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.

Do Hosts have to Work Hard? Only if you want to...

The first thing to do was to dig a path to the camp sites and the bathrooms (5 modern flushers and 2 pit models). It was impossible to get traction with the Kaboda unless you dug down to the roadbed, which tore it up and required a lot of work later to get the road base back where it belonged. No bike riding here to visit the sites! Our area manager (who managed this very campground the previous 4 years) kept saying it was just terrible!...meaning all of the damage from the record snowfall. The wood cage was crushed, tables broken, branches and logs criss-crossed all over the sites. But we didn't know any better and just did as much as we could with our huge can-do attitude.
In the second picture Bob is digging out the host site...and the third picture
shows how the host site normally looked in June. Each scoop picked up gravel with the snow, which I later tried to put back where it belonged (after the melt). Not knowing where the sewer connection was, it got sheared off during a "plowing" run.
The bathroom picture was also taken in June. We found the "snowless" pictures online months later, so we really didn't know what the park looked like, where the tables and firepits were, or even where some of the camp sites might be. It was quite the adventure...and just when we thought we had moved enough snow to open (surprise!) the runoff flooded everything. Even when we drained a site and bailed the firepit, it would fill right back up because the ground was 100% saturated. I found a toy hammerhead shark under one picnic table that sat in a "lake". How ironic....as I'd made it my daily task to try to save this drowning site because I'd met the sweet couple who had it reserved for their family. The opening was delayed until Bob's birthday, July 7th.

The final picture shows my special project. The Kaboda couldn't go into the actual campsites, so I'd take my big shovel and probe for the tables and firepits. Once found, I'd do my "Drift Buster" thing and heave snow into any available bare space. If there wasn't one, I'd clear a table and stack blocks of snow on top where it would quickly melt on the dark surfaces. It was Science! I thought you just needed to increase the surface area and the snow would disappear. On the larger drifts, every day I'd slice off chunks along the edges: "Glacier Calving". We thought we had it made, when a bigger challenge showed up: Mega Runoff! Now my task was to dig more drainage channels because July 7th was coming fast. The site reserved for the darling older couple (who came early to check out their group site) was literally still a lake. I decided to put the hammerhead shark back under their table to float in the flotsom. Nature had won, of course. I learned the hard way that with 100% saturation, the sites would fill right back up with water by the next day. Then we found out the water tested bad, which was another problem caused by the excessive runoff. There was too much coliform bacteria to let anyone drink it. The dirt roads were washing out in a serious way by now. Help!