Catching up OR What happened to the last four months?

We have the good fortune to spend the four months at Anastasia State Park as resident volunteers. We arrived at the park on July 7 and remained there until November 1.

To be honest, there were many memorable experiences during that time but many were of a personal nature and might not be of interest to my readers. Another factor is I am a St. Augustine native and spent much of my life within 2 miles of the park so my perspective may be a bit different.  Lastly, we were been quite busy with family matters when not volunteering at the park.  So, rather than elaborate on each activity I opted to catch-up.

Dawn at the beach

So, what are these activities?

Moving my mother from an Independent Living situation at Allegro to an Assisted Living facility, the Pavilion at Bayview. The move was necessitated as a result of mother's strokes in late June. As you can imagine this was complicated but accomplished in three weeks so she could leave the rehabilitation center and move directly to her new residence. The staff at all facilities are excellent and have been perfect for each time of her life.

Mother Margie at the Rehab Center

I must thank Paula, my cousin, and Billy for their constant support and assistance with my mother's care. Nor, I cannot forget our fellow volunteer, Chuck, and my cousin, Ben, who assisted on moving day.

Rescuing a kitten that followed a couple and their large dog through the back gate of Anastasia State Park. We were not in the market for another cat... no way! The couple she was following said it was NOT their cat. So Billy scooped it up, gave it some food, and we left it outside for two days. The kitten slept on our cooler and hung around during the day. A nice lady from the surrounding neighborhood brought us a kitten carrier and informed us all shelters would reopen on Tuesday as this was Labor Day weekend. OK, Tuesday came and went... as did each following day and the kitten stayed with us. Our 7 year old cat was getting used to her and Billy named her Anna. Yes, she is still with us and now a member of the family. OK, read my words... “No more pets!”

Anna in the new trailer

Volunteer Job: Park Maintenance. This was covered in another article but to recap... we generally work three days-on and three days-off. Our job at Anastasia is cleaning a camping loop which involves litter patrol, bathhouse checks and cleaning, camp site cleaning, trimming errant shrubs and broken branches, and whatever else is required to keep the camping loop in top shape. This is a fun job, or at lease we find it satisfying.

Billy cleaning litter on the camping loop

Volunteer Job: Event Staff. One weekend in September we journeyed to Stephen Foster CulturalCenter State Park in White Springs for a special assignment. 

The event was the Old-Time Music Weekend.  Now we attended in the past as students and on one occasion Bill helped with the sound system.  This time we attended as volunteers where our main jobs were Bill handling the sound for the evening concerts and I covering the merchandise sales. This left us with time for helping in the kitchen, answering questions, room setup, and sitting in on jams and a few classes. It was a fun and busy weekend.

Photo from the camp FB page

Non-work activities: Staying in a state park is heaven for the outdoors enthusiast.  At Anastasia we spend much of our free time going to the beach, fishing, canoeing, bicycling, visiting with friends, playing music, sitting by the campfire. So, I won't bore you with the details as it would be like the old home movies of summer vacation which few people wanted to watch.

Aside...Home Movies: Are you old enough to be subjected to those evenings? Each vacation was documented on slides or 8 mm tape. After the film was developed an evening 'show' would be scheduled and everyone would gather in the living room to view the trip... friends, family, neighbors, strangers without other plans. Today's version is a phone capture that is uploaded to YouTube so the world can enjoy your activities. Either way, these are best viewed by the one who captured the video or lived the experience.

Hope this filled you in on our activities.  Should you feel you would like more details, then send me a note or post a comment.