The Journey Begins

In the end, I packed like ten pairs of shoes. There are the pickleball shoes, several pairs of sandals in various colors, while the same holds true for my Sketchers casual shoes. One blue and one black. Water shoes along with water sandals. Hiking shoes which I broke in yesterday. Yup, just counted them in the closet as I did not want to be exaggerating.  Looks like ten to me.

It is no exaggeration to say that it is darn pleasant outside. In fact, as I type, the bedroom windows are open, as is the door to the screened porch. We played a whole lot of pickleball this morning and were barely tired, which at first I did not get and then on second thought, duh....I am not dying of heatstroke!

My space planning husband decided that instead of the desk being parallel with the wall, let's go perpendicular allowing both of our computers to fit.  So far, so good!! 

I'm getting ahead of myself though, so let's go back to Orlando and do a quick run-through on the journey to arrive at this point. We began by setting things on the bed in the second bedroom. Not a whole lot because for the most part we needed to wait and pack at the last minute. Clean laundry for one thing.

For Christmas Fallon gave us the game you see called "I should have known that" which we played on the way up while driving on familiar roads. Honestly, that kind of game can make a person feel very DUMB! Every now and again, together we would get all four answers correct on the card, although not often enough that's for sure! Still we carried on because if you can't look dumb with the one you love there could be larger problems involved. :)

We packed the car on Saturday evening,

The largest box had all manner of kitchen items, including the air fryer, some groceries and my saute pan which I cannot live without. I did bring my OXO brand potato peeler as well as hand can opener because those too, are kitchen items I cannot do without. Santoku knife, pretty much the only knife I use aside from a bread knife. A sharpener for said knife was packed as well. The kettle made the cut although the toaster was left behind. Once one uses an electric kettle, nothing else will do. Thanks to our son-in-law Tom who introduced me to the wonders of that fantastic appliance.

And here we are all ready to go. We left our bikes behind as well as the kayak. I figured riding with any elevation was not happening and there are kayaks here at Charlotte's Cottage to use.

Driving early on a Sunday works very well should you need to store that information away. Barely any traffic and because we have now done this drive three times, we've got it down. This time though, we did take a slightly different route which took us through a town in Georgia where I saw this mural,

and some of fluffiest, chock FULL of blooms, Crepe Myrtle trees that I have ever had the pleasure to observe. Really, they can get this full?

Interrupting a photo shoot..what can I say? 

Turns out it was Nichols, GA, home to the nearby General Coffee State Park.

I'd looked into that park for camping in the past; for some reason it was not a go however we did decide to go out of our way to visit there because we were so close. They've got farm animals,

as well as birds galore! Speaking of which, here's one that got away!

I was so bummed because one moment it was there and the next it had disappeared into the grasses. I can't be sure, but having used my Merlin app earlier, it claimed that there were Bob Whites within hearing and I was so hoping to see one. We had some leftover pizza in our cooler which is what we ate at a lakeside picnic table and while I roamed around Bruce put his phone on the sound identification and there were a whopping 17 types of birds! Oh yeah baby!!

We carried on until we arrived at The Rockwell House again. Why mess with a good thing, right? Bruce caught a few fish, we watched the Championship Sunday and did a little property roaming. Unfortunately the lighting was not as favorable on this visit, not to mention lots more leaves on the trees, making bird sightings more difficult. One thing I noticed this time was, whereas before I thought this design was painted on, I discovered they were individually cut out which makes them even more interesting.

Once again we had the whole house to ourselves. For $160 a night, it is a real bargain! 

After an early start, we stopped in one of the cutest towns in the state, Madison, GA is a place we have been through before and I wanted to make sure and see it again. This time we went in search of a late breakfast and actually came up short. Instead we had a super early lunch here:

Chili was one of the sides! My Italian sub lasted us for the next day or so it was so big. Thank God for the cooler! Really yummy as were the baked goods I got from this amazing pastry shop. 

Please note the awesome bird wallpaper!

Onward on mostly empty roads, 

and look what I see!

It makes me giddy with gladness when the mountains come into view. Turning onto the nearly final stretch on US 19, we stopped at a winery for Bruce to take a little siesta. Your roving blogger roved. Camera in hand of course.

Getting closer...

And here we are again!

It took us about three hours to get things to our liking including the desk arrangement. I wasted no time putting our things around.

Yahtzee, Canasta set, a jigsaw puzzle and cards, several decks worth. Before leaving we'd been playing a marathon game of Canasta using my vintage set from 1954.

Now that we are settled, I will have to see what I can do to catch up!

Our landlords seem to be so friendly as is the resident cat, Huckleberry. 

As to the deer that Laura promised we would see, it is happening in a big way. It happened on the first night when I was looking out from the screen porch and what to my wondering eyes should I see? At least five of them!

It is all shaping up very nicely indeed. We very much miss our friends and family already but I'm not going to lie, we are liking this place a lot already. More adventures to recount but for now I will bid you a fond adieu. 

your friend, 

Gail