kissalostsoul

Is that an oxymoron?   My assignment for the first half of my day at work yesterday was to ‘roam’.  What that means is that I’m supposed to wander along the Swamp Island Wildlife Drive, mingle with the visitors, and provide interpretive services to anyone I encounter along the way.  Since helping the public to enjoy our National Wildlife Refuges and understand what they are seeing is one of my favorite things to do, I was really looking forward to this time. However, there aren’t very many visitors driving around early on a Tuesday morning in late October on the refuge.  So after my first lonely drive around the loop, I decided to concentrate on finding the carnivorous pitcher plants that are found in this area.  I figured if anyone drove by, noticed the official vehicle, and saw me getting into contortions to take photos, they might ask me what I was looking at.  I could then launch into an explanation of these most interesting plants. ...

Part of my orientation to the Okefenokee NWR yesterday included a swamp boat tour with Okefenokee Adventures, a concessionaire that partners with the refuge to provide tours and rents canoes, kayaks, and boats.  In case you are ever in the area, these tours are available every day of the year except Christmas Day.  It’s an hour and a half tour, and starts out down the Suwanee Canal.  As a point of interest, any motorboats in the Okefenokee Swamp must have motors under 10 horsepower.  No big motors allowed. I believe our trip covered about five miles all together, and was very interesting.  This canal was started in 1891 with the objective of draining the swamp.  Thankfully, it was an unsuccessful endeavor!  A short way into our journey we entered the National Wilderness Area, which means any travel into this area is very limited in number of people each day and any travel into it must be registered and reserved ahe...

Early in the morning of the Wedding Day i meet with Ken from the UK who stayed in the same Hotel the i did and then we went to the Cathedral together where  we arrived short before 8h00. There we also meet Eric from Belgium. As it turned out there where already quiet a lot of people there so we could not stand in the first row but luckily i had brought something to stand on with me so i had still a good sight. Already quiet early the buses with the first guest arrived. One of the first who came where guests from the german houses among the Margrave and Margravine of Baden with their son Bernhard and daughter-in-law Stephanie, Prince Georg Friedroch of Prussia who arrived woth his siter-in-law Katharina and her husband Archduke Martin of Austria-Este. And also the Duke and Duchess in Bavaria and lot more. Later the Military came and stood in a row near the church entrance. Unfortunately it turned out that direct before us the Military band was standing . Around 10h00 the membes of t...

Many of you know that I spent the last three months at Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge in North Carolina.  While there I didn’t see one solitary alligator.  I did see and photograph lots of black bears.  Well, now I’ve moved to Okefenokee NWR, and I’m guessing I’ll be very lucky to catch a sight of a bear, but alligators will be more than abundant. When fellow volunteer Barb and I took that drive yesterday in the late afternoon in the electric cart, we saw a couple of alligators along the way.  This one is called ‘Mama’, and she pretty regularly can be found in the same pond/ditch area along the Swamp Island Auto Tour Route.  Because of that fact, the refuge has put up a sign about alligator safety.  I thought it was a hoot that Mama posed for us right next to the sign. This kind of displaying with the mouth open and the skin bagging under the jaw is usually reserved for the breeding season which is in the early spring.  Mama had a nes...

I wanted to be the first person on the wildlife drive this morning, and I think I was.  The chances of seeing wildlife are always better the earlier you get out there.  It wasn’t like I left at the crack of dawn or anything, but seeing as it was a Sunday morning I felt fairly confident that visitors would take a while to get here.  Okefenokee NWR is a bit off of the beaten path. I think there is a guide to the wildlife drive with about 12 numbered stops along the way.  I just haven’t gotten one of those guides yet.  The first stop for Emma and me was at Alligator Pond.  I didn’t see any alligators, but the cloudiness of the last two days was gone.  There was a pleasant breeze, so the pond reflections weren’t mirror perfect. I was cruising along at about 5 mph with the front windows down so I could hear as well as see anything that might be out and about.  Here it is almost November, but the swamp was alive with blooming flowers.  Don’t ...

No need to get up early this morning since I only had a drive of about 65 miles today to arrive at Okefenokee NWR.  On top of that, there was a hunt going on this morning at the refuge so the road I needed to drive down to get to the volunteer village was closed until noon.  Since I had scoped out the drive and found an acceptable gas station along the way, I thought I’d sleep like a log last night.  Not so!  I tossed and turned until almost four in the morning before drifting off briefly.  Just don’t understand that. When I was checking out the available sites yesterday, I had four to choose from.  I chose the one on the far left in this view.  Only problem was, I couldn’t find a sewer hookup.  While I was out doing the wildlife drive, maintenance went over and found the missing hookup.  It was buried under the grass and sand.  I still will have to dig it out a bit, but to me this was the best sight in the village.  My car is p...

Once in a while I have the forethought to make a good decision for me, and today was one of those days.  I had decided to just visit Okefenokee NWR in my car today since I’m only about 60 miles away, and not drive the rig in until tomorrow.  As it turned out, it was also a good decision to leave Emma at home while I made that visit since it was quite warm and she would have been roasting in the car. I had some rather involved written directions from Gracie Gooch, the volunteer coordinator, but I tried putting the address into Jack-in-the-Box and it wouldn’t recognize the street name.  So I just put in the number of the closest highway, and Jack took me a different way than I had originally planned.  I went with the new to me directions, and it turned out best in the long run.  The mileage may have been slightly longer, but it kept me off of the Interstate and on a couple of other great roads.  The best part of that is I found an easy in, easy out gas st...