DND Road Trippin': Week 1 C.A.R.E CENTER

Well I have done it!! So over worked that I took a nap!!! What is happening!! Seriously though this Care Center is going to be an awesome experience. We are assigned a different job every day and there are 4 other couples working with us. This is not always the case. Sometimes there will only be 3 couples and in which case you probably WILL die. NOT almost die! The hours are long but not difficult. This was an educational week for us and I beleive we have all the jobs and duties pretty well set in our brains.

If you get the opportunity you should look up this place. It is quite unique and totally geared to take care of the full time people who have been on the road for years and are unable to continue travel for one reason or another. It is an independant living facility with a nurse to assist with mecical needs and a staff to keep the folks moving. 3 meals a day 7 days a week, activities and shopping trips, & doctor visits keep the staff and volunteers runnning all day. These pictures following are some of the residents sites. There are some pretty fancy gardens and decks on some. Most have ramps and the yards are enough to have flowers or a garden if so desired. My pictures suck but they really are nice. Escapees CARE Center

We drive residents to appointments, the store when ever needed, serve lunches & clean up after, we are on call for 24 hours sometimes and work through the night if residents need anything, deliver meal to residents who are to ill or just want delivery, and then there is the honey do list. Any time a resident need work done around their trailer or inside.....we are there to help. Dick go two clogged toilets. He said he almost died.

With 5 working couples, it is a pretty good rotation of the daily jobs. We do however fear there will only be 3 couples next month so the hours will be longer but hopefully rewarding and fun. These people/resident are funny & full of stories of their travels as well as their war stories and the hard life days when they had to walk 2 miles up hill to and from schools in the dust bowl, snow storm, swamp or where ever they grew up. So full of fun and attitude!!

Yes, during the day we do get a break but we have mostly stuck around to aquaint ourselves with the staff and the other volunteers. We are sitting outside in the great Texas weather every day putting up our feet when we do come home for a bit. Most of our break are spent still on our feet walking around the campground and by days end, I never have never wanted a foot massager more!!!!

We are slowly learning all the residents name and their habits, attitudes, likes, & dislikes. This will make thing easier once we learn this. Creatures of habit we all are and this holds extra true for these guys. Same seats, same beverages, same people we deliver to, same people at exersise class, same people making puzzles, playing on computers..............Makes for a pretty easy day for us once we learn it all. We have 2 months here and I am sure we will know everything a volunteer needs to by then.

From the moment we arrived there were resident walking by, driving by and scooting by to welcome us. Even though we had to quarentine they knew where we were and wanted to meet the new people. This definately keeps them on there toes because there is a new group of volunteers every month. They only want you to volunteer one month because of the burn out factor. They are long days!!

We will most likely not spend a dollar on food for 2 months because they feed us 3 meals a day. Our refrigerator is bare and it is awesome not to have to cook. The meals are definately not hospital tasting since this is an independant living center so they have flavor. You could get super fat eating all the meals but you can pick and choose what your want from the daily menu. I definatly do not pile all on the tray. I don't know how these folks pack it in and then come back for the next meal.