NEW KID IN TOWN

I wouldn't say I've been humbled.

After all that would mean it was something I had not expected.

It would also require another person that was trying to humble me.

I left Brown County State Park Christmas Eve with the gratitude and respect for the work I did there for the last seven months. I had become one of the main go to guys there and the Park Manager, Assistant Manager and Maintenance Supervision doled out pats on my back on a regular basis. Sounds like I'm patting myself on the back here.

Don't mean to, it's an attempt to make a larger point. That point being my ego was receiving a proper balance of nutrition.

This park in Florida, Koreshan State Historical Site has been the prize I've had my eye on since I visited my cousin here last February. My cousin was a tour guide here and he gave me a personal tour of the Settlement. The entire park and Settlement was fascinating but it was when we got to the antique machine shops and the turn of the century electrical power house, my eyes lit up with all the voltage the antique Nikola Tesla designed Westinghouse alternator could generate.

I have always had an affinity for cogs and wheels and pulleys and rotors and stators and pistons and electricity and early technology.

And here it all was, in one small area of the park, a dim, ancient looking, hand blown bulb appeared above my head. This is where I wanted to spend the rest of my winters.

I came to Florida that warm humid February (at least down here) without a clue of where I was going to live. I had been staying with my brother for well over a year since my last and final divorce and I knew it was way past time to give him his home and privacy back.

I had been looking for an apartment close to or in Nashville Indiana. Close to my lake lot and fishin shack, close to the park I love so much Brown County State Park.

15,000 acres of beautiful rolling hills and vistas, mountain biking, hiking and horseback riding trails aplenty.

I had put in my name on a waiting list at a Senior Living apartment in Nashville months before. I never heard back from them so I figured being such a nice place to live, the residents there would probably hang on to those apartments like grim death!

My cousin had been coming this park in Florida for the winter for several years, volunteering at the park, in return he and the other volunteers got to camp for free for 20 hours of work a week.

Sounded like a perfect solution to me!

When I got back home I made several efforts to do the same at the park at Nashville.

Finally got my gig going there and loved the 7 months I spent there.

Christmas Eve would find my hitching my wagon and heading south to my new home in Florida for the next 3 plus months.

I wasn't exactly sure what I would be doing here, I told the Volunteer Coordinator I wasn't above picking up trash or cleaning toilets.

The real gig I wanted was in the Industrial Area of the park, where the gear and motor heads run and demonstrate all the gadgets and cogs and wheels, and monster engines of days gone bye.

That would have to be a job I would have to wait for I was told.

The guys who have that job loved what they were doing and would hang on to that gig like grim death!

Sure, who would blame them? I would go there and do what was required of me and put my name on another waiting list for that job. Another waiting list that I would probably never hear back from.

The day after Christmas I pulled my camper in the Volunteer Camp. My cousin had gone back up to Indy for the holidays and was not back yet.

The other volunteers at the camp were very welcoming and helpful when they learned who I was. Apparently my cousin has a lot of juice here!

One of the men helping me get set up here was also the guy who runs the Industrial Area.

Real great guy as is all the other people here. Most people are nice here in the tropics, it's hard to be an asshole in this weather!

It took several days to be able to find out what I was supposed to do so I just hung out with the Industrial guys. Learning what I could, helping when I could, trying not to get in the way, trying not to shoot my mouth off all the while trying to showcase some semblance of talent in this arena. I learned they were a guy short! The big guy of the Industrial Area put in a good word for me and that did the trick! I got my dream job in the Industrial Area down here right off the bat, but I understood going in I was no longer the go-to guy, I had to check my inflated ego at the Florida Welcome Center.

Like the good Lord says, "humble thyself and pray". I would add humble thyself and learn.

These guys make that very easy to do.

I prayed all the way from Nashville Indiana that I wouldn't flip my camper and contents upside down in a ditch on the way down here. I humbled myself gladly and switched my brain into the sponge mode. You have to know when it's time to shut the hell up and listen to the wisdom around you. There is plenty of that around here. There are a variety of very sharp old guys that are very good at what they do and very good about sharing the knowledge they have acquired over a lifetime of turning wrenches, turning lathes, running wires, building cabinets, writing books, just about anything you can think of this group of volunteers has a pool of talent that I hope to draw from. 

This job consists of repairing and rebuilding an antique power station, machine shops, monster crude oil burning engines, gas engines and firing them up for demonstration.

The most important aspect of this gig is to be on hand when people stroll in and just shoot the bull with them, show them the large and small machine shops and the power house and explain the history of the park and how everything works.

I haven't been assigned shifts for giving tours yet, but I have already started doing it.

I really love getting my hands greasy around here and I really enjoy talking to people about it. 

As I said, well over a year ago I had put my name on a waiting list for a nice apartment in Nashville.

Funny, yesterday in the old power house as I was being mentored by the Obi-Wan Kenobi of the Industrial Area, I got a call from the apartment complex telling me they finally had a place for me now, "no thanks", I said, "I've already found a home".