SATURDAY - All morning long we've been hearing an airplane buzzing by overhead.
We can tell by the sound that they're repeatedly taking long and low sweeping passes somewhere just outside of the park. We've been trying to catch a glimpse of him, but with the heavy tree cover that's just not possible.
As we left the park and got less than a mile down the road we spotted him. Sure enough, as we suspected, it was a crop duster. He flew over the roadway in front of and behind us several times, but this is the only photo we were able to capture, he was way too FAAAASSSST!
What crop was he dusting? Cotton of course, we are in the south.
Again, with no Interstate traveling, it was a pleasant and uneventful 138-mile drive through rural Georgia. Our goal for the day was to make it beyond the halfway point to our next destination. We accomplished that, because tomorrow we only have 122-miles to go to reach our final destination.
Our overnight stop for tonight is the Walmart Supercenter in Thomasville, GA. It's only 14-miles north of the Florida/Georgia line (that's sounds oddly familiar).
Tonight we'll be parked out back by the pallets of cardboard recycling. I hope they don't mistake ROVER and THE POD for a pile of aluminum recycling.
We won't be sleeping alone tonight, someone from Walmart is feeding and watering the five cats who live in the bushes at the edge of the lot.
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THURSDAY - Even though the campground we were leaving and the campground we were heading to are both found on the Georgia side of the Chattahoochee River, all but the first 5½-miles and the last 6-miles of the 78-mile route today was spent driving in Alabama.
I'm not sure why the GPS routed us that way? The Georgia side of the Chattahoochee River has perfectly good roads to travel on between the two campgrounds, but I've second guessed the GPS before and put ourselves on some pretty lousy roadways.
From the back it looks like a pretty ordinary campsite...
...but from the front you can see just how huge it is.
FRIDAY - You may be wondering what we're doing camped here in a marina?
We don't have a boat and neither one of us likes to fish, which are the main draws here at this Georgia State Park.
The main draw for us is not what's in "this" state park, but what lies 8-miles east of the front gate in "another" state park. That's where you'll find one of the most photographed locations in all of Georgia.
What started out as poor farming practices back in the early 1800s has now turn into Georgia’s “Little Grand Canyon”.
After 200+ years of erosion, from what was once nothing more than a horse drawn plowed field, has now turned into massive gullies as deep as 150 feet. The soil in the "canyon walls" are made up of pink, orange, red and purple hues and make a beautiful location for outdoor nature photography.
The canyon can either be observed from above along a trail with several lookout locations, or you can hike down into the canyons and even spend the night backpacking, if you first aquire a permit.
We arrived at the park a little after 10:30AM. We got a late start because I had to be in front of my laptop at 10:00AM to book a campsite for next summer. I was successful in booking a 7-night (max allowed) visit to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon for opening day (May 15th).
I wasn't quick enough to get my 1st or 2nd choice sites, but 3rd choice is apparently the charm for me. I'll try again in 5-days when my 1st choice becomes available again. Wish me luck and quicker mouse clicking!
Upon arriving at the Visitor Center of Providence Canyon State Park we realized we'd be sharing the park with six 40' busloads of middle school aged children. There must have been 200 of them and every single one of them was excited to be here, or maybe they were just excited to be on a field trip today and outside of the classroom.
The orange/yellow trail is the White Blaze Canyon Loop Trail while the black trails are the individual canyon floor trails.
Behind the Visitor Center is where the 2½-mile White Blaze Canyon Loop Trail begins. The first ¼-mile of the trail decends 150' down to the canyon floor. At this point you'll reach an intersection where you have a decision to make, there are three choices.
OPTION 1.) Go straight where you immediately go back up and out of the canyon to finish the other 2¼-miles of the White Blaze Canyon Loop Trail which circles around on the rim of the nine canyons. There are overlooks where you'll get views of the canyons below before you return to the Visitor Center.
OPTION 2.) Turn left and you'll be able to take a few short trails to visit Canyons #1-#3. Also, there is a longer side trail that you take to visit Canyons #4 & #5.
OPTION 3.) Turn right and you'll be heading towards the 6 backpack campsites that are located on a 7-mile loop trail (red).
All the canyon trails are dead ends, so no matter which ones you choose to go see you'll end up back at this intersection at which point you can return the ¼-mile back up the 150' to the Visitor Center or finish the 2¼-miles of trail up on the rim.
The school children were everywhere, split up into packs of 20 or so. To say they were loud would be an understatement, as I said they were all very excited to be here.
We hiked down to the canyon floor and then explored the trail all the way to the end of Canyon #2. That was enough for us and we made our way back up to the parking lot and bid Providence Canyon farewell.
If you were born in Georgia and never had the opportunity to travel I could see how this could be considered the "Little Grand Canyon”.
Coming from the perspective of someone who visited the "Big Grand Canyon” earlier this year and just this morning made reservations to see it again, from the other side, I'm sorry but this didn't live up to expectations of being a "Grand Canyon" of any size.
Providence Canyon as seen from the upper walkway behind the Visitor Center.
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Zoomed in to see a little more detail.
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On the canyon floor there is near constant water flowing.
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TIP: Don't wear your good shoes, they are going to get muddy.
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With the dense tree cover it was hard to get a glimpse of the canyon walls.
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Here there was an opening in the trees.
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Some locations in the canyons are 350' wide.
Looking for our Visited States Map and Data? How about our State by State Bucket Lists or Visited Campgrounds List? If so, click on the sign below to be taken to our other website.
TUESDAY - With poor cell phone service in the forest I began to search for an alternative location in the direction of our next reserved campsite.
Never in my wildest hopes did I expect to find a vacancy like this one!
This Army Corp of Engineers park on the GA/AL border had a waterfront site available for Tuesday and Wednesday only, just the two days I was looking for, with water/electic hookups and the best thing is the price, just $17 a night, thanks to my Lifetime Senior Pass.
The campground is located on West Point Lake, which was created in 1974 when the West Point Dam across the Chattahoochee River was completed.
I didn't have any trouble talking Tricia into packing up early and heading out.
Even our neighbors have a "shiny silver bullet looking" trailer.
These waterfront campsites are always among our favorites.
We should have a front row seat for the sunsets out there over the water.
One other noteworthy item about today was the fact that two of our three cameras on THE POD quit working. We had these upgraded cameras installed just over 2-years ago and they have worked flawlessly ever since. That was until today!
I did a little preliminary troubleshooting on the side of the road, like making sure they were getting power and that we hadn't damaged them by hitting any low hanging tree branches.
Without the cameras it sure made backing down the long driveway into our current campsite more of a challenge than it needed to be.
It turns out they had both lost their bluetooth connection to the monitor in the truck cab. By simply scrolling through the monitor's menu to the bluetooth pairing section, then pressing a button on the bottom of each camera, all was back to normal in no time.
Thankfully it wasn't anything that would require replacement of the cameras, that would have been expensive.
WEDNESDAY - Today is a day full of surprises!
The first person to receive a surprise today is Ronnie Dennis, owner and operator of Airstream Nuts & Bolts in Dadeville, AL some 45-miles west of here.
Some of you may remember this time last year we asked Ronnie to install a new Norcold 12VDC refrigerator into THE POD. I ordered the 10 cu.ft. model and it didn't fit in the space we had available, so we had to order the 8 cu. ft. model and wait until the Monday after Thanksgiving to have it delivered and installed.
Ronnie was kind enough to store the oversized refrigerator in his shop until he could sell it to one of his customers who could use it. Thanks Ronnie!
With a "screw up like that" of course he recognized us immediately when we uninvitedly walked into his shop today. He even remembered our names!
Here we are posing in front of Ronnie's Airstream that he now stores inside his shop.
After a short 15-minute visit with Ronnie we left so he could get back to work on a solar system he was installing on a customers brand new 23' Airstream.
Now it was Tricia's turn for a surprise!
Last year when we were in this area I remembered there was a brand new Buc-ee's just down the road from Auburn University on I-85.
This photo is from last years visit.
This year we took a photo of the long row of gasoline pumps as seen from the I-85 exit ramp. Just in case you were wondering, that's what a line of 120 gas pumps looks like. There are thirty extra wide bays with four pumps in each bay. Plenty wide enough to negotiate with a truck and trailer combo, but no 18-wheelers allowed.
Looking for our Visited States Map and Data? How about our State by State Bucket Lists or Visited Campgrounds List? If so, click on the sign below to be taken to our other website.
SUNDAY - Today was a very gloomy and overcast day as we made our way 215-miles across South Carolina and well into Georgia.
During that entire time not once did I feel the need to put on my sunglases. Also, not once did we see any accidents on the road, thanks in part to the fact we drove exactly 0-miles on the Interstates today.
We left the Sumter National Forest in SC a day early to arrive in the Oconee National Forest in GA on a late Sunday afternoon. They don't accept reservations at any of the campgrounds in the Oconee National Forest and there are only five sites with electric/water hookups for RVers in the Lake Sinclaire Recreation Area where we are headed. On the other hand, the tenters have 33 sites to choose from, but none with utilities.
When we arrived only one of the five RV sites were occupied (#5), so we had the other four to choose from. Sites #1 & #2 weren't very suitable to larger trailers like ours, so we were down to just Sites #3 & #4. Since the water hookup didn't work on Site #3 we chose Site #4 to be our home for the next two nights.
We are in this area because tomorrow we have a sightseeing activity to explore down in Macon, GA. It's a National Historical Park now, formerly a National Monument, and a bill is already in Congress to make it our next National Park.
MONDAY - As soon as Tricia was back from her morning walk at 8:00AM we were out the door and headed towards "my" favorite place to eat a large and delicious breakfast, Waffle House!
Today we are headed to Macon, GA to explore the Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park.
The park's museum displays evidence of 17,000 years of human habitation.
In the 1840s and 1870s railroad lines destroyed several of the mounds in the park when a new track was laid right through the park. Also looters were known to remove artifacts like pottery and arrowheads from the now exposed mounds.
In 1936 the Ocmulgee Mounds National Monument was established by President Franklin Roosevelt to protect it from further destruction. In 2019 the park was redesignated a National Historical Park to give it even greater protections from abuse.
Today we were able to explore the inside of the Earth Lodge Mound and climb up to the top of the Great Temple Mound from which downtown Macon was visible.
OCMULGEE MOUNDS NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARK
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Each corner of the Visitor Center lobby was dedicated to a different period in history.
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The Earth Lodge mound was visible from the steps of the Visitor Center.
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Only on the morning of the spring and fall equinox would the sun shine...
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... directly into this long and low entrance...
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...to illuminate the fire pit and raised bed where the chief would hold ceremonies.
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The center of the Earth Lodge's roof was open to let the smoke escape.
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Here's me leaving the Earth Lodge and trying desperately not to bump my head.
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A short distance away was the Great Temple Mound which we could climb to the top.
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We were told there are 58 stairs to the top, but nobody mentioned the long uphill ramp.
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From the top you could easily see the Funeral Mound that the railroad partially destroyed.
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From the top you could also see all the way back to the Earth Lodge and Visitor Center.
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From the Funeral Mound we looked back towards the Great Temple Mound.
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Have you ever seen a telephone pole with "goosebumps"?
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The railroad bridge in the park was oddly constructed entirely out of bricks.
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It was just the right size to let ROVER pass through!
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Railroad bridges of the late 1800s were made of stone, wood, and iron however, this bridge is made of brick. In 1979, the overpass was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
TUESDAY - With the poor cellphone reception in the campground we decided to pack up and leave early this morning, but not until after Trcia had her morning walk and snapped a few "foggy photos" of Lake Sinclaire.
As luck would have it there was a Walmart 10-miles from the campground where we could park with ROVER and THE POD while I whipped up this blogpost using the fast cell service usually found in town.
Even luckier, there was a Waffle House at the edge of the Walmart parking lot.
Looking for our Visited States Map and Data? How about our State by State Bucket Lists or Visited Campgrounds List? If so, click on the sign below to be taken to our other website.
