Catching Up (Cross Creek, FL)

Hi!  We haven't been in touch for a while but not because we've been terribly busy.  Mostly we've just been enjoying life at Marjorie Rawling's house. 

The one glaring exception is that we did return to the RV dealer to have the satellite repair completed.  Now that was an event!  We were there for 2 days.  This included multiple calls to both Winegard and Directv.  We camped in the RV dealership "campground."   We will forever fail to understand how it can be that "these people" claim to be qualified to do the satellite work when so many of their answers include "I don't understand that" or "that doesn't make any sense" or "I've never done this before" etc.  But somehow the repair was completed.  Please don't ask what was the secret to the successful repair.  I don't know nor does the man making the repair.  Wires were switched around, part of the old satellite dish was put back on, a splitter was eliminated and Directv sent us a new receiver, "coincidentally", for an unrelated problem.  But somehow, the repair was completed.  There are some positive elements to this story.  We did learn a few things about the system that will help us in the future.  Although their knowledge of the satellite subject was obviously limited, at least the staff was pleasant.  We ate at Golden Coral!  The whole process only cost us $41.  Oh yes, there was another negative. Upon doing our walk around the camper after hooking up and just before pulling out, we discovered scrapes on the rear corner of the camper that were not there when we brought it in.  No one at the dealership claimed to have any knowledge of how this damage occurred.  "Their" best guess was that someone  sideswiped our camper while it was in their lot waiting to be moved to the maintenance area.   Yeah, whatever. We couldn't prove differently.  The damage was minor, but damage all the same.

Back to the good life at Marjorie's house.  Our volunteer hours remain wonderfully pleasant.   I continue to have the best of the work duties.  I mentioned previously my plumbing projects.   More recently I worked on installing a new washer and dryer in a maintenance shed.   These will be available for the volunteers' use in the near future.  It required some plumbing and other handyman stuff.  I hung some peg board in the maintenance shed and I'll be organizing tools, etc.  I spent a day shopping for the park at Lowe's!   There are some other handyman projects I hope to be doing that I'll report on later.  In my spare time I'll return to cleaning up the grounds.  Debbie primarily helps out in the house doing cleaning.  She's also working on a computer project and she loves helping out with the animals.   The park has some new baby chicks a few weeks old.  They are the cutest!

Philosophically speaking, we love the simple environment of the house and grounds.  We even love "dressing up" in our period clothing.

Each workday we open barns,

release animals from their pens to roam the grove,

and go about our duties at a comfortable pace and hang out with low key, pleasant folks who also enjoy the place!

Sheila (park ranger) and her dog Sugar

Nancy and Carl (fellow camping volunteers)

Chris (volunteer) Sheila and Valerie (Park Manager)

Another great benefit is our park ranger, Sheila, has on three occasions since we've been here, cooked for the staff on the wood stove.

Sheila (right) is a great cook.  Here she's assisted by Nancy and Ray. 

 It's really a very down home event. The meals have all been prepared in black iron cookware on a "sure enough" wood stove. Often the vegetables come from the garden outside the kitchen window. We eat using whatever plates and utensils have been around for decades. Today we ate our meal (Hoppin John, rice, and a little meat) in Marjorie Rawling's dining room (but not on the her original chairs!).

Loved our lunch with other volunteers and  park employees

And we (today that meant me) wash the dishes in an old chipped enamel dish pan using hot water from the wood stove.

I just love the whole routine!

Even dinner this evening was somehow unique.  We, along with Carl and Nancy (the other volunteer camping couple) and Judy (a part-time park employee) and her husband Danny, went to a local catholic church for an all you can eat fish dinner. Delish! Somehow, another great event!

We love Cross Creek!!!!!!!!!

Hope you too are loving life!

Duane