Prologue
Since we returned from Polynesia in mid October, we have had a busy, stressful but ultimately satisfying experience. Sandy’s Mom had triple bypass surgery and her recovery was sort of two steps forward/one step back. Once released from the hospital to the rehab center, the leg wound where they harvested the veins got infected so it was back to the hospital for a few days. After a week back in rehab, the wound was still not healing well so it was back to the hospital for vascular surgery on her leg to open the blocked blood vessels. That last surgery seemed to do the trick and the wound began to heal properly.
Through all of this, the periods in rehab demonstrated that mom was not strong enough or mobile enough to live on her own. Of course mom insisted she would be well enough to return to her apartment but it was not to be. Much of the stress in this period was because we all thought the only option was a nursing home. Then one of the rehab social workers told us about a Medicaid funded assisted living program called Group Adult Foster Care. We were cautioned that there were very few available slots but Sandy researched a few places and we visited one, a delightful facility in Brockton only six miles from Sandy’s brother Alan. As we talked to the admissions director, we learned that the might have a spot opening up soon. This was almost too good to be true. The facility, Heights Crossing, is only ten years old. The dining room has table cloths, a menu and well dressed wait staff.
We were about to learn the meaning of serendipity. In the last three weeks the slot at heights crossing opened up, we cleaned out Mom’s apartment, bought and assembled a new bed and dresser from Ikea, Moved the furniture Mom wanted at Heights Crossing, took her for two more doctors appointments, coordinated the list of prescriptions for the new pharmacy and on Wednesday, January 9th we moved Mom into her new home. After only two days she is eating very well (lobster roll for lunch today), making friends and getting involved in activities. When Sandy spoke to her today, the staff had helped her dress, neatened her room, made her bed and Mom reported that “I felt like a queen with everyone waiting on me!”
With Mom now settled we could finally head south for the winter. We had planned to return to the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge and conduct an outreach program at several birding and RV festivals to promote visiting and volunteering at refuges. The timing was remarkable because we will now arrive just three days before the first presentations at the Southwest Florida Birding Festival in Naples.
Day 1 Friday January 11, 2008
The Shapiros are extraordinary friends. Not only do they let us keep the motorhome in their yard when we are not on the road but this year when our departure was delayed, Don kept the area around the coach and the loooong lower driveway clear of snow so we would be able to get out when we were ready. This more than doubled the amount of snow blowing he had to do and this December set an all time record for snowfall in NH. With no worries about traction or plow mounds, we hit the road this morning to begin our three day drive direct to Okefenokee. After 410 miles of driving through rain and fog we pulled in to a Walmart in northern Delaware. We don’t need a campground for a short overnight stop and we always shop when we stop at WalMart .
Day 2 Saturday January 12, 2008
Today we drove 410 miles from Delaware to Fayetteville, NC. What a difference a state makes. In NC we paid 42 cents a gallon less for diesel fuel than we paid in MA. With a single unsettling exception it was an uneventful trip. As we drove south on I-95 in northern NC we came upon the scene of an RV wreck. A big diesel motorhome had veered off the road rolled onto the driver’s side and skidded into the trees. By the time we arrived the tow trucks had the coach back on its wheels but the damage was incredible; windows, doors and side panels ripped off with jagged holes remaining. There was also a large crushed section in the front. We both shuddered imagining the awful wreck and wondering about the fate of the occupants. When we stopped at the campground later we heard that several other southbound travelers had seen the same wreck earlier and reported that the occupants had been seen sitting by the side of the road, apparently not seriously injured. Tonight was the Patriots/Jaguars playoff game and we luckily were at a campground with cable TV so we got to watch (Sorry Scott).
Day 3 Sunday January 13, 2008
One more day of driving to Okefenokee; straight down I-95. It was great to be back on the refuge and see some of the staff and meet some new volunteers. Tomorrow we start gathering the information for our outreach presentations at Florida birding festivals.
Day 4 Monday January 14, 2008
There were times today when it seemed we had never left. We saw many of the staff and some volunteers with whom we had worked last year. We set to work gathering the materials and supplies needed for our wildlife refuge booth at the upcoming birding festivals. The biggest project is selecting photographs for the display boards at the booth. In the afternoon we headed for Jacksonville to see Scott, Tara and the boys! As we got out of the car, we heard the boys screaming, “They’re here, They’re here”. Once the initial hugs were completed, Sandy asked how the boys had gotten so big and Wyatt replied, “We eat a lot of broccoli!”. We attended Wyatt’s basketball practice. It was fun to watch a cluster of kindergarten kids racing up and down the court, dribbling unsteadily but with great determination. The coaches have a great system to keep the kids paired up on offense and defense. Each player gets a colored Velcro wrist band and they are told to cover the person on the other team with the same color band. It’s a neat way to avoid the “swarm” phenomenon common in early soccer. Wyatt is one of the biggest kids and shoots pretty well and gets a lot of rebounds so he scored a few baskets. After practice, we met Scott at a Mexican restaurant for supper then went back to their house for a game of Clue. In case you were wondering, it was Professor Plum in the ballroom with the candlestick (if you don’t remember the game of Clue, ignore the last sentence!). It was wonderful to be with the Jacksonville Greenbaums again though we didn’t get back to the swamp until after one AM!
Day 5 Tuesday January 15, 2008
We gathered up all of the stuff we needed for the booths and presentations and packed it into the CRV. The good news is that it all fits. The bad news is that the tables only fit when the front passenger seat is moved so far forward that no one can sit there so Sandy has to sit behind Carl. Remember the movie, “Driving Miss Daisy?”. Fortunately it will be a short drive from where we park the coach to where we unload the booth materials. In addition to boring stuff like tables and display panels we packed fun stuff like a gallon of peat moss, a squirrel skin, several different species of bird eggs and an alligator head. After lunch we took our first trip down the wildlife drive and along the boardwalk. From the observation tower we saw about 50 sandhill cranes and a small assortment of wading birds and warblers. We also spotted red-bellied woodpeckers and heard a red-shouldered hawk calling. A pleasant re-introduction to Okefenokee.
Day 6 Wednesday January 16, 2008
Since we had made great progress getting ready and packing the car, we decided to leave today and break up the trip to allow an earlier arrival at Rookery Bay on Thursday. We stopped in Ocala, FL for the night. In chatting with our neighbors (also with SD plates) we learned that they use the same mail forwarding company and they were originally from the Boston area. Small World indeed. Once settled, we drove to the local citris fruit outlet and bought some Honeybell oranges. We then went to BJ’s to buy a case of paper towels-just kidding about the paper towels but Honeybells are that juicy. We spent a quiet evening in the coach after a walk around the campground. This place is a literal dog show with nearly every RV having one. A nearby motorhome has three golden retrievers. Ginger had fun sitting on the dashboard watching all the dogs go by.
Day 7 Thursday January 17, 2008
Off we go to our first venue. We drove to southwest Florida, mostly along I-75. The Rookery Bay Reserve is south of Naples. We were greeted warmly by the festival coordinator, Randy McCormack. He found us a place to dry camp on the edge of their parking lot and we set up for our stay at the Southwest Florida Birding Festival. The Reserve has a near new education center which is beautiful. We saw the room where our presentations will be and met some of the staff. Before supper we drove about five miles south to another section of the estuary where we saw lots of wading birds, a few yellowlegs and both kinds of vultures common here. We also saw a few feral hogs. Hope they are not as much of a problem as they have become at Okefenokee where they have begun to root up the helicopter landing area! We practiced our presentation one more time and got ready for our “debut” tomorrow.