November 3, 2014

Travel day from Woodbine, GA

To Keystone Heights, FL

On moving day I usually have the alarm set for 7AM but because we had a drive of less than 80 miles I set the alarm for 9AM.  BUT we woke up around 6:30 because it was COLD.

The temperature gauge read 30-when we lifted the shade to look outside we saw there was frost on our Jeep.  BRRRR.

 

 

 

 

We slowly took our time getting ready and by the time Monte was ready to start getting things outside ready it had warmed up to 70. 

 

 

 

 

Crazy.

It was an uneventful easy drive-

 

we arrived at Gold Head Branch State Park in Keystone Heights, Florida at noon.

When I had checked out availability on Reserve America I discovered that there were several sites open from Monday to Thursday.  BUT there were no available sites through the weekend so we would have to go somewhere else on Friday.

At the check-in window, Monte mentioned that we are scheduled to start volunteering down at Little Manatee River SP beginning December 1.  The Ranger checking us in just happened to be the Volunteer Coordinator.  He asked us if we wanted to stay for the month as volunteers. 

We decided to accept the invitation for a couple of reasons.  We have had some unexpected expenses the last few months so saving a month of site fees would be helpful and we knew it was going to be difficult to find a place to stay during the Thanksgiving weekend.

Gold Head Branch is a large park with several areas that contain volunteer sties.  After driving three miles on the main park road we came to a dead end-oh no-we had missed our turn.  

I glimpsed a lone RV in the woods down a dirt road and discovered that was where we were supposed to turn.

There was not enough room for Monte to make a U-turn so he had to back up quite a ways.  I stayed in back of him blocking the road. 

It was a little bit of a challenge getting into the site because the road was very narrow and there were several trees to maneuver around. 

Adding to the mix was the site itself that was part hard dirt and part soft sand.  After Monte backed in the site and checked the level he saw that he would have to use too many blocks to get the rig level.  So he pulled forward and moved over at least five feet to back in on the hard dirt.  It made a big difference because we only had to use one set of blocks to get level.

The park rents out cabins.  The laundry shed where all the linens and towels for the cabins are washed is located next to our site.  The volunteers are allowed to use the washer and dryer using a sign-up schedule system before 7:30AM and after 4:30PM.  I signed up for the 6PM slot and got three loads of wash done.

When we started out this morning we had one plan but the day ended with a totally different plan.  Having the flexibility to be open to “going with the flow” is one of the many things that I really like about this lifestyle.