Spring has Sprung

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Spring has finally sprung. I’m sure you can attest to the fact by looking around you, wherever you are (again, except in the snow belt). I couldn’t resist a picture of the little Dogwood tree in full bloom that you see above. It seems to be a time of new growth, beautiful blooms and sneezing, runny eyes and misery, if you are prone to allergies. Such is Spring!

Warm weather in South Georgia brings out the Gopher Turtles from there deep burrows. Many people visit General Coffee State Park to seek out the tortoises. They tend to come out to get sun (the tortoise that is, perhaps the people too). We encountered a student from the University of Georgia who was a biology major and had come down just to see the tortoise. We found him in the middle of a paved road (closed to vehicular traffic) patiently waiting, camera on tripod, for a tortoise to appear from its burrow a short distance down the road. He had startled it on his walk (and vise versa) and decided to wait for it to come out again. He virtually spent the day sitting in his lawn chair waiting for the tortoise. Whether he was successful or not, I don’t know. But I was. Not at that tortoise burrow, but another.

The second picture above shows Gertrude outside her burrow. One of the other camp host named her. She occupies a burrow just across from out campsite. I suppose you can see the pieces of lettuce laying near her. People tend to want to feed her, perhaps to entice her out of the hole. The second picture shows her just inside her burrow. Let me tell you a little about Gopher Tortoises. I’m sure you are dying to know.

The life of a gopher tortoise revolves around a tunnel-like burrow that is excavated using its shovel-like front feet. Burrows can be up to 40 feet in length and 10 feet in depth. Each burrow has a single opening and the width of the burrow is approximately equal to the length of the tortoise. Therefore, the tortoise is able to turn around at any point within the burrow, and consequently, burrow width is a good indicator of the size (and approximate age) of the tortoise. Gopher tortoise burrows are usually easy to spot in the landscape because of the characteristic mound of loose sand at the burrow entrance (called the "apron").

Gopher tortoise burrows remain at a fairly constant temperature and humidity level year-round, thus providing shelter for the tortoise during periods of extreme temperatures, drought, and fire. Tortoise burrows also afford refuge to other animals including more than 360 animal species. The list includes the indigo snake (a picture of the indigo snake at the entrance to the borrow is above), pine snake, gopher frog, opossum, armadillo, burrowing owl, gopher cricket, scarab beetles, and many others. But, of course, these creatures do not usually reside in the burrow together, but in succession.

Gopher tortoises feed mainly on low-growing plants that require abundant sunlight. Although grasses and legumes make up the bulk of their diet, gopher tortoises eat a large variety of plants including gopher apple, pawpaw, blackberries, saw palmetto berries, and other fruits.

Gopher tortoises are thought to live in excess of 60 years. They grow relatively slowly and growth rates vary by geographic region. For example, in northern Florida, female tortoises reach adulthood at 10 to 15 years of age, when the shell length is about nine inches; in southwest Georgia, tortoises may take 21 years to mature. Adult female gopher tortoises are slightly larger than males, and at maturity, male tortoises can usually be distinguished from females by a concave lower shell (plastron).

Gopher tortoises typically breed from April to June. During May and June, female tortoises lay 3-15 eggs, either in the sand mound in front of the burrow or in another nearby sunny place. The incubation period for eggs varies from 80 to 90 days in Florida to more than 100 days in Georgia. A mature female generally produces one clutch of eggs annually. Nest predation can be quite high and an individual female may produce a successful nest as infrequently as once in 10 years. Nest predators include raccoons, foxes, skunks, armadillos, and fire ants.

Hatchling gopher tortoises may use an adult burrow or dig a small burrow of their own. Young gopher tortoises are vulnerable to predation until their shell hardens at about 6-7 years of age. Raccoon, indigo snake, black bear, and red-tailed hawk, among others, eat hatchlings and young tortoises. Adult tortoises have few enemies other than humans, although domestic dogs and raccoons are known to eat them.

A variety of jobs around the park continue to need doing. Somehow I seem to get in the middle of them. Jackie, the Ranger who runs the farm asked if I would accompany her to a neighboring farm to borrow a horse trailer so she could take a mule to a vet. She needed help hooking up the trailer. That accomplished, I went about other tasks. Later, a call came to help load the mule in the trailer. They were having problems.

When I and another host arrived, four others were struggling with the mule. He refused to get in. The six of us struggled, pushed and pulled. At every effort the donkey would hunker down and dig in its feet. The mule was not large, the top of his head came only to my shoulders, but he was one stubborn creature. The Camp Manager and another host manned a rope through the trailer’s front window and pulled. I and the Assistant Camp Manager got behind the mule to push. Now, I had already experienced the effects of a mule kick in “another life” that I told you about in an earlier blog, so I was a little cautious. The Assistant Manager put his knee under the left hind leg and lifted, we pushed and moved forward six inches. We repeated this operation until the mule was finally in the trailer.

Some of us wondered why a simple cattle prod was not used to move the mule. The fact that we did not have one was one reason. The reason we had none was that the Farm Manager, Jackie, felt that it was cruel to use one on an animal. I guess that if one has free labor to do the job, it doesn’t matter. One wonders how she would feel if she didn’t have the luxury of more manpower. I guess we won’t know.

I have also learned the principles of fire-fighting by helping with prescribed burning of the grounds in the Park. I manned the fire-line and created a fire-break, put out stray fires and generally kept the fire from burning the trees. The aim, of course, is to only burn the ground growth to help maintain the forest. After a day of this, I smelled like a fire myself, so it was home, strip and shower. Of course, one could smell the smoke that resulted for days.

One day, on the way home for lunch, another host and I, in a Mule (a four-wheel vehicle), passed the dump station (where RVs empty their tanks) and noticed a car setting at the dump with a gray-haired lady inside. This seemed odd. Cars have no need to be setting at the dump. On our way back an hour later, the car and lady were still there. We informed the Camp Manager and he said he would check it out. Perhaps she was in trouble and needed help.

She was in trouble alright, but she didn’t know it. She was as “drunk as a skunk.” I’ve never understood that expression fully as to how drunk that is, but she was highly inebriated. We found later that she had been in the Park since early morning, moving from place to place drinking, without an entry permit. She was promptly written a ticket and the Sheriff was called to take her to jail. We passed by again later in the day and Jackie was keeping the car company, waiting for the wrecker to tow the car. We don’t know the lady’s situation, but her car had been damaged in the front, and the back seat was piled high with what looked like her worldly possessions.

The last picture above shows the Park Manager (on the right) and another Camp Host (Woody) overseeing the barbecue of chicken quarters for a gathering we had in March. It was an appreciation meal given by the Park for the volunteers. Counting Park personnel and Camp Host couples, there were some 20 of us. We enjoyed the time and the meal.

Such is life in the Park!

At this writing, we are parked at a campground in Tennessee. We decided to leave General Coffee a little early (we left on March 22) to come here for some doctor visits. Some family and friends in Tennessee know we are here, but the rest of you don’t, until now. We will be leaving here on April 1st (not an “April Fool”) and head back south to Fort Yargo in Winder Georgia. Our new address for a few months will be:

Fort Yargo State Park, 210 South Broad Street, Winder, GA 30680.

As they say in the entertainment business when a project is finished, “that’s a rap.”

Spring is Coming

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It is true. Spring is coming. I know that it is difficult for some of you in the “bad weather” belt to believe, but it’s true. The Redbud Trees attest to the fact, as you can see in the first picture above of a row of Redbuds in a picnic area. They are beginning to bud. Even here in South Georgia the weather shows its fickleness. It has been very warm for the last few days, up near 80 degrees, but it is forecasted to change again to some colder, wetter weather for a few days. But, true to form, Spring will arrive in three weeks, ready or not. But I bet you are ready. Huh?

Speaking of trees, yes there was something about trees somewhere in the last paragraph, look at the second picture. Do you recognize the tree? It is a magnolia. The picture does absolutely no justice to the real thing. It was necessary to get so far away to get the tree in the lens, one gets no perspective of its size. The tree is at the end of one of the hiking trails, and is reported to be the largest, or second largest, magnolia in Georgia depending on who is telling it. At any rate, I do know that it is twelve feet around. I took a tape measure and measured it. It appears to be some 70 to 80 feet tall, or taller. I am not great at estimating height, but you can tell that it towers over the trees surrounding it. It has to be more than 200 years old.

There are not many campers in the campground. Most of the time there are no campers in the campground. After all, it is Winter. Which means we don’t do much “hosting.” So we are still doing a variety of jobs. One of the projects that I undertook during the month, along with one of the other host, was building a new office for management. Sounds like a fairly straight-forward task. Right? Get some materials. Put them together. Well, not so fast.

The rest of the Trading Post, where the offices are located, is constructed in tongue-and-groove, pine paneling with beveled edges. Do we have tongue-and-groove, pine paneling with beveled edges? No! The Park cannot afford new tongue-and-groove, pine paneling with beveled edges. You have heard of the budget crunch that has hit the States I’m sure. Georgia has been hit hard in this regard. No money for anything much. Volunteers are highly prized.

What the State could afford was a few bundles of old 1” by 6” lumber that had been setting out in the weather at some lumber yard for who knows how many years. There were four bundles of eight foot pieces and one bundle of 12 foot pieces. Each bundle contained 25 pieces. We checked over the bundles and found them in pitiful shape. Some were crooked, some bowed, some broken and all were black from age. Great! What do we do with this junk? Our task was to make pine paneling with beveled edges out of this mess. Forget the tongue-and-groove.

What we needed to do was clean the lumber first. It needed to be planed. Slight problem. The Park has no planer. Solution, check with another Park. Hoorah! Little Ocmulgee State Park has a planer, but we will have to take the wood there. Little Ocmulgee is and hour and a half drive from General Coffee. OK, five bundles of wood, some 12 feet long, 125 pieces altogether. Hum! The wood is loaded on a long trailer we hook it to a Park truck and Wally (that’s the other host) and I take off. Hour and a half there, an hour and a quarter to plane 125 pieces, and an hour and a half back.

OK, step number one complete. The existing paneling had 5 1/8 inches showing. The planed boards were six inches wide. Step number two, rip to size. Step number three, figure out the bevel. We have no router either. So we figured out a “tilt” on the radial-arm saw, fixed a jig to hold the wood and ran it through…..125 pieces, two passes each to cut bevels on each side. Now, all we have to do is cut to size and hang each piece of “panel.” You can see the results of our labor in picture number three above. We nailed in each piece tight to the piece below it. Then, the wood began to dry out and create an unintended gap between each board. Either we leave it “as is” or we wait until it stops shrinking and fill it with something. The jury is still out on that. It may not match perfectly, but it provides an 11 x 13 office with two windows and a door. What else can one ask on such a budget and less-than-good materials. Looks great! Don’t you think?

So you can see that jobs around here for Volunteers provide great variety. Just the other day I was working with one of the Park personnel, picking up trash and the like throughout the Park. As we were riding down the road in the Park we passed a section of ground along side the road that had been “control burned” to get rid of underbrush. The new green growth had already begun to grow back, popping up in the blacken earth. Clarence, the Park employee I mentioned, a 71 year old black man of small stature and a great personality, remarked,

“When I was a kid, we used to burn like that. When the green started to come back, the red, red robins would come in big numbers. I would make me a sling-shot and go kill them.”

“Why did you do that?” I asked.

“We eat ’em. They good. Taste like quail,” he said.

Clarence plans to work until he is 75 so he can get a small pension from the State. I have been told that Clarence can neither read nor write. I haven’t verified this with Clarence. I wouldn’t want to embarrass him. Clarence was very surprised to learn that I am older than he is.

The fourth picture above is of the Burnham House located in the Park and used as a rental cottage. It was built in the 19th Century and is furnished in period pieces throughout the house. The history is not clear about its beginnings. Some say it was an old tobacco barn that had a floor installed to make a second story, and then built onto. Others say is was just an old house with additions. At any rate, it has four bedrooms and three baths. It will sleep eight.

The story circulates that the house is haunted. It is said that that is why Mrs. Burnham sold the house. Her husband died, and Mrs. Burnham said she could hear him still walking around upstairs. I walked around upstairs and couldn’t see nor hear Mr. Burnham anywhere. I suppose it was an off day. I know he wasn’t in the living room. That is the last picture you see, showing the fireplace in the center. You can get a sense of how the house is furnished.

Well, that is it for this month. We are looking forward to “permanent” Spring, at least until it becomes “permanent” Summer. With this prospect in mind, it won’t be long until we will venture a little farther north. More on that next time.

New Year / New Place

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So, what is the first thing you notice? Huh? A new blog design, you say. Right! New Year, new place, new design. Let’s start things afresh. I hope your new year has started off in the right direction. As for us, we’re on the move again. On January 1 we traveled a whole 90 miles to our new “temporary” home in Nicholls, GA, Coffee County. The home of General Coffee State Park.

The Park is named after General John Coffee, a planter, U.S. Congressman and military leader. The land was donated to the State by a group of Coffee County citizens in 1970. It has a little over 1,500 acres. The Park is known for interpretation of agricultural history at its Heritage Farm, with log cabins, corn crib, tobacco barn, cane mill and other exhibits. A picture of the interior of a Blacksmith Shop is shown above.

A variety of farm animals reside at the farm….pigs, chickens, donkeys, goats, etc. When we arrived, there was a new little goat, six days old, named Holly. The third picture is Holly when she was 11 days old. She ran, jumped and twisted so on the little dirt hill she is on, that it was difficult to get a picture. It is surprising how active they are at just a few days old.

When we arrived we were Camp Host number five. Of the four other Hosts, two are from Canada, one from Southern Indiana and another from Connecticut. Most of these had already been here since October. You see a picture of our trailer on its site above. You will note that we had to jack the front up high to get the spot level.

The work is different here. In the Winter, there are very few campers, so most of the work is maintenance. That can mean almost anything. Here, however, it mostly means cutting trees, grinding stumps, building and fixing things. I now have a new skill as “stump grinder.” The third picture above is the grinder I have been operating. The trees are cut leaving a stump six to ten inches above the ground. It has to be ground down to about two inches below the surface of the ground. Most of the trees we are cutting are Live Oak, the State Tree of Georgia. The cutting is to make it easier for the RV’s to maneuver through the campground.

Carolyn has learned the Office work and the computer system to man (or woman, in this case) the front desk. Any way it is said still sounds strange. I guess we could say she “runs” or “operates” the front desk. Now one gets the picture of her in joggers chasing the desk around, or using scalpels to dissect what goes on there. But, I guess you get the idea.

I have also made a “road trip” to work at a State Historic Site. I and another Host were asked to go to the Lapham-Patterson House in Thomasville, GA, a little over 100 miles away, near the Florida border, to do some needed repairs. We drove the State truck down last Tuesday which took about 2 ½ hours of driving each way. We repaired some outside steps, leveled some bricks in the sidewalk that had been pushed up by tree roots, which required removing the bricks, cutting out the offending roots and replacing the bricks. Then we repaired a antique iron gate that was coming loose from its anchor. A picture of the house on which we worked is the last one above.

The house, built in 1885, is named after it two owners, Lapham and Patterson. C.W. Lapham was a wealthy shoe merchant in Chicago. He was a survivor of the Great Chicago Fire. He suffered lung damage as a result of being rapped in a burning building. He went to Thomasville for it supposed therapeutic mild-winter climate and pine-scented air. He built the house as a winter cottage.

The house is quite strange in its construction. There are no right angles in the house, and nothing is centered or symmetrical. Presumably this helped the air flow for healthier living. The 19 rooms has 45 doors and 53 windows, none of which is the same height as the one next to it. It has a double-flue chimney with a walk-through stairway and cantilevered balcony. The Laphams sold their winter house in 1894, and it was resold to James Patterson in 1905. The Pattersons remained in possession until 1970. It was named a National Historic Landmark in 1975.

Well, the month is ending, and so is this blog. Not for good, just for the month. Next month will be different, to be sure. I wonder what we will get into next. Stay tuned.

Farewell to the Swamp

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As I write, it is December 31st , the last day of 2008. Don’t worry, I am not going to recap our year on the road. It is our last day in the Swamp, before moving on to General Coffee State Park about 90 miles north of here. It has been a good time here and we have enjoyed all the Swamp has to offer; nice people, beautiful setting and great adventure. So much so, we intend to come back next year.

We have been sitting still now for the last three months, so we shouldn’t have had any problems with out rig, right? Wrong! It was one day this month, a Thursday, we were both sitting in the trailer when we heard a loud “bang” on the trailer like a large limb had fallen on it. I went outside to take a look. I looked all over and could see nothing out of place. I went back inside. A few minutes later, another big “boom” that slightly rocked the trailer. Again, I go outside to survey the situation. Still, I could see nothing that could have hit the trailer. As I walked back to the door, I happened to look under the trailer and saw water gushing out onto the ground.

Then, it dawned on me. I had just emptied our black tank (the one with all the bad stuff, like a septic tank). We have a spray pressure hose inside the tank attached to our water source. After we drain the tank, we spray it clean with fresh water, turn it off and shut the valve. That is the normal procedure. This time, I had forgotten to turn off the water. I rushed to turn off the water. Thirty five gallons of water poured onto the ground.

It didn’t take long to figure out what was damaged. Our tank, about five feet wide, three feet deep and one foot high, had broken loose from the two angle-irons bolted to the frame that held it in place, and was hanging only inches from the ground. The “under belly” and insulation under the tank had torn loose from their connections and touched the ground. A 1½ inch PVC pipe connecting to our gray tanks (sink and shower water) had snapped, allowing the water to drain out. Thirty five gallons of water weighs about 300 pounds. With high-pressure water still trying to enter the tank, it was too much for the system to hold, so down it came.

What to do! What to do! I was pretty sure that I could not fix the problem. I knew I could not move the trailer in that condition. I also knew that we were many miles from anything resembling an RV dealer. The only thing
I could think to do was to call the Service Manager at the dealership were we had purchased the rig. First, I learned that it was under warranty. Whew! Then I learned that the nearest Jayco Dealer for repairs was in St. Augustine, FL, some 161 miles away. Bad news. I called the St. Augustine dealer and found that they could not touch it for at least two weeks.

I was put in contact with the “warranty person” at Jayco to help resolve the problem. I was told I could take it anywhere to get it fixed with the warranty, but outside a Jayco dealer I would have to pay the cost initially and then be reimbursed. OK! Find a place! The nearest one found was 60 miles away. Not too bad, a hundred miles closer, but how can I move it with the tank hanging in the way. Solution: cut out the tank and “under belly.” Right!

I got a “saws-all” (a reciprocal saw), and with the help of Dave, the other campground host, cut off the tank, pulled it out and threw it into the back of the truck. We cut off the “under belly” and we’re ready to go. But now, we have no water or sewer. Remember, it is Thursday, we can’t get the rig into the shop until Monday. Remember that Refrigerator/Freezer we were using for our extra food that was in an unoccupied trailer? Well, we moved into it (the trailer, not the refrigerator) until we could get our trailer back. We thought just a couple days. Sure! As it happened, the trailer was fixed by afternoon of the day we took it in….except for one little part (a PVC sweep, Y connection) that they could not get locally. It had to be ordered from the Dealer in Indiana. We got the trailer back six days later.

In the meantime, while in the Park trailer, we decided to host a little lunch for the Park personnel. We served ham on yeast rolls, potato salad, baked beans, dip and chips, soft drinks and a variety of desserts. The second picture above is of some of the group of 12. Left to right is Jamie (Maintenance), Mitchell (Maintenance Chief), Corina (Tour Guide), Kathy (Clerk) and Dave the other Host. The first picture is of the lady who put all this feast together, at her “other job” in the Suwannee Visitor Center.

In the absence of family, we were still able to enjoy Christmas with long-time friends from Gainesville, FL. They spent three days in one of the rental, two-bedroom cabins. We cooked, ate and enjoyed the company. There were no boat tours or rentals on Christmas day, but I was able to take them on a private tour of the Swamp. We enjoyed two hours of peaceful outing with no one else around. Great time. The third picture above is one I snapped outside the cabin of a deer and squirrel having a Christmas graze.

You will recognize the fourth picture as an armadillo. It is the first one to be seen since we have been here. The bears must be plentiful, since the armadillos are in short supply. I understand it is sort of a supply and demand sort of thing. More armadillos, less bears, and vice versa.

This past Monday we needed to make a trip to Jacksonville again. We decided to also pay a visit to the eastern entry to the Swamp at Folkston, GA where we had not yet been. The eastern area is mostly prairie as opposed to the cypress forest that we have here on the western side.

The highlight was seeing the Chesser Island homestead of the Chesser family who settled this part of the Swamp in the late 1800’s. Their history is typical of many area settlers; they ate what they could shoot, trap, catch and grow on the sandy soil. Cash crops were primarily sugar cane and turpentine. The house you see in the last picture above was built in 1927 of yellow pine. The house has five bedrooms, living area and kitchen. Outbuildings include a smokehouse, syrup shed, chicken coop, corncrib and hog pen.

We were wandering around the property looking at all the buildings and taking pictures. The house was not open to view at the time. As I was making photos, a Wildlife Refuge employee showed up to check on the growing garden maintained on the property. In conversation I found that she herself was a Chesser and this was her family’s old homestead. She offered to open the house for us to tour, which she did. Of course, I took many pictures.

Well, the day is drawing to a close. I have to dismantle some antennas and do some “get ready to move” things. For those of you who wish to know, we are going tomorrow to General Coffee State Park. The address is 46 John Coffee Road, Nicholls, GA 31554.

We hope that each of you have a Happy and Prosperous New Year. We will talk to you again on the other side of the calendar.

"Turkey Day" in the Swamp

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As I write this, it is raining. It has been raining all day. We need the rain. The Swamp and the Suwannee River are getting pretty low. It is the last day of the month of November. The last day of the Thanksgiving week-end. The campground has been full of campers. We didn’t realize that this many people went camping over the holiday week-end. It appears that this is a new tradition for many families.

We hope that you and yours had a good holiday. As for us, we did the usual by ourselves. By the usual we mean the cooking and eating that we always do. The traditional meal. We have plenty of food and people keep giving us more. A couple week-ends ago, a Church group from Jacksonville, FL filled the campground. The leader of the group brought a number of hams to share with the Park personnel. We were lucky enough to receive a nice 8.5 pound, spiral cut, sugar cured ham out of the gifts. One of the Park Clerk’s husband has bee hives and produces and sells honey. She gave us two pint jars of delicious honey. We shared a little salt with another camper and they brought us a bunch of fresh turnip greens, complete with the turnips. I helped a camper, inexperienced at backing his trailer, get placed into his campsite and he brought us a ten pound bag of apples from North Carolina. I guess you could call this the “perks” of hosting.

Up until today, the weather has been great for the Thanksgiving Holiday. Mid to upper 70’s during the day and in the 60’s at night. Today is when the majority of campers are leaving. Not a fun experience to break-down the campsite and move in pouring rain, as it is doing right now.

Speaking of perks, I may have told you that we not only get a free campsite with all utilities, and the use of all other services they offer, like boating, but we also receive free laundry. Free use of the washer and dryer, which are pay machines. But here they have a different way of providing it free. At Fort Yargo, we had a key that allowed us to unlock and start the machines without quarters. Here, we have to mark our quarters with initials, and when the machines are emptied each week, we receive our quarters back to use again, and again.

We have been here for two months now. Carolyn is still going to the Suwannee River Visitors Center one day a week. She only has three more times to do that before we leave here. I am still giving boat tours. I am now proficient in using all three of the tour boats (24 foot Pontoon, 21 foot Skiff and 17 foot Skiff). It is interesting how people on the tours keep wanting to give me tips after it is over. Of course, I don’t accept them. I don’t know whether it is because they enjoyed my tour, or they are grateful just to get back alive.

People from everywhere have been on the tours. Many States and many countries, from Australia to Europe. On one tour I had people from Ecuador, South America. At the start of the tour, I usually ask people where they are from. When I found that one old gentleman was from Ecuador (many of you know we used to live in Ecuador) we started speaking in Spanish, which surprised him a great deal. I had to go back to English for the benefit of the other passengers, so his daughter interpreted for him. When we returned to the dock, he wanted to know my name, where we had lived in Ecuador, and had his daughter take a photo of us together on the boat. Now I am the famous “Swamp Guide.”

In the first picture above is a view of the virgin Cypress Forest in the Swamp. The trees here have never been logged. They are between 200 and 300 years old. The cypress is a very slow growing tree. They grow only about one to one and a half inches in diameter every 15 to 20 years. Many of the trees logged out of here by the Hebard Lumber Company, between 1909 and 1927, were 1,000 plus years old. The company took out 500 million board feet of cypress from the Swamp.

In the second picture is a lazy gator on a log out in the Swamp, accompanied by a Red Bellied Slider Turtle keeping watch. Remember the tip I gave you last time about how to estimate the length of a gator?, if not, go back and read it. This fellow seems to be over eight feet long. Alligators will eat turtles, but we have seen turles lying beside gators and even riding on their backs.

The third picture is of two gators sneaking around the grass and Lillie pads. You can just see the eyes of the second gator on the right. When I took this picture, we (Carolyn and I) were in a small Jon boat only about six feet from them. There are some 400,000 visitors to the Swamp each year. They mainly come to see the alligators and the cypress.

Among all the wild life we have here at the Park, the deer is the most ubiquitous. We see them at every turn. The last picture was taken out the back window of our trailer of a buck looking in to see what we were about. The picture was taken hurriedly, and is not the best quality, but you get the idea. We have not spotted any bears as yet. Maybe soon.

That’s it for his month. It is still raining and the campground is about empty now. We are going to take another little trip out of the Swamp on Friday. We are going down to Florida to look over another Park to see if we might like it for future hosting. Since we will be out, we will have to stop by Wal-Mart as well. What would we do without them? We will let you know how the Swamp is fairing next month, and where we will end up next. Until then, take charge of your life and live to the fullest!

The Swamp, Oct '08

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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.

September 2008

(NOTE: View a larger picture by clicking on the photo(s) above.)

First and foremost, let me say that Carolyn is on the road to recovery from her bout with pneumonia. It has been a slow go, but she is much stronger now, but not yet 100 percent. Soon!

I wanted to show you a picture of Miss Kitty, but I don’t have one. I took one, actually I took three, but none turned out. Either I was moving or Miss Kitty was. So it goes.

I returned to the trailer one day from visiting Carolyn at the hospital and found that we had company in the only other site in the Picnic Area. The second site was occupied by the Park Manager’s parents for the Labor Day weekend. As I approached our trailer Eric (the Park Manager) asked if we owned a cat. I told him we didn’t. He said that there was a gray cat hanging around. I didn’t see a cat at that time.

The next day when I got home, the gray cat was lying in the middle of the activity of Eric’s two young boys and the rest of the family. The cat seemed to hardly notice the activity of the two rambunctious boys, content to stare off into space. The following day our new neighbors left. That evening when I got home I went outside to relax in the swing beside our trailer. I glanced over to the vacant site and saw the cat preening itself on the bench next to the picnic table.

The cat looked at me for a moment, jumped off the bench and began a slow amble toward me. It reached a pine tree near the swing and began to rub the trunk. It came closer and rubbed the six-by-six post holding the swing. It next moved to the other post and soon began to rub on my legs. It looked at me for a moment then jumped onto the swing next to me and began rubbing my arm with great fervor. I talked to the cat and it began to lick my arm, then to nibble on my elbow. “Hey, watch that! I‘m not your dinner.”

The cat was obviously a young female. I guessed it to be less than a year old. It would hang around most of the day, then go off to hunt in the evening. When Carolyn got home from the hospital, we spent more time relaxing in the swing in the company of the cat. For want of a better name, since it was obviously a female and a young kitten, we dubbed it “Miss Kitty.” It continued to lick and nibble at us.

The cat developed the habit of waiting for us to come out of the trailer each morning. At first it laid under the picnic table out from the door. Then it progressed to the rug in front of the steps. Next it sat on the lower step, then the upper step waiting on us. Finally, it began knocking on the door for us to come out. Really! It would stretch upward on its hind legs and rattle the handle at the door, and meow.

Several days later I told Eric (you remember, that’s the Park Manager) that the cat was still hanging around our trailer. He said, “Jennifer (his wife) really wanted that cat. We came over looking for it the night my parents left and couldn’t find it.” I told him it was still there and he could come and get it. They came one evening, but the cat didn’t show. He said he would bring a cage to put it in if I would. Eric and his wife brought a large dog travel cage over and we agreed to put the cat in it and give him a call when it was done.

The next morning the cat was “knocking” as usual. I went out with a bowl of tuna, we had never fed it before, and walked it to the cage. I put the food inside. The cat followed. I shut the door. She didn’t like that one bit, but she ate the food and soon Eric and Jennifer came to take their new family member home. I checked on her later and she was adjusting to her new family and eating well. I don’t know what they named the cat, but we sort of missed our “Miss Kitty.”

We have enjoyed our time here at Fort Yargo. Our campsite (another picture of which you see above) by the lake has been most favorable. We like to watch the activity on the lake. The second picture above shows a group of students from the University of Georgia sculling on the lake. The University maintains a warehouse of sculls and sailboats at the park and use the lake for their activity regularly.

The animal quackers (Canadian Geese) also favor us with their presences on a regular basis, as you can see from the picture above. Their loud “quacks” get our attention early in the morning and late in the evening. The drawback to this beauty is what is left behind in the form of duck “poop.” But, nature will be nature.

The Park is a good place to live, but apparently good also for the dead. The Park surrounds an old family graveyard that is still preserved. The graveyard is located only a short walk from our trailer. Above you see an old grave marker from long ago.

We are scheduled to leave Fort Yargo in two days, September 30th. We were not sure that we would be able to leave because of the gas shortage in this area. Most all stations are without fuel. I was lucky enough today to fine one that had some diesel, for $4.79.9 per gallon. So we will be leaving on schedule to Stephen C. Foster State Park in the U.S. Game Preserve in the Okefenokee Swamp in south Georgia, bordering Florida. We are not sure if we will have any cell phone service there. So, if we don’t answer your call, you will know why. We will be there through the end of the year.

We will let you know how we and the alligators get along next time. Until then, keep good thoughts.

P.S. In case you want to know, our address for the next three months (Oct - Dec) will be at Stephen C. Foster State Park, 17515 Hwy 177, Fargo, GA 31631.