Volunteering at Everglades National Park

Who ever thought that retirement meant sitting around watching tv, reading books and taking long naps never volunteered at Everglades National Park. 

We realized that there would be a learning curve, just never realized how steep it was!!

Our position here requires that both Fred and I 'work' 32 hours a week.  For this 64 hours, we get a full hook up site, free laundry facilities and are able to take the boat tours in the park for $5 a person instead of $26.50 (that's a good deal).  However, we didn't realize that we would spend so much of our off time reading and preparing for our tours.

On our day off last week, we took advantage of the sunset boat ride on Florida Bay.  It was a windy day, but we enjoyed it...

and the sunset.  What could be better than this??

We are both enjoying ourselves and our glad of this opportunity to give back to the National Park Service.

Fred has been doing the Nike Missile tours, including a night tour on Mondays.  He has also been getting his exercise while leading a 5 mile Bike Hike through the Pinelands. In addition, he has done a 30 minute talk (Glades Glimpse) on alligators.  Starting next week he will add 'Coffee with a Ranger' and a 30 minute 'Gator Spy'. Taking his Glades Glimpse out onto the trail.

I have been doing the 'Coffee with a Ranger', a 50 minute nature hike along the Anhinga Trail and a 30 minute Gator Spy.  Starting on Friday I will also be giving the 90 minute Nike Missile Tour.  Oh how I wish that I had paid attention to Fred when he talked about life at the Nike site!!!

We have told them that neither one of us wants to do a Slough Slog...2 hour hike into the swamp, guaranteed to get wet up to your knees...

The people that we work with are absolutely wonderful.  Every Friday night is TGIF.  You bring something, be it a fancy hors d'oeuvre or a bag of chips to share and your own drinks.  It's been alot of fun and such a varied group of people.

For my birthday, my coworkers surprised me with a cake and since we try to space out our 'parties' they had a pot luck dinner in my honor on Jan. 16th.  They even presented me with my very own offical junior ranger pin!!!

Despite the number of hours that we work, it is truely a wonderful experience.

And who wouldn't want to spend the winter here, where most days its between 72 and 80 degrees and very little rain.

People have been asking us for a picture of our campsite.  We are in the employee housing area within the park.  There are over two dozen housing units within the compound and eleven RV sites.

This is the view from our front yard.  The little building is a bath/shower room and the laundry facilities.  Two nice, new washers and dryers that are free!!

Christmas in Illinois

We spent a fairly quiet Christmas Eve with the Wang family.  Tommy's parents, Sue and Eugene and his sister Yvonne (in from California) came over in the afternoon.  Eugene is a great cook, having owned and operated a Chinese restaurant for many years.  He cooked us a feast for dinner.  And of course there were lots of presents for Jonas to open up.

Jonas giving lots of hugs to Grandma Sue (nainai).

And of course more hugs for Aunt Yvonne.

And a big smile for Grandpa Eugene (yeye).

There is nothing better than waking up on Christmas morning and being able to watch a very, very excited child open presents.  Around 7 a.m. Jonas was awake and calling to his mother, "Mommy I'm awake."  We quickly got up and dressed and were waiting by the Christmas tree.  Some how this little guy had so much patience, because mom didn't hear him and didn't get up until 8 a.m.  But once up, wow, it was like a whirlwind!!  The joy and excitement was so refreshing to see.

Jonas must have been a very good boy since there were so many presents under the tree.

We then made our way to Homewood to have Christmas with the Gold family. The first Wang family picture with the newest member of the family. (Tommy, Jonas, Julie and Tia)

Jen was able to drive back from South Dakota to spend the holidays with Zack.

Of course everyone had to have a chance at holding the baby.

We also were able to see Doug (Cyndy's husband) and Fred's sister Patricia, both in from California.

 Fred's sisters did a great job making a wonderful meal.  Gayle is taking a break to get her time holding Tia.

 And we were also able to see Fred's stepson Brian, his wife Chris and our oldest grandson Freddie.

The family is past the Christmas gift exchange amongst each other, but we have a good time with a $15 grab bag exchange.  However, somehow we both ended up with wine stuff; wine glass charms, and an electric cork remover.

Fred senior got to play Santa's Elf!!  Never a dull moment at their house.

Our last stop for the night was a visit at Jen's future in laws, Jeff and Margo Witkowsky.  It had been over a year since we had seen them so it was a nice visit.  I was also extra happy to see Zack's dog Wrecker and Jen's Cora Belle!!!

The Wang's

One of the reasons that we went back to Illinois this winter was so we could help our daughter and son in law Julie and Tommy Wang after the birth of their second child.  Of course Tia was due on December 15th, so we arrived on the 12th.  Typical of babies she arrived on the 8th!!! 

We had a great time entertaining our almost 3 year old grandson Jonas, but oh my what energy...


There were lots of people coming over to visit the new baby including Cyndy (Fred's sister) and Fred's mom and dad.

Fred had a list of handyman projects to do and I helped with a bit of laundry and cleaning.  I was also asked to resume  the roll of Christmas baker, so with my little "helper" Jonas, we made several batches of Christmas cookies.

Visits with the Knapp's

We had a wonderful visit with the Knapp's while we were back in Chicago for the Christmas holiday.  The time does go by so fast.

We were able to visit with them twice while we were there.  We had a wonderful dinner on December 15th, with Andy, Kristina, Spencer and Samantha.  Also there were Andy's parents, Sue and Marty and his sister Kate, her husband Brandon and their two children Emily and Troy.

The kids had fun dressing Spencer in a silly costume.  What a good sport he was!

We are so blest that we are all included in their family.

I found out on this visit that Sue is a very talented artist!!  Below is a portrait that she did of Samantha based on her school picture.

I wish I could figure out how to put the photo next to it so you could see how exact it is.

We were also able to get together with them the week (December 23rd) when Jen was in town to celebrate Christmas with them.

Samantha and Spencer showing us where they put the new Christmas ornaments that we gave them from South Dakota.

Spencer is going to be a paleontologist. He's trying to dig out the fossil bones in the rock...

It's so nice to spend time with the grandkids.

 

Every year they make the most wonderful DVD with pictures and videos set to music.  It's a great way for us to see what the children have been involved in and to see how much they have grown.

NEW BABY!!!!

We are so excited to announce the birth of our newest granddaughter!!!

Tia Jade Wang

Born: December 8, 2011

at 4:22p.m.

6 pounds 2 ounces

19 inches long

Proud parents are Julie Gold Wang and Tommy Wang

Big brother is Jonas

Training

We are in our second week of training to be "Park Rangers" here at Everglades National Park.  We've had lectures on the history of the Park: It was established in 1947 as the first national park dedicated to preserving it based on it's ecological impact in the area.  Originally the everglades comprised 2.5 million acres of land starting by Orlando and the Kissimmee River basin south, which flowed into Lake Okeechobee which over flowed into the everglades.  However, with man's infinite wisdom, in the late 1800's and even today, he has drained, diked and altered much of this area for development and farmland and now the everglades is only 1.5 million acres.

So we learned all about the hydrology and how the government promised to restore and repair the everglades, but of course, it's much more concerned with the people on the east and west coast having fresh water (which they waste) then allocating it back to the everglades, so the eco system is still in peril.

We learned about the birds that are here, over 350 varieties. So here are a few that we have seen:

Wood Storks

Great Egret

Check out the blue eyes!!

Anhingas

Purple Gallinule

Great Blue Heron

And of course an Alligator!!!

and we are learning how we are suppose to give our interpretive tours.  It looks like Fred and I will be giving tours of the Nike Missile Site which was in the park, as while as nature tours on the Anhinga Trail.  I will also be doing a "Coffee with a Ranger" either on Friday or Sunday mornings.  So we have read more nonfiction books about birds, the everglades and the Cuban Missile Crisis in the past month then we've read in years.

As part of our training, we have also been able to explore some other areas of the park.  We went on a boat trip into the Gulf of Mexico and got to see the mangrove trees, the pelikans and some beautiful roseatte spoonbills. (Pictures to follow when we get some good ones.) We did a five mile canoe trip into the everglades, which was suppose to be from 3 - 5, however, it was almost 4 when we got out on the water and a 1/2 hour after sunset when we got back to shore.  It was erie being out on the water after dark.  We also did a five mile bike hike in the pouring rain.  This is definately one tour neither one of us wants to give!!!

We are looking forward to finding out our schedules and planning our tours.

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!!!