Day 363 / 2 Silver Spring State Park and Ice Cream

Ocala, Florida Sunny early, 80 degrees. Afternoon rain

As our season comes to a quick close we are making more effort to do things rather than just loaf around the park like snowbirds. My work schedule as become so chaotic I have it plugged into my Google Calendar so I know what branch to show up at and what time on a given day. Those days are numbered as well as I plan to end my winter gig around the end of March.

Julie and Chuck, hosted a Sunday afternoon Ice Cream bar at their site last weekend. As we sat around ruining our dinner appetites with bowls of ice cream top with everything imaginable, thanks to Julies gift of hosting, we talked about our departure dates and things we all wanted to do and see before our flights north. Perhaps the best part of the day, and the best part of this lifestyle for that matter, was our friends Kathy and Charlie called that morning and said they were going to be in Ocala that afternoon. They showed up just in time to join us for ice cream and have a chance to meet our winter friends here in the park. It was a perfect afternoon for an ice cream social, heavy on the social and hot fudge.

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  Keith & Karen from Texas

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  Julie and I

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  Julie, Kathy and I

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  The gang, digging in

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  Terry from UP Michigan and Champs fellow gearhead.

A rare weekday off today was spent at Silver Spring State Park after changing plans for the day several times. The original plan was to return to Weeki Wachee and go kayaking with Rhonda and Ben. But, alas, a minor repair that turned into a major project on their camper, and iffy weather foiled that plan. We talked about heading to Plant City with Barb and John, where the Strawberry Festival is getting ready but again the threat of rain inclined us to blow that off. As I sat looking out the window at the clear skies, eating an apple and seeing that the radar was predicting rain around 1:00 pm we decided to jump in the car and make the short 30 minute drive to Silver Spring.

I went with dual motives. After some very tense days at the credit union dealing with difficult customers and an even more difficult staff at a branch they sent me to this past week, my soul was crying for some outdoor time. The park didn't disappoint. As we entered we saw a wildlife safety warning sign. As I approached I figured it would be about snakes or alligators. I was surprised to find it was warning us about wild monkeys who could be aggressive.

It wasn't long before we encountered them. The females were running about obviously in heat and we saw several young monkeys. I couldn't blame them for being less than thrilled about the humans traipsing through their yard. A couple of males were running along the railing of the boardwalk style path that went through their habitat keeping an eye on us. But we turned back and gave the female sitting on a rail across from where several young monkeys were frolicking about in the palms. We were able to watch for a bit but when we tried to pass her to proceed down the trail, she screeched and took a very agressive stance. Rather than end up with a protective momma wrapped around my head we backed off and went to explore the rest of the park.

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  You're in their yard. Beware!
  

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  We still haven't seen one in the wild

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  Males keeping an eye on us

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  Momma keeping us from getting to close

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  Rhesus Monkey
  

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  Yellow Belly Sapsuckers

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  Lilies along the Silver River

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  Florida Red Belly Turtles Sunning

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  Anhinga watching for fish

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  Anhinga swimming/fishing

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  Posterior view Anhinga

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  Abutilon Red Vein Indian Mallow

As we strolled along the path we came upon two people working on a flower bed that we knew from experience were likely volunteers. We stopped and visited with them. They have been volunteering for Florida State Parks for 11 years and were more than happy to take a break and visit with us about their experience. They gave us the name of the Ranger Volunteer Cooridnator, and left us with " maybe we'll see you in volunteer village some year" We explored some more and saw a couple of new birds, to me. The Anhinga, also called the 'snake bird' because they look like snakes in the water. They hold their bodies below the surface and swim with their long neck and head out of the water. Good thing we found that out or Champ would have been ready to leave if he thought the water was full of snakes! We watched the birds fish and swim along the Silver River while I took some pictures. I was also treated to another pretty bird that is new to me. The Louisana Waterthrush as ID'd by my Merlin app. I watched them for awhile for the binocculars but the vegetation was too dense to take a good picture. I guess I can't have it all some days. We are both really taken by the stunning beauty of the water in the springs and rivers in Florida.

On the way out we were able to track down Ranger Craig and talk with him a bit about coming back some winter as resident volunteers. With his card in hand we left with instructions to email our resume' and set up a time to come back and talk further before we leave Florida in April.

As we drove away before the rains moved in I had satisfied both objectives. My heart was happy from being out close to nature for a few hours and we left with a solid contact for a possible return to Florida to work camp. Hopefully someday I'll be writing about taking care of these beautiful gardens or leading glass bottom boat tours down the river and educating visitors about the history and natural wonder of the springs.

As this winter has proven, one never knows where the road of the full time RV Volunteer will lead.

Until next time...

Day 358 / 7

Ocala, Florida Sunny 89 Degrees

When we started this three years ago, the item at the top of the 'con' side of my pros and cons sheet was the thought of giving up gardening and yard work. Silly me, I do more now than ever. Between my volunteer work in the parks, helping my daughter and my friend Joyce in their gardens in Iowa during the summer months and maintaining my patio container gardens year round, I do more than ever! Perhaps the best part is with all I still grow, I do very little weeding now since the plants are growing in a much more controlled space. One of the things I hoped would happen when we came to Florida is to get a head start on my Iowa container garden. The weather has been nice and warm and very suited to growing things outside.

During January and February when the weather was un-Florida like, the cool weather veggies were thriving in my pots. I've been growing herbs, lettuce and spinach all winter. I've had to cover the pots several nights but the sun comes out each day and life is good for them.

In my brick and mortar days I would have had an assortment of things starting in pods under a plant light in my sun porch, looking out at the snow and ice and longing for the day when the soil was warm enough to put the small plants in the garden. This winter I have harvested seed from my farmers market produce and have Beef Master tomatoes, peppers and a spaghetti squash started in pots. I've also rooted two avocados and they are growing. Last winter, a ranger we worked with explained to me that you need 2 avocado plants to produce fruit, they self sex so no pollinating required. That solved the mystery of why I've been able to grow avocado plants from seed but never had them produce. Since these two were started at the same time maybe they will be like childhood sweet hearts and really like each other! All of my seeds came from the farm to table produce I'm buying this winter. I'll still spend plenty of time in the greenhouses when I get home. It's a bit of a tradition with Joyce and I'm weird, I really like the fertilizer / dirt smell of a greenhouse. Despite my head start here, I'll spend plenty of time and dollars, I can't help myself.

I sit on my patio, soaking up the sun, when I'm not doing my 5 hour shifts at the credit union, and look at the weather around the country and realize how lucky we are to be in Florida this winter. I marvel at the way things have a way of working out. Three months ago we were in a difficult situation. Despite the rocky start to this winter season away, things have turned out wonderfully. We are in a warm pocket of the country, I'm growing things on the patio, keeping a nice tan, meeting lots of really neat people and actively searching for volunteer gigs in Florida for future years.

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  The new avocado couple

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  Tomato starts growing nicely

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  Lettuce on it's third cutting and a nice spaghetti squash getting started.

In six weeks we will be back in Iowa with our family and friends. We are so eager to get back but hope the Midwest has gotten winter out of its system by mid-April when we return. Just in case, the sweatshirts and jackets are still handy under the bed and not yet packed away in totes. In the meantime I'm savoring our time in the sun and watching my saplings grow, knowing in 5 months they will be huge sprawling plants heavy with tomatoes, squash and bell peppers.

Until next time...

Day 355 / 10 A Season of Mixed Emotion

Ocala, Florida 85 Degrees - Sunny

The life of the full time RV’er is one that is often an emotional rollercoaster. Late February early March is a strange place in this universe if you are one of those who lives the snowbird style life that gravitates back toward northern roots and family in the spring.

As we visit during our afternoon gatherings, the conversations have taken a decidedly different tone. We are talking about what we can do together in the short weeks till we start scattering to northern summer destinations. Last dinner dates, excursions we have talked about all winter that we still want to squeeze in and talk of departure dates dominate happy hours. We are realizing our days with our winter companions are numbered. In our third year, we are acutely aware that some of our connections will endure and some will simply end when we part ways later this spring. It’s neither good or bad, but just the way it is in this life.

The other half of us is chomping at the bit to get home to kids, grandkids, friends and other family. We pry ourselves away when the cool fall winds start to blow the leaves off the trees. We have navigated another holiday season, southern ‘winter’ has passed. We watch the weather in Iowa with a little guilt that we have abandoned everyone for yet, another winter season. As we work on our February tans by the pool in Florida, our former full-time home is buried in snow and ice and the temps are something we have not experienced in three years now. We video chat with the kids and tell them we will see them soon. In our hearts, it won’t be soon enough.

The hardest part about being away is, ‘shit happens’. It happened last night. We got a call from our daughter saying that our son-in-law’s dad, ( aka Grandpa Mike) who we consider a friend, was in a serious accident with the two grandsons.  It was one of those phone calls that made me want to throw some stuff in a duffle bag and head to the airport. Thankfully, the injuries were not serious, but the incident was traumatic for all and my heart didn’t come down out of my throat until I was able to video chat with the little boys, 7 and 4 to see or myself, that although they were bruised and sore, they were intact and still their normal selves. It reminded me of last spring when Champ had to have emergency surgery, and the call went the other way. We were in Texas dealing with the emergency, and the kids were in Iowa dealing with the phone call. There’s nothing like a phone call with news of a medical emergency or accident to remind you how far away from home you are.

We are dreading the impending good-byes with our new friends made in Florida this winter. We are also very excited to get back to Iowa for the summer. We have lots of fun things planned for our last six weeks in Florida. I am looking at volunteer jobs here for two winters from now and we hope to return. Next winter we will be in Texas again, hopefully work camping in a private park where we plan to join friends for the winter. If we don’t get the work camping gig at the park, we’ll simply employ Plan B again and I’ll get another part time job in the area. 

Mixed emotions dominate right now. Life goes on, new friends
are made, old friends reappear in our lives and the kids put up with our
snowbird ways. We are ready to be back in Iowa, but need to wait out the relentless
winter.  Such is the life of a full-time
RV’er. Life is weird but good!

Until next time…

Day 345 / 20 What's The Draw of Workcamping

Ocala, Florida Rainy 70 Degrees

Yesterday afternoon, during a happy hour gathering with our neighbors, one of them posed the question, “So, what’s the draw of work camping?”.  The answer is multi-faceted. Our answer, in the moment only scratched the surface of the true ‘draw’ of work camping. I’ve been mulling it ever since. Most of the year we are in parks where we are volunteering with other like-minded full-timers. Birds of a feather as they say.  This winter is different. Our volunteer gig for the winter imploded and we have found ourselves in a long-term situation with people who do not workcamp anywhere. Most don’t even know what it is about. They are either retired snow birds who have come here to escape cold weather in their home state, or they are full-time RV’ers who travel about and stay in private RV resorts as they explore our beautiful country. Many have never spent a night in a Corps of Engineers Park, and don’t even know what we mean when we say, ‘Corps Park’.  A sad thing to me. A few have spent time in a State Park but for the most part the folks we are with this winter frequent private RV parks and travel like tourists. There is nothing wrong with that scenario for some people, it all depends on your expectations of how one experiences an area. Needless to say, couples like us are something of a curiosity to others, when we do hunker down in a private park occasionally. We are enjoying the opportunity to share our experiences with RV'ers who have never workcamped. Who knows, maybe someone will get inspired and check it out. The life of a workcamper is a very rewarding one for sure.

Back to the question. There are several things that draw us
to the life of being workcampers.

#1. The main draw is the economy of the life.  When you workcamp you typically trade about 25 hours a week of time and talent for the use of a FHU site and the utilities. In some cases, we are provided with laundry facilities.  I have to qualify this here.  We seek out jobs at Federal and State Parks. Often our sites are the only ones with full hook ups. The sites are usually spacious, not the grid style compact sites that exist in private parks. We have yet to volunteer at a private park, but may try it next winter.

#2. You have to do something. Even in retirement years people are happiest when they are busy. When you live in your RV and travel around you give up many things that fill your days. No yard to groom, big house to maintain, garage to work in etc.  Many people stayed busy with social activities, like church, service group activities, clubs and the like. Work camping gives us an outlet to stay busy using our hobbies, passions and skills for the benefit of the park we are working for. There is a stucture and routine to a workcampers day and week that keeps us motivated and feeling useful. It gives us a social network of people who share our interests. Simply put, it gives us some resemblance of our former brick and mortar lives.

#3. Work camping allows you to really get to know an area.
When you workcamp for a park you gain an in-depth knowledge of the area. It’s
part of your job. A person experiencing an area for a couple of weeks as a
tourist can never begin to learn what a workcamper learns about an area through
the course of their volunteer work. Not only does a workcamper get access to
areas, not open to the public, they also have at their disposal the knowledge
of those who work there, often rangers, biologists and other scientists who
make their career managing the parks and wild life areas where workcampers volunteer.
Work camping presents opportunities to nurture new and old hobbies and
interests. Work camping also presents endless opportunities to do new exciting
things as needs arise. Especially if you volunteer at a Wildlife Refuge or
National Forest. Workcampers are not only lending their talents and skills to
parks in exchange for a site to occupy for an extend period of time, we are
continually learning new things and growing as individuals.

#4. Giving makes you happy. 
Many people who workcamp were involved in community outreach programs
and volunteered their time to organizations in their former lives. Work camping
and giving back is highly satisfying. When your skills and passions result in
elevating the experience of those visiting the area where you volunteer, a warm
fulfilling sense of satisfaction arises in your inner self. It feels good to
give.

#5 People. When you work with others toward the mutual goal of making a place nice to visit you get to know them on a level unlike any other connection you will make with people you meet on the road. Partly because you are together for at least 90 days, partly because you are working together. Visiting with neighbors in a leisure park is fulfilling in its own way. But you will never experience the depth of the connection you develop with those you work with for a season in a park. Workcampers nurture each other. It comes in many forms, maybe a volunteer companion helps you learn a new hobby. If one of us is in their home area, we share the company of our family members and friends. Workcampers tend to seek each other out as we travel about. If someone is in the area, we make plans to meet. The other volunteers we are with get to meet the other gypsy friends and compare notes about the life. Volunteers often coordinate future jobs specifically to have to opportunity to work and live together again.

In a nutshell the draw is a sense of community, satisfaction
of being a part of what makes a place nice to visit, the growth that comes from
the new experiences and the ability to kick off your shoes and stay awhile.

Until next time…

To learn more about volunteering for federal parks go to http://www.volunteer.gov

Day 342/23 What Do You Mean When You Say You Workcamp?

Ocala, Florida- Sunny- 83 Degrees

What does it mean when someone says they workcamp?  That’s a loaded question. There are about as
many definitions of workcamping as there are colors of the spectrum. I tend to
refer to Champ and I as full time RV Volunteers. Full time as in we live in our
RV full time, no more brick and mortar home or property taxes or phone calls from
someone telling us the roof blew off in a storm or a tree fell on the garage.
Volunteers, as in we spend most of the year trading 20 or so volunteer hours of
work in a federal or state park for a full hook up site and sometimes laundry
facilities. That is Plan A.

When we went into this, the challenge was replacing my income,
since I left the workforce about 15 years before normal retirement age. One of
the ways is to volunteer for our site. Plan B of workcamping for us is the
scenario we are living this winter. We left the NPS job in Georgia and came to Florida
to flock with the other snowbirds in a park where we are paying around $650 a
month including the metered electric. The “work’ part comes in the form of me
taking a part time job in town to offset the expense. This winter we got lucky,
we are in a good market with higher than average part time wages. I’m making
far more than we need to pay for the site in my 25 hours a week. That has left
room to make more upgrades to the RV and replace some furniture that we have
wanted to replace. This is the first time in our first three years that we have
implemented Plan B. It’s a decidedly different pace and atmosphere but it’s
fine. I have to admit, I am anxious to get home to Iowa and Saylorville Lakes
Volunteer Village and be fully immersed in Plan A again.

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  The "Crew" with Seth summer intern.

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  C.C. and I with the Sage

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  Champ & Beth taking a break

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  Hunter helping me plant at the Butterfly Garden

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  Freeing a Goldfinch from the net

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  Taking a break on a glorious day.

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  9am bundled up ready for the trip across the dam in an ATV

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  Over 3500 of these Prairie Plugs have been planted this spring.

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  Lonn, Champ and I at Reenactment

In our three years we have met people doing all kinds of things that fall into the broad definition of workcamping. We met several journeyman electricians at one park who were on long term jobs building a big Facebook data storage facility. We met people who train horses and live in their RV’s in parks near the horse race tracks and follow the racing circuit around the country.  One of the couples we work with at Saylorville in the summer, works for a company in the winter time selling gift boxed candy in mall kiosks during the winter months in southern locations. People work for and live on or near the grounds of amusement parks, private RV resorts, Amazon fulfillment centers, county, state and federal parks. You name it. I’ve met lecturers, free lance writers and photographers and even a hair dresser, who chucked the whole conventional way of life and set up shop in a toy hauler and travels where ever the wind takes her and cuts hair in the parks where she stays.  

Where there’s a will there’s a way, it is said. Such is the case for the full time workcamp lifestyle. Workcamping is simply whatever you do to support yourself on the road. Full time RV living doesn’t just mean retired and living on pension while you roam the country anymore. Its not something reserved for the wealthy priveleged few, nor is it people living hand to mouth trying to survive like the stereotype of the carnival workers aka 'Carnies". A growing number of full-time RVers are like me. Still at the age when earning on some level is required weather it be earning a site and utilities or earning wages. We are fortunate to have Champ's retirement income to support our needs. Our 13 year age difference is both a curse and an advantage. While we don't have two retirement income sources to draw from, I am at an age where I am quite capable and willing to go work for wages when we want extra income.

The motives are just as varied. In our case we both like to
stay busy. Lose or use, as it were. I realized this winter, that is especially
true for me. Even if we did not need some extra income to offset our change of
plans, I was going crazy sitting around the RV park with no purpose in my day
other than to sit in the lawn chair and go for repeated walks.

Many people, including us, are working the parks and wildlife areas nurturing their passions. In my case it is the gardening work and anything conservation related. Working in a Visitors Center sharing my love of the outdoors and helping visitors find the special areas of the park and maybe experience the same sense of grounding and feel-good spiritual centeredness that nature brings to humans, gives me great satisfaction. I have met retired teachers who work in Environmental Education leading bird walks, nature walks or other types of activities at the park the educate people about the wonders of nature. Even in their retirement they nurture their passion for sharing knowledge and planting seeds in the hearts of young and old who are maybe experiencing a natural area like a refuge for the first time.

When it comes to the brand of workcamping that we do for the parks, we work with couples and individuals of widely diverse financial means. For us the benefit of trading the accommodations for the work is a huge benefit. The real reward is in getting to know the people we work with each season and  doing work we love, which not everyone gets to do during their earning years. As form me, anytime I get to spend with my hands in the dirt making things grow feeds my spirit. Along the way we are both learning new things and are growing as individuals and as a couple, through our different tasks and those we get to know in the process.

Workcamping is what you make it, pure and simple. There is
no right or wrong way to do it as long as it makes you happy and you are living
your life the way you want to.

Until next time…