EARLY MORNING WALK

Glass Bottom Boat

Kayaks Ready for Use

Kayakers

Beach 

 

 

Ibis

This is what I get to see on my early morning walk...right in my backyard!  Sometimes I can't believe I get to stay in such a beautiful place for two whole months!  And we have already been here two weeks..one quarter of our time here, hard to believe.
Tom and I work 20 hours a week each, three days a week.  The days are Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, how lucky are we?  We have a four day weekend every weekend!  And we make the most of it, believe me.
Tom works maintenance and helps the rangers.  He does a variety of jobs, such as helping to repair and maintain racoon-proof garbage cans, clean up seaweed from the beach, clear out vegetation to make room to park cars, etc.  I think he is having a good time and meeting lots of nice folks.
I am working for the Park Specialist in the office and doing odd jobs as well.  I maintain spreadsheets recording volunteer work hours, I am working on a project to convert old VCR tapes containing ranger lectures over to DVDs and I am working on a big project scanning a huge library of slides and scanning them so that they can all be found online.  I really am learning a lot of new things and enjoy what I am doing although some days I would rather be outside!
We have met another wonderful group of workampers.  In the State Parks they are called Volunteers rather than workampers. We volunteer our time for the park and they provide us with a place to stay.  To get to live in Key Largo for two months isn't anything I would have ever thought I could do.  On our days off we take little trips to enjoy the surroundings and find new places.  We have driven as far south in the Keys as Marathon, just a little more than halfway to Key West.  It is incredibly beautiful and the weather is great.  Still in the low 80s.  Last week we got to visit with Todd and Hailey and next week Lisa and Gary will be down for some R&R in the keys and we will get to spend time with them then.  Looking forward to that and to having Todd and Hailey spend the night with us the day after Thanksgiving.
Hope all is well with you and yours and we will keep you posted.  Stay tuned!

PINCH ME......WE ARE IN KEY LARGO! AND ANOTHER MIRACLE!

On the road again, I just can't wait to get on the road again....Willie Nelson
Last Sunday we packed up our camper, our car and our dog, and left lovely Edisto Island, South Carolina and took off for sunny Florida. It was getting just a little too chilly in South Carolina!  We arrived on night # 1 in St. Augustine and spent the night luxuriously in a LaQuinta Inn.  The next two nights we spent in Ft. Pierce, Florida visiting two friends that we met while we were in Texas. They are workamping at Ft. Pierce at one of the nicest RV parks I have ever seen.  It was so good to see Jim and Monica and hope to see them again while we are in Florida.
We spent night #4 in Stuart, Florida with Tom's sister and her husband.  We love seeing Margaret and June.  They are the youngest 88 and 90 years olds that we know.  Margaret (88) takes no medications for anything.  She is amazing.  We also got to see Tom's niece, Jeannie and her husband Greg. We had a nice but short visit.
Last night we arrived in Key Largo.  It was a short three hour drive from Stuart and an easy one on the Florida Turnpike.  The weather was great and so was the drive. Coming over the bridge into the Keys is such a wonderful experience as the colors change into vivid blues and greens and the water begins to look like the Carribean. We pulled into John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park with our car, truck and 37 foot camper.As soon as Tom backed into the camper space, the serpentine belt in the engine of his truck broke.  This could have been a disaster if it had happened on the road.  This belt charges the battery, enables power steering, cools the engine with the water pump and supplies electricity to the truck through the alternator. The truck basically can do nothing without the belt.  It could have happened on the turnpike, a bridge or any number of places.  Again, God was in charge of the trip and kept us safe.  We can have the truck fixed here.  I am ever so grateful that He watches over us, always....
We have a few days to settle in and we start work on Tuesday.  Our workdays are Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.  Every weekend is a four day weekend.  How lucky are we?  The other workampers here are really nice and I think we are going to have a really nice two months.
I am including some of our first pictures  Hope you like them.

 Ibises

 Glass bottomed boat

Sunbathers