Headed back to Indiana - Almost in an accident

Coming back from Alabama we had a real close call on 65 north. I was in the left lane with a safe distance between me and the next car. A pickup with a pickup camper towing a boat moved over in front of me in the left lane. A few seconds later we came upon an accident in the southbound lanes. It was across the median. About five cars ahead in my lane, someone decided to slow down to look at the accident. It started a chain reaction and the next thing I knew; there was tire smoke in front of me. I have antilock brakes and so I depressed the brake pedal as hard as I could. There was no way I was going to be able to stop in time to not hit the pickup pulling the boat. The right lane was not an option. Just then the guy in the pickup decided he wasn’t going to get stopped so he went to the median on the left. This gave me more stopping room, but I still wasn’t going to get stopped in time to not collide with the car ahead of me. I felt like a NASCAR driver who came through the smoke and saw the cars parting in front of him. Since the pickup went way left instead of just on the edge of the road, it opened up the apron for me. I kept the right side wheels on the asphalt apron and my left wheels were in grass in the median. I went left of the car ahead of me, missed him by a few feet and ended up beside him. We never did completely stop. We were very fortunate that no one collided. We pulled off at the next exit and so did the guy in the pickup. I thanked him for clearing the way for me and he said he felt very fortunate that no one was hurt. We were just blessed that we were all safe. The alarm install went well. We got done Saturday at 2 PM and left for home Sunday AM. We are at Taylor University tonight and took Hannah and Silas out for a meal. We plan to be back at the fairgrounds Tues mid-day.

Friday - We had a good day installing the security / fire system at the “We Care” Prison Ministry. Maurice, my father in law and I went with Ed to pick up three inmates from the correctional facility. Kenneth, an inmate helped me all day and was just great. He said “Yes Sir” after every sentence I said. Ed told me it was just a southern thing. I really liked working with Kenneth. We got all the wire run today and some of the devices placed. I don’t have some of the tools from back home that would make the job easier. Oh well, I just used my imagination to think of ways to get the work done. Kim, Judy and Maurice worked downstairs while Kenneth and I worked upstairs. Doris, Ed’s wife feeds us very well. We hope to finish tomorrow and head home Sunday.

Random Act of Kindness - Much Appreciated

We had the coolest thing happen last night. Kim’s parents Maurice & Judy are with us on our trip to Alabama and we parked the MH (motorhome) and took the Honda CRV out to find a place to eat. Trips are fun with Maurice & Judy because they are adventurous and like to try new places to eat. It all started when we asked a local guy where was a good place to eat. He said the best sea food in the area was “The Bright Star” restaurant (304 19th Street, Bessemer, AL). The restaurant was a town or two away and his directions weren’t the best so when I thought we were close we pulled in to a ritzy neighborhood and asked a lady walking her dogs and she was more helpful. The Bright Star is a great place! Jimmy, one of the owners moved us from a back room where we were seated to bring us into the 100 year old portion of the building where an artist from Europe has painted murals on the walls and explained that this was their 100th anniversary. He brought each of us a complimentary cup of gumbo and it was great. Maurice & Judy ordered an appetizer of fried green tomatoes and we each ordered something different from the menu. Everything was just great. The house dressing was garlic cheese. It was so good I asked to buy some and the waitress gave us a small cup of it.
During the meal, our waitress, “Buffy” asked what brought us to Alabama from Indiana. We told her about the new prison ministry office we were going to and that we were donating a security system. When we were done, she told us she had paid the check. We were shocked. She wouldn’t take no for an answer. We were all greatly humbled. This was no small thing for her. I’m sure the check was close to $100.00. We were splurging to eat at such a fine place. She said we were doing our part for God and she was doing her part. She also said that seeing us following our calling inspired her to follow her calling which she’d been putting off. We left a big tip and walked out very humbled. I’ve never had anything like this happen before and will never forget it. Isn’t it interesting how our kindness impacts others? Wow, what a lesson.

Alabama Bound

We hope to leave Goshen Tuesday or Wednesday of this week to head down to Alabama. Kim and I are going to donate an alarm system to a prison ministry called We Care. Here is a drawing of the new office building. "The purpose of this ministry, from its inception as New Life Foundation in 1970 and continuing in its present form as We Care Program, has been to answer the call of God to communicate His love to criminal offenders. The initial focus exclusively on incarcerated men in the state of Alabama has grown to include both men and women and has expanded into other states as well. " Check them out here. http://www.wecareprogram.org/index.html We found out about them when a friend, Anna Miller sent out a support letter because she wanted to volunteer there. She is the daughter of Neil and Emma Miller and has been involved in prison ministry there for several years now. It is in southern Alabama at a town called Atmore. It will be 838 miles each way. We will probably be gone a week or ten days. We will be taking the coach, a 20 foot enclosed trailer with our Mazda Miata and the alarm equipment we'll be installing. We want to get back to Goshen by the fifth of next month for a big RV rally. There will be 250 Holiday Rambler Diesel Pushers at the Elkhart County 4-H Fairgrounds where we are staying. No, we don't push diesel fuel. A diesel pusher is a motor home that has a diesel engine in the rear and therefore it is called a pusher. There will be lots of seminars, factory reps and even a driving school. We are looking forward to it.

Hobbies

Hobbies
I am an initiator and like to try new things. Once I conquer it, I like to move on and learn something new. Most hobbies have included something with an engine. Private Pilot, Powered Parachute Pilot, Motorcycles and ATV’s have been some of my hobbies. I also like to read and learn about most everything.
Kim likes to read and sometimes shop. She is a smart shopper and doesn’t spend a lot of money. Kim is an excellent wife, homemaker and mom. I have so much respect for her and appreciate her so much. We also like watching movies together. We have a stash of “Chick Flicks” that we enjoy watching.
Marriage
Kim and I just love being together –all the time – every day. In one of the books I read about full timing it said that the first thing to consider is if you get along well enough to be in a small space together every day. We’ve moved from a 3500 square foot home to a 400 square foot motorhome.

How We Got Into Full Time RV'ing

How we got into full timing
Let me preface this in that when we got married I told Kim I didn’t know what it would be like to be married to me, but I knew it wouldn’t be boring. She says I’ve lived up to that. When we built our 3500 square foot home in 1993 our kids were 5, 7 and 9. Kim and I agreed that when the kids were raised we would probably sell it and move into a smaller home. Over the last few years we have had opportunities to do many ministries, but have longed to be more mobile to be able to go where we’re needed. There is also a lot of the USA we haven’t seen and would like to enjoy traveling while we have the health to do it. I am 50 and Kim is 45.
It all started in the fall of 2006. September was our 25th anniversary. We decided to get some sort of camper and do some traveling. We bought an entry level motorhome and went to Colorado and North Carolina. We loved it! We began to think of how this could be the link to our mobile ministry. In researching the motorhome we had, we decided it was not designed to carry the heavy load of full time RV’ing. We looked at several manufacturers and decided the Holiday Rambler Endeavor met our needs nicely. It had a floor plan we liked, was big enough and sturdy enough to handle the rigors of full timing and was in our price range. It is considered a mid-range coach. The manufacturer and dealer were just 20 minutes from our home. When I talked to the dealer, we still weren’t sure if this is what we wanted to do. I asked how much he would need as a down payment to order it and he said $2,000.00 and if it came in and we didn’t want it, he would give us our money back. We took a step of faith.
We have a company that sells and installs security equipment and alarms. We decided to sell our home and keep the company as it would still provide us with income to travel. We spoke with our neighbor about coming on and managing the company. We told him we would be selling our home come spring. He knew of someone that had been looking for a home like ours for over a year. He called them and they came out and looked at it the same day and we had reached an agreement about 60 hours later. We didn’t even call a realtor! The motorhome came in the first of March and we had a $5,000.00 garage sale and were moved out of our home by the end of March. We had also moved our company from our shop at home to Goshen. The man we who was to manage our company came to us with an offer and wanted to purchase the day to day operations of our company and let us retain the central station monitoring accounts which would provide an income for us to travel. We sold the company and hope to begin our travels on June 1, 2007.

Our Rig

We have purchased a new 2007 Holiday Rambler Endeavor Motor Home. It is 40' long and has three slide outs. The one on the road side is a full slide. This means the whole left slide moves out when we are parked and deploy it. There are also two slides on the curb side. The coach has a 400 horsepower Cummins diesel engine and a six speed Allison automatic transmission. It has all the amenities of a home. It has a large bathroom, queen size bed, sofa bed, two Euro recliners that have heat and massage, a kitchen, 2 air conditioners with heat pumps, 2 furnaces, a satellite dish for high speed Internet and Direct TV and lots more. I met a fellow camper who has a sign in his coach that says, "Entertains 6, Feeds 4 and Sleeps 2". It will sleep 4, but it is more comfortable to travel with just 2. We will be towing a 20' enclosed trailer with a Mazda Miata inside that we bought on eBay. We may take along a motorcycle, but we're not sure at this time. Here is a link to the motor home page. http://www.holidayrambler.com/models/hr.aspx?content=index&model=endeavor

Overview of Trip

Greetings from Mitch & Kim Moser. Just a little about us in the event you are new here, we are taking a year to travel the USA in a motor home. We have sold our home and business and are living in the RV full time. We will be starting from Goshen, IN on June 1, 2007 and will be traveling north and then west. By Christmas we hope to be in Mesa, AZ to visit with Mitch's parents. At Christmastime we plan to fly back to Indiana to visit with our three children and Kim's parents for a few weeks. We then plan to resume our travels east through the southern states in the winter and be in Florida ready to head north in the spring of 2008. We have friends who did this trip and we are excited to see the sights and meet the people. We have decided we will not plan ahead more than a day or two and the trip will be relaxed. We won't travel very far any one day, take mostly 2 lane highways and hope to stay at least a few days wherever we stop.