First "official" day at work

Today was a lot better day than yesterday - I slept better last night and we were up on time - took my shower and got ready for work. Dan fixed us breakfast and after he ate, he headed off to work. Which left me to clean up the kitchen before I left for "the office". I walked down to the ranger station and was actually there about 10 minutes early. While walking toward the "office" a young doe ran out of the woods and came right toward me. She got within about 50 feet before she saw me and stopped. She just stood there and watched me for a good minute before she turned around and ran back into the woods. Of course I didn't have my camera with me and I told the ranger that I worked with that I was going to have to start bringing my camera with me every morning. We also saw two other deer while I was at the ranger station (a doe and a young buck). There is quite a bit of wildlife around here and you know that Dan is loving it.

Learning what to do in the ranger station was not too bad today - I actually got on the cash register right after I got to work. I only made two mistakes - at least two that I know of. It is really just slowing down and making sure you look at what you are doing. After you know the sequence of keys you need to push and follow that sequence you can't mess up - it's just I didn't follow the right sequence to begin with. The rangers said I did a great job - but we'll see how things go tomorrow.

While I was slaving at the office Dan was out playing with another ranger - being taken on a tour of the park and shown all the neat places to go. When I finally got off work Dan met me with one of the golf carts and brought me home. He still had one more bathroom to clean (because he had been out playing), so I came in and fixed lunch so it was ready when he got finished and came home. When he came in we ate lunch and then he had to take the golf cart back to the maintenance building. Well, little did I know that he was going to pick up the "Mule" and come back with it. He came in and asked if I wanted to go for a ride - and he would show me around.

Well, off we went into the park and, of course, I didn't take my camera with me and I didn't even think about it until we were quite a distance from the 'house'. So, we saw two deer running down the road and again no picture. Then we went back to the dam and saw one small (about 3 foot long) alligator. The fish were jumping everywhere. Dan was just a happy little camper.

Then he wanted to take me to the small canal - but before we did - I convinced him to come back to the house so I could get my camera - we didn't see any more deer but we did see ...........


some alligators - this is a momma alligator and if you look very carefully you will see a couple of babies (one is right below her mouth the other is over to the left - they actually look like sticks in the picture here, but believe me they are the babies).

This is the other gator we saw at the canal. I guess the thing that sorta bothers me is - they were not the least bit upset with our being there. You know how when you come up they usually run off into the water - well, these just sat and didn't pay any attention to us at all. It may have to do with the fact that the public is not suppose to go back into the area we were in (ahhh, the advantages of being an "employee") and that they were on the opposite side of the canal from us. I also took some pictures of some big turtles that we saw.

We have three more days at work - Wednesday should be a very easy day for me - everyone gets into the park free on Veteran's Day. In one way, that will be cool, in another way it will be very boring - not interacting with the public. Anyway, I think it is a good gesture for the public that the parks are doing.

Well, that was our day. I'll try and remember to take my camera with me when I go to work in the morning from now on so I will have pictures for you to see. Hope you enjoy the ones I have posted here.

Talk to you tomorrow