Author: Jolene MacFadden

Semi-Retired former Full-Time RVer, published author, handcrafted bead and wire jewelry maker, who has started another side businesses helping self-publishing authors publish the books and marketing as well.

Its Heating Up Here

March 12, 2014 Jolene MacFadden

It’s Heating Up Here folks! Not only is the weather staying warmer longer and getting a little warmer everyday we are seeing more birds, more people and doing more work. The campgrounds here at Myakka River State Park are full everyday since we got here but with the warmer weather and festivals, bike rides for charity, and local kids going on spring break means we will be working more and seeing more people our last three weeks here. It’s nice to see that the state parks are getting plenty of visitors, and not just from the “Snowbirds” but with local visitors as well. It is nearly impossible to get a camping site still in the southern regions of Florida but with Spring changing into Summer everyone should be able to visit and camp at just about all of the Florida State Parks. I say, just about all, because any state park next to the Atlantic or Gulf of Mexico will be just as busy during the summer months too. We cannot stress how important it is to make reservations ahead of time for any of the Florida State Parks. The National Parks, recreational areas and forests usually don’t have an online reservation systems, there are a few exceptions, so those are generally, “Catch As You Can”, camping. We will say that if you get there on a Tuesday or Wednesday and pay for the week, generally, you will be able to find great camping spots.

Working While RV Camping

March 5, 2014 Jolene MacFadden

Working while RV camping is a growing trend these days. Most of us just cannot afford to jump into our RV and travel around the country without having some kind of supplemental income as well as our retirement benefits. And more and more people are selling everything, buying an RV and traveling the road at younger ages. If you don’t have a great retirement plan but would still like to travel you may want to consider starting some kind of business before you go. And for those not old enough to retire you will need to have a steady income to keep traveling.

Establishing a mobile business is a great way to help you pay for your travel expenses, have money to visit parks and other recreational opportunities while paying for your camping, food, phone and internet. Yes, you will need to have a reliable internet connection such as Verizon’s MIFI service in order to keep in touch with customers, checking your bank for payments,etc. It is great to be out in the middle of the woods enjoying nature but to help pay for your adventures you will need a way to communicate.

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Campground Host Experiences, Funding Our Adventure, Funding Your Great Adventure, RV and Campers, Volunteer At A Florida State Park, Workamping

Ten Parks in 30 Days

February 25, 2014 Jolene MacFadden

When we leave here at Myakka River State Park we will be doing a whirlwind tour of 10 Florida State Parks in 30 days on our way to Suwannee River Wilderness River Camps. As you can see from our Calendar page we have already posted where we will be and when. The reservations have been made and paid for we only hope that old “Big Bertha”, our 1984 Class A Pace Arrow RV, is up to the trips. We scheduled them this way so that we can go to as many parks as we could before our next campground hosting assignment. Needless to say, for the month of April, we may not be able to post many blog articles. Who knows? I will try to post as we go. I am still working on creating movies of our pictures from St. Joseph’s and Dade Battlefield as well as taking more pictures for our Myakka River review. Since the internet service here is sporadic at best and weak most of the time I cannot justify spending time to create the movies when I cannot upload them while we are here.

Instead, we have been working on creating as many crafts as we can to participate in the Sarasota Folk Festival at Oscar Scherer State Park next month.

Large Parks versus Small Parks

February 19, 2014 Jolene MacFadden

When you think about your camping experiences in Florida State Parks do you recall what you liked about the park?

Was it a smaller, out-of-the-way State Park or was it just outside of a large town and a fairly large State Park?

Do you prefer to stay at a place with lots of activities or do you just want to lay back and enjoy the quiet?

These questions and more you really should ask yourself before you make reservations at any State or National Park. (Please always make reservations as far in advance as you can). The reason being is you will want to get the most bang for your hard-earned, or even retired, bucks. If you haven’t visited your intended park before go online and read the material on their website, check out some videos about the park on YouTube and ask friends, relatives and your Facebook buddies what they thought about the park if they visited it in the before. You want to look at pictures and videos and go online to see what people have said about the park recently. Remember things could have changed if the information is more than a couple of years old. And please make note of some of the rules about camping in your intended parks as well. They are there for the comfort, safety and enjoyment of all the visitors not just to pick on you.

Campground Host Experiences, Camping Resources, Lessons in Camping, Park Info, RV and Campers, Volunteer At A Florida State Park, Workamping

Myakka River So Far

February 12, 2014 Jolene MacFadden

Myakka River so far has been a great experience. The weather has been pretty volatile with cold days, wet days, wet and cold days as well a bright sunny days too. There are a lot of campground host volunteers here during the winter months of January to March. Most are from up north with some of those as far as Canada. This is a very social occasion for these volunteers and they have pot luck dinners, movie nights and bomb fire game nights. Most of these people have been volunteering at this park for years. Being as they have so many volunteers quite a lot can and does get done during these months for the park rangers. There is cleaning of the huge park including all the public restrooms; campground cleaning; volunteers manning the main entrance taking money from new comers and the north entrance on weekends; working in the visitors centers; bird watching teachers; as well as mowing and clear cutting of the surrounding woods to prepare for the annual controlled burn and all the special events. This year the volunteers have agreed to host a weekly morning social hour with coffee, tea, juice and assorting snacks being available for just a $1 donation per person. It is a great chance for our fellow campers to get to know each other, meet the campground hosts and some of the ranger who drop by and listen to some music from some very talented volunteers. This is such a large park with so many things going on that they really need all these volunteers to keep things moving.

St Joseph Peninsula State Park WrapUp

January 30, 2014September 15, 2025 Jolene MacFadden

Now that I finally have help with our craft business I should be able to get some articles posted to my various blogs and will try to start posting to Our Great Adventure every week. There is so much to report to you guys that we will start with a wrap-up of St. Josephs Peninsula, then the wrap-up with Dade Battlefield and then an update on our current assignment here at Myakka River State Park. I will be trying to get the movies made for the State Park Reviews and uploaded to YouTube as soon as I can. We have very limited internet service here and will probably have to go down to the Myakka Outpost and use their wireless service to upload the videos once I get them done.

Campground Host Experiences, Florida State Parks, Park Info, RV and Campers, Volunteer At A Florida State Park, Workamping