It's been a hot, humid and generally quiet few weeks here at Kelly's RV Park in White Springs, FL. Except for the hassles of a ripped awning I wrote about in the previous post, most of our time has been spent inside with the A/C. The park is not seeing much business right now and everyone is moving slower as the summer doldrums set in. The Suwannee River is flowing at a high level due to almost daily thunderstorms, now looking like strongly brewed coffee due to an increase of tannins in the water. It's Summertime in the Old South. Crank up the Stephen Foster tunes.
There was a nice pot-luck gathering on the 4th where the owners, Mary and Richard, provided hamburgers and sausages and everyone else brought side dishes. We enjoyed a selection of salads, baked beans, chips, dips and an excellent mango coleslaw made by Deb that proved to be very popular. Numerous people asked her for the recipe; which you can find on her blog. About two dozen people attended, mostly permanent residents, and it was a very nice time. We were able to meet a few new people and catch up on the latest news on the area. The men mainly talked fishing or NASCAR while the ladies asked about the latest updates on who wasn't there. It was a pleasant way to spend the holiday.
We have stayed at over 15 RV parks (both public & private) over the past year and found a real gem here at Kelly's. Aside from being well maintained and providing excellent amenities like an open library filled with hundreds of books, this place is special because of the people. From the day we arrived we were welcomed with open arms and made to feel as if we had come back home. Most of the permanent residents started the way we did. They arrived initially for a short visit and now have been here for years. It's that kind of place. Everyone is friendly, concerned about one another and works hard to make this area feel like a true neighborhood. That has been the exception to the rule in many places we have stayed.
There are very distinct differences between public and private RV parks. In most State parks your stay is limited to two weeks because of vagrancy concerns. Some will allow you to leave for a few days and return for another two week stay, but the overall atmosphere is filled with people coming and going on a daily basis. They are nice, natural settings, but people tend to stay to themselves.
The private parks are much different in that in almost all of them there are distinct layers to the residents. There are the permanent residents who stay year-round (or as long as they can in Northern areas where parks close for the Winter season), the permanent part-timers who have a site for weekend stays or vacations, those who stay for several months or weeks at a time and the overnighters. In many private parks we have stayed, some permanent sites have been occupied by the same families for generations. We have come to prefer staying in private parks because they allow longer visits with more amenities (usually at better rates), but have also found glaring differences in how the permanent population treat newcomers to the territory.
Last August we were travelling our way towards Boston and stayed at two private parks in Upstate New York. One was the Beaver Springs Lake Park and the other was Frosty Acres Park; which I have since referred to as Frost-My-A$$. Both were for two week periods and both proved to be like something out of a Stephen King story. They had the same levels of residents as mentioned above, but the permanent residents treated us as if we had just landed in their space with the intention of overthrowing their empire. It was weird. They didn't wave a friendly hello, they never spoke to us, they glared our way while speaking among themselves in whispered tones and, I'm sure, kept asking management when we were going to leave.
I'll have to give credit to the owners of Beaver Springs Lake Park for being some of the nicest people we have met along our journey. They truly cared about our feeling comfortable, but seemed to be caught in the middle of dealing with the permanent residents they inherited when they bought the property. A prime example is when the husband rode his bike up to our spot and invited us to the weekly bingo game at the pavilion. Part of his comment was (and I'm not making this up), "At least you can get away from the Hound Of The Baskervilles for awhile." Huh??
As far as the experience at Frosty Acres, they can still kiss my a$$. I wrote enough about that in previous posts. Let's just say the people there were equally not as welcoming.
So it is now a great joy to be among people who see and treat us as one of there own. We didn't arrive here expecting that, but it's happened and we are the better for it. Deb makes regular morning visits to the office where people gather like it's Floyd's Barber Shop. We enjoy monthly pot-luck meals with the neighbors, catch a ride to town once in a while and know everyone by name. It's a good neighborhood with good people. Who could ask for more.
Until next time, Happy Trails.
copyright 2009-2010 Lane A Geyer
photos by Deb
