Gainesville, GA Habitat

Once I left Beaufort, I headed back towards Atlanta with a build in Gainesville, GA coming up.  My lovely, but non-domesticated friend Kelley allowed me to destroy her kitchen while preparing my first cooked meal in a long time.  I love cooking, but I realize my cooking isn’t for everyone because I don’t cook with meat and I typically don’t cook with any fish.  I enjoy appreciating the taste of everything on my plate.  Thankfully Kelley doesn’t cook much, so when I put together a healthier version of eggplant parm over rice noodles and served it with zucchini, asparagus and mushrooms, she made me feel as if I should try out for Top Chef or just go ahead and replace Rachel Ray.  One of my favorite people on this planet Joe also joined, showing up with a lovely bottle of wine and some bread.  With all of the recent traveling, it was just the relaxing night with great company I was looking for.

The next two nights I stayed in Marietta with Kelley’s mom.  Marietta was closer to the build site in Gainesville than it would have been staying in Atlanta, especially with the traffic.  As I wrote in my Thanksgiving post, this woman is such an inspiration to me.  I’m always honored to be in her presence and it’s always fun reuniting with my favorite dogs Brooklyn and Riley.  We shared some laughs and an emotional elimination night of the X Factor before heading off to bed.

I was also lucky enough to get to spend time with another favorite family of mine, the Cooks, who's constant selflessness very much brushed off on to me during my years in college. One minute with them and it feels like your part of their family, which was extremely encouraging when I wasn't able to see my own family much.  Believe me when I say, I was truly blessed with the incredible families I was lucky enough to be a part of throughout my years in college.  It is quite humbling to recognize when you surround yourself with good people.  Marietta was always that constant for me during some very important years in my life, and for that I am grateful.

Riley & Brooklyn

The Gainesville build was a slight last minute addition to my trip, as it wasn't on the original list of builds when I began my research.  The commute from Marietta to Gainesville was about an hour.  Dee Ann was my initial contact and she was so kind.  Unlike Baton Rouge, Sarasota and Beaufort, this was the only house being built in the location.  The land wasn't nearly as spread out as Wilkesboro, where they too were building only one home in the specific location, rather it was being built in a small development off the main road in Gainesville.

All I can say is I am thrilled that I was able to add two days at this build site to my schedule.  Each build I participated in prior were all different from one another, some in good ways and some in not so good ways. What made Gainesville stand out above all others was the tenacity and overall knowledge of the women running this site.  Both Baton Rouge and Sarasota had a great group of women on site participating and running the build, but with a lot of men or contractors there to help (which I am not bashing at all!). Gainesville was different.  Dee Ann was in charge, she was authoritative, she gave clear concise directions and responsibilities.  This wasn't time for rest, it was time to work and work hard.  I respected her and all of the ladies on site immensely.  There were two young boys on site helping with the roof, but beyond that it was a group of maybe seven or eight women doing the work.  

I spent most of the first day working side by side with Judy, who was great. I was also lucky enough to get to enjoy some conversation with Ann, who spent most of the day on scaffolding putting up the roof siding.  I seemed to be the only one on site who wasn't experienced with climbing up and down a ladder at mock speed, so needless to say these ladies impressed me big time. You could really just sense the feeling of mutual respect amongst all of these women who were dedicated to building this house.

Being that it was a Saturday, there were a lot more volunteers the second day on site.  Again, everyone was given direction and the day ran so smoothly.  I bid my farewells to the group around lunchtime to hit the road back to PA.

Exterior of the House

Dee Ann is the only one not on a ladder.
Judy is in the pink hardhat on the middle ladder

Putting up the roof

Women putting up the roof siding

Knowing that this would be the last Habitat build I would participate in for a little while, I was thrilled it was spent in Gainesville, GA.  I want to thank Dee Ann for letting me jump on board last minute, and the rest of the women for warmly welcoming me for two days.  It was quite empowering watching this particular group work together.

Throughout the month of November I was blessed to see the hard work and dedication of many amazingly strong, intelligent and independent women. The image of selfless humanity will stick with me forever.  To Baton Rouge, Sarasota, Wilkesboro, Beaufort, Gainesville and the entire Habitat Community ... I thank you from the bottom of my heart.  Can't wait to get started up again in 2012 on the west coast.

Love from the road,
Erin

Camera+ Round 2

I decided to take some more of my favorite pictures from this trip and play around with them for my last post of 2011...

Gatlinburg from the ski lift

Moonshine Car

Wilkesboro, NC

Favorite place in Beaufort, SC

As I said before, Beaufort was my favorite place to explore.  So bare with me as I HDR the entire island...

my favorite

love the clouds

perfect American Flag #1.

perfect American Flag #2

That's it for now.  Looking forward to continuing my blog in 2012.  Wishing all of you a very safe & happy holiday season and a blessed New Year! 

Love from the road,

Erin

Beaufort, SC Habitat

From Wilkesboro I drove two hours, just south of Charlotte, to meet up with a couple of friends to watch the Virginia Tech/UVA game.  I would have never expected last week's ACC Championship outcome based on how good the Hokies looked that game and how poorly Clemson played South Carolina.  After another six hour shift at a Starbucks in Rock Hill the next day, my night ended with the Eagles getting smoked by the Patriots and a must see movie, Bad Teacher. 

I had only heard back from my couchsurfing request that morning I was leaving Rock Hill, so the timing worked out perfectly because I had to be in Beaufort to build the following morning.  My intentions were to spend the day in Charleston, wandering the beaches, soaking up some rays…seeing as if it was 81 degrees when I pulled in to the Quizno’s (sorry Subway) parking lot at noon that day.  But plans quickly changed when it started pouring non-stop, and I found myself in yet another Starbucks pulling a six hour, five dollar latte shift with my electronics.

My couchsurfing plans worked perfectly.  I had fully expected to stay in a bigger city (Charleston, Savannah, Hilton Head) and make the commute to the build site as I had in North Carolina, but on an offhand chance I searched Beaufort.  Much to my surprise, there were a few couchsurfing hosts in this fairly small town.  Enter Erika.  There were such nice reviews written from other travelers she had hosted.  We met at her cottage around 7:30 and talked for a while about both of our life experiences.  This girl could write a novel, it’s amazing the places she’s been and the things she’s done.  Her stories from teaching in Japan for three years were fascinating.  She took me to Bricks an awesome restaurant, where the food was absolutely delicious, and drove me around the historic area of Beaufort.  Wow, was this town not only so beautiful, but the amount of history that backed it was incredible.  Erika drove me in and out of every street block, educating me on the layout, the trees, the homes and the historical implications of Beaufort.  She was a wealth of knowledge on her town. 

Historic Waterfront

Beautiful Architecture & Landscaping

Highest priced piece of real estate in town...the tree was incredible

Famous low tree

speaks for itself

My drive was a short one to the site that following morning.  Beaufort, I would say, was the one build I originally felt least confident with, but that was based on my lack of communication with them leading up to my arrival.  Like North Carolina, the Beaufort build site was all men on the first day, with the exception of two women, who showed up a little later that morning.  I felt a little out of place at this build.  While the men were very welcoming, funny and hard working, I didn’t get much direction on what to do.  This was new to me because the previous three builds I participated in, I was given direction upon walking on to the site.

http://lowcountryhabitat.org/

This was the fourth house currently being built on the street purchased by Habitat



back of the house



A cold front came through the night prior and it was really cold for South Carolina standards that morning so we couldn’t paint right away.  The exterior of the house was getting a second coat of paint.  The ladies and I worked on that for a few hours once it warmed up.  Once the painting was done, the three of us cleaned up and headed off to lunch.  It felt a little unsettling that there wasn’t anything else to be done, but again the direction was lacking.  That’s not to say the men were not working hard, they were working very hard and knew exactly what had to be done.  They had been working as a unit long before my arrival and will be long after I leave, but I was just looking for a little more direction towards what needed to be accomplished.  These were simply my thoughts, based on my previous experiences at the other three builds.

I was happy to get to spend some time with the ladies after we were done painting.  They too, taught me a lot about the town of Beaufort and how their Habitat runs.  Because Hilton Head has their own Habitat affiliate, it’s tough for Beaufort to pull in the funds like Hilton Head does.  Beaufort is the only remaining beach left on the east coast that does not have a resort.  The Beaufort islands naturally erode, sending a majority of its beautiful white sand to Hilton Head, helping create it’s beaches.  Case in point, Hilton Head is covered in resorts, retirees and wealth.  You do the math.

We went to lunch at the Low Country Store.  Seemingly known for selling things other than food, the veggie chili, gumbo and biscuits were so good. (I went back the next day for lunch as well).  After sitting down for lunch and being bombarded by a stranger who had quite the political opinion on EVERYTHING, I headed off to Hunting Island, a must do on everyone's list including Erika's.

Little gem off the side of the highway

Everyone told me what to expect, but it still did very little justice as to how enamored I was with the beauty of this island and it's beach.  So naturally beautiful, yet tragically sad that these beaches were disappearing over time.  I will let the pictures do the talking...

entering hunting island

first beach entrance

the famous lighthouse that they have relocated in hopes to preserve it from being destroyed

second beach entrance

my view from standing in the tide

emerging from the trail

lots of trees down on the beach

What I will take from Beaufort is a huge sense of pride that each individual living there has for this town.  Though I do consider this the least productive build I have participated in thus far; Beaufort was the most captivating town.  Just naturally, a very beautiful site to be seen.

A big thank you to Erika for her generous hospitality.  I wish the very best to the Low Country Habitat in continuing their selfless work for the Beaufort community.

On to Gainesville, Georgia...

Love from the road,
Erin