Winter Camp (like summer camp, but for adults)

   I always loved going to summer camp as a kid. Being outside, campfires, making new friends, canoeing, playing cards and learning new things was something to look forward to. Now as an adult I feel we've been given a gift of going back to camp. But it's better this time because we don't have to go back home, and back to school. We are home, and we have finished school.
     We came to Florida for the winter without much of a plan. Our only plans were to visit with friends in The Villages for the New Year, then we hoped to find work at Disney World. Unfortunately, they aren't hiring seasonal employees at Disney right now, so that didn't work out.

Had a great time visiting with our friends!!

     We had found a reasonably priced campground about a half hour from our friends and booked 4 nights there. It's an older campground with lots of mature trees, and the sites aren't all in orderly rows, which gives it more of a community feeling. We checked out a couple other campgrounds in the area, but the activities here included a weekly guided kayak trip and yoga twice a week, so I thought " this was the place for us!" We also found a friendly, welcoming, active community and more than a month later we are still here.
    Most days we've been busy enough at the campground that we just wouldn't have had time to work while we are here! So we've been relaxing and enjoying for 1 1/2 months, knowing that we do need to continue working for our plan to succeed.
     We are having fun trying to learn to line dance, but what we've learned is that we will need a lot more practice to make some of the dances look easy! There are short walking trails that we enjoy on one side of the campground, and the Withlacoochee river is on the other side of the campground. It's quick and easy to have our inflatable kayaks on the river.

Paddling back to the campground from the Withlacoochee River

The area where we paddle is a relatively undeveloped part of the river and we have seen a variety of interesting birds, and sometimes even an alligator (but we're not quite sure if that's a good thing or not).

This was a little gator, think he was only 3-4 foot long

This bird is called a limpkin, he hangs out right on the water by the campground

Great blue heron

    Each person we've met at the campground has an interesting story and life lessons to share. We especially appreciate all the folks that share their talents teaching the various activities here to help us broaden our horizons, and all the folks who make delicious food for the social hours and cooking club.  We've also had fun with our friends who taught us new games like Tuc (it's like Trouble with a deck of cards) and Hand and Foot (a card game). We've gone on group hikes and done crafts.

Saw this anhinga at the campground pond

    We look forward to Fridays when we go kayaking with our friends to different rivers around the area. Loved going to the Weeki Wachi River where the water was so clear and we felt like we were in the jungle.

Kayaking the Weeki Wachi River

We also went to Crystal River twice to see the manatees, the first time the ocean must have been too warm and so the manatees hadn't come in to the springs that day. The second time we went there were plenty of manatees and plenty of people too. But we enjoyed kayaking with the manatees! They are such gentle beautiful animals.

Three Sisters Spring on the Crystal River

 

     We had a group of 18 of us, from the campground, that kayaked down the Rainbow River. The river was so clear that we could watch the turtles swimming below us. There was wildlife to see everywhere we looked! We saw whole groups of turtles sunning themselves, a small cormorant rookery, and we even got to see otters playing in the water!!

Part of our group going down the Rainbow River

  

A cormorant and a pile of turtles

   
   
   
    "Winter camp" is ending for us soon so that we can continue on our adventure. Soon we will be "WWOOFing," which stands for World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms. We will be living and working on farms in exchange for a place to park our camper and food. We are looking forward to eating lots of fresh produce that we will help grow and harvest on the farms. We will also be learning about permaculture and sustainability.