One of our favorite parts of being at Fort Frederica National Monument is living in Volunteer Village.  There are five RV pads in the compound, which means that there can be as many as ten volunteers living and working together.  It is our Georgia community and we all enjoy each other very much.

Although Tom and I work primarily with the other interpretive volunteers, we hang out with everyone in Volunteer Village.  We have game night once a week.  We play Apples to Apples, That Sound Game, Left Center Right, Farkle, and Name Five.  None of the RVs are big enough for all of us, so we usually play in the maintenance building or Headquarters.  This year we have been inviting Margot, the new site supervisor, because she is also in an RV on one of the pads.

In addition to working and playing together, we also go out to eat.  Iguanas is our main place to go because they have tables that can accommodate all of us.  We also plan to go to Scott’s BBQ but are waiting for a warm, rain-free evening.

Last Sunday most of us went to a concert at the Wesley Church.  Duo Beaux Arts, a husband and wife team, played two pianos.  Catherine Lan and Tao Lin have performed all over the world.  They played Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto #3, which was spectacular.  Catherine played the soloist part and Tao played the orchestra part.

Then Tao played Clair de Lune, one of the all-time great piano solos.  He also played another piece I’ve never heard of, but it was fun.  Then the two of them played Blue Danube Fantasy which was four hands on one piano.  Of course, they really played up the cross-overs and fighting over the middle of the piano.  The concert was wonderful.  I’m glad I got to go because we missed the February concert series this year.

Ranger Michael took everyone in Volunteer Village over to Cumberland Island again.  Denise and Bob and Tom and I had been two years ago, but Kathy and Marty and Debbie and Ed had not been.  It costs $40 to take the ferry over to the island and then, in order to see anything, you have to take the $60 tour.  Getting a personalized, behind the scenes, tour by the resource manager and curator was a real treat.

We saw all the same stuff we saw before, but we also saw some new things.  The wild horses looked skinnier than ever.  A volunteer docent gave us an excellent tour of Plum Orchard Mansion, which taught us some of the history of the house.  Kaylie, the curator, took us upstairs at the stables to look at the “boneyard” of the mansions – pieces of the historic houses and furnishings that had been taken out.  We also caught a glimpse of Carol Ruckdeschel, the subject of the book “Untamed.”  Ranger Michael says she hates him, so she disappeared as soon as she saw him.

Michael and Kaylie drove the small boat that took us out and back and they were a lot faster than the crew boat that we took last time.  Taking the smaller boat meant that we left the dock in St. Marys at 8:30, which meant that we had to leave Fort Frederica at 7.  We got back to St. Mary’s at 4:30, so it was a long day on the island.  A wonderful time, but a long day.  We were riding with Bob and Denise and we stopped at the Dairy Queen in Kingsland for supper.

One last story about Volunteer Village shenanigans.  Ranger Bob was supposed to go to New Orleans for a week of vacation during Mardi Gras.  Because of the uncertainty about park ranger jobs right now, he decided to cancel his vacation.   He was very disappointed.  All the volunteers decided to have a small “Mardi Gras” party for our rangers as a pick-me-up.

Denise found a king cake after looking at three different stores.  Tom and I were in charge of decorations.  We found lots of Easter decorations, some St. Patrick’s Day decorations, and some Valentine’s Day decorations on sale.  But no Mardi Gras decorations.  So we bought three colors of beads for a do-it-yourself project.  All the volunteers gathered at a picnic table and strung together necklaces to give to our rangers.  The next day we draped them around the necks of our rangers and enjoyed a light-hearted lunch together.

With the political situation, it is hard to say what the future holds for any of the national park sites.  Fort Frederica only has one interpretive ranger and they are saying that positions will be cut in the future.  I’m not sure how you keep the park open.  It has been hard enough with just our one ranger.  The volunteers step in and do what we can but we are supposed to be under the supervision of a ranger at all times.

Our season at Fort Frederica is winding down.  Don and Diana left at the end of February.  Denise and Bob will be leaving March 15.  The rest of us will be done at the end of March.  Which means we still have time for a few more shenaningans in Volunteer Village.