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Borrego Springs, CA

Friday, July 27, 2012

Come be a visitor with me

69  Pea Island & Alligator River NWRs  2012

About three weeks ago, the Gateway Visitors Center opened in Manteo, NC.  This new “green” facility (notice the solar panels on the roofs) serves as the ‘gateway’ to eleven National Wildlife Refuges in the coastal North Carolina and southeastern Virginia area. 

69  Pea Island & Alligator River NWRs  20121

And what a spectacular visitors center it is!  You can take a virtual flight in an airplane to view aerial tours of each refuge, visit a red wolf den, learn about prescribed burns, visually see the effects of hurricanes on the Outer Banks, and enjoy four different videos including one of the town of Buffalo City before Alligator River NWR came into existence.  Buffalo City was a most interesting place with a lively history during prohibition. 

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I was here today to learn the ropes of running this place.  I’ll be on my own for a full day on Sunday.  Each visitors center I’ve worked at has their own special way of doing things, and the kinks are still being worked out of this one.  Abbey’s in charge, and she’s done a great job of making all the volunteers feel comfortable working here.  If you look closely above at the pic on the right, perhaps you can see two bears and a wild turkey.

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My favorite display for visitors is the area depicting the inland forest area of several of the refuges.  There are 37 critters that can be found if you have the desire and patience to seek them out.  I’ve only shown the blatantly obvious ones here.  It’s not easy to find all of them, and once I tell visitors about the challenge, they usually take up the gauntlet to find them all.   Young and old alike walk the length of the large display pointing, counting on their fingers, and getting excited about their discoveries.  Now that’s what I’m here for.  We may not have any roses to smell, but folks willingly take the time to look slowly and closely at this moist woodland habitat.  Perhaps when they visit the refuges, they will take the time to appreciate all that is before them.

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The real highlight of this training day for me was to meet Suzanne Tate.  She is the author of all of the children’s books you see on the right of the photo.  These books are delightful, and five years ago I sent several of them to all of my grandchildren.  “Tammy Turtle” has turned out to be a favorite of grandgirls Avery and Phoebe in Indiana.  It’s the tale of how the Pea Island NWR refuge, its staff, and volunteers help by trying to save the endangered sea turtles.

Suzanne is a delightful woman, and I wished that I had been able to spend more time with her.  She lives on the Outer Banks, and her love of the shores and its inhabitants is obvious in her books.  “Tammy Turtle” is one of her best selling books.  I can understand that.  I hope I’m here when she stops in again so I can get her to autograph the books I’ll be picking out this time to send the grands.

Thanks for stopping by… talk to you later,  Judy

25 comments:

  1. Judy,

    You and Emma get to do so many interesting things. However, I am not sure that Emma appreciates all of it. Anyway,you get to meet neat people and live in and experience interesting places. I find that your blog is a great example of how RVers have a unique opportunity to shape their lives. You certainly are dong that. And you are giving back at the same time. Kudos to you.

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  2. What a great visitor's center! I'm sure you will do a good job running the place on Sunday. It's always nice to meet a favorite author. :)

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  3. You always have such interesting adventures. I love reading your blog. How neat to meet the author of such great books. These are the kind I would choose to give my grands also!

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  4. Looks as if you have gotten back into the swing of things really well after your sabatical. Going to have to put the Outer Banks on the bucket list, for sure.

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  5. Sounds like a wonderful new adventure for you....looking forward to reading about it.

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  6. I wish you much success running the show on Sunday! You will do a magnificent job, and I'm so envious of how quickly you pick up on everything. My mind and memory are really slowing down.

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  7. What a super spot you two are blessed to have. I am sure you are a fast learner and will have the Visitor's Center all in order by Sunday.

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  8. What an awesome visitor's center, where you get to welcome visitors. The displays are awesome. So lucky for you to meet Suzanne. I will make sure I pick up a few of her books for my grands too!

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  9. Nice place, I can see why you like to volunteer there.

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  10. I'm sure you'll have everything under control by Sunday. The Outer Banks is a special place and I can see us volunteering there one day when we've slowed down a bit. Right now, we're still moving too often but our time will come :) Thanks for the tour.

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  11. Boy do I wish I could take you up on the invitation to "Come be a visitor with me". I love the Outer Banks and really can't wait to see this new dynamite visitor's center. You have really whetted my appetite.

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  12. Sounds like an awesome visitors center!

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  13. What a great Visitor Center. I love those centers so much to learn.

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  14. I'd love to visit that place someday. I'm sure you'll do a great job running things this Sunday!

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  15. Nice to meet the author of the children's books. I always try to send autographed copies of kid's books to my niece's little girl and boy. Makes it more personal, I think.

    Have a great time at the NWR. Can't wait to see more bird pictures!

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  16. what a great visitor center!!..enjoy your time there!!

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  17. What a wonderful place; we'll have to stop by and check it out when we return to the OBX to spend time at the refuges. Too bad we can't do it now while you're there.

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  18. That's another VC that we haven't visited... it was closed when we stopped by in 2005... We walked around outside and peeked in windows ;-) Looks like a totally new facility since then. So... next time we're down that way we'll have to check it out. Looks like a great place... both as a volunteer and as a visitor!

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  19. Looks like a fabulous visitor center. We might just take you up on that offer :)

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  20. I have had visions and delusions of writing children's books....I would love to have met that great lady!..You have a super neat place to work..love all the stuffed animals and nature exhibits...You should be a stand out as a volunteer...

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  21. You are making me envious. I had an application in there before the housing was destroyed and hope to get to work there. That looks like a a fabulous visitor center.

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  22. I like children's books. For me. They make it easy to learn so many things about our world. My favorite from our travels so far was about the Code Talkers; it included a decoder and a message to decode. Fun.

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  23. Sounds like a fantastic place to take kids. One day I hope you can be the volunteer helping me see the place you are at.

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