This morning was another beautiful morning. No fog today, but I was up and out of the house a little early and the sun is waking up later and later these days. I even found an owl who was still out and about this morning. I was done with my park opening procedures and parked at the office while the brilliant rays of the sunrise were still firing through the trees. I decided to take a walk through the park first thing to catch some images before I spent the rest of my day doing paperwork and driving paperwork around. I am a little sad that the summer is on its way out, it was just not long enough for me, but there are a few things that I am looking forward to as fall approaches. I like coming to work to see the sun still rising. Most people hate it when the days get shorter, but I like it! The park closes at sunset, so when the sun sets earlier, the park closes earlier. It doesn't change my work schedule much, but manpower resources are not stretched as thinly and I can stop worrying about what is going on in the park after I go home at an earlier hour. I go home when my shift is over, but I can relax once the gate it closed. I am also looking forward to being able to work on outside projects at all hours of the day rather than only in the mornings before it gets hot. I think I am rambling a bit today. Back to the beautiful morning... this is what it looked like.
As I made my way over to the picnic area, I was thinking that the park really didn't look like 300 people had been through over the weekend. Good job park staff and good job park visitors! Everyone held their own with cleaning responsibilities and I only picked up one piece of garbage left over this morning. I did, however, find the mother of all mud pies of all places at the rinse station. I'm sure that the child that made and carried this mud pie from the spring area definitely needed some hosing off at the rinse station. It really was the perfect punctuation mark at the end of a wet and muddy summer. I left it to cook a little longer in the sun today, and tomorrow I will chisel the dried mud pie up and clean up the spot it will leave.
After my walk, I powered through paperwork and then headed over to Adams Tract. I was seeing off the volunteer host who has been living and working at the river camp. His stay is up and he was off to his next volunteer position. I helped him with the finishing touches of packing up his RV and hooking up his truck to trailer behind the RV. While I was there, I caught a glimpse of a large Skink sunning itself on a woodpile. I tried to get closer for a better photo, but it was very shy and scampered away to take cover in the woodpile.
The next stop was the bank and then Ichetucknee. I dropped off my paperwork, chatted with my assistant manager and the park biologist for a few minutes and then headed back to Troy. I stopped for lunch on the way back through town and ate half of it on the way. When I got back to the park, I was happy to see a dive instructor that I haven't seen in a while. She hadn't been back to Troy since the flooding, she was happy to be back too. I got her squared away and then headed to the office to finish lunch. I took care of a few things and my evening relief came in. While I talked to her, the phone started ringing more that I have heard it ring in a while. One call after another kept coming in. I realized that I was not going to accomplish anything else today, so I headed home. Tomorrow will likely be a busy day for me, but at least its my Friday.
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