern Dade City, and area that once was considered a ghetto.

There was once a major orange processing operation where we are parked. An insect invaded the trees and the operation slowly disappeared. The company that owned the operation had built “homes” for the workers - similar to share-cropper shacks. Once the company left, the homes remained and were occupied by some rather low-life types that turned the area into a major crime area. The story goes that the local law enforcement wouldn’t even drive over here (on the east side of the tracks) because of the risk factors. The City of Dade City took over the ghetto and moved a crew of bulldozers into the area. They razed the worst homes, made a clearing, and donated the land to Habitat for Humanity. In that cleared area, HfH has built almost 43 homes and converted the small community to a livable area. The homeowners are a mix of Hispanic, Black, and Caucasian families. The races are mingled so there is no particular area for any of them. They have learned to take care of their homes and yards, which has resulted in a very nice, small neighborhood where homeowners show the pride, they have in their new homes. It is a showplace of what can be done with the proper training and motivation. We have had the opportunity to meet several of the owners - they have provided mid-day meals for us and fed us very well. They are appreciative of the work of the volunteer builders and show it freely - almost making us feel embarrassed. We have met some of the warmest, most considerate folks you could imagine. Moreover, talk about pride in their homes - they really have it!

The City has run a sewer line and water line for the volunteers to use for the RVs. It’s not even close to an RV park, but the arrangement is comfortable and very livable. The HfH affiliate has run electricity to the area and we have some sites that even have 50amp electricity. Nobody is turned away, but everybody who shows up here does some work for the affiliate and helps on the home building. It’s a great deal for a “no-cost” hook-up site! And we have met some folks who come down here in the fall and spend the winter working on homes. The folks we’ve met have been nice folks and we’ve enjoyed our time with them.

We arrived on Sunday morning about 1100 and got parked and hooked up. There were several folks that came over from the Brooksville Rally and are members of the FMCA Chapter of Habitat for Humanity. At 4PM we had a meeting with all the team members, went over the policies on the build, and had a social hour including a “meet and greet”. Leiths and Andersons are the ones who traveled the farthest - we’re those California folks.

We had a surprise on Valentine’s Day - a visit from our friends Rick and Joanne Stone from Oklahoma City. They joined us on our trek to the east where we met them in Duson, LA. Rick and Joanne have a Monaco Caymen and have been a real joy to get to know. Rick retired just this last year and is having a great time in the full-time lifestyle.

There had been some problems with the house we were going to build - the foundation had failed some compaction tests, so we couldn’t start building on Monday, as planned. Three of us went to the HfH office, an old converted train depot, and did some small tasks there. One of the jobs was building a stairway from the loading platform to the ground on the backside of the depot. The depot was originally built in 1912 and has been designated a historical building. It is full of beautiful, old reminders of the early days when passenger trains came through this area. Today there are no passenger trains; just freight trains run through here almost every hour. The “little project” of building the stairway took the next four days! We took some gentle ribbing about our project, but it was all in fun.

We were supposed to have Saturday off, but several of us went to the current house we’re building to do some time-consuming layout work for the front porch. The house was designed for a single mother with 7 children. Habitat just found out that one of the children is handicapped and has a wheel chair. Last minute changes have been made to accommodate the child and the house had to have some major changes: lengthening the house, widening some doors and hallways, adding another exit door, extending the front porch, etc. We already have the exterior walls erected, so these were going to be simple modifications to the existing building.

The other unique aspect of this build is the collateral activity that takes place here. We happen to be here on a weekend that HfH sponsors a bicycle race. Sunday was the BIG day for the East Pasco Habitat for Humanity affiliate. On Saturday was a 35-mile bicycle race over am open course. Sunday was the continuation of the bicycle race, but held in the downtown area of Dade City on a closed circular course that circled the old historic courthouse. At the same time the bike race was happening, we were to build an HfH house in the street in front of the courthouse. This would give the residents and participants in the race the opportunity to hammer in a few nails and be a part of a build. All the timber was pre-cut, measured, and marked for easy erection. We loaded it all on a trailer on Saturday afternoon for delivery to the site early Sunday morning. The house would be built and erected in 12-foot sections so it could be disassembled and loaded on a semi trailer to be moved to a home site for erection at a later time. This is going to be somebody’s home!

I was outside at 5AM to move the trailer to the downtown location, unload the trailer, and get things ready for the build. The rest of the volunteers began to arrive between 6 and 8 and we set up the framework for the home. By 9 we had over 100 people hammering, cutting, raising exterior walls, and making the house take shape. We were done by noon. The house had no interior walls - just exterior walls with plywood sheeting. The wind was blowing, it was cold, and we only erected 6 of the roof trusses. The front door was installed along with two windows. It was enough for a photo opportunity! We left the house standing for a couple of hours before we started disassembling and stacking sections. Because of the race and our location within the course, we couldn’t get the pieces moved or even loaded on to the trailer until almost 5PM! Once the last race was run, we finally loaded everything and returned to our build site and motor homes exhausted and sore.

On Monday morning we started around 8:30 unloading the semi trailer that had been delivered to the new homesite earlier. Once it was unloaded we finished the framing on our current house with the help of the five Japanese students. The roof trusses arrived about 2PM and a few of us stayed to mark off the truss locations on the top caps of the exterior walls. It was another long day ending with a great Happy Hour and social period.

Tuesday through Friday we have been working on the house getting as much work done as possible. The exterior walls are up, the roof trusses are in place, and we’ll be starting to lay the sheeting on the roof. We’ve already wrapped the hose in Tyvex and are still working in hopes of getting the house close to completion with interior walls in place by Saturday morning.

This weekend is the County Fair and HfH will have a booth. Several of the ladies, including Dottie and Vicki Leith, will be staffing that booth.