On May 2nd, we took a wonderful 4 hour “Orientation Tour” given to all Myakka River State Park volunteers!
Meet Jim Watson, our tour guide and he has been a volunteer here for years.
Jim and his wife Lois spend several months a year as volunteers here. Lois works in the Visitor Center answering many, many, many questions by visitors!
First critter we saw on our orientation tour was a turkey! Warning…. most of the following images were shot through the window of a bouncing 4X4 Ford Explorer! Not much here totally in focus!
Below is Clay Gully…. a very slow moving creek
Clay Gully is also a great fishing hole as evidenced by the red plastic bobber caught up in the tree!
Many deer share their world here at Myakka River State Park which is the main reason the speed limit is 25mph here. You never know when a deer will jump out in the middle of the road! We have witnessed it many tines!
Jim and Chuck in the front seat as we all go “Uh Oh rain drops” on the windshield!
The rain stayed in the distance although we did get a few quick showers.
The Pickerelweed below is beautiful plant to look at but NOT a native plant to Florida. It is prolific and quickly chokes out native plants and choking up our waterways!
I thought I had captured an alligator in the background, but upon closer examination it was just a neat old log!
Another deer enjoying the wild side of Florida! New antlers are just beginning to show on this guy!
One of our stops was at the Sweetmeadow Pastures ranch site. The original pioneer family of ranching lived here, laughed here, worked here and loved here long before “here” became a state park.
Bertha Palmer was enticed by the lush wetlands and a vast grassy prairie land. In 1910 she built her 19,000 acre ranch along the banks of the Myakka River. Mrs. Palmer was innovative in her approach to ranching. Over her short 8 year tenure, she introduced Brahma bulls improving her spindly Florida herd. she also built dipping vats to combat tick fever. She also fenced in her land, all unheard of customs in her day!
This is one of her dipping vats. You would walk the cattle in at one end, through the dip potion and out the other end.
Can you even imagine walking 100’s of cattle through these vats???
I am sure you all have heard of saw palmetto, the herb to help men’s prostrate. Below is a saw palmetto and the small flowers peeking out are the medicinal part of the plant.
Another deer watching us pass by!
Below is known as “deep hole”. Alligators collect themselves here. It is just one of the mysteries of Myakka State Park.
Below is an Osprey perched on a branch far, far, far away which my hand held 300mm tried its best to get a good image!
If you enjoy camping, whether in your backyard or in one of the many state or national parks that our beautiful America enjoys, you might love this recipe!
Waffle cones with marshmallows, chocolate chips, bananas, and strawberries. Wrap in tinfoil and throw on the fire. aaaaahmazing
Saying goodbye to our good camping volunteer friends Connie and Cecil. Their time here is up and they head back to upper Michigan for the summer months and home gardens!
DoogieBowser and Radar definitely love living the life of vagabond gypsy doggies!
It seems hard to believe that in 4 short weeks our time here at Myakka River State Park will be done. KaPut! Over! UNTIL we get the opportunity to return again as volunteers! We have really enjoyed our time here and we encourage all of you consider volunteering at one of the state parks in your area!
We are lucky here at Myakka that we have such a wonderful support group, “Friends Of Myakka” pay for our uniforms, our equipment and our immediate needs at the park. Below is the fancy swamp buggy used in helping with control burns and trimming the trees with low hanging branches just waiting to snag one of the larger RV Motorhomes!
These tires are almost as tall as I am!
We hope you enjoyed this tour of Myakka State Park and will one day get to visit this piece of Old Florida!
Florida, before the land grabbers and the land developers came and decided they had bigger and better ideas for “La Florida” Land of flowers!
We hope you get the opportunity to come explore this “wild” piece of Florida soon!
Please leave a comment! We like to read about your thoughts!
Happy Trails from the crew of the “MotherShip” Chuck, Geri, DoogieBowser and Radar!
We arrived March 1st to begin our 4 months as volunteers at Myakka River State Park.
Many of you may not know how interesting it can be to live in your RV fulltime, or maybe even part time, and volunteer some of your time at a state park! You provide valuable muscle to a resource that protects and yet showcases Americas wild beauty and wildlife! What a way to retire!!! We have several people working in this park escaping the harsh winter up north. Connie and Cecil leave their small farm in Michigan and volunteer those cold winter months in warmer, sunny Florida at the wonderful state parks here. A volunteer is requested to work 2 to 4 months and be required to work 10 to 20 hours a week and in return get a campsite with full hook-up. This is a win-win for you and for the State Park Service! Every state has state parks and every state has volunteers. This is the link if you are interested in volunteering.
http://www.floridastateparks.org/getinvolved/volunteer.cfm
Here, at Myakka River, Chuck and I are cleaning cabins. There are 5 cabins built by the Civilian Conservation Corps. The cabins are snuggled in with the beautiful oaks and tall palm trees.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myakka_River_State_Park
We were asked to arrive on Saturday March 1st. We got here about 3pm and they brought us to the best site possible for us! We love it here! Most of the volunteers are down near the office actually in the park. Still other volunteers are over in the STOP camp across the highway. We lucked out and are the only volunteers here, sharing our space with the park rangers.
We have a lovely space with no real close neighbors and plenty of room to walk with the dogs. One of the trails from the park run right behind us!
I found an old long handled fishing net propped up against a tree. The net was long gone. Didn’t take me long to re-purpose it! I had a hummingbird feeder, but no good branches to hang it from. I took the net frame, turned it upside down and had Chuck bungee cord it to a post and hung the feeder! YaY! No Hummingbirds yet… but I am sure as soon as they discover it…..
On Sunday, the volunteers all gather at the STOP camp for a yummy covered dish dinner! Seems this is a Sunday tradition. It is a good way to meet other volunteers and share experiences. All the home cooked food was wonderful! I made my green chili chicken enchilada casserole, the dish was scraped clean! This is where we have covered dish on Sunday and volunteer meetings.
Monday we pulled out our camp chairs and decorations and settled down to enjoy our Kindles. Work begins on Tuesday. Tuesday was more of an orientation than actual work day.
Shirley and her husband Ed are also volunteers working the cabins. She came in to show us how to read the ticket for what cabins needed cleaning and how to bundle the sheets and towels needed for each cabin.
Wednesday Phil came to take us to cabin 5 and taught us how cleaning should be done and what was expected of us. Thursday we had another day of learning from Mike. Thursday was an awful day! Not because of the cabins but because of the rain! It rained and thundered the whole 4 hours we worked! We dragged in more mud and dirt into the cabins than what was in there to begin with making more work for ourselves! Mike was more detail oriented than Phil so we learned a bit more that day.
Almost as soon as we got off work, the rain stopped! Chuck and I were soaked clear through! As soon as we got in the door we shucked off the wet clothes and put on dry warmer clothes! I didn’t feel like cooking so we took off exploring and landed at a Chili’s restaurant off Bee Ridge Road. We had a bubbly waitress named Kylie who was fun and a good waitress. She had never heard of workamping or of volunteering and the benefits so we enlightened her. Of course she has several decades ahead of her before she retires!
The wild iris is beginning to bloom in the park! So beautiful! We enjoy working as volunteers. We have worked as volunteers in Utah at Spring Hollow campground near Logan Utah, and Zion River Resort near Zion National Park, in Mimbres NM near the Gila Cliff Dwellings. Although we enjoyed working at those places, our favorite gig was in Truth or Consequences NM at the River Bend Hot Springs! Loved working there and we loved our boss Jake and all the folks we worked with that summer but most of all we enjoyed soaking in the hot springs there and tubing down the Rio Grand River!
Life is what you make of it! We like traveling and seeing life in different places and spaces. Workamping allows you to intimately get to know a place, with 3 or 4 days off you can explore and hike and try all new restaurants! You might want to consider this life style one day. Chuck and I are able to live off of our SS every month and volunteering keeps us busy and happy!
Here are some links to explore. Most private campgrounds want a commitment of 6 months. Most State Parks ask for 2-4 months commitment.
http://www.workampingjobs.com/
http://www.workamper.com/
http://www.workamper.com/membertype/
Hope you enjoyed finding out more about volunteering as a way of travelling. It’s free rent and it’s where ever you want to be! What a way to retire!
Chuck quickly backed into our beautiful, canopied campsite at the Big Flats campground at Myakka River State Park, east of Sarasota Florida. Huge old oaks, towering pines and drapery of spanish moss welcomed us!
With the camo color of The MotherShip, we blend right into the background!
Looking out our back window, all we see are more palms and the wide open Florida prairie where the deer and the wild pigs entertain daily!
DoogieBowser makes himself comfey! Later, Radar grabs Doogie’s perch!
Camped near us was this cool RV with an even cooler car tag “R RDTRIP”
And even cooler was their towed car and the car tag it wears!
SMRTOAD!
Early morning starts gently at our campground, slivers of sunshine invading the wild woods.
Wild towering palms and draperies of spanish moss catching the sun!
Canopied roads, ancient oak trees reaching out across the road ways to touch it’s neighbor on the opposite side providing shade for all.
Our first day there, Chuck saw this bald eagle. Of course I had my wide angle lens on and had to crop like crazy to get any sort of photo at all….
Great Blue Heron looking for lunch. Myakka River State Park is teeming with wildlife. Grab your camera and your longest lens and you will not be disappointed!
Alligator swimming towards a Roseate Spoonbill, a Snowy Egret and a couple of Cormorants. Below, the spoonbill decides to leave the alligator and heads to the resting area of several wood stork.
Kayaking is popular here as well as canoeing.
Not sure, but the heron above is probably a Little Blue or maybe a Tri-colored.
Just another Gator peeking up out of the water……
The trees at Myakka are loaded with air plants! Everything from Resurrection Fern to Bromeliads thrive here!
Airboat tours are available and these ladies have a front row seat!
Vultures! Lots and lots of vultures! Tis the mating season and they gather in warm sunny Florida to find their love life high in the skies…. and next to some not so prudent tent campers who left their snacks out on their picnic table , below.
More vultures and alligators! Look at that big boy’s tooth…..
This is the beginning of the Canopy Trail. It will take you back to the tall tower below and a suspension bridge taking you from one tower to another.
Since I do not do stairs well, and these towers meant a lot of stairs, I handed Chuck the camera and up he went.
At the top of the tower, you get a full 360 degree view of Myakka River State Park.
Two views of the suspension bridge .
Anhinga, also known as the “snakebird” because it swims below the water with only its head and long slender neck above water.
Great Blue Heron
Osprey sitting in a pine. Just moments before, I saw this bird in the sky and purposely bumping into a vulture making it tumble a bit. After the hit, the osprey gave a loud victory call, bragging to the world!
Wood storks resting by the waters edge.
Fishing is good from the bridge! These folks are using cast nets to catch tilapia.
Tilapia are non-native and considered an invasive species of fish. Myakka will allow you to keep all the non-native fish, but you must return all native fish to the water!
Another deer taking a break in the shade.
The end to another wonderful day at Myakka River State Park! Chuck and I love Florida State Parks so much, we have decided we would like to volunteer here. We got a contact name and number and called and left a phone message expressing our interest in becoming volunteers at Myakka. That was Friday afternoon, and by golly, this morning we got a return phone call and seems like we may have a very good chance of working here this spring for a few months! YaY! Keep your fingers crossed for us!
From the crew of the MotherShip, Chuck, Geri and our furkids DoogieBowser and Radar, we hope you enjoyed seeing this wonderful Florida park with us!
We are now camped at Highlands Hammock State Park near Sebring FL. Another jewel in the Florida State Parks Crown!
Jim and his wife Lois spend several months a year as volunteers here. Lois works in the Visitor Center answering many, many, many questions by visitors!
