THE ADVENTURES OF PLATY AND THE GANG
2009 Virginia
(click on the pictures for a larger view)
On March 19th we Left Florida and
took a couple of days to travel to Chippokes
Plantation State Park in Virginia. Daniel White, the former Asst. Manager at
Grayson Highlands State Park recently got a promotion and is now Manager at
Chippokes. He asked us to visit and do a few projects. We stayed
until the end of April volunteering as Park Hosts.
Judy
worked in the Visitor Center answering the phones and taking care of
customers. I worked on their computers, networking them and changing how
they connect to the internet. Judy also spent a few days picking up 28 bags of
trash along the highway. We also started a web
page for the Friends Group. You can learn all about the park there.
One project was installing a weather station
and a web cam for their Friends Group. We "planted" a pole and
mounted the weather station. Judy held the pole while the concrete set. 
You can see the results here.
The camera was mounted on the Visitor Center facing the James River. If
you could see it, Jamestown is directly across the river. You can see the
picture here.
The park was using a satellite connection for their internet. We
converted to using cellular air cards which are faster and cheaper for
them. We were then asked to visit another park (Twin Lakes) that needed to
improve their dialup connection.
We stayed in the cabins at Bear Creek Lake State Park with Daniel,
Jennifer, his wife, and new addition Emma. 
We visited Twin Lakes the next day and did a survey to test how good
their reception would be.
Judy held the antenna during the test and Daniel ran the computer.
While
staying at Chippokes, the closest shopping is Williamsburg just across the
river. The closest bridge is 40 miles away so the shortest access is by
way of the ferry. It's only a couple of miles across but it takes almost an hour
after waiting, loading and unloading. We tried to avoid going across.
While
we were in the Visitor Center we found some relatives of Bearister, our ranger
bear. This is Bearister with his cousin Barney who went to live with John
and Jane in Texas. He now guards their ranch.
Before
we left the employees of the park gave us a nice fruit basket. We enjoyed
our stay and hope to return in October.
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