We had 2 volunteers here on the Northwest side when we arrived and on the Northeast side are volunteers Pat and Jerry! One set of volunteers left here today after being here for 6 months and are coming back in April, the other set are leaving here Sunday, they are leaving because they just don't care for it here, too secluded they say, they have only been here for a month, there was another volunteer arriving this weekend but their travel trailer got blown over from the winds of Sandy, now they don't know when they will arrive! Soooo, it looks like after Sunday we will be the only ones on this side and Pat and Jerry the only ones on the Northeast side! Jerry showed us around yesterday and today and this place is massive, 22000 acres and only 6 rustic campsites the rest is a reserve with horse stables and paths, a fireman's cabin (they have several controlled burns here), hundreds of hiking and horse trails, next weekend they are having a marathon run over 100 miles thru the trails, they will be out there for 24 hours! We will be taking turns at the visitor center on Sat. for about 6 hours, opening and closing the front gates, mowing the trails, around the buildings, and our area, but we get to use a z-mower which Craig loves, I have to be trained on it yet, count manatees and scrubjays, make sure all the bathrooms have toilet paper (2 in the visitor centers, 2 rustic outhouses, clean the visitor center while we are on duty there, which is every other week, vacuum and clean the offices once a week, take the dump truck or gator out every night around dusk and make sure all the visitors have left befor the gate is shut! Sounds like a lot but we only work a total of 20 hours a week! More then we expected but not any heavy physical work or a lot of walking for Craig!
I am waiting for a new charger for my camera to arrive or I would be posting more pictures of the deer, manatees, horses, cranes,herons, etc. I have yet to see the 350 pound wild hogs yet but they laugh at me and tell me I will see them when I least expect to!! Jerry and her husband are about our ages and have an older class C motorhome with 3 cats, one they rescued while here, they took it to a cat rescue and they had no room there for about 3 weeks so she took it home and gave it a name, lol, sounds like my daughter Susan! She told me this gig will be like none we have ever done, there is no camphosting here because there are no rv campers, the only campers here our backpackers and they have to hike back in for miles before they get to a campground and when they get there it VERY rustic, no bathroom, electricity, just a few benches around a firepit, ugh, I give them a lot of credit, maybe when I was younger but not now!!
We will start working on Sunday at the visitor center because the gal the does it then will be out of town, but are official start in Monday! So wish us luck, we will either really, really like it or really, really hate it! Ah, the life of a volunteer!!!
Ok, out of here, have a great day and God Bless!!
Starting a new chapter in our lives by living for a year in our motorhome, come along and watch us as we begin our adventure!
