"Home" for a Visit

We finished up our season at Everglades National Park on April 13th. We are the last of the seasonal volunteers to leave this year. With the temperatures getting warmer, the humidity getting higher and the bugs getting hungrier....I can see why everyone leaves by the end of April!!

Our first visit "Home" was to drive over to the west coast and see Kathleen's parents in Fort Myers.  Because this season we only had two days off together, Kathleen made most trips to see the Stanley's by herself, so it was nice to have Fred along for this final visit of the season.  It was good to see Dad in better health and we hope that he continues to improve. We also enjoy all the great home cooked meals that Mom provides.  Of course we also were able to get some good Chicago style pizza from Aurelio's in Fort Myers!!

We made arrangements to leave the RV at our spot in the Everglades while we traveled to see family. So it was a quick trip back to the RV to do laundry and repack for our flight to Chicago on April 16th.

Luckily for us, we arrived before the rain did but it was a rude awakening from sunny and dry to record breaking rain and flooding.  

It's amazing how fast the grandchildren grow.

Isn't she a cutie!!!

We had agreed to watch our 15 month old granddaughter Tia the day after we arrived.  Thankfully, there were two of us, because she can wear you out! The next morning we watched Tia and her big brother Jonas.

On Thursday we drove down to Homewood, avoiding the flooded highway and streets. We stayed with Fred's parents there for the rest of our visit.

Fred's sister Patricia arrived from California so we had fun seeing her again. It was a busy weekend with several parties.  On Saturday, there was a bridal shower for our youngest daughter Jennifer who is getting married in June.

Kathleen, Jen and future MIL Margo

 It was an interesting gathering of women from the Stanley's, the Gold's, the Witkowsky's and the Totsch's. Jen looked like the beautiful bride and received lots of wonderful gifts.

On Sunday April 21st, we celebrated Fred Gold Sr's 94th birthday with a family dinner at Carlo's in Chicago Heights.

Esther and Fred Gold Sr

Thanks Julie for the wonderful cake!!

A few doctor's visits, visits with neighbors and a tour through our old house rounded out the trip. 

We are back in the everglades for a few days packing and getting ready to hit the road.  I promise I'll be good and share the rest of our adventures.

We are still Alive!!!

I know, I thought that I would be so good about this and it's been almost a year and I haven't posted anything....
So here's what we've been doing.

SUMMER 2012:
We spent the summer in Branson MO and had a great time. We were there from May 1st until Nov. 11th. We were campground hosts at Branson Lakeside RV Park.  This is a city owned campground and the work is easy. Kathleen worked two 8 hour days in the office, taking reservations, checking in campers and collecting money. Fred's job was a bit harder :) he only worked two 4 hour days and his job consisted of driving the golf cart and leading people to their sites. He says that the hardest part of the job was deciding if he should wave them along using his right arm or his left arm!!!
In addition to getting a free campsite, we also were able to see most of the shows for free.  This was a great way for us to know what shows to recommend to other people. There were a few shows that we had to pay for, but those usually involved a meal so the price was right.  During our time here we went to 48 shows!!!  There's no way I could have gotten Fred to that many if he had to pay for them!
We enjoyed ourselves so much that we will be going back there for the Summer of 2013 and I promise I will go into more detail about our time there.

WINTER 2012 -2013
We have just finished up our second season at Everglades National Park. This year was similar in job responsibility as last year (we were interpretive rangers). The major difference was this year we were "hired" as a couple as "Interns for the Nike Missile Base". Under this scenario, between the two of us we only had to work 40 hours a week compared to the combined 64 hours that we worked last year.  In addition, we received a small weekly stipend. Because of this schedule, Fred worked 3 days a week and Kathleen worked 2.  However, Kathleen did put in extra time giving tours to "special" groups.  The most notable was the Park Superintendent and a group from the World Heritage Site committee!! It was nerve wracking but despite my nervousness, Superintendent Dan Kimble remarked at our annual banquet that it was one of his 4 most memorable moments of the season this year!!!  So I must have been doing something right.

SPRING 2013
Our season in the Everglades has ended.  The birds and alligators are off to better hunting grounds and so are we....I promise I will be better about keeping up with my blog.