Our New Assignment

We have arrived at our next assignment, Everglades National Park.  It is only 160 miles from my parents in Fort Myers Florida, so we hope a good place to spend the winter.

We traveled 'Alligator Alley' also known as I-75 from Fort Myers to the Florida Turnpike to Dixie Highway, (Side note: We lived just a few blocks from Dixie Highway in Homewood and my office was also on Dixie Highway.  Somethings you just can't get away from!!) to Everglades National Park.

We arrived late afternoon on November 16th, so our supervisor Ryan, showed us to our site in the housing area.  The sites are nice and big, and eventually will house 11 other camper volunteers.  We do have to becareful of our surroundings as there are diamondback rattlesnakes in the area.  Luckily so far we've only seen one on the main road.  We have a very nice FREE laundry right across the road from us, so that's really nice and convenienent.  Ryan had the next three days off, so we were on our own to explore the park and the town of Homestead.

The weather is still warmer and wetter than usual, so the sightings of wildlife are not as pronouced as it will be later into the dry season.  We have seen alligators and lots of birds, anhingas, egrets, herons and lots and lots of vultures (both black and turkey).  I will start posting pictures of them soon.

Sunday we started with our orientation and paperwork.  Being a government entity there is a lot of paperwork.  We hope that by tomorrow, it will be done and we can really start to work.  Fred's main responsibility will be developing his own tour of the Nike Missile Site here in the park.  In addition, he is interested in giving some nature tours.  I will be splitting my time between the main visitiors center and giving nature tours.  We will also be developing our own tours.  We have found out that Interpretive Tours are different than just tours.  Not sure yet how they are different, but we will learn all about it next week during our training sessions.

So far there are only three other couples in the campground and they all are really nice.  We hope that as the weather cools down and the mosquitos disappear, we will be able to spend more of our free time getting to know them.

So in closing:  To all of our family and friends near and far, we wish you a very, Happy and Safe Thanksgiving!!!