Since this blog is as much a souvenir of our trip as a way of letting our family and friends know what we are up to, readers will have to have patience with the large number of photos in this section.
Okefenokee National Wildlife Reserve, not to be confused with Okefenokee Swamp Park, is a large chunk of Okefenokee Swamp. We spent parts of 3 days there and highly recommend it for alligator, turtle and bird watchers.
Our first trip was rather disappointing. As Chuck worked in the morning and the day was warm, we went in the cooler part of the afternoon. Unfortunately, we found that the Visitor Center is closed Sundays and Mondays in the winter, there is no shady parking where we could leave Rumple, and they want kayaks out of the water 1.5 hours before the park closes (which is 5:30 in the winter – we arrived at 3:00).
Our trip was not a complete waste, however. The Visitor Center sits on a branch of the Suwanee canal that is quite popular with big turtles and big gators. We saw many, many dinner-plate sized turtles and 2 very big alligators. According to Wikipedia, alligators eat the turtles, which may explain why the gators like to hang around the Visitor Center but does not explain why the turtles do.
We also took a scenic drive that included a stop at a small pond, inhabited by at least 5 baby gators and their mama. This photo is a close-up of a baby that was about 18 inches long and much more colorful and lizard-like than the large alligators. 
(The large ones look like logs in the water and like bronze sculptures when sunning) A young man impressing a girl friend splashed at the side of the pond, which send the babies into the water in a rush to be with mom. Fortunately, no “accidents” occurred. (My sympathies would have been with mama gator.)
The apex of the drive had a long boardwalk through the marsh, ending at a tower overlooking a lake well-populated with large swimming alligators. A good picture of the wildlife would require a telephoto lens.
Near the Visitor Center is another hike along the canal to a swamp “prairie” which is a wetland filled with swamp reeds and grasses. Although we did not see any alligators in the canal during the hike, the prairie was filled with large birds including herons and Sandhill cranes. Again, good photos are hard to get with just a phone camera.
On Monday, our friends Ron and Judy volunteered to watch Rumple while we kayaked in the swamp. We headed for a closer entrance to the Suwanee, King Fisher Landing, where another friend, David, had told us he had seen many alligators. It was a very pleasant paddle, and had the advantage that, unlike the main park entrance, kayaks were allowed on the water until sundown. 
This area also had a lot of alligators and turtles.
On Tuesday we returned to the Visitor Center fairly early in the morning for a very satisfying experience. While it was still cool we left Rumple in the car and kayaked the canal. We saw lots and lots of alligators – mostly waiting in the water for prey, but also a few that swam along-side the kayaks or sunned on the banks.
There are also a lot of large birds including herons, cormorants and ospreys, while the call of the Sandhill cranes (which sound like very large frogs) can be heard throughout. 
There are a lot of unique plants, including large pitcher plants and the odd “Neverwet” plant in the photo, which looks like a cluster of birthday candles.
As it was a foggy morning, the zillions of perfect spider webs on the bushes glistened in the morning sun.
When it got too hot to leave Rumple in the car, we returned to the Visitor Center to find that the canal just outside the center was filled with big gators.
Later 2 of these, covered with algae, climbed up on the bank as if posing for a photo.
To accommodate Rumple, we visited the Visitor Center individually. As always, Rumple attracted some admirers, including one of the center volunteers, who stopped to chat. She and her husband have been living in their RV full time for 15 years. They spend half the year as park volunteers at various parks and the other half touring – all in their original RV. (See end note on park volunteers.)
We also visited the Chesser homestead, a farm on an island in the park. One would think that between the alligators and the bugs, the swamp would not be an attractive place to live. However, there were isolated farms that cultivated sugar cane and a few farm animals, as well as harvesting fish and wildlife from the swamp. The buildings still remaining were built in the 1930s, although the farm itself predates this. It is interesting to image what life was like on an island in a swamp miles from any road.
All in all, we had a very nice experience in Okefenokee and saw a very satisfying amount of wildlife. A better camera and binoculars would have been useful.
Park volunteers: Both the state and national parks have volunteer programs. For some number of hours of work weekly (depending on the park but at least 24 per couple), volunteers get the use of the campsite and some amenities. In Laura S. Walker, for example, the volunteers can golf for free. At Okefenokee National Wildlife Reserve, the volunteers get full hook-ups and propane. One big perk is that volunteers can have (or may be required to have) extended stays, while the casual camper has a maximum stay of 2 weeks. While the economics of it does not make sense (if you consider the weekly cost of the campsite and amenities the volunteers are making much less than minimum wage – even the golfers) but the volunteers I spoke to were all happy with it, as they saw it as volunteer work, rather than a job. The ones I talked to all have favorite parks to which they return on a regular basis and have friends among the staff and other volunteers. As well, they know other people doing the same thing and exchange news about good places to volunteer. A fairly complete list of opportunities can be found at https://www.fws.gov/volunteers/volOpps.html. Volunteer positions range from staffing the Visitor Center to helping maintain the campsites and landscaping to cleaning the bathrooms. The lovely woman I chatted with at the Okefenokee Visitor Center has been volunteering at the center and gift shop for 14 years. Sharyn, my friend at Laura S. Walker, comes annually with her husband to golf and then goes off to other opportunities. They prefer landscaping duties.