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Sunday, March 13, 2016

It's Not All Work

But as the summer season is rapidly approaching, it sometimes seems like it is.

With the heavy winter rains and the flooding that occurred all around J. Strom Thurmond Lake, the rangers and volunteers have been working hard to get all the campgrounds and day use areas ready for use.  The rains caused lots of damage.


This is just a picture of a berm that was broken apart by the water, you can see in the right of the picture the line of pine needles that marked the high water mark.  We've found things like this all around the lake, it'll take a lot of man hours to fix.

To add insult to injury, we had a heavy windstorm with more rains, causing trees to fall all over the area.  We spent a couple of days checking COE property to asses the fallen trees.

 
Just one of the many downed trees we found.  Thankfully it missed damaging the sign.  We don't need any extra work!
 
Another major job was checking all of the hundreds of grills in the parks around the lake.  Water and rust has taken a toll on many of them.
 
Some can be repaired with a new plate on the bottom.
 
 
Others, not so easy.  A total replacement is needed on this one.
 
 
 We do love our workamping jobs, but when a day comes with lots of warm sunshine, we try to hop on our motorcycle and ride the beautiful roads around the area. 
 
 
 
 
Safety is our number one concern when we're out riding.  We upgraded to full face helmets for better protection, but it made it impossible to talk while riding.  I found some nice helmet radio communicators that I installed on the helmets, now we can talk as easily as if sitting in the Journey.  On Marti's helmet, on the left side, you can see the little black radio unit attached.  Inside the helmet are two speakers with installed microphones.  They work amazingly well and Marti gives them a big thumbs up.
 
  
 
 
Another busy week ahead.  We're looking forward to the challenge almost as much as heading out for another motorcycle ride.   ;c)
 
Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.
 
 
 

8 comments:

  1. Glad that you having fun too, gotta do it !

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  2. You two ROCK!! Can't thank you and all the volunteers for all you do to make our camping experiences so nice. Love the new helmets with radio communication..great idea:o)

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  3. So who gets to decide to hit the mute button on the helmets:)

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  4. Mother Nature has been playing havoc with a number of the southern states this year.
    From what I see in those pictures most of those grills only need to have the bottoms replaced. Anyone that is a qualified metal worker could repair those at a fraction of the costs to replace the entire grill. Unfortunately the US Government does not allow Canadian citizens to volunteer at those type of parks. They figure we should pay Income Taxes for the free sites and they also claim we would be taking a job away from a US citizen. Too bad it looks like a wonderful area.
    Be Safe and Enjoy!

    It's about time.

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  5. It won't be long until you start having more sunny days than rainy days. Wonder if they'll have trouble keeping you working instead of playing! The little mikes were a great idea.

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  6. So sorry to see all the damage. I know the park is extra glad to have the volunteers to help get things back in shape. Can't talk about motorcycles just now after this last week. LOL

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  7. So sorry to see all the damage. I know the park is extra glad to have the volunteers to help get things back in shape. Can't talk about motorcycles just now after this last week. LOL

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  8. Very fashionable, Marti :) You guys are doing a great job getting the lake ready for those summer visitors!

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