Moving Right Along....

Our week here at Eastern Shore of Virginia NWR is about to end.  Bill's had a busy week.  Despite all the rain on Sunday and Monday (7" total!), and the humid and very hot temperatures,  he'll still have over 40 hours in by the time he finishes today.

The job here was to re-roof at least one building, power wash and paint another building, install some new doors in one area, and general maintenance on what needed done.  The top left is a "before" view of the building that needed the new roof.  There were 4 men working...  Tracy, the maintenance mechanic at this refuge, Jesse, from Wallkill NWR in NJ, Bob, from Great Dismal Swamp, VA, and Bill, who has become an itinerant volunteer.  The bottom left is of Tracy and Bill, starting to rip off the old roof.  The bottom right...  they are starting to cut the material to install, and the top right...  the finished job, which includes the new roof, but also repaired or replaced fascia.  This building will also get painted.

The other 3 guys worked on the roof on Wednesday while Bill used the power washer to clean the debris and flaky rust from another building....

He was moving right along doing quite well...

Then he looked down and noticed that the power washer was on fire.  Not just a little fire, but shooting frames up high.  He moved the lift he was on out of the way and yelled for help.  The washer was a total loss...  (lower right)...  talk about having a melt down!  The upper right shows the building cleaned and ready for it's new paint job.  I hope they have better luck with the paint sprayer than that power washer!

Today I walked over to the job early and Bill took me up in the lift to get some photos...

The Maintenance Shop area is quite large, and all the buildings are in need of repair or just spruced up.  The volunteer RV park is nearby...  that's our rig in the lower right.  I didn't take that photo from the lift but you can see the RV area in the upper right...  in back of the re-roofed building.  

I have written before that Paul Horning, our friend from Crystal River NWR in Florida volunteers here.  He no longer moves back and forth between VA and FL doing volunteer service.  He took us out to dinner last night, and you can see below a very nice reason he's here year-round.

Paul and Lola

Paul will soon be 83....  I swear, he looks exactly as he did when we first met in in 2005!  It's so good to see his happy smile.

He and Lola took us on a tour of Cape Charles, a lovely little town right on the bay.  He jokes about the shopping mall...  a Food Lion grocery store, a Dollar General, and a McDonalds...  but you know...  that's not bad at all!

I've eaten crab before, and love it.  But I'd never eaten soft-shell crab...

Those are deep-fried crabs...  you eat the shell and all!  Right after a crab has molted, the shell is soft and pliable.

I had to have the french-fries and slaw with my crabs - as long as I was going indulge I was doing the whole thing!  Sure was tasty!

Tomorrow morning we'll head south...  across the Chesapeake Bay.  It's that 20 mile long bridge and tunnel to get over to Norfolk.  From there we'll wind our way west...  heading for Texas.  It will take us a while to get there...  I'll post when I can.

That's All For Today!