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| Venice Beach at sunset just before we left |
On Memorial Day, in record breaking heat, we pulled out of
our driveway and headed north on our East Coast journey.
We had originally planned on trying out our
first night on the edge of a 20 acre private piece of property that we found on
Boondockers Welcome but in view of the incredible heat wave we opted, instead, to go to a
familiar place where we knew we could run our air conditioner.
Once again, we went to
Payne’s Prairie State Park near Micanopee and Gainesville, in Florida, a beautiful
oak-canopied and palmetto thicketed campground.
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| our campsite in Payne's Prairie State Park |
Our next stop was another familiar
campground, Georgia Veteran’s State Park in Cordele, Georgia, a manicured
campground on a pretty lake, near the Andersonville National Historic
Site.
We sighed in relief when we out when we discovered
that just after we had left Payne’s Prairie a torrential rain storm had hit the
Payne’ Prairie area and had literally followed right behind us as we drove north
towards Georgia.
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Historical covered bridge in Stone Mountain State Park
our campsite at Stone Mountain State Park |
When we got to Stone Mountain
State Park, just outside of Atlanta, and we were able to really feel like we
were “on our way” because we were able to start visiting with family and really
having fun.
Jean’s sister, Janet,
convinced us “flatlanders” that we truly could make it to the top of Stone
Mountain if we just paced ourselves and took our time, so we did it!
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| We made it to the top of Stone Mountain! |
The first morning we were there we climbed
Stone Mountain to the top and that evening we watched the laser light show,
both things that we have wanted to do for a long time.
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| historical graffiti on Stone Mountain - reminiscent of El Morro National Monument graffiti |
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| waiting to watch the laser light show on Stone Mountain |
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| watching the laser light on Stone Mountain |
The park even offered a free shuttles from
the campground!
The next day we went
into mid-town Atlanta to the Little 5 Points, Inman Park, and Grant Park
area.
We were able to visit with our
niece, Emily, her husband Ty, and their little one, Varley, even getting to see
our nephew’s wife, Torrie when she stopped by.
Then we headed over to visit with our youngest son, Jess and his
girlfriend, Liz, and our “grand-dog” Remy.
We went to dinner at “Wisteria,” which was delicious, and we highly
recommend it for dinner if you’re ever up in this area.
After dinner, Jess and Liz took us by to see
the new house (that they just closed on today), then to the nearby Beltline,
and to Krog Street Market.
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| Jerome, Jean, & Jess on the Beltline |
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| Jerome, Liz, & Jess on the Beltline |
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| Jerome riding a rental electric scooter on the Beltline |
What a
wonderful visit even though it was a short one.
Of course, seeing your children, however
long, to a mother is never long enough!
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| sunset with fishing boat at Old Federal campground (picture taken from our campsite) |
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| our campsite at Old Federal campground |
Our next Atlanta area stop was in
Flowery Branch, near Lawrenceville, where Jean’s sister and brother-in-law,
Janet & Tim live.
We stayed in the
Old Federal campground (a great, wooded, Army Corps of Engineers campground) a
on a little bluff overlooking Lake Lanier.
It’s such a pretty area here that we even spent some time checking out
real estate just in case we ever decide to move closer to “family.”
Jean and Janet were able to spend a “sister’s
day” for much needed “sister-time”, which also is “never enough” according to
them.
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| "sisters selfie" at coffee shop in Lawrenceville |
All of our great plans for
sightseeing in Nashville changed drastically once we got there.
We stayed in Poole Knobs Rec. Area, (another
great, heavily wooded campground on another beautiful lake just outside of
Nashville, in Smyrna, Tennessee).
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| our campsite at Poole's Knob Recreation Area |
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| Carly enjoying her walk at Poole's Knob |
We
didn’t realize that the Country Music Festival started the day we got there and
a huge air show with the Blue Angels was scheduled for that weekend as
well.
We debated about going into town
for some of the free concerts but decided not to try to fight the crowds, the
parking mess, and the rain that had come to stay.
It was a good decision, because some of the
concerts even got cancelled due to heavy rain and thunderstorms with
lightening.
The Blue Angels air show was
just across the lake from us, so for two days whenever the rain slowed up and
the clouds opened up enough so that they could fly, we stood on our little piece
of lake frontage and watched the jets fly overhead as they practiced for their
show. It was raining so much and Carly
was not happy about the jets flying overhead, so we weren’t sad to leave here,
we’ll just come back to Nashville another time when we can enjoy it.
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| Blue Angels flying in formation just overhead (picture taken from our campsite) |
The rain followed us from the
morning we left Georgia, on and off, all the way through Tennessee, Kentucky,
and on up into Indiana. Lucky for us, it
DID seem to stop raining long enough for us to get set up and leave from our
campsites without having to do it while it was raining.
Once again we had a not-so-subtle
reminder that we should NEVER completely trust our GPS for directions.
In southern Indiana, it took us 2 hours
(instead of the intended 30 minutes) to find our campsite at Delaney County
Park.
The address said it was in
Scottsburg, just off of I-65, and the GPS said it was 8 miles away.
Unknown to us was that it was actually 19
miles away near the town of Salem.
The
GPS took us on a cross-country (through a state forest), short-cut which turned
into a narrow one-lane, hilly, curvy, loosely-graveled dirt road.
By the time we realized what a mistake these
directions were there wasn’t anywhere that we could turn around so we forged
ahead hoping for the best.
As we were
steadily going uphill our forward momentum was slowed to a stop by kids on a
4-wheeler ATV and a dirt bike, “flying” down the road towards us.
Once we resumed our now slow uphill “climb”
and were reaching the crest of the hill, the truck wheels started spinning on
the loose gravel and we abruptly came to a stop.
Not only had we come to a stop, but we were
actually losing ground and even with the truck brakes pushed to the floor, the
weight of the trailer was slowly dragging our truck backwards down the
hill.
Jerome finally realized that the
trailer brakes weren’t coming on so he applied them manually, thereby being
able to better control the downhill slide and get us safely to a somewhat level
spot in the road.
Once on more level
ground, we were able to get enough of a “good, running start” to make it
(bumping and slinging gravel) to the top, around a curve even, and to a paved
road!
Jean is still convinced that it
was some kind of a miracle that we made it out of there.
We finally made it to the campground, in the
middle of nowhere, after driving on several roads that zigzaged through
cornfields and getting help from two friendly local fellas who said “follow
us.”
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| our campsite at Delaney Park |
This campsite was the prettiest,
most peaceful one so far, tucked back in-between the trees, right up to the
edge of another beautiful lake.
As if to
reward us for our troubles, shortly after we arrived here, a redwing blackbird
(a childhood favorite of Jean’s) and a hummingbird briefly blessed us with
their company while we were relaxing at our picnic table at the water’s edge.
After those last driving
directions fiasco, we were glad to have a direct, easy drive to the next two
stops, the first being for an overnight stop at the White River County Park
campground in Cicero, Indiana, near Indianapolis.
With all of the rain and all of the standing
water everywhere, we were pleasantly surprised to find a pretty, dry campsite
here.
There is a historical bridge that was brought here from somewhere in southern Indiana and we enjoyed seeing
it and walking across it.
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| Historical bridge over the White River |
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| our campsite at the White River campground |
As we were writing this we were in
Goshen, Indiana, staying at the Elkhart County Fairgrounds.
There was a huge Heartland RV rally here
taking up most of the campsites and we thought it would be crowded and noisy
but we were out in a grassy field in an overflow lot and were only one of four
campers out there.
While we were there, ever-fearless Jerome decided to check out the
rally and “crashed” the vendor’s auditorium, visiting with the vendors and even
making purchases, ha ha!
He even met one
of the guest seminar speakers (who he has been following on RVillage on-line) and
was invited to come hear his seminar.
Unfortunately, we already had a tour at the Jayco factory scheduled for the same
time as the seminar.
Poor Jerome wished
he could be in two places at once!
Even without any
trees, and 24/7 train traffic, this campground was in a great location for sight seeing and really wasn't a bad place to stay.
With all of the rain though, the ground was so soft that our trailer started sinking into the ground on one side. We were pleasantly surprised that we didn't have trouble pulling our rig out of there when we left.
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| our "open space" campsite with the fairground buildings in the background |
Goshen, Middlebury (where the
Jayco factory is), and Shipshewana are in the heart of Amish country here.
After our Jayco factory tour we went to a
huge flea market and some Amish markets in Shipshewana.
There are so many Amish people traveling
the roads here in their horse-drawn buggies that at times, especially on the
back roads, it was easy to feel that we people in the motor vehicles were the
ones who were actually out of place.
The
Walmart in Goshen even provides covered parking stalls with water troughs
for their horses and buggies.
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| sharing the roads with the Amish community and their horse-drawn buggies |
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| in the Goshen, Indiana, Walmart parking lot - covered stalls with water troughs for the Amish customer's horses and buggies |
It is not only rainy here but windy and only
in the low 50’s.
What a change to go
from such extreme heat to such cold in such a short time since leaving home.
Today we headed further north into
Michigan and to our very first Boondockers Welcome campsite, in Mecosta, Michigan.
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| Carly and Jerome relaxing, watching TV. Carly's keeping her paw on him, thoroughly enjoying his company! |
Thanks for sharing our adventures
with us and email us anytime if you have any questions or suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. ‘Hope you’re having a good start to your
summer.
Jerome & Jean (and of course, Carly, too)
