(NOTE: View a larger picture by clicking on the photo(s) above.)
REMINDER: Since some of you keep looking for a blog from us on a regular basis, I simply remind you that since we are now “Parking” for a while, you will see a new blog around the first of each month only. Instead of a weekly blog, it has now become a monthly newsletter. I try to notify regular readers, whom I know about, each month via e-mail when a new one is online. If you are not receiving a notice, and would like to, just leave your e-mail address as a comment on the blog. Now----on to the news.
After much effort and time we finally got it done. We got our satellite Internet antenna on line. We are now fully hooked to the Internet, even in the swamp. The first picture you see is our antenna array setting behind our trailer along the adjacent road. We had to run cables about 100 feet to hookup. Two cables for the Internet (receive and send) and two cables for the two TVs that we have. All in all, about 400 feet of cable. We now even have an “in trailer” WiFi network so that we can use our two computers independently on the Internet. We are even able to share our network with campers nearby when they have a need. That makes us “popular” hosts at the Park. The second picture is of our current campsite.
Let me catch you up on our movements. We left Fort Yargo State Park on the last day of September. We were due at Stephen Foster State Park on the 1st of October. The distance between the two Parks is about 365 miles. We don’t like to pull the trailer more than 200 miles in any given day if we can help it, so we opted to stay overnight at Georgia Veteran’s State Park outside Cordele, GA, about 195 miles south of Fort Yargo. As “volunteers” we are eligible for five free nights at any Georgia Park. We took advantage of this for one night at Georgia Veteran’s. The next morning we took off for our new destination in the middle of the Okefenokee Swamp.
We arrived in early afternoon. The weather was dry and warm. The mosquitoes were tolerable and the black nats were bothersome. We got the trailer nestled into our back-in spot with little fuss. As you can tell by the picture, it is closed-in by vegetation. You also see Carolyn in the background cleaning on the picnic table. Our golf cart transportation is in the foreground.
We are at the end of the road, literally. Out of Fargo, GA we turned onto Highway 177. seventeen miles later, we were at the end of the road. The road goes to the park and no farther. There is a turn-around at the end of the road. A hundred feet beyond that turn-around is the Swamp. Stephen Foster State Park is 82 acres in the middle of a 438,000 acre Swamp (natural wet-lands). That’s about 700 square miles, about the size of the State of Rhode Island. There are two other entries into the Okefenokee, from the North at Waycross, GA and from the East at Folkston, GA. Stephen Foster (on the Western side) seems very popular, receiving some 120,000 visitors each year.
And what is there to do at Stephen Foster? you ask. Let me tell you. If you like wildlife there is an abundance. Birds, like the Egret, the Blue Herron, Hawks, etc. Deer at every turn. They are so calm in the Park that they graze along the sides of the road. When one approaches them either on foot or in a vehicle, they look at you for a few seconds, acknowledge your presence, then go back to grazing. Last week I saw a doe nursing her fawn no more than three feet from the road bed. There are bobcats, raccoons, wild turkeys, all to be seen in one’s normal passage. Did I mention black bears? We haven’t seen any as yet. We are told that they wander into the campground at times in search of food. They usually come around in November or December when they are feeding in preparation for hibernation. I, for one, am not looking for a “Polaroid” moment with a bear. The Park has bear proof trash containers, a good thing. And, of course, the Alligator.
Duties for a Camp Host vary from Park to Park. In this one, we keep check on the campers to see if they are situated properly and if they have any needs. We clean the Comfort Station, elsewhere known as a Bath House and Restroom. We also provide general cleanup of the sites when they are vacated, cleaning out the fire rings, picking up left-over trash, etc. In addition to this activity, we each have taken on additional services to help out the Park personnel.
Carolyn has taken on the responsibility of running the Suwannee River Visitors Center one day a week. Right now it is on Wednesdays. The Center is located 18 miles south of the Park, at the entry to the road leading to the Park. The third picture above is that of the Visitors Center. They have a gift store (Carolyn certainly has experience for that), exhibits of wildlife (living and stuffed) and a film on the Swamp and Park. All of this Carolyn operates for eight hours by herself . The Park provides her with a car to drive back and forth, that is to and from, not to confuse “forth” with the River Forth in Scotland (as if you would). Some days there are not many visitors so it could get pretty boring (she’s sure to take a book).
Besides the abundant wildlife, the Park has popular water activities. Motor boats and canoes for rent to explore the swamp. They also have boat tours of the Swamp three times a day. This is where I was asked if I would like to help out. The regular tour guide has two or three days off at a time, depending on the schedule, and they would like me to fill in. Now, one of the clerks has to do it and they are not particularly thrilled with the task. I said I would be willing to give it a try.
The fourth picture above shows the boat dock. The first three boats you see, left to right, are the tour boats. The first is a 24 foot pontoon boat, second a 17 foot skiff and third a 21 foot skiff. Do you see a problem here? If not, you don’t know me well. I have never in my life operated a motor boat of any kind. I didn’t know how to start one or steer one. Not only did this task require operating the boat in and out of narrow passage ways between the Cypress, but one has to talk intelligently for an hour and a half during the tour.
But, hey! I have never shied away from a task just because I didn’t know what I was doing. After all, I’m the guy who had never pulled a trailer before or even camped in an RV before the beginning of our current new lifestyle. Master one, master the other. Never too old to learn. Right?
I was given information to read about the history of the Okefenokee and the Park and the flora and fauna. I went out on several tours and listened to the Tour Guide. I asked questions. I learned to recognize the different trees, plants, birds, turtles, etc. I learned to operate the boats, first the small skiff, then the pontoon. The larger skiff I haven’t yet mastered. The steering on that one is loose and tricky. It is necessary to navigate through narrow twists and turns through the Cypress in a section of the swamp they call “pinball alley.”
For a while, the Tour Guide would drive and I would give the presentation, until I was comfortable with operating the boat. Now, I am mostly on my own as the “official, substitute tour guide.” We have three tours a day, at 10 o‘clock, 1 o‘clock and 3 o‘clock. The tour lasts for one and a half hours and traverses some four miles of the Swamp and Lake. So now, I am becoming a “boat person,” and enjoying it.
The only problem with our location is that it is far from anything. The town of Fargo is the nearest at 17 miles, but there is nothing there. It has about 300 people, one gas station, a Post Office, a small store and one restaurant. That’s it. To get groceries, we have to travel to Valdosta, GA, some 65 miles away. Or, we could drive to Jacksonville, FL at about the same distance. Being so far from everything, we have to purchase groceries for a whole month to lessen the trips. We have to buy more in bulk. The Park helps out here by providing us with an additional, full sized, refrigerator freezer to store our extra goods.
When we got settled in, they brought the refrigerator and sat it outside our trailer. We turned it on and it started running. But, it didn’t cool. It is still out waiting for repair. However, we are able to use the refrigerator in one of the Park personnel trailers that is not now occupied. It is just behind us across the road. Not too bad for a storage spot.
The last picture above is what the Swamp is all about and what people come to see, the alligators. This is a picture of Willard, at least that is what one of the Park personnel calls the gator that hangs around the boat dock. For all I know it could be Buford. People like to fish from the dock, and Willard likes to snatch the fish off there lines. He is a big gator. Let me share a tip with you on how to tell the size of a gator. Estimate the distance between the gator’s nostrils and his eyes in inches, and that is about how long he is in feet. You want to know about gators? I can tell you all you ever wanted to know, and more. Maybe next time. If you ask!
We have been here now for a month. We are enjoying our time, and thrilled with our lifestyle. We have two more months here until we move on again to somewhere new. Still meeting a lot of nice people, and the occasional dud. Next time I will share more about the Swamp. After all, I am the Tour Guide.
REMINDER: Since some of you keep looking for a blog from us on a regular basis, I simply remind you that since we are now “Parking” for a while, you will see a new blog around the first of each month only. Instead of a weekly blog, it has now become a monthly newsletter. I try to notify regular readers, whom I know about, each month via e-mail when a new one is online. If you are not receiving a notice, and would like to, just leave your e-mail address as a comment on the blog. Now----on to the news.
After much effort and time we finally got it done. We got our satellite Internet antenna on line. We are now fully hooked to the Internet, even in the swamp. The first picture you see is our antenna array setting behind our trailer along the adjacent road. We had to run cables about 100 feet to hookup. Two cables for the Internet (receive and send) and two cables for the two TVs that we have. All in all, about 400 feet of cable. We now even have an “in trailer” WiFi network so that we can use our two computers independently on the Internet. We are even able to share our network with campers nearby when they have a need. That makes us “popular” hosts at the Park. The second picture is of our current campsite.
Let me catch you up on our movements. We left Fort Yargo State Park on the last day of September. We were due at Stephen Foster State Park on the 1st of October. The distance between the two Parks is about 365 miles. We don’t like to pull the trailer more than 200 miles in any given day if we can help it, so we opted to stay overnight at Georgia Veteran’s State Park outside Cordele, GA, about 195 miles south of Fort Yargo. As “volunteers” we are eligible for five free nights at any Georgia Park. We took advantage of this for one night at Georgia Veteran’s. The next morning we took off for our new destination in the middle of the Okefenokee Swamp.
We arrived in early afternoon. The weather was dry and warm. The mosquitoes were tolerable and the black nats were bothersome. We got the trailer nestled into our back-in spot with little fuss. As you can tell by the picture, it is closed-in by vegetation. You also see Carolyn in the background cleaning on the picnic table. Our golf cart transportation is in the foreground.
We are at the end of the road, literally. Out of Fargo, GA we turned onto Highway 177. seventeen miles later, we were at the end of the road. The road goes to the park and no farther. There is a turn-around at the end of the road. A hundred feet beyond that turn-around is the Swamp. Stephen Foster State Park is 82 acres in the middle of a 438,000 acre Swamp (natural wet-lands). That’s about 700 square miles, about the size of the State of Rhode Island. There are two other entries into the Okefenokee, from the North at Waycross, GA and from the East at Folkston, GA. Stephen Foster (on the Western side) seems very popular, receiving some 120,000 visitors each year.
And what is there to do at Stephen Foster? you ask. Let me tell you. If you like wildlife there is an abundance. Birds, like the Egret, the Blue Herron, Hawks, etc. Deer at every turn. They are so calm in the Park that they graze along the sides of the road. When one approaches them either on foot or in a vehicle, they look at you for a few seconds, acknowledge your presence, then go back to grazing. Last week I saw a doe nursing her fawn no more than three feet from the road bed. There are bobcats, raccoons, wild turkeys, all to be seen in one’s normal passage. Did I mention black bears? We haven’t seen any as yet. We are told that they wander into the campground at times in search of food. They usually come around in November or December when they are feeding in preparation for hibernation. I, for one, am not looking for a “Polaroid” moment with a bear. The Park has bear proof trash containers, a good thing. And, of course, the Alligator.
Duties for a Camp Host vary from Park to Park. In this one, we keep check on the campers to see if they are situated properly and if they have any needs. We clean the Comfort Station, elsewhere known as a Bath House and Restroom. We also provide general cleanup of the sites when they are vacated, cleaning out the fire rings, picking up left-over trash, etc. In addition to this activity, we each have taken on additional services to help out the Park personnel.
Carolyn has taken on the responsibility of running the Suwannee River Visitors Center one day a week. Right now it is on Wednesdays. The Center is located 18 miles south of the Park, at the entry to the road leading to the Park. The third picture above is that of the Visitors Center. They have a gift store (Carolyn certainly has experience for that), exhibits of wildlife (living and stuffed) and a film on the Swamp and Park. All of this Carolyn operates for eight hours by herself . The Park provides her with a car to drive back and forth, that is to and from, not to confuse “forth” with the River Forth in Scotland (as if you would). Some days there are not many visitors so it could get pretty boring (she’s sure to take a book).
Besides the abundant wildlife, the Park has popular water activities. Motor boats and canoes for rent to explore the swamp. They also have boat tours of the Swamp three times a day. This is where I was asked if I would like to help out. The regular tour guide has two or three days off at a time, depending on the schedule, and they would like me to fill in. Now, one of the clerks has to do it and they are not particularly thrilled with the task. I said I would be willing to give it a try.
The fourth picture above shows the boat dock. The first three boats you see, left to right, are the tour boats. The first is a 24 foot pontoon boat, second a 17 foot skiff and third a 21 foot skiff. Do you see a problem here? If not, you don’t know me well. I have never in my life operated a motor boat of any kind. I didn’t know how to start one or steer one. Not only did this task require operating the boat in and out of narrow passage ways between the Cypress, but one has to talk intelligently for an hour and a half during the tour.
But, hey! I have never shied away from a task just because I didn’t know what I was doing. After all, I’m the guy who had never pulled a trailer before or even camped in an RV before the beginning of our current new lifestyle. Master one, master the other. Never too old to learn. Right?
I was given information to read about the history of the Okefenokee and the Park and the flora and fauna. I went out on several tours and listened to the Tour Guide. I asked questions. I learned to recognize the different trees, plants, birds, turtles, etc. I learned to operate the boats, first the small skiff, then the pontoon. The larger skiff I haven’t yet mastered. The steering on that one is loose and tricky. It is necessary to navigate through narrow twists and turns through the Cypress in a section of the swamp they call “pinball alley.”
For a while, the Tour Guide would drive and I would give the presentation, until I was comfortable with operating the boat. Now, I am mostly on my own as the “official, substitute tour guide.” We have three tours a day, at 10 o‘clock, 1 o‘clock and 3 o‘clock. The tour lasts for one and a half hours and traverses some four miles of the Swamp and Lake. So now, I am becoming a “boat person,” and enjoying it.
The only problem with our location is that it is far from anything. The town of Fargo is the nearest at 17 miles, but there is nothing there. It has about 300 people, one gas station, a Post Office, a small store and one restaurant. That’s it. To get groceries, we have to travel to Valdosta, GA, some 65 miles away. Or, we could drive to Jacksonville, FL at about the same distance. Being so far from everything, we have to purchase groceries for a whole month to lessen the trips. We have to buy more in bulk. The Park helps out here by providing us with an additional, full sized, refrigerator freezer to store our extra goods.
When we got settled in, they brought the refrigerator and sat it outside our trailer. We turned it on and it started running. But, it didn’t cool. It is still out waiting for repair. However, we are able to use the refrigerator in one of the Park personnel trailers that is not now occupied. It is just behind us across the road. Not too bad for a storage spot.
The last picture above is what the Swamp is all about and what people come to see, the alligators. This is a picture of Willard, at least that is what one of the Park personnel calls the gator that hangs around the boat dock. For all I know it could be Buford. People like to fish from the dock, and Willard likes to snatch the fish off there lines. He is a big gator. Let me share a tip with you on how to tell the size of a gator. Estimate the distance between the gator’s nostrils and his eyes in inches, and that is about how long he is in feet. You want to know about gators? I can tell you all you ever wanted to know, and more. Maybe next time. If you ask!
We have been here now for a month. We are enjoying our time, and thrilled with our lifestyle. We have two more months here until we move on again to somewhere new. Still meeting a lot of nice people, and the occasional dud. Next time I will share more about the Swamp. After all, I am the Tour Guide.
