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St. Lucie South Campground
Stuart, Florida
Its been 6 weeks since Ive blogged.
("Forgive me Father for I have sinned.", just came to mind) 😈
You Catholic school children should get that.
Yesterday afternoon as I worked on my outline it was absolutely pouring buckets of rain, along with thunder and lightening. 89 degrees
Today its sunny and 85.
I left off, stating that we were looking for winter work, after Tennessee VA campground. I quickly got to work on that, as our boss Connie suprised us with September 15th being our end date, instead of November 15 when the park closed.
Brian and I put our applications in the Florida and Georgia State Parks volunteer websites. We had to wait to be vetted. Long story short, Ruth, (me), found a listing for help wanted, Diesel mechanic, Koreshan State Park, Estero, Fl. We will have volunteer jobs at Koreshan SP, till Dec 31. Free Hookup and Utilities. FHU We start September 10th.
This is the exact engine that Brian will be running.
We gave our 2 week notice, August 4th, to Connie, our TVA boss. To say she was upset at our leaving early, would be an understatement. In fact, she was mad, and said, "You can just leave now." (I wont go into the drama at TVA) But Connie, actually did us a favor, because we had our eye on a larger RV, a 32 ft Artic Fox travel trailer. We needed something that would give us more storage, 4 season worthy, and be a better fit for full time Nomads like us.
Looking on the web, we could find 3, Arctic Fox 32A trailers. Two were brand new and both were in Oregon (Bummer). The other one was a used 2016 model located in Maroa, Illinois, 500 miles away from Seiverville, TN. So after a couple of phone calls and more detailed photos sent from Four Winds RV center, we drove to Illinois. It was in great, to excellent condition, and we struck a deal and traded our 22 ft. Lance TT, for the 32ft. Arctic Fox. Plus some cash😉
But not without a lot of deliberating conversation, on our part, mostly from Brian. If you could combine an attorney with a mechanic, you would get, Brian Mackey. We ended up camping at a wonderful campground, Friends Creek Campground, (a federally funded, county run, conservation area) for a week.
When this dealer takes in a used RV, they do not inspect it until they sell it again. This is supposed to take two days.
After we purchased this trailer we stayed at the campground for a few more days to make sure we were happy. Going back and forth over this trailer. After much negotiations we left with a new air conditioner, gate valves for the holding tanks, and all the parts to rebuild the brakes. Which Brian did in the campground,(with every male camper watching and kibitzing) because after Four Winds screwed them up, he asked for all new parts to do the brakes himself. That was the only way he would feel comfortable knowing the brakes work properly.
I must say that we really like Illinois, the people, the quaint small towns, and the miles and miles of corn fields and soybeans. We had a whole week there to check out the middle of nowhere.
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| Billions of ears of corn, in Illinois |
Here's a look at our new digs.
After leaving Friends Creek CG and Illinois, we headed to Orlando, Fl, but on the way we spent the night at 2 Georgia State Parks, High Falls and Georgia Veterans memorial State Park. Both had accepted us for Camp Host positions, 1/1/2023 - 4/15/2023. We liked Georgia Veterans State Park, One and a half hours drive south of Macon. (Ill tell you more about it next year) Once in Orlando, we stored our new travel trailer, FOXY, (our trucks name is RED by the way)in Brians brother Barrys RV Park.
Note: Brian's brother is awesome! He is a life flight pilot in Orlando and lives in Fort Pierce. He stages his 5th wheel in Orlando to have a place to live while working. His schedule is one week on, one week off.
After putting the trailer in storage, we flew to Portland for a week to visit our family, a few friends and take care of business. Sorry if we didnt stop by for a visit, but we were busy every day. And a special Thank You to our friend Debbi and her beau Mike for hosting us. We really appreciate your wonderful hospitality.
Visiting niece Haley Mostul in her new 1st grade classroom at West Union Elementary.
We flew back to Orlando on Friday of the start of Labor Day weekend. So instead of trying to find a campspot, we stayed at the Alfond Hotel in Winter Park, Florida for the holiday. Winter Park is a beautiful place, great walkability, museums, restaurants, and boutiques. We visited the Morse museum, with the largest Louis Comfort Tiffany collection in the world. Just Fantastic! We also visited the Albin Polasek Museum and sculpture garden where we learned the art of bronze casting. Very interesting.
3 photos of Tiffany stained glass
Mother, crying over the plant. 1942
On Monday of Labor day weekend we headed back to 12 Oaks RV resort and pulled Foxy out of storage, and headed to Port St. Lucie South campground, an Army Corp of Engineers Park on a lock on the St. Lucie river. Its a lovely campground, very clean, 9 RV/Tent sites, 8 Boat-in sites. There are so many lizards here! Big ones and little ones, with yellow and orange markings. They are very quick and cute. They have huge snapping turtles that bore into the sandy banks and live full time. They have alligators (we have not seen one yet) but nooooo swimming. They have Cane Toads that if your dog takes a bite they will be dead in 20 minutes.
St Lucie South Campground
Invasive Agama lizard, not native.
Tugboat camped overnight across from us.
Army Core of Engineers (ACOE) lets the Camp Hosts stay as long as they want. There a five host spots for this little park along the river. They share the work of the visitors center and ranger station for checking in. The ACOE contracts out the mowing and bathroom cleaning. 20 hours a week vounteering, for free rent and utilities, per couple. Thats 10 hours a week per person. Sounds like a great gig to me. One lady has hosted here for 3 years. We met a single 25 yr old girl who hosts here, bartends at night and is saving to buy a house. Don't tell anyone about this park, we want to keep it a secret for ourselves. HaHa.
Brian helping me write the Blog
💕My 32 anniversary present, a Trek, Townie😁
Tomorrow we leave for Koreshan SP, in Estero, Florida for our new volunteer positions.
Koreshan State Park's land, and late 1800's early 1900's village was gifted to the state of Florida in the 1960's, by the religious sect that founded it, Koreshan Unity.
Koreshan State Park offers a window into the lives of a unique and eccentric pioneer group that made its home under towering oaks on the banks of the Estero River.
In 1893, the Koreshans, a religious sect founded by Dr. Cyrus R. Teed, moved here and built a settlement based on a commitment to communal living and a belief that the universe existed on the inside of the Earth. Living celibate lives, the enterprising Koreshans established a farm, nursery and botanical gardens.
The park is home to 11 immaculately restored and nationally registered historic buildings erected by the Koreshans between the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Brian will do maintenance, and demonstrate a 1929 Fairbanks Morse 2 stroke diesel engine, which ran the electricity for this turn of the century village.
Ruth will work in the Ranger station and be a docent giving tours of the buildings.
Happy Trails to You, Till we meet again.
R&B
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