Halfway Through Our Florida Adventure

The month of January had us working our volunteer jobs at Oleta River State Park.  Doug is now doing more maintenance – fixing things and building things and occasionally helping with trash pick up.  I am feeling more comfortable at the Gatehouse and have come to love the busy mornings when I feel like I am dancing between the cars coming in and the phone ringing.  I have made a few mistakes (ugh!) but everyone has been great to work with.

Our daughters, Becky and Paola, and our grandsons, Benjo and Mati, spent a week with us.  It was wonderful!  We celebrated Christmas and New Year’s Eve together (just a little late!).  We had a Sunday Dinner with my brother, Dan and his wife Lisa.  We had a picnic on the beach with my sister-in-law Theresa.  Doug took them to Secret Woods where they caught a glimpse of a manatee.  We spent some perfect days on the beach digging in the sand and playing in the quiet water of the lagoon.  Becky and Paola enjoyed a moonlight kayak tour and also spent a night in a cabin in the park during the beautiful Wolf Blood Moon/Eclipse.  We ate a lot and enjoyed every minute with them.  We miss them and look forward to more time at their home in Philadelphia this May.

Christmas in January!

Waiting for a manatee to pass by on the New River

Grandpa and the boys

Nana and Mati

The highlight of their visit with us was the boys’ Junior Ranger Induction Ceremony.  Ranger Chelsie swore them in, gave them their badges and certificates and they took their responsibilities seriously.  We showed them how to use the Grabber and every time we went out to play, hike or go to the beach, we took the Grabber and a plastic grocery bag.  The boys, even at almost 5 and almost 3, recognized trash when they saw it and pounced on it like good stewards of the Earth.  We lost track of the number of bags of trash they disposed of.  The Nature Trail and the Beach were cleaner after Benjo and Mati passed by.  The very first day we did this, we were walking from the parking lot to the beach and Benjo spotted his first piece of trash – he enthusiastically ran to it but tripped and scraped his knee.  He was wounded in the line of duty, but he picked himself up and continued his quest!  We are so proud of them!  They truly earned their Junior Ranger Vests and badges!

Playing on the lagoon beach

Proud New Junior Rangers

The whole family

We have been able to visit Dan and Lisa in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea a few more times and we fall in love with that area more each time.  We’ve had some memorable meals in the fun sidewalk restaurants and have heard a few bands while sitting near the beach.  We are so happy that they have found the perfect place to enjoy their retirement.  We even got to spend one night with their daughter, Emily, who visited them for her birthday.

We have about one month to go here at Oleta River.  New adventures await.  We will be supervising a Beach Clean Up for a volunteer group this month.  I love the opportunity to share my love for the park and public lands while teaching them to be good citizens of the Earth.  I love greeting the regular park-goers as they enter almost every morning to bike, kayak, walk, or sit on the beach.  Their warm and pleasant greetings to me make my day.  I even have some favorite dogs that sweetly say good morning to me too.

There has been quite a bit of rain this past month, so we take advantage of any sunny days to beach-sit.  Our lives are in a nice pattern – a trip to a really good laundromat about every two weeks keeps our clothes and towels clean and we don’t mind all the quarters we spend since we are only there about 1 ½ hours.  I have come to enjoy shopping at the nearby Winn-Dixie.  It has the most diverse selection of food I’ve ever seen.  We’ve tried both the Cubano and Puerto Rican bread, experimented with some Jewish food whose packaging was in Hebrew so I’m not sure what it is called but it was all good, and I can’t resist the spicy Jamaican beef patties.  I notice something new each time I go.

We are starting to plan our trip north.  We are attending a Family Motor Coach Association Rally – “Peachy in Perry”, in Georgia.  Then a few days with my Aunt Camille near Charleston, SC.  We’ll take our time heading to Philadelphia with lots of leisure camping time so we can keep avoiding winter.  We look forward to a busy May near Philadelphia where we will see family and friends.

Once we leave Philadelphia we head towards Michigan where we can’t wait to spend time with Doug’s brother Nelson and his wife Lydia exploring the Upper Peninsula in Michigan.  We expect to get to North Dakota for the first time.    We’ll continue out to Portland, Oregon for a visit to our family there.

We will finally spend a few nights in Idaho and Utah – the first time for this RV trip so we will be adding a few more states to our map.  We’ll continue down to Arizona for a long stay there.  We will take care of doctors and dentists and other necessities and then spend the winter volunteering at Kartchner Caverns State Park.  When I wrote it out like this it sounds like a whirlwind tour through America, but our travels are not rushed; there is much to see and do with plenty of lazy days in between.

We really love this life!  Thanks for reading our blog!  We feel like this is a good way for us to keep in touch and for all of you to know how we are doing and where we are.  Hope you all are well and happy too!