Tag: Workamping in Florida

Butts Bottles and Bags

March 15, 2018August 22, 2026 Jolene MacFadden

Butts, Bottles, and Bags. Yep, I have been trying to remember to write this post for a couple of months now. It’s pretty much the majority of what we do as volunteer workampers in almost every single assignment. We pick up a lot of water bottles, those plastic bags floating around the picnic areas and cigarette butts. Don’t get me wrong I have nothing against people smoking outdoors, to each his own, and all of that but please use one of those portable ashtrays with the lids on them, people! They keep your butts in one place, comes with a lid you can open and dump the contents into the trash, helps put out the cigarette and keeps the still lit cigarette from catching stuff on fire when tossed into dry leaves. Not that that happens very often, especially right now, when everything is still so damp from all the rains we have had and the cold winter. But still, it’s a pain to pick them all up even in the fire pits.

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Campground Host Experiences, Volunteer At A Florida State Park, Workamping

Rainbow Springs Needs A Campground Host

February 7, 2018 Jolene MacFadden

I just received a message from one of my fellow Full-Time RVing volunteer campground hosts. Alisha and her family are hosting in Rainbow Springs State Park over the next couple of months and need a partnered couple for the camping area. The campground is fairly big with 54 reservable campsites including 44 RV/Tent, 3 RV only,
7 Tent Only, laundry rooms and has 4 bath houses that need to be cleaned daily. The sites are checked and cleaned when the campers leave, of course. The RV/Tents sites all have electric, water and sewers on site which is extremely nice for the campers but the Tent-Only area only has electric with water faucets. And there is landscaping to help keep clean and looking neat. During the week the campground office opens at 10 am Friday 8:30 am on Saturday. You can start cleaning bathrooms whenever you like, but you can’t pick up the camping report until the office opens.

Campground Host Experiences, Volunteer At A Florida State Park, Workamping, Working While RVing

Spring is Trying to Be Sprung

March 6, 2017 Jolene MacFadden

Spring is really trying to be sprung here in north Florida. In the last 7 days we have had almost 90 degree weather and highs in the 60’s. We have had mostly sunny days and mostly rainy and cloudy days. Nothing really seems to faze our visitors here at Alligator Lake Recreation Area in beautiful Lake City, Florida though. They come every single day to walk to trails, ride their bikes, play on the playground, picnic at one of the pavilions and every single weekend their are lots of birthday parties. Generally, the big screened in pavilion is only rented on the weekends and is reserved all the way into August, I think. So we have lots of trash cans to empty on Saturday and Sunday. The other smaller open but covered picnic pavilions are first-come-first-serve so we get quite a few people here first thing in the morning to stake out their favorite ones. Other than picking little pieces of confetti string and candy wrappers the visitors have been fairly good about cleaning up after themselves by putting their trash in the cans. We still have to chase down the occasional piece of tissue paper or paper bag that ends up the surrounding wooded areas.

Fun for RVers, Park Info, Sights to See, Workamping, Working While RVing

Our First Month at Big Shoals

October 6, 2014 Jolene MacFadden

Our first month at Big Shoals State Park has been uneventful and some would say even boring. But the weather is getting cooler and we are having a relaxing time. There are quite a few visitors that come every weekend but not so much during the week. We have been having problems with keeping the equipment going and we are no mechanics. The park currently only has one park ranger and waiting on a park services specialist to be hired. The park has a lovely picnic area right next to the river high on a bluff with picnic tables, barbecue grills and one fire pit.

There is a canoe/kayak launch down a sloping path that is overgrown with roots and has railroad ties as steps every so often. There a platform and some steps leading down into the river. There are no canoe/kayak racks for paddlers come down the Suwannee River before the park. Mostly, they come to launch to go the white water rapids area. The river is currently high and running fairly fast. With all the rain we have had over the last 4 weeks all the trails are wet with some even flooded in places. The 3 mile lone paved Woodpecker trail has to be blown off every week but we have only managed it one time since we have been here.

Campground Host Experiences, Park Info, Volunteer At A Florida State Park