Sunday, December 30, 2007

Camp Cloverleaf

Leaving the Gulf coast early this morning we again headed south and east. Zipped through Fanning Springs, the "Gateway to the Swanee". (John of course broke into song with multiple verses even but we didn't stop.) Next came horse country - BIG money somewhere! Then into the heart of Florida where there are still mile after mile of orange groves although it's obvious many of them are being wiped out to put in developments. Enjoy that US orange juice while you can! We kept thinking we'd pass a fruit stand on OUR side of the road, but guess they only cater to folks going north. Tomorrow we'll take a field trip and acquire some fresh fruit. (In case you're wondering, the fine is VERY steep for helping yourself, so even though there's an orange grove across the road, we'll acquire ours legally.)

There are 18 of us working on this Habitat build. Alan, the guy at the left on his "Sunday" motorcycle, is our site supervisor. They have all the materials ready for us to get most of a house done before we leave in two weeks. It sounds like this site is very well organized so building a house does seem possible.

As usual we have a real mix of folks - Michigan, Maine, Vermont, Minnesota, (looking to escape winter in the north) as well as folks from Washington, South Carolina, Texas. As far as camping, we're enjoying the 4-H camp owned by the U. of Florida. It is absolutely beautiful plus we have the run of the place. John & I took kayaks out this evening - couldn't have been more pleasant as the temp here was in the 80's. There's fishing from the dock, a game room with pool table, a complete kitchen, BBQ, great showers. And because New Year's is coming up, we have Monday afternoon and Tuesday off to do some sightseeing. Talk about a plum place to volunteer!