Day 333 / 32 Oh, The People You'll Meet

Ocala, Florida 50 Degrees – Sunny

I just returned from my morning walk, dressed in a
sweatshirt and feeling too warm. The sun is shining the winds are calm. I am
well aware that it is nearly 100 degrees warmer here than it is in my home
state of Iowa with windchill factored in. 
I watch the weather, feel terrible for our family and friends who are
enduring yet, another arctic blast of winter bearing down on the upper Midwest.

When we started talking about wanting to do this, getting away
from winter weather was the main motivation. I could not have known at the time
that the people we would meet and get to know along the way would be the true
reward of this lifestyle.

Seeing different places and experiencing different things is
rewarding.  Close encounters with nature
on nature’s terms have left a lasting impression on me and left me hungry for more.
Those are no comparison to the impression some of the people we have met and
got to know have left on my personhood.

There are two basic types of friendships that develop in
this lifestyle. You make friends with people near you in a campground or on a
job that are fun to be with and you get along with famously, but when it is
time to depart you know that you will likely never see them again. If you are
lucky, they will be Facebook friends, but even that will fade over time. Then
there are those you meet and make a deep connection with. These are the people
you will seek out each time you pass through an area, or who will contact you
if they are going to cross paths with you somewhere along the way. They are the
ones, you call on their birthday, the ones who take up residence in a corner of
your heart permanently.

Our short and disastrous experience with National Parks in Georgia put us on a path that led us to the company of some very dynamic couples here in Ocala.  When we leave in about 10 weeks, we’ll take some very special people with us in our hearts. Until a month ago I had never met anyone from Maine. I am getting to know a couple who have been traveling around some 15 years now, who call Maine home. They are one of the most down to earth couples I have ever met.  Another couple who we see daily are becoming good friends and have also travelled extensively and embrace the varied cultures of areas they have visited and lived over their 40+ years of marriage. When you spend part of each day with new people you get to know them very quickly as you talk and share your own insights about the world and your perspective as perpetual visitors.

Florida has been a nice mix of familiar people and new people. We have spent time with friends from home and a couple we met last winter working in Texas. We are forging new friendships with others we would not have met if we did not leave our family and close friends each winter. As the network of people, we know in different areas expands I am reminded of how connected we humans are once we cut through the socio-economic, and cultural aspects that define our modern lives.

We started this with no expiration date. We’ll do it for as
long as our bodies will let us. We know three couples who started the same way
and are now realizing they are approaching the intersection that will take them
a new direction. A direction that will require returning to a more static existence.
As I listen to them talk through their thoughts about their many years as
full-timers and the emotions of knowing they are at the inevitable point of de
boarding from this life I can’t help but hope I’m that lucky someday.  Lucky in the fact that they have all had many
years of this great lifestyle and lucky because they are both still active and
relatively healthy if not a bit older and realizing its time to slow down.

Some days I feel guilty for walking away from my career and
not earning the way I should be for my skill set, experience and education. We
have shed vast amounts of material possessions. We sacrifice 6 months each year
of time with people most familiar to us. We gave up a good chunk of monetary
wealth when I walked away from the career track at 51 years old. But, here’s
the thing. You can’t take it with you. Someday when this is all over and I’m
sitting in my rocking chair hopefully staring down my 100^th
birthday, with nothing left buy my memories, I will feel like the richest
person on earth. My humanitarian bank account is filling with experience and
the love of those I meet along the way. I wouldn’t trade the people I have met
and will meet in the future for a penny of 401k balance. You can’t put a dollar
amount to that.

On days like this when I’m feeling nostalgic and
philosophical, it helps that I have the outdoor breeze blowing across my
keyboard as I type, knowing that outside air at home would frost bite me in minutes.

Until next time…

Day 323 / 42 So Close But, Yet So Far

Eustis, Florida 79 Degrees -Sunny

While arctic weather bore down on our family and friends in
Iowa, we put on shorts and short sleeves, threw swim suits in a beach bag (just
in case) and headed to Eustis to visit old friends who are wintering in an RV
park there.

As we drove the 45 minutes to their place, I couldn’t help
but think how odd it is that we are 20 miles apart all summer, but it took us
both travelling 1200 miles to Florida to see each other. The phrase “So close,
but yet so far” came to mind. The origin of the phrase is vague. Even after a
Google search I don’t know who to credit for it. None the less, it fit today.
Kathy and Charlie are people I’ve known for a long time. When my first husband
passed 21 years ago a sort of wall went up in my life and now years later. I relate
to things in terms of before and after that event.  This special couple are part of a very small select
group of very important people to me that I still see. They knew me then and
have accepted the life I created after ‘then’. 
Anyone, who has had a major event define their life will understand. But
I digress.

One of the many cool things about this wonderful nomadic, sometimes unpredictable, life is you may find yourself in proximity to someone special at a time you least expect. We came Southeast from Iowa this winter, expecting to spend Nov-Feb in Plains GA and then possibly go to Alabama for another gig with the USACE. All the while, being very detached from anyone or anything familiar. Instead we spent three weeks in Plains and fled to Florida where we are in an unfamiliar place, but within an hour of several familiar people. In the meantime, we have met John and Barb from Tennessee, Chuck and Julie from Maine and Keith and Karen from Texas via Ohio. We are in the company of new friends daily, but not far from old friends.

Spending today with Kathy and Charlie made my heart happy
and warm. We don’t see each other often, but there is something to be said
about quality versus quantity. We had a wonderful visit and made plans to have
more visits before the winter ends and we all eventually make our way back to
Iowa, after it thaws out. Ben and Rhonda are just 45 minutes south and we hope
to get back to Weeki Wachee to see them at least one more time before we all
meet again at Saylorville to do our summer volunteer gig.

As we navigate our third year on the road. we are realizing
the perks of the ever expanding web of people that you meet and get to know. Like
a family tree expanding with each generation, the full time RV Family tree
expands each year as you travel to different areas and meet new people. You run
into old friends on the road and are always meeting new people, that will
become old friends in time. We will likely go back to Texas next winter and see
friends we made the first two years. Old friends in terms of this life. Who
knows how many new people we will meet? We know there will be a new couple in
volunteer village this summer. They could very well become great new friends.
When you travel and reach out to new people the possibilities are endless. Like
I say all the time,” its’ about the people” Old friends are a treasure, they
warm your heart and bring tears to your eyes when you connect. New friends are
wonderful, and bring tears to your eyes, when it’s time to say goodbye for who
knows how long, maybe a few months maybe a few years. The nice thing is we know
at some point our paths will cross. Like a giant spider web. When you are mobile
the opportunities unfold daily.

Until next time…

Day 316/49 A Day At The Beach

Crystal River, Florida Sunny 77 Degrees

Answer #316 to the question “What’s it like? “  "You have to be somewhere, so it might as well be the beach, on a January day."  Six weeks ago, a day at the beach would have meant, a weekend getaway from our job with the National Parks Service, in Plains, GA. After all that drama played out, we are in Ocala, where a day at the beach is but and hour away. If someone had predicted in August that we would be in central Florida and I would be working part time as a teller, I would have told them they were crazy.  But, low and behold, here we are in Central Florida, instead of SW Georgia. I am not working in a Visitors Center, but on a Credit Union teller line and today we went to the beach. If there is a lesson in this winter for a full-time RV Work camper it is simply, roll with it. Adapt, improvise and over come as they say in the military.

We woke up this morning and started talking about how we would spend the day. We decided a day at the beach was in order since we have not done that yet.  Through the magic of Google, we found Fort Island Beach an hour away. 30 minutes, a cooler and beach bagged packed, and we were out the door. By 11:00 am we were sitting on the beach and watching the shore birds going about their daily routine. The Ring Billed Gulls, Caspian Terns, Laughing Gulls and Cormorants are all birds we will see again at Saylorville Lake in Iowa later this spring. The Brown Pelicans and Willets will not venture that far north.

• 

  Ring Billed Gull

• 

  Cormorants on the buoys

• 

  Caspian Turn

• 

  Brown Pelican Fishing
  

I took my camera, but not my binoculars, a mistake I need to
quit making.  With a beach blanket spread
out and my camera handy, I fired up my I-pod and Blue Tooth speaker and kicked
back on the beach with my music, an occasional picture of the shore birds punctuated
by Facebook posts from Iowa and Missouri of the snowstorm that was bearing down
on our family and friends. Did I feel guilty? 
Nope, not even for a minute.

The truth is, we are sitting on the beach in January, while
our kids and siblings are enduring a Midwest snow storm. But, we pay the price
of missing Christmas, winter birthdays and 6 months of direct contact with them
in order to have this day.  As I gloated
on Facebook about my day at the beach, people commented how jealous they were.
Champ and I know, the jealousy is superficial. Most of the people envying our
January day at the beach, slathered in sunscreen, would not give up their brick
and mortar home let alone their Christmas with their kids and all the routine
stuff they fill their days with in order to have this as a normal day in the
winter of a snowbird. Like many aspects of the full time RV lifestyle today was
a jewel in the larger compromise we make to live this way.

Until next time…

Day 311 / 54 Birds on the Trail

My aunt sent me a Nutcracker dressed as a birder for
Christmas. I loved it. He’s about 10” tall, wooden of course and is adorned
with binoculars, camera, bird book, bird feeder and of course a bird sitting on
top of his hat. She asked in the note she sent along with it, if there was any place
to look at birds in Florida.

We discovered the trail that leads into the wooded area
behind the RV park. There is a nice greenbelt tract of pine woods that separates
the neighborhoods west of the interstate. Miraculously, it has not been developed
yet.

Just 200 yards from our site we can walk across the lawn at
the end of the last row of campers and follow the trail back into the woods
where a maze of sandy service roads winds through the trees. I set out this
morning with my binoculars and bird app to help me identify the birds making
the many calls unfamiliar to me.

I walked far enough into the woods to feel like I was not in the city any longer accept for the steady hum of the interstate in the distance. On my way  I ran into a man from the park who stopped me and asked if I was aware there were black bear in the woods. I told him I had heard there were. He showed me a picture on his phone of one from the day before.  We visited for a minute and I headed out not sure if I was more excited about seeing a bear or seeing some new birds.

When I sit on my patio here at Ocala Sun, the only aviary wildlife I see are crows, turkey vultures and American Pipets. But, I hear lots of stuff going on in the woods behind us. Today I was treated to a few new species, for me, when I ventured out. I didn’t take my camera. This was an identifying walk for me today. I spent time listening to the songs that were new to my ear and matched the new birds with the calls to expand my mental catalog of bird calls. A few were familiar and that helped me know what to look for. In an hour I identified several Warblers. The beautiful Palm Warbler – Pine Warbler- Yellow Rump Warbler and Black and White Warbler, Two woodpeckers, the Northern Flicker and Red Belly. I heard the illusive Pileated Woodpecker but still have yet to see one. Northern Cardinals – Tufted Titmouse – Eastern Phoebe- Black Capped Chickadee and another small gray bird I never was able to pin down. There were a couple of places were I got a nice show from Eastern Towhee’s busy flipping leaves over searching for bugs to eat. They were so busy feeding they didn’t notice me standing less than 3 feet away.

Black Bear Track on the trail. A little bigger than the palm of my hand.

I didn’t see a bear but I did see tracks on the sandy road. With
any luck I’ll see them before we leave Florida. Despite the sad evidence of
illegal dumping that occurs along the trail there is some nice birding right
out my back door. One just has to tune out the tire hum and occasional engine
break of a semi in the background and the scattering of old analog TV’s and
couches that are deteriorating on the forest floor just feet from the edge of
the road. If you look up there is beauty for the eye and the ear here in this
concrete jungle.

In March our new friends Barb and John have a teenage grandson
coming to visit, who is an aspiring birder. I’m looking forward to sharing this
piece of Ocala with him while he is here. By the time he comes I’ll be familiar
enough with the trail to be able to help him identify some of what I’ve found.
I’ll have more calls down by then, and who knows we may find something new
together.

In 2 hours I’ll be in the city behind the teller line
processing transactions and smiling at the memory of my morning in the woods.
Next time I’ll take my camera and start photographing the birds in the area
that are new to me.

Until next time…

Day 309 / 56 Ask These 2 Questions Before you Accept a Workcamp Job

This winter has taught me to ask two very important
questions when interviewing for future jobs with federal parks.  First, I will be asking for a picture of
our site. Some places in the past have emailed me a link of a Google Earth
picture. I will insist on it from now on. We would never have agreed to the job
in Plains had we seen a picture of the campground and the pad if you want to
call it that.  Second, I will be asking for specifics about what will happen with
volunteers if a government shutdown occurs and how our job descriptions may
change and what will be expected of us.

Volunteering for government operated parks poses a unique circumstance when a government shutdown occurs. Last spring when we arrived at Saylorville, an Army Corps of Engineers Park, the threat of a shutdown was looming. The Rangers told us that the park would close to the public, but we would be allowed to remain in Volunteer Village and would resume our duties when the park reopened. The shutdown didn’t happen last spring. It was the first time either one of us had thought about it.

So many things went wrong with our short experience with the National Parks Service in Plains GA. Any lingering guilt I was holding about leaving that situation vanished yesterday when I read several articles about the conditions of National Parks and what is being expected of volunteers in these conditions.

Photo courtesy of 93.1 WIBC News

For reasons I can’t make sense of the current administration with its laughable judgement, has not closed access to the parks even though they are being run on a skeleton staff at best and no contractors are doing basic things like pumping out pit toilets and hauling trash away. The articles told of unsanitary conditions at the park. Public running over the places with no supervision or boundaries. I hate to say it by human beings in groups with no restrictions tend to ruin a place. The lack of respect is appalling. With bathrooms locked down at Joshua Tree National Forest people are simply using the outdoors and not discretely. The park officials talked about how their volunteers were doing the nasty duty of picking up human feces from the edge of trails and around the locked bathroom buildings. Hauling trash in their personal vehicles since the park vehicles were inaccessible during the shut down all while their own accommodations becoming less sanitary with no trash pickup. Just this morning I read an article on NPR that 3 people have died of injuries sustained while enjoy areas that are still open. Two fell and staff simply wasn’t available to respond. A child who fell into a canyon laid there for a day before someone responded. That’s absolutely unacceptable. I imagine in Plains there would be little to do accept go out to the farm and take care of the goats, chickens and mules. Or stand around outside the locked building and tell people who enter, that the buildings are locked and there is nothing to see. I have no idea what we would be doing if anything if we were still in Plains accept sitting around in a clay mud hole, chasing away stray cats and watching the white trash conduct their ‘business’ at the convenience store directly in front of the trailer park we called home for 2 ½ weeks.

We have friends working in various federal parks around the
south this winter. I wonder what their experience is like during this shut
down.

As for the volunteers in some of the National Parks doing some really nasty duties right now, I have this to say to them. You are volunteers. If they ask you to do something outside of the job description you agreed to, you are completely within your rights to “Just say No” in the words on Nancy Reagan. If you are working in a federal park this winter, I hope they are treating you well. It’s a bad situation for all.

Right now, I’m very thankful to be here in Ocala, working in town knowing we have escaped a situation in Plains, GA that would have undoubtedly gone from terrible to intolerable. In the mean time I hope the powers that be, in our Nation’s Capital, will get over their childish power struggle and start governing before it is time to head back to Iowa in April.

Until Next time...

Day 304 / 61 Hello 2019

Ocala Florida, 82 Degrees Sunny

We rang in 2019 at the Clubhouse here at Ocala Sun RV Resort with our new friends last night. As we reflected on the year yesterday we agreed that 2018 was overall a good year. Yes, we had some rough patches. We went without AC during an Iowa heatwave. We were evacuated from Volunteer Village twice due to flooding and our experience with National Parks Services in Plains, GA was a terrible let down. A very dear woman who I consider one of my surrogate mother figures was violently assaulted in her home. An event that shook many of us to our core. She survived but was severely injured and will carry emotional scars, the likes of which I can't imagine for the rest of her days. But, and I emphasize the BUT, a lot of good things also happened.

We took a memorable and fun trip to the Dominican Republic with family and close friends and had a fantastic time. I figured out the dietary key to feeling good, for my body anyway, and have felt like a million bucks and continue to steadily shed weight since beginning a loose version of a Paleo diet in June. We got our new flooring after many delays and our motor home updates have really changed the look inside. Our decision to leave Plains put us on a path that led us here and in the company of more special new friends we would not have otherwise met.

We spent January 1st 2019 at Rainbow Springs State Park about 30 minutes away. In our decidedly urban existence this winter and with me working Part Time in my former industry I have felt very detached from my preferred environment. I have been longing for the woods and got a nice fix today. As we walked in the dappled sunlight of the trail along the Rainbow River and the Phosphate pits that make the area so unique, I felt the contentment that I only feel when in a natural area with its natural sounds. The birds were still fairly active despite the late morning -Noon time frame. I could actually feel stress leaving my body as I walked along with my binoculars looking at birds and identifying two that were new to me. A Prothonotary Warbler and a Palm Warbler. I tuned my ear to the calls and other sounds and for a short while was able to forget about the concrete jungle were we currently reside. The official bird list for the day for me was decent. Carolina Wren, Black Capped Chickadee, Black and White Warbler, Prothonotary Warbler, Palm Warbler, American Gold Finch, Short Eared Owl, Cardinal, Piliated Woodpecker, Ladder Back Woodpecker, Yellow Rumped Warbler, Tufted Titmouse, Chipping Sparrow, Blue Heron, Carolina Chickadee, Hermit Thrush and I think a Savannah Sparrow. ( I didn't get a picture and sparrows are hard sometimes.)

• 

  Carolina Wren posing for me

• 

  Azalea lined trailhead

• 

  Deep in the timber

• 

  Rainbow River from the trail

• 

  Phosphate Pit

The water is clear and the colors are quite unique. As we walked and talked, we decided this would be a good park to work camp at in the future when we make our way back to Florida. It will be easy enough to investigate. The Azalea bushes were blooming along the path and the man made waterfalls lent to the beautiful sound of the area. We walked the 3 miles or so of trails and both remarked how incredibly lucky we are to be able to live this life. Despite the occasional challenges that come along with this gypsy lifestyle we are continually reminded of the opportunity we have each day.

We are not fans of urban resort type parks but we met John and Barb and several other fun couples here. Champ has lots of social interaction when I go to work in the afternoon during the week and the park is filling up with more snowbirds to meet as the winter wears on. I know it is cold in Iowa today. 11 degrees as reported by a friend who called. We don't feel a bit guilty that we are basking in 80 degrees with the warm humid breeze blowing the curtains away from the windows. Buster is lounging in the shade of our little yard this afternoon, without a care in his cat world. Annie is getting sun drunk in the windshield and I am headed to the patio to work a crossword and work on my winter tan.

Happy New Year!