Spent most of the day on gator patrol today. Have to protect the residents of the park from the pushy visitors that sometimes get too close, or who try to get them to do something!
After a busy day at Shark Valley, we had a beautiful sunset over the lake here in Trail Center. I took this while thaking Muffie for her evening walk. That is the price that we must pay for having left her at home alone, all day. She is really a very good dog for our lifestyle.
We spent the afternoon exploring a little of the Miami area. We drove down to the waterfront and then north along the beach road, nearly to Ft. Lauderdale. It was a beautiful day for a drive! There was some pretty nice scenery along the water too! New Year's even and temperatures in the mid seventies!
This is our third day of loafing about, mostly doing very little. Since Pam is getting some laundry done, I suppose that I should be doing something usefull as well? We just might head into Miami to explore this afternoon. After the busy days we have had the rest has been very welcome. I suspect that our next work rotation will be as busy as the last one, but time sure does fly by when busy.
These are some of the native flowers that are blooming next to our RV site.
We spent three days in succession this week meeting visitors, roving to keep the visitors at a safe distance from our residents and giving talks, Pam about wading birds, Kirk about the habits of alligators. We do a great deal of walking in our work and are on the feet a lot as well. We are quite tired at the end of each day and were sure ready for the three successive days that we now have off duty. We have mostly rested, although we did make a run to the grocery store and out to eat.
Today was one of the most busy days in this park and as such a very busy one for all of the interpretive staff. It was the first day for Pam & I to both work the visit information side of things all day. We each have a slightly different schedule, but alternate between days. Pam began as roving interpretive ranger, followed by a "table talk" on wading birds found near the visitor center. I spent the first part of my morning as bicycle patrol to keep the many who come here to bicycle around the tour route traveling in the proper direction and answer questions. That was then followed by a shift of roving while Pam was doing her talk. After lunch, I did a "table talk" on the life and habits of alligators, while Pam was roving ranger. She then took the park van out to the observation tower at the far end of our area to act as on site interpreter and I became the roving one. We had a very busy day with very heavy visitor traffic, but it was also fun and passed quickly.
Notice the great blue heron that posed with us, sitting on the rail about 20 or 30 feet behind us.
We celebrated Christmas Eve by attending services of a Baptist Church in Homestead, FL where we were invited by one of the park staff. We joined Larry & Sharon Hagen, volunteers at the Chikeka Day Use area in this evening of worship. Somehow this makes Christmas much more real to us.
On Chrismas morning we got up and opened presents, just as most folks in this country do. No chimney on the motorhome so perhaps that may be the reason that we were not visited this year? In any case the day was a good one with occasional showers in the area and with occasional sunny periods. We joined the Hagen's for an early dinner in a restaurant in Kendall for a very enjoyable day. I hope that all or our readers had a great day also!
Merry Christmas to everyone!
It is now Christmas Eve and we send all of our readers the happiest of Christmas greetings!
We spent Dec. 23 working in Shark Valley, helping in the visitor center and walking alligator patrol. The walking part is the most favorite part of what we have been doing so far, for me. It involves keeping the people at a safe distance from the many alligators that sleep in the sun along the walking area near the visitor center, as much to protect the alligatros as the people and sharing information about the resident wildlife that visitors see. You might be quite surprised by the number of people who seem to have a need to get much too close, or even to touch or kick one of the gators.
The population near the visitor center have seen people enough that they typically do not consider us to be either a food source or any threat and so they mostly ignore the people, as long as they are left with their space. We ask that people stay at least 10 to 15' away from the alligators. As amazing as that may souund, it is quite common to have to warn some people away from getting too close. Others seem to think that since it is a park, they must be pets?