A couple of years before I started writing this blog I wrote a journal to document my travels as a fulltimer. I’m glad I did. It wasn’t the first journal I wrote. I have a journal of my trip to Alaska in 2004, and a few other short ones about birds and camping that I did while I was still working.
A few days ago, I went back in my journal to read about my time spent volunteering at Pea Island and Alligator River NWRs back in the summer of 2007. I didn’t write daily in the journal, but I sure enjoyed my observations from five years ago. Since I was the only one reading it, I included everything good and bad about that experience. Over all, I had a good time there with some wonderful memories. I’ll be heading back there in a couple of weeks, so it was a good time to review things.
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I started out staying at the volunteer site on Pea Island. I had a view out my front window of the ocean.
Being right on the ocean was something I always wanted to do. I walked the beach daily and collected shells. On the down side, there were the mosquitoes and salt spray on the rig.
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After a month, I moved over to Alligator River NWR, and this was the view out my front window. The reason I moved was because I had no cell phone or internet reception on Pea Island.
No ocean view, but black bears, wolves, and bobcats surrounded me. On the down side, I spent some time up close and personal with chiggers. Ugh!
On Tuesday, I emailed Abbey, the volunteer coordinator for both refuges, and asked if I could arrive just after the middle of the month instead of the first of August. I’m ready to start volunteering again, but didn’t know if a site would be available for me.
She replied to me today to say that there were a couple of sites available for my arrival around the 18th of the month. I hope you can enlarge this map to see my choices. The arrow on the left is Alligator River. The one on the bottom right is Pea Island which I don’t think is available. The one in the middle is Bodie Island Light House that is a part of the Hatteras Island National Seashore. Abbey said that the Bodie Island site is beautiful, and that the National Park Service has offered a site for a volunteer there. She also said there is good cell phone reception there.
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I guess I’ll decide once I get there. The Bodie Island site is a lot closer to the Visitor’s Center where I’ll be working on Pea Island, and gives me the option of experiencing a barrier island coast once again. Perhaps I’ll split my time between both locations. I’m getting excited about getting back in the saddle again, smelling the salty air, and having a purpose for getting up in the morning. Does it come down to a choice between mosquitoes and chiggers?? Hmm…
Yes, I do go back and read old posts or journal entries. How about you?
Thanks for stopping by… talk to you later, Judy
