Volunteering at Oleta River State Park

It was easy to settle into our space in our new home at Oleta River State Park.  We are in a remote area of the park where there are five manufactured homes in which some of the Rangers live and three full hook-up sites.  One of these is home to a Ranger so only two sites are for Resident Volunteers.  There is no camping in this park, just Camping Cabins located in another area.  There are two volunteer couples who host the cabin area.

Our home for the winter

My job here is Gatehouse.  I thought I understood how that worked since I worked Gatehouse at Kartchner Caverns.  Well, no.  I had no idea.  This is a very busy urban park with up to a thousand visitors most days and three or four times that on weekends and holidays.  In addition to collecting entrance fees, I sell annual passes, rent pavilions and give out info on cabins, kayak and bike rentals and give directions.  The phone rings a lot, but I mostly just tell people calling the website for the cabin rentals and the phone number for the kayak rentals.  I quickly had to learn to juggle everything.  Everyone has been great helping me to learn this job.  After two weeks, I am starting to relax a bit and enjoy greeting our visitors.

Doug’s job is not exactly what he thought it was going to be.  We had been told he would be doing maintenance and lawn mowing.  There is a real shortage of employees here and in a park this busy and this big that means that Doug mostly has been picking up and disposing trash.  He also has to check and clean the public restrooms.  The Rangers on late duty are supposed to take care of the restrooms and some of the trash, but everyone here works mostly alone and no one seems to be able to keep up with constant crowded park and full trash cans.

There is a pretty beach on the lagoon and the best part of Doug’s day is walking this beach in the early morning hours and picking up the trash there.  This isn’t the best job for Doug.  We are both morally offended by people who leave their garbage around, especially in public lands.  So having to deal with this day after day and never being able to get on top of the mess is demoralizing to Doug.  He has been assigned some maintenance projects soon.  Another volunteer may arrive soon and that will make his job better.

The entrance to the beach at the park

There is a lot to do in this park – canoe, paddle board, kayak and bike rentals with lots of water and fifteen miles of hiking/biking trails.  There is a playground, a butterfly garden, nature walks, a fishing pier, a lovely sandy beach on the pretty tranquil lagoon and picnic tables and grills all over the park.

North end of Biscayne Bay

Part of the day use area at the park

I’ve been enjoying the half-mile walk from our site to the Gatehouse.  I’ve seen some local fauna – raccoons, woodpeckers, ducks, geckos and iguanas.  I love to hear all the birds and I wish I knew what all these trees and bushes are.  As I walk the sandy trail, I am watching a new high-rise go up over the dense trees, adding one more giant to the skyline.

One of the many iguanas in the park

It took some courage for me to venture out of the park gate to go grocery shopping.  I’ve conquered my fear and managed to make the right turn and quick left into the Intracoastal Mall where most of our needs can be met.  We have also explored the beautiful Sunny Isles Beach – about two miles from the park.  One day we parked half way and walked the rest.  We tried out a parking lot the last time we went.  It’s worth the hassle of traffic to sit on this quiet pretty beach.

The primary reason we took this job was to be near my brother Dan and his wife Lisa who are living in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea.  We enjoyed our first visit to them on a perfect Sunday evening.  Their condo is just two blocks from all the nightlife near the beach.  We walked to the beach plaza and sat in Adirondack chairs watching a guy teach people to dance.  Then, of course, we had ice cream.  It was a beautiful night and we look forward to more good times there.  Dan and Lisa visited us one day so Dan finally got to see our RV.  Hopefully, they’ll come back for some beach-sitting with us.  We also hope to spend time with our sister-in-law Theresa in Miami.  It’s nice to be near family.

As a special added attraction to our Florida stay, our daughters Becky and Paola and their two adorable sons will be spending a week with us.  We can’t wait!  It will be tight quarters, lots of food, Disney movies at night and sandy beach days.

We do have one serious complaint.  We are constantly being bitten by the nasty no-seeums – teeny, tiny monsters (aka midges) that bite.  We were warned to cover our skin in lotion and oils to prevent their bites.  So we start each day a little greasy and still get a bite or two.  The intense itching has us taking allergy meds which make us Grumpy and Sleepy.  Despite all our efforts we were swarmed after a rain, which apparently enrages the little bugs and our necks, scalps, arms and legs are spotted and scabbed.

One volunteer recommended taking B1 vitamins to keep mosquitos from biting and that actually works.  We have adjusted our lives to avoid the worst times – dawn and dusk.  Our work days start at 7 am so we leave just after the onslaught.  We are done around noon and there doesn’t seem to be much biting going on during the sunny part of the day.  Whatever we do during the day, we try not to return home at the “bad time.”  Hopefully there won’t be much more rain now and we’ll get used to slimy skin and an occasional bite.

We’ll be here until early March, giving us lots of time to enjoy our Florida family and some relaxing beach days.  Anticipating seeing some manatees soon too!

We loved our quiet Christmas together – especially the phone calls from the kids.  Today is New Year’s Day 2019 – a good time to reflect on last year and contemplate our future.  In a few days we celebrate our three-year anniversary of full-time RV living.  We love our lifestyle still and know that we have many more adventures ahead of us.

So… when we first looked at RVs a salesperson told us that there are three milestones to get through to be comfortable with full-timing:  to get through the first two weeks; then the first two months; and then the first two years.  After that you should be adjusted.  Well, we are one year past the last milestone and we have zero regrets.  It looks like we can keep doing this for years to come.  We are completely satisfied with our choice of RVs – the size, style and quality of our Tiffin is the perfect home for us and we wouldn’t change it.  Adding volunteering to our lifestyle has helped our finances, given us satisfaction and taught us much.  Our travels have brought us fun, history and excitement with so much more to look forward to.  And our interludes with our family have brought us great joy.  As I’ve mentioned before, it’s hard to say good-bye so we try to look to the hellos on the horizon.  An added attraction to this lifestyle has been forming friendships and meeting up with these fellow wanderers on our journey.

So much to be thankful for!  We wish everyone reading this a peace-filled, loving and healthy 2019.