Werner Boyce
Salt Springs State Park
Port Richey,
FL
Rain, rain
and more rain.
It rained for twenty days
in a row in the area where we are currently work-camping.
Luckily for us our site is raised enough that
we weren’t directly impacted.
The road leading out of the maintenance area of the park where we are work-camping gets flooded quite often.
But the
surrounding area had flooding serious enough for entire neighborhoods to be
given an evacuation order. The ones that
chose not to leave had to be rescued by boat as the streets in front of the
houses became rivers.
Most of our
month was spent with Monte working on various projects for the park including
servicing an ATV.
Together we performed
our gate closing duty schedule of three days one week and four days every other
week.
The worst part of the job-
It amazes me how people can be such slobs--cigarette butts all over the place.
The most time consuming part of our closing procedure is unlocking and relocking all the gates we have to go through just to leave the compound.
On the 4th of July we didn't make any special plans because we were scheduled to close the gates that evening. We did go shopping and were delighted to discover that Winn Dixie was donating all of the days profits to Wounded Warriors.
One morning,
during a rainstorm, I discovered the carpet under the kitchen table was wet. Monte
figured out that the water was coming in through a poorly sealed window. We temporarily placed a plastic garbage bag
over the window and then spent several hours vacuuming up the water out of the
carpet.
Monte took
advantage of a lull in the rainstorm to re-caulk the leaky window.
Another project Monte worked on was to correct the shoddy job that RV Merchandising did when they installed our new landing gear in February 2014. They had mounted the landing gear sideways so that the lubrication points were not accessible. Monte didn't realize the issue until he wanted to lubricate the gear and discovered the issue. To correct the problem, he had to raise the rig and support it with floor jacks. Next he removed the landing gear. He had to grind some of the metal away in order to reinstall the landing gear properly.
We joined in
the celebration of a couple of birthdays during the month of July beginning
with our grandson Timmy who turned 10.
My Mom opted
to have her birthday dinner at Applebee’s followed by birthday desserts at her
home with close friends.
On the last
day of the month Monte and I had a celebratory dinner at Applebee’s marking our
third anniversary on the road.
We
reminisced about the day we pulled out of the driveway of our bricks and sticks
house to begin one of the most exciting adventures of our life.
The first
year and a half we were on the road had us traveling quite often exploring
several big cities, small towns, national and state parks, museums and many out of
the way places. We had the opportunity to meet some wonderful people and had some once in a lifetime experiences that we treasure.
Unfortunately, due to some unforeseen
circumstances, the last year and a half (with the exception of three months
last fall when we traveled mainly through the eastern states) we have been work-camping
in Florida.
One reason
keeping us in Florida revolves around our former bricks and sticks house that
we still own. We are in the difficult
position of owing more than the house is worth so we are forced to keep it as a
rental property but the house needs some major repairs. So not only are we stuck in the area where
the house is located but the situation has also necessitated our “working” at
state parks to offset paying camping fees.
The other
reason keeping us in Florida has to do with Monte’s heart condition. Following his heart attack last Christmas Eve
he was put on meds that require follow-up appointments with his cardiologist
for the first year.
Hopefully
all of our issues will be resolved by next spring and we will be able to
continue our journey. But in the
meantime we will continue saving money by work-camping the next few months and
visiting with family-the only positive side to being stuck in Florida.
