Saturday - April 21

Today's bloggers are Kyle Hair (at the keyboard) and Matt Crohan. . .

There's nohing worse than leaving something you love behind. I think everyone here, including Matt and I, has fallen in love with this city...The Big Easy. Never being here before, I was really excited to get out of our hometown rut; the town we call Stamford. Now that we're here, no one is excited that we're going back. Quite honestly, it sucks going back to reality. Anywho, our last day here in New Orleans was jam packed with awesomeness.

Starting off, it wasn't the strongest start because we were supposed to be downstairs near the fountain at 6:45. Matt was early and on time, but I on the other hand, woke up at 6:41. I literally jumped out of the bed and threw on some pants and sneakers and sprinted down the hallway to the elevator. I got there at precisely 6:45. That's what I call cutting it close. We all had a little meeting then headed to the cafeteria for breakfast. I got there and was absoluely shellshocked because the grill was closed and there was no muffins left. I had to break my routine of the sausage, egg, and cheese on bread, 2 chocolate milks, and a chocolate chip muffin. I had to settle with these stupid kosher cereals that literally tasted like cardboard. It was nasty. We left and jumped into the vans and left to what would be our last time at 1314 Eagle Street. 

This is the homeowner Rachel working with Natalie.

Hitting the nails that missed the floor joists back up so they could be removed.

And also getting to hangout with the two local guys who were doing community

service hours for their high school.

RHINO Program Director Avery Strada - aka the person who makes

RHINO run - sharing the rain with us.

Going into the day with dark cloudy skies and a red radar, we were skeptical of how much we'd actually get done today. We all started to finish nailing the floors in and that's when the sky decided to rain on our parade (haha get it? rain? nevermind..) Anyway, a little drizzle turned into a torrential downpour and Stephanie, Morgan, Colin, Natalie, Matt, and I huddled onto a little side porch to try and stay dry. It worked for the most part, at least until the rain decided to come in sideways. I swear mother nature has a grudge against us but when it died down, we fought back and worked faster than ever. We finished nailing the floor just as another rainstorm was headed towards us. We huddled under that little porch once again and managed to stay dry this time. As the rain died down again, we started to load some walls onto the porch. We slid them across and lined them up in place to go up.

The two wall sections were nailed together, Ryan "the glue man" Beutler once again did his thing . . .

 and then we lifted them into place. That was the sight we all wanted to see. The homeowner, Rachel, was introduced earlier on the worksite by the one and only Mike, the leader at the site, and she even helped us nail in the floors in the rain. 

Tears were shed and pictures were snapped as we hit that final nail into the wood to secure the front wall of the house in place. It was a feeling we've never had before, knowing that we actually started the foundation and the first wall of a house, right in front of the homeowner. It was truely a magical sight to behold.

Homeowner-to-be Rachel's smile says it all!

Once the wall was built, we all huddled into a circle and David said a blessing for the house and Rachel. Mike finally came up and confessed that he and David were calling it a day.  He told us that the weather conditions exceeded what he felt was safe.  But you know what? It was worth it seeing the smile go across Rachel's face. It was one of the greatest things I've ever done. As we all were congratulating one another, we cleaned up up the workd site - in the midst of pouring rain - and alas, said our good-byes and headed out. I just hope that Rachel's house successfully gets finished and that she lives a happy, healthy life in her new home that WE HELPED BUILD. God bless her.

We all left the work site with the warm feeling in our hearts knowing we just made a huge impact on Rachel's life.  We get to the hotel and all change out of our soaking wet clothes.  Jump in the cars and go to Popeyes where we all chowed down on some delicious food.  The moment many of us were waiting for was now about to happen.  We finished our food and hop in the cars, onto the French Quarter!  Once there, David tells us when and where we have to meet back up and we off we go.  People spray painted acting like statues, big crowds, and many different stores to see. It was crazy the way people were acting. It was actually pretty strange.

Bourbon Street was my favorite just because it was famous. Yes, it was all it was cracked up to be. The French Quarter was amazing but dinner was even better. We went to Reginelli's restaurant again for our last dinner together. It was so delectable and delicious and all the good stuff. I wish I could never leave. We said a quick "amen" and dug in. Once finished, we left back to the hotel where I now sit writing this. It was such a long day but it was probably my favorite of the whole trip. Well I'm running out of ideas here so I guess we shall go now. We will see you all tomorrow when we return from our dreams, unfortunately. Keep us in your prayers and we shall see you all soon! Good night ya'all!!