One of our FAVORITE Job Sites - JUNIPER SPRINGS!!

We need a hosts or host couples immediately for our Juniper Springs Recreation Area near Ocala, Florida.  We are looking for hosts to help manage the day use area at the Springs and we are also looking for someone to help with security (a class D security license is preferred but not required for the security position).  Hosts may be driving a company vehicle so a clean driving record is a must.  The position pays wages plus a host site and utilities.  You can find pictures and information here. 

We ask you to take two steps to apply:

1.  If you have not already done so, apply for a 2016 camp host position at this link.   If you have already put in an application, you do not need to do it again, but you will not be considered without an application. 

2.  Please contact Samantha and Daryl Rolando by email at RRMJobs@camprrm.com to communicate your interest.  Our jobs database has lots of people in it, so make sure they know that you are interested in this particular job.  Please do not contact them until you have completed an application.

The job of camp hosting in state parks usually only requires 3 or 4  days of duty....for a total of 20 hours a week...maybe 24 max.  So the obviously nice benefit is your freedom to roam.  We took advantage and explored Juniper Springs for a day.   The Chateau has claimed site #9 in the "Tropical Loop".  It's a mystical and foggy morning.  We can't remember Florida being more humid or more still.

A wondrous trail starts at our site.

There are small springs everywhere, so this jungley path soon crosses a bridge.

The signs warn that you are about to become gator bait, and you'd better not fight back...because this is a national reserve and everything in it is protected.

Who can resist a boardwalk into the wilds?  Just ahead, under the bridge, is a large pool of green water.  What's that about?

A peek into the pool from the bridge shows "boiling" sand that looks very much like the mud pots that bubble away in Yellowstone Park. 

I turned around and about lost my breath....  What an unusual series of dreamy pools.  They were riddled with sand boils.  How fascinating! 

 The oak branches growing over one pool were almost too tempting.  They were plenty big enough to walk on...and perfect as a platform to jump from into the warm water.  How exotic! 

I just kept taking pictures because it was so surreal...isolated...peaceful.  There was no one else around...no sound but that of moving water and wildlife.

I decided to follow the boardwalk along the spring run to its source.

And here it is...Juniper Springs!  Bob jumped in with his clothes on.  That's how irresistible it was.  He was floating face down looking into the spring just like he was a glass-bottomed boat.  I knew he was harking back to his childhood, which was filled with joyful days splashing, diving, and exploring in the stream behind his home in State College, Pennsylvania. 

Bob swam around and around, so I went to explore the rest of the area.  He was totally alone in his own "Blue Lagoon".  I returned after the sun had set...and he was still paddling around, marveling at his "best experience of the year so far".  So what's so special about perfectly clear, warm water surrounded by bright green ferns and well-done CCC rock work?  Come see for yourself!

FREE Camping at GORGEOUS Natural Springs in FLORIDA

We need host couples immediately at Juniper Springs Recreation Area near Ocala, Florida.   The positions pay wages plus a host site and utilities.  You can find pictures and information here.  We ask you to take two steps to apply: 1.  If you have not already done so, apply for a 2015 camp host position at this link. (The application may say "AZ" but it is good for all states). If you have already put in an application, you do not need to do it again.   2.  Please contact Samantha and Daryl Rolando by email at RRMJobs@camprrm.com to communicate your interest.  Our jobs database has lots of people in it, so make sure they know that you are interested in this particular job. Note that after completing the application, you will be asked to take a short personality profile assessment so we can learn more about you.  This will help us ask better questions in the interview process. If you have any difficulties, each page of the application should have a button says "Technical Difficulties?  Get Help Now."  By clicking this button, you will reach representatives of Applicant Pro, the company that hosts the application, and they should be able to help you complete the process.

Thank you for your interest in working for Recreation Resource Management.

Horses R-WELCOME at Silver River State Park

Water Pump & Kiosk at Trailhead

Lottie gets a drink from the hand pump.  A careful check of the trail map on the kiosk in the Silver River parking lot sets you up for the best of adventures. Trails are marked orange, green, pink and red; there is also a river trail...and the river is simply gorgeous...preserved from human harm and lined with mounds of flowers, monkeys swinging on branches, and alligators of all sizes ignoring you.  If you do all the trails and wiggles, the trail is 10 miles. 



Even people who don't own a horse can experience the trail on horseback. Silver River State Park has contracted with Cactus Jack's Trail Rides for guided trail rides seven days a week.   You have to make a reservation because the horses don't live in the park...they have to ride in their trailer to meet up with you.  The cost is $55 plus tax for 2 hours.   It is a wonderfully interesting and pretty ride.  The sounds and sights are all wild:  deer, hogs, hawks, owls.  Of the 151 state parks in Florida, only 32 have horse trails...and this trail system is new. 

I've decided my initial exuberant reaction to Silver River SP was well justified.  It has it all...!

The park not only preserves 5,000 acres of natural Florida but its natural history.  We were told that camp hosts love being in their park, but rangers don't.  We've seen enough at the 20 or so state parks we've stayed at to say that this is mostly true.  Rangers very often start out as volunteers.  But once they switch to the strict schedule and requirements of a ranger, they make the "sad change"...from pure enjoyment of their surroundings to "just another day at work".  Even the most enthusiastic volunteers will succumb once their freedoms are restricted and the pressure of constant evaluation and added requirements sets in.  We are happy to stay in the volunteer category.  You really do have to PAY for a pay check.

Need to save money on the best horse ride in the East?  Check out http://www.groupon.com/  Search for current coupons to this or any other great attraction.  Have fun!

A REAL Job Offer on Nov 10, 2011

I wanted to share what an actual job offer looks like.  This is a great example, as it gives the expected duties you would perform.   A pitfall to avoid is jumping into a job without knowing what you are going to be asked to do!  We received the following offer via email:

Highlands Hammock Catwalk - a Favorite!

Thank you for requesting information about the camp host program at Highlands Hammock State Park in Sebring, Florida via the online system. I currently have three positions available.  [If you like what you see in an offer, you just have to shoot an email back...but make sure to make a phone contact first to get full job details.]


Our camp hosts primarily clean restrooms, [The fact that she bolded this item makes me think it has been a problem getting camp hosts to do this chore.  Bob and I don't mind it at all...which was a surprise to us.]   mow & trim grass, clean BBQ grills, pick up trash, trim trails, patrol the parks, perform minor maintenance (carpentry/plumbing/electrical), use a gas-powered log splitter for firewood, operate park vehicles (current driver's license required) and other campground-related duties.

Our hosts work five hours a day, four days a week (Sun/Mon/Tues/Weds or Weds/Thurs/Fri/Sat). Special events, heavy day use or camping attendance may require additional volunteer hours from our camp hosts, particularly on holiday weekends or during our high season (Nov/Dec/Jan/Feb/Mar). During high season, we also have ranger station support positions that are typically filled by the wives.

[Count on working weekends and holidays because, naturally, that's when you have almost all of your campground business.]


CCC Masonry Masterpiece at Highlands Hammock

Camp host positions can be strenuous at times, requiring the ability to walk over uneven terrain for several hours in duration as well as bend, stoop and twist to clean, mop large floor areas, pick up debris, etc. Moderate lifting of boxed materials, shoveling of heavy cinders from campfire rings, emptying of trash cans and loading firewood will require the ability to lift and carry. Several hours of work each day will expose hosts to high heat & humidity during the summer months and chilly, damp weather during winter cold snaps. Hosts work independently most days and thus these positions are best for self-starters and those that can identify and problem-solve situations. [This is a well-written disclosure.  You can't be sensitive to smoke and ash or temperature changes, or the job will be intolerable.]

We offer a free campsite with water & 30 amp power hookup for our camp hosts. We do not have sewer connections, but have a dump station on site. Hosts camp in the family campground with the general public and our campsites are very close together with little or no buffer between sites. Our lettered sites (A/B/C/D/E/F) are our camp host sites. We are pet-friendly and remain nearly full to capacity from November through May and then experience our low season June through September.

Our campground has 158 campsites and four large restroom buildings. Most campsites are shaded and have a dirt base. Our park is located four miles west of US Highway 27 in Sebring, Florida. Major shopping/dining facilities (Walmart/Publix/CVS/Walgreens/Lakeshore Mall) are within ten miles of the park as are two hospitals. [This is a BIG factor for me...what's close by?...especially whether there is a church.] 

If you are interested in serving as a camp host, please download the attached form and fill it out for both you and Bob and forward any letters of recommendation highlighting your previous host/campground experience with your application.

Please keep in mind that the months of January, February and March are most in demand and that I am holding a waiting list for possible openings for 2012. Any possible openings will be filled from this waiting list so if you are interested in that, please let me know. Our web address is listed below in the event that you would like to browse our site for additional information/photos.
Dorothy L. HarrisPark Services Specialist
Highlands Hammock State Park 5931 Hammock Road, Sebring, Florida 33872
(863) 471-5324 Office





PAYING JOBS in Ocala National Forest

Yep…you can get a couple of thousand a month plus a free site and utilities. We met the Area Managers for the Alexander Springs area of the Ocala. What a nice setup! All of the hosts at Alexander Springs have a large concrete pad with a patio and new picnic table with FHU. The managers have a company truck and more electric carts than I knew existed.

Loop Trail around Springs

John Schultz (pictured with his cart) has a home “in town” and loves working in the park…even though he doesn’t take advantage of a free site. He gets between 30 to 40 hours a week (minimum wage) but can’t get enough of his “office”. It is perfectly decorated with palms, a gorgeous spring, and live turtles and gators. His favorite job is chasing black bears out of the park and removing rattle snakes and coral snakes.

Our Camp Mangers shared some of their Grief: Corporate does not seem to see the maintenance needs of a semi-tropical park and therefore does not see the need to provide adequate funds to meet the Forest Service contract requirements. Basically…the damage from mold, mildew, moisture and intense UV radiation deplete the budget before the year is over. These huge costs are ever present, even if no campers are present. The managers end up paying for things they must have to keep the park running out of their own pockets.

Then there are the “interesting” campers you can meet in the south….like the tenting mom who turned her drunk teenagers loose on the campground. When a host went to her tent to ask her to rope them in, she came out bare-breasted and berated the host with, “You stop staring at me.” He asked her to put some clothes on and went for backup. The manager got the job of sending them packing. They were arrested within a half mile of the park for drunk driving and taken to jail.  The frustrating part of confrontations with drinking campers is their belligerent claims that the host is prejudice. Most campers in this park are (to some degree) Hispanic, Cuban, or black. Happily, Bob and I were raised to realize we are all brothers and sisters…yes, equals…and “prejudice” was not even in our vocabulary. So it’s offensive to us when people on either side of the controversy start firing their “prejudice pistols”. The crux of the matter has nothing to do with color, it has to do with breaking the rules. Drinking in a public area is not allowed in the parks. And public intoxication is not only illegal, it’s insensitive to those wanting to focus on natural beauty and the sounds of wildlife. Belching, puking and uproarious communications mess with this picture.

Our manager is currently being sued for VERBAL ASSAULT because he told a woman she needed to clean up her camp. She had ignored all signs, literature and even the big billboard at the entrance warning campers they will be sharing the park with BEARS. This woman had left her garbage and food all about her camp, and of course the bear made a party of eating and playing with the goodies. Then her disregard of the rules somehow translated in her mind to: “Hey! I have the right to sue the manager for instructing me to clean up the ______ mess!”

Bob had to jump in with his story from earlier this year. A tenting camper set up on a busy weekend without paying for his site first. Our son was visiting our campground from Afghanistan…just for the day. Bob sold the campsite to someone who discovered the non-paying tenter…who flew into a rage when he had to move off the site. He followed Bob around for the rest of the afternoon threatening law suits. Bob showed him the signs at the entrance that said you had to pay before setting up, but he would not take personal responsibility. He became maniacal. Bob finally said, “Look, I’ve been patient with you so far. But you are giving me no reason to work with you.” He finally quieted down as Bob found another spot he could set up his tent. Then Bob was in trouble for not spending the time he should with our visiting son.

The story that tops them all for me is the Florida Federal Court Judge who was caught stealing wheels used to transport the campground canoes. When confronted by the campground manager, she was hugely offended and lashed out with: “I’ll have your job!” The manager laughed at that one and said it was hers. 
However, the manager did not laugh at the camper who was toting a rifle on his shoulder in camp.  Mr. Camper said it was his legal right, as he was going hunting.  He was absolutely correct.  Anyone can carry a weapon, right out in the open, in the campground.

On the up side: Almost every camper is a delight.   These happy campers are patiently waiting for John to bring them the perfect canoe for the Alexander Springs Run.  But sometimes you get one at just the wrong time who bothers you enough to give you some unforgettable memories.

Looking for a Job Camp Hosting in all the right places

Turn downs, “no openings”, “we have all of the help we can use“, “keep us in mind for next year”...

and other nice ways of letting us know we didn‘t get the job abounded this week. We did get two more job offers, but not in the Orlando area. We really do want to stay close to our son and his cute, cute wife and girls and to our nephew, Craig, and his wife, Tanya. They are expecting their first baby, and we just have to be a part of that. Besides, they all have Disney passes and I, like all of the world, want to go to Disney.

The two offers were intriguing: One in a Florida Preserve , helping in the visitor center, and the other in the Everglades, working in a lab studying marsh lichens . But the jobs were not only too far from family but involved too many scheduled hours, which would kill exploratory trips. Florida truly is Adventureland. And I’m done with 100% of my time being tied up with work.  We need time to play with little mermaids and baby tigers.

VERY Creative Job Search...from the Street

This is the craziest job hunt ever. We are parked in the best condo area near HB’s place of work, Florida Hospital. It’s fancy name is: Lake View on Lake Fredrica. There’s no buildings on this particular street because of the housing market crash. We met the security guard for the development, and found there were no jobs in the area. He had been forced to cut back to where he only had two employees himself.

HB took us to lunch at his hospital, and we were joined by his boss…the nicest and healthiest doctor we’d ever met, Dr. Dale S. Birenbaum.  He has posted a slide show about the Emergency Room Residency which you can see here.     Dr. Birenbaum is the tan and fit supervisor in the pictures with very short, dark hair.  He treats our HB very well and has made HB's time in the ER exceptionally worthwhile.

Before we moved on...we had lots of fun with the family.  There was "El Dia de los Muertos" with Tanya's superb face painting, a trip to The Science Museum (my favorite activity) and a mega-feast at Joe's Crab Trap Restaurant, slopping up big pots of steaming sea food at its spiciest best.  Wow!

The odd thing about the fantastically diverse museum was the huge amount of space and $$ allotted to create a replica of "Florida's Wild Places".  Then I got it.  In a big city like Orlando, some kids never get to see a Cypress Swamp or wild, animal-filled scrub lands.  

Emergency in the Florida Keys

 

Life is more than good at Bahia Honda..... for the mosquitoes.  We just completed our emergency evacuation.   This chair is in our "back yard" breeding ground at the Volunteers' RV parking. The camper in #20 emailed me today (Oct 28th) about their emergency evacuation, after vicious mosquito attacks. And we were informed of at least one other camper who had to get medical attention for their bites. Hurricane Rina is now a tropical storm, which chose The Keys as its dumping grounds for the moisture it's been scooping up in The Gulf. At first a lake rising around us was rather a novelty. Our neighbor, John, just got out his kayak to mock the flood. But then the police boat SANK, Buttonwood Campground vanished under water, and our RV sank ever deeper in the sodden mess.

The brown waters of the campground made islands of the restrooms.  The campers were very brave.  Here's Volunteer Andrew strolling in our front yard.  And the last pictures are of park rangers saving the police boat. 

So...what does one do?  There are better things to do with a life than offer your body as mosquito bait and live trapped in an RV to escape the bugs, mud and weather.  Let's go on an adventure!  We really are in Florida, and our youngest son and his darling family are in Orlando.  Where should we flee?    (2B continued....)

Crazy FUN in The FLORIDA KEYS...now that the storm is over!

Treasure hunting!... not exactly panning for gold.  But the sun came out!    Now it's time to clean up our beaches from all that the storm left behind.  Plastic of all sorts is the main trash item amongst the tonnage of sea grasses and coral that were uprooted by the churning waters.  But thanks to Bob's metal detector, there were coins for the collecting, too.  (You can order your own detector at good-deal prices from the Amazon.com link to the top-right!)  Beach-goers wanted to have some detector fun, too.  We offered to let them try it out, but they said they had to have their own.  Especially fascinating was how many dimes were in the sand offshore.  We're not sure why. 

      We survived the deluge and our campers are on the beach and doing what they came here to do. 

Hurray!  In the photo on the left, the birds have even joined in.          Ahhhh....the Florida Keys at their best.

Bob had been trying his best to get me to take up the fine art of snorkeling.  He'd say, "You have to see the coral beds..."  Well, sadly, today quite a bit of coral washed up from the storm and is bleaching in the sun.  I picked some pieces out of the smelly sea weed piles and made my own coral viewing area...and I didn't even have to deal with a mask filling up with water to view it.   >> sputter<<     >>sputter<<    Below are my films of an "undersea adventure" on Loggerhead Beach, Bahia Honda.