My First Ever Campfire!

Yesterday was a very productive day in the Peck household, however, those projects will have to wait for their reveal until I finish up with our camping trip stories, something  I will attempt to do in the next two posts. I know, how much is there to say or show about a seven day trip? The answer my friends is a lot! 

As all good mornings begin, let's start with a photo of Bruce making toast. Yes, he has a gadget for making toast on the campstove and it works pretty darn well.

Pretty neat, huh? Our plan for this day was to head over to Callaway Gardens which was basically just around the corner. Multiple people raved about it so we went to see for ourselves on this bright and sunny, cool morning. While I'd looked at their website, what it actually turned out to be was a bit of a surprise to me, meaning I did not understand that they consider the whole place a giant garden rather than one specific area. That said, we were there before the leaves changed color, and long after the magnificent azaleas were in bloom, the best time to go should you be in the area! Anyway, as we drove in through the forest on winding roads we noticed many workers hanging Christmas lights in the trees. Turns out that probably their biggest event of the year, called a Fantasy of Lights, takes months to set up. Parking at the striking visitor center, we made our way inside to discover what they have to offer. Striking outside, and just as striking inside.

The cases lining both the window wall and the interior wall were showcasing the natural flora of the area in silk and metal.  My photograph does not do the delicate work justice, but here it is nonetheless.

While waiting for the "bird of prey" show to begin we marveled at a large collection of BIRD paintings! Sadly the show was not what we were expecting, but that was somewhat due to Covid because normally they let them fly. Instead two young women brought out two owls, one of which is this cute Screech owl who has a disability that I cannot remember. Had I not seen loads of Barred Owls out in the wild, I would have been impressed with the other raptor they showcased. :)

Off to the Butterfly House! Large, warm and light filled, what a treat seeing butterflies flying everywhere, and while they were celebrating Blue Morpho month, perhaps you'd like to see some other ones I found interesting, not to mention beautiful!

One of my favorites, this one was hiding up in a tree:

Then again, I was pretty partial to this one as well.

Obviously, with my love of orange,  I could not write this without including this beauty.

Isn't it something to think that those are miniscule scales covering the wings, making up the whole? As to whether these are butterflies or moths, I'm not so sure, but I know some smart readers can tell the difference! I once thought it was as simple as identifying their resting position, but as with most things in life, that is not the case.

Following lunch at their cafe across the street from the back park entrance, we took in the view adjacent to the park office, a very attractive stone building

The rest of the day was spent at the campsite with Bruce doing some reading and fishing, while I played solitaire,  never once winning, btw. Another view of our fun lights.

With sadness we packed up the following morning to make way for another family to set up and make this lovely spot their temporary home away from home.

Heading South on HWY 27, which was lovely I might add, our first stop was Providence Canyon State Park. Yup, you read that right, a canyon in western Georgia! I believe I first learned of it from a brochure, or maybe someone told us, my memory is sketchy, but in any case, should you find yourself in Lumpkin, Georgia, it is well worth a stop. Parking your car, the walk is but a short distance before the canyon comes into view with signs remind you to stay behind the fencing.

Apparently caused by poor farming practices, the canyon began forming and continues to evolve with the nickname, the "Little Grand Canyon". Maybe a bit of a stretch, but after seeing it not as far fetched as one might think. Had we more time we could have hiked down into the canyon as many do. Actually the website tells me that there are five canyons!

Most definitely worth the stop.

Continuing on 27, we drove another hour or so to our next campsite located at Kolomoki Mounds State Park in Blakely, GA. Picked merely because it was on the way, the park exceeded our expectations. There are very large Indian mounds, I believe nine, that we did not explore, again due to time constraints.

That said, after staying here just one night, we most definitely intend to return to not only explore this 57 foot mound, but to enjoy the peacefulness and natural beauty. 

It was somewhat warm when we arrived to set up camp in our reserved space which turned out to be a handicapped site. What did that mean to us? For one thing we were adjacent to the bath house!!

After getting out our supplies, we set then out to dry as the ground cloth  was still damp from the previous night. While not on one of the lakefront sites, the view was lovely just the same. After setting up camp Bruce took the boat out on the lake for some fishing.

Our next visit here I will most definitely do my best to book one of the lakefront sites that have the above view. While he was out fishing, I put together some of those little pizzas that work well in the oven.

Not a bad view for getting dinner ready, right? With the sun beginning its descent, I thought, what the heck, I'm going to try and start our campfire, Gathering loads of pinecones for a base, I did just that, surprising the heck out of Bruce when he returned. I must say that I was pretty proud of myself.

Remember the bit about being a handicapped spot? The high sides to the pit are a feature of them. The night was lovely and cool, the Harvest Moon shone brightly on the lake, and we slept like babies.

The following morning I did a little bit of bike riding early while the evaporation fog was in full progress.

Sadly, it was time to once again pack up and head South to our friends in Live Oak, but most assuredly we will return to this wonderful park as soon as possible.

Are you sold on camping yet? It's a beautiful world out there!

your friend,

Gail

Franklin Roosevelt State Park

Fallon does it again! Remember her buying us the camp stove oven for Christmas and how much we love it? Well, after learning that my oven is still broken, for the foreseeable future no less,  Bruce returned from helping Bill on Sunday with not just an oven, but a gadget that seemingly does it all, the Vortex Plus! Should you have never heard of it before, neither had I, but after using it for a few days, I'm sold! Not only does it bake, but it has an air fryer function, broiler, dehydrator, and two more things I can't think of. Knowing how much I was missing the oven and baking, she thought of a solution to my dilemma that had not occurred to me. So far I've made the best fried chicken you can imagine, as well as using the rotisserie spit (the function I could not recall). I made a cinnamon and walnut coffee cake and it cooked so fast it was a good thing I had my eye on it, checking it at 15 minutes. Yes, you read that correctly, that's how long it took to bake.

Luckily I was able to find a spot on the counter!

Here's something else from the here and now. On my way home from Costco this afternoon I saw something that frankly, I could not have dreamed up had I wanted to. Yup, a roadside ventriloquist who works for tips, giving rise to the notion that truth is indeed stranger than fiction.

Back to camping fun, speaking of which, if you missed my last post, and seemingly everyone did, I ended it with our setting up camp in the rain following our arrival at FR State park. Fortunately for us, the rain ceased, leaving behind cooler air and calm water in front of our tent. The reflections were mesmerizing.

Night fell and the lights came on. Yup, we got to use our market lights not only in our shelter, but along the fencing behind the tent. 

You also learned from the previous post that we stopped in Columbus to have our tire checked and were given the go-ahead. Unfortunately, the next morning, Bruce checked his tire and it was again low. Thankfully, as is not often the case, this campground had wi-fi, so I checked for the closest tire store which turned out to be far closer than I was imagining. The quaint town of Pine Mountain was only about two miles away and the tire shop was easy to locate. Hearing loads of bird calls, I walked a bit in the adjacent neighborhood while the tire was being plugged, and was so pleased to see my first ever, Eastern Bluebird!

Sure enough there was something in the tire; before long it was fixed, leaving us with time to explore the downtown which is on both sides of Hwy 27. There are several murals depicting the area's history, 

and the one below giving a nod to Franklin D. Roosevelt and the nearby Little White House.

We spent some time in a neat bike shop that opened just before the pandemic struck, where Bruce gave some serious thought to this neat bike rack, imagining it in the second bedroom Fortunately, clearer minds prevailed. Perhaps I should say more practical minds?

The bike store was just past this adorable restaurant that was open before the pandemic and is now closed because of it. Seriously, a Hallmark movie type town.

Most of our time was spent in a super neat gallery with mostly local art. Coming home with some great finds, Bruce had to use his superior packing skills to find a spot in our already full Subaru.

After lunch, Bruce decided he needed to head back to town for a small hatchet, so I went on, first a hike amongst the woods where the red clay of Georgia was very evident.

Hopping on my bicycle, I rode around the lake, stopping at the boat rental place where they have these super cute pedal boats.

Can you imagine how beautiful this scene must be right about now when the leaves are changing?

While it would have been nice to be there in the second week of October, not only would reservations have been next to impossible to get, especially lakeside, but the larger truth is, I could not wait another minute to go somewhere!! 

Back at the campsite, Bruce puts the newly purchased hatchet to work.

With plenty of time to plan and cook, unlike the previous night, I sliced a huge potato, along with an onion. using the camp oven (thanks Fallon!) to cook them, while Bruce prepared the fire for our steak. I'd brought along some corn as well.

You might notice that little teepee looking thing on the table and that is a mesh tent to go over outdoor food which was put to use for the first time and worked beautifully. 

One thing that kept this site from being absolutely perfect was the bathroom proximity. Generally that is a priority when booking a site because we are tent campers. A silver lining for us is that because the majority of folks in the state parks are camping in RVs, the bathrooms are underutilized, especially important as we do our best to minimize the risk of Covid-19. At any rate, the bath house in section one, where we were located, was under renovation, meaning I had to walk a fair ways up a hill to get to the section two bathhouse. Not a deal breaker, however, when one gets up in the morning, being closer has some real advantages! Following the rain, the weather was cool and dry, with temperatures in the middle 50's overnight, the first time we have had the good fortune to use more than a sheet as a cover in at least six months. Hallelujah! 

Night fell and the nearly full Harvest Moon rose in the sky, somewhat obliterating my beloved stargazing, but that was okay because the moonlight was pretty great. There will be other camping trips when stargazing is on the agenda, or so I hope!!

your friend,

Gail

More Camping Fun

Before we delve into more camping fun I'd like to mention that Cris has finally been released from the rehab center, heading home after a little more than three months after contacting Covid-19. What happens next is the question, but one thing that is for certain is that it will take lots of sacrifice and dedication on both his and his family's part. Judy, Cris, Katie and Jessica can use all the prayers and good wishes you are willing to send their way.

Secondly, our son David had some long awaited shoulder surgery on Monday and I'm thrilled to report that the doctor is confidant he was able to repair the serious muscle tear. While he remains in some pain from the procedure, he and Michelle will be doing all that they can as a team to get him back in shape in the coming months. In both instances we are praying for better days ahead.

When I sat down to write my last post I'd forgotten to get one camera out of the car, meaning I missed a few things I wanted to document. One of which is getting the kayak on the car roof, a task made easier by a sliding mechanism Bruce bought, but hey, you still have to get it on the roof! I'd gone to the lake with him to retrieve it from the boat rack and I cannot tell you how dadgum hot it was. When I wrote that Fall was here, I was way too optimistic because it is hotter than blue blazes still. Thus, once the boat was out of the water and on the rack, Bruce moved the car into the shade for tying it down. 

Then too I mentioned the cooler which deserves a place in this blog because it such a vital part of our gear. If you are wondering how we can pack so much food, wonder no more.

Empty water bottles are employed for half and half, along with milk, and a smaller than normal bottle of orange juice. Containers to divide the different types of food, along with keeping them out of the ice have been a real blessing. 

Before arriving at our first park, we stopped for gas around Valdosta, and while there had to drive less than half a mile to see one of the very first Darden restaurants Bruce built back in the early 90's, and boy does it still look nearly as good as the day he signed off on the final punch list! Seeing places he has built around the country makes me very happy.

I don't think I did a very good job of showing off the site in Reed Bingham so I'm including another one that shows the entire setting. For posterity you know. Isn't it pretty?

Although we took the Interstate to our first park, that was not the case on the next leg of our journey which is fine by me. The volume of traffic on them is intense and frankly, makes me nervous. I much prefer to glide by on sparsely traveled county roads where you never know what you will see. It did not take much convincing for Bruce to turn around so that I might photograph this incongruous scene we passed. Not a soul was nearby making me wonder what the heck a bright yellow Mustang was doing in front of this worn building.

The scenery was more like this:

Cotton fields as far as the eye can see, along with peanuts and peanut processing plants. Eventually we came across the town of Parrot, stopping there for a snack at the purported country store which turned out to be nothing like we anticipated. We did, however, have a little look around Parrot, which proved very interesting.

No one was manning the tourist information center, however, Bruce did some sleuthing, discovering that this town with a population of around 150 used to be crazy prosperous with many millionaires in residence when cotton was king. The two block downtown had some sad/interesting sights depending on how you look at things.

  

Not quite a flatiron building but close.

I had hopped out of the car to take these photos and not only had it begun raining, but it was down right chilly, suiting me just fine. Here is Bruce coming to pick me up along Main Street.

I'm sure it won't surprise you to learn that it was once used for filming a Western, never mind that it is in the middle of Georgia! A lovely church built in the 1890's.

Had we more time I would have loved going down more of the streets; alas, it was back on the road again.

Because we'd passed loads of Pecan groves, well, we just had to stop for freshly packed pecans.

Is it any wonder it takes us a long time to go from point A to point B? My kind of a road trip is what I have to say about that! Although, stopping in Columbus to have our tire checked was not something we looked forward to, better safe than sorry when your tire light goes on. The guy put the car up on a block, put some air in the tire, and said we were fine. Okay, we'll take that.

Along the road around Columbus is Fort Benning which if I'm not mistaken, my brother Pat spent time there before heading to VietNam as a Green Beret. 

Still raining, we carried on not too much further, coming in the back of Franklin Roosevelt State Park off Highway 27. Beautiful from the get go, we stopped to register then made a left onto the park road leading to the campground. Sadly the rain continued, but when Bruce has a mind to do something, well it gets done whether I'm hip to it or not. Later on I could see the wisdom in setting up in spite of the weather.

BTW-- the photograph makes it look as if the tent is crooked, but hey guys, you know my husband, that just isn't happening! What was happening was glee on his part at the site I'd booked because well, you can see, we were right on the water. Honestly, it was great. 

After setting up our shelters, the kayak came off the Subaru, 

and he was off, well not before dumping the water out of his Crocs. Don't be horrified, he only wears them while kayaking!What with one thing and another, we'd not had a proper lunch meaning food needed preparing ASAP, thus I made chili that was very welcome in the cooler weather. 

The rain ceased, the campfire roared, and we could not have been any more content. Well, maybe a little had there been more stars evident in the night sky, but with a nearly full Moon, what was I expecting?

your friend,

Gail

Reed Bingham State Park

 If you were hoping to read that my oven was repaired while we were gone, I was equally hoping to write that news. No such thing occurred during our absence; in fact, the part is not even in Orlando yet, meaning best case scenario is next Monday. You can well imagine my disappointment.

Aside from that though, the trip went even better than I could have hoped. As with any vacation, there is plenty of before departure planning, however tent camping requires a little different kind. Firstly I figure out the mileage to each park in order to make the driving time reasonable, studying maps from place to place. Secondly, you find a park within that distance, hoping they have open sites. As with seemingly everything, Covid-19 has made finding camping reservations even harder as more people are choosing to camp in order to maintain social distancing which, btw, is very easy to do in a campground. 

Driving over to our storage space, Bruce picks up all of our equipment, followed by an inventory to make sure we have what we need. And while I probably should write down menus, mostly I just think of them in my head, packing all of the ingredients for, in this case, 13 meals. With our extremely handy camp oven I am able to dream up a little more variety. To be sure, we have our favorites, so it is not nearly as difficult as it might seem. From past experience I've learned that the easier they are to get to, the better, so the dry goods go into a laundry basket along with a big cooler packed to the brim. I started out using very large bags for the dry goods but that turned out to be a bit of a hassle.

Leaving Orlando around 8:30 a week ago Monday, our route for the first leg of the journey was on the major highways, something we normally eschew, however we were in a bit of a hurry to get to Reed Bingham, just off I-75 around 250 miles from home. Pleasantly surprised, although not to be unexpected because Georgia State parks are so nice, once registered we drove to our site. It was not a great site,  but I saw one across the way that was much more appealing. Calling the office, they allowed us to use the prefered site, maybe because it was a Monday with fewer campers? Further from the bathroom, which is not ideal, the shade and grass were totally worth the extra steps. I will say that we drove past the park because the signage was not great, but the handy iPad set us straight before we traveled too far. 

Once set up we began some exploring. While it was warm, it was not intolerable. What wasn't quite so great were the flies that hovered over our table. Using the new fan I bought at Costco, the flies hardly stood a chance.

We began our exploring by heading to the lake for Bruce to do a few casts. 

Meanwhile I was going crazy hearing loads of little birds in the massive oak trees overhead that were so quick I never really even saw them. Lovely wildflowers bordered the lake in places.

With not much happening on the fishing front, we drove to the trailhead area to see what we could see during a hike in the woods. It began on sandy soil,

continuing through marshy areas with boardwalks,

Here and there fallen leaves crunched underfoot, gracing the handrails.

The main park lake dumps into the Little River-- this map shows how meandering it is, thus we saw it on several occasions. It was when we were on the portion of the trail called "birdwatching" that I was wishing I had not left my walking stick in the car. Walking amongst giant tree roots is a recipe for disaster for this klutzy lady, however, we managed without incident.

You know what? I saw one bird and heard several owls. So much for birdwatching!

There were, on the other hand, loads of very interesting mushrooms to be found on the many fallen trees 

                            

in the forest. Had I a better knowledge of trees and plants I could tell you more about them. Alas, I am not very well versed in that area.

Back to our campsite, I prepared our dinner, such as it was. Setting up the camp stove, I boiled water for yellow rice, and when that was nearly done, dumped in some cooked chicken and half of a box of chopped broccoli. Dinner is served in the wonderful Falconware Matt and Tom gave us last Christmas.

Because our stay was so short, I was keeping it simple. After the dishes were washed, I went looking in the woods behind our spot, and here's what was happening upon my return.You might notice some campers in the background and that is because there are plenty of them at all campgrounds. In fact, there was but one other group of tent campers in the park. I seriously don't mind the tent at all and am more than happy to continue the way we've been for a variety of reasons, one of which is simplicity. Unless it is raining, we spend very little time indoors making a tent perfect for us.

Because it was still a little warmer than I would have preferred I went to the bath house for a shower. Should you be wondering what that is like, here is the excellent shower stall.

More than adequate for our needs.

With a campfire going and dusk upon us, well, what's not to like about this scene?

Nothing, that's what! Actually this is our first time putting the tent up on a grassy spot which was a real bonus. Plus this was an extremely private site with only the forest and grass as our neighbors. I was seriously hoping to see a deer, but no cigar.

Riding my bike down to the lake, sun, water and clouds...heaven.

In the morning it was pretty gloomy but after breakfast I took a little bike ride around the park, riding on top of the dam (not to worry, it was low), and back to the fishing dock.

Many Georgia State Parks have mini golf and this one was no exception.

Other parks have full-sized golf courses, which really surprised us last year when we saw it at one of the parks where we stayed.

And of course, the sign of our times was present throughout the park.

Although not pictured, everywhere we went indoors (not a lot of places mind you), there were signs stating that Georgia state law protects the owners from any lawsuits related to Covid. Interesting, right?

With the car all packed up, we headed to Franklin Roosevelt State Park, this time not on the interstate because, frankly, there weren't any to take! Before we left, one last photo.

You cannot be in the forest for very long before this poem takes over your brain. 

Camping is good for the mind and body, forcing you to adapt to whatever circumstance each site gives you. Maybe there are flies as was the case here, or maybe it is raining while you are setting up, as you will see in my next post, obstacles that are a nuisance sure, but that's camping for you. You just never know!

If camping isn't your thing, I do highly recommend a walk in the woods. 

your friend,

Gail

 

Georgia Bound

Good morning friends!

Just a quick note to remind you, and me later on when I reread this post in the future, that we are bound for Georgia. Unfortunately, it is raining this early in the morning, however, most of the car is packed so it should be okay. Our hope is that 240 miles north, the rain will have run its course and setting up camp, while perhaps messy, is doable. 

Look for a full report in this space in about a week from now and until then, take care.

your care,

Gail