Saturday, January 31, 2015

Living History Tour

Hi All,

We did our next History Tour today. We had 13 visitors (more when we started shooting).

Sandy started by telling folks how important the salt marsh habitat was. 

After a tour of the fort exhibit we shows folks the various firearms used during the period. Here's Carl in period French costume firing a matchlock musket.


Then Ranger Craig demonstrated the Flintlock musket typical of weapons used during the revolutionary war.


We all smell like sulphur and black powder but folks really seemed to enjoy the program.

Love,

Sandy & Carl 
Living & Traveling in our Motorhome
Volunteering across America
617-435-8502

Antique Weapons

Hi All,

All is well here. We have helped create and conduct a weekly Nature Walk and a weekly History Tour that began last week.

Yesterday Carl helped rearrange the parks antique weapons collection.

Matchlock and flintlock muskets, swords and sabers.

Flintlock pistol and early revolver

Demonstration cannon. We have not yet fired this one.

Here are both of the park's demonstration cannon in their storage trailer.

Shovel safely, Go Pats

Love,
Sandy & Carl 
Living & Traveling in our Motorhome
Volunteering across America
617-435-8502

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Full timers-Sandy & Carl Greenbaum

Hi All,

Nick Russell is an author and full time RVer who publishes Gypsy Journal newsletter as well as a daily blog. Nick recently began a series of blogs about other full timers. Here's what he wrote about us.

Nick's Blog: Fulltimers – Sandy and Carl Greenbaum



Fulltimers – Sandy and Carl Greenbaum

Posted: 20 Jan 2015 09:19 PM PST

Who are these modern day gypsies who spend their lives on the road? What prompted them to leave their former homes and communities for a life on wheels? Each week we will introduce you to some of the fulltime RVers we meet in our travels and those who read this blog.

Can you think of a better way to spend your retirement than living in our country's beautiful National Parks and other natural areas? Neither could Carl and Sandy Greenbaum, who spend their time volunteering in National Parks and National Wildlife Refuges (NWR).

Greenbaum

They've been doing it for over eight years and have developed a pattern of volunteering in Florida or Arizona in the winter and at Grand Teton National Park in summer. They have done volunteer gigs in Okefenokee, (three winters), Santa Ana, and at Oregon Coast (two summers) NWRs, Ocala (two winters) and Pisgah National Forest, Tumacacori National Historical Park, Potter Marsh (Alaska), Patagonia Lake State Park in Arizona, Fort Caroline National Memorial, and Grand Teton.

Before retirement they lived in Hudson, New Hampshire for 28 years, where Sandy was a teacher, trainer, and technical writer, and Carl spent 31 years as an electrical engineer. Carl and Sandy have been fulltiming for 4½ years, and for the six years before that they spent 6-9 months a year on road.

Longtime campers, they had two different van campers in the 1970s when their kids were small. From 1982 to 2000 they had a dry spell with no RVs, then they bought a used Safari Trek for weekend and summer trips. When retirement approached, they traded up for a 34 foot National Dolphin, and in early 2007 they traded it for their current coach, a Tiffin Phaeton 35 DH.

They said they began fulltiming when they realized that their condo in Lowell, Massachusetts was setting empty from 6 to 9 months a year, and decided to sell it. Like most new fulltimers, they moved around a lot in the first three years, traveling to Alaska, Mexico, Belize, Newfoundland, and Baja, putting 55,000 miles on the Dolphin in 3½ years. Now they explore new places between volunteer gigs. They have traveled in caravans to Mexico and Belize, and to Baja and Canada several times on their own.

They have been to Alaska twice, a three month "vacation" trip in 2003 that included the usual sites like Fairbanks, Denali, Anchorage, Chicken, Homer, and Seward, plus a several day trip to Juneau by ferry. In 2008 they returned and volunteered at Potter Marsh, just south of Anchorage.

When asked what some of their favorite places have been, Carl and Sandy said wherever they are at the moment. When pressed for a more specific answer, they said it would be Grand Teton and the Oregon Coast.

The Greenbaums belong to the FMCA, Good Sam, and Passport America. They attended two Life on Wheels conferences and several FMCA rallies, all in the first few years. They said they attended many seminars and classes at those events, and rate Mac McCoy's fire safety classes as their favorites.

Now they rarely go to RV shows and rallies. They are too busy birding, taking photos, volunteering, making new friends and having fun. They want to visit as many National Parks and Wildlife Refuges as possible. 

When asked about their best day fulltiming, the Greenbaums said it was hard to choose just one. Maybe close sightings of grizzly bears and moose in the campground at Grand Teton, or perhaps seeing seals, sea lions, thousands of nesting sea birds and gray and Orca whales offshore on the Oregon coast. In both of these cases they were volunteering and these "best days" occurred often!

Their worst day fulltiming was when they were stuck in Birmingham, Alabama for a week with a blown turbo on their coach.

Carl and Sandy agree that the hardest part of leaving their old lives is being away from friends and family. They both had jobs they enjoyed, but traveling across the country is better. 

When asked what advice they would give to a newbie, they said that fulltiming is wonderful, but not for everyone. Make sure you love the lifestyle before you sell everything.

Summing up their feelings about their lives as fulltime RVers, Carl and Sandy said that fulltiming and volunteering have given them great opportunities to live in beautiful places, meet many great people,and help others enjoy our parks and refuges. They plan to continue until health or boredom (unlikely) makes them hang up the keys. I suspect that they are having way to much fun for that to happen anytime soon.

Thought For the Day – Being young is beautiful, but being old is comfortable.

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Sandy & Carl 
Living & Traveling in our Motorhome
Volunteering across America
617-435-8502

Sunday, January 11, 2015

More Time at Merritt Island

Hi All,

Saturday we spent more time birding at Merritt Island then drove to the north end of Canaveral National Seashore on the way home.

It was sunny so the gaters were out

but the blue wing real we're sleeping.

We saw several large groups of white pelicans feeding in the lagoon 

while this reddish egret hunkered down on a small mangrove.
Stay warm up north.

Love,

Sandy & Carl 
Living & Traveling in our Motorhome
Volunteering across America
617-435-8502

Photographed and sent from Carl's iPhone

Saturday, January 10, 2015

Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge

Hi All,

We drove the car to Titusville Friday to visit Merritt Island refuge and Canaveral National Seashore. For one night it was more convenient and cheaper to get a motel room for one night than to drive the coach.

Our first stop was the Visitor Center where we spoke to a ranger about volunteering next winter and dropped off our resumes.

Next stop was the Blackpoint Wildlife Drive. Lots of beautiful birds close up. 

A beautiful Roseate Spoonbill.

This reddish egret was scurrying around looking for lunch

while this glossy ibis drilled in one spot.

Snowy egret watching for fish

Sandy photographing a great egret.
That was Friday. Stay tuned for what Saturday brings.

Love,

Sandy & Carl 
Living & Traveling in our Motorhome
Volunteering across America
617-435-8502

Photographed and sent from Carl's iPhone

Monday, January 5, 2015

Catching Up

Hi All,

We are still having a great time here at Fort Caroline


This young visitor has quite a few Junior Ranger badges!
Now he has one more.

This is Carl's latest graphics project for the park. A beginner birders checklist with the 80 most common birds including photos.


Our mail forwarding agent is moving. Please update our permanent mailing address to:

3916 N Potsdam Ave
PMB 2745
Sioux Falls, SD. 57104

Love,
Sandy & Carl 
Living & Traveling in our Motorhome
Volunteering across America
617-435-8502