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.

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  Ring Billed Gull

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  Cormorants on the buoys

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  Caspian Turn

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  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…