This month's camping excursion was at a little Georgia Power recreation park called Blanton Creek. It's located on a finger of Bartlett's Ferry on the Chattahoochee River in Fortson, GA. This campground is ok if you are a water-sport enthusiast and if you happen to have a boat or other floating device with you in camp. If not, then you probably wouldn't like this park so much.

However, the driving force behind us camping at Blanton Creek was not the beautiful lake. The location is very close to the Stowe's Fortson home and it was grandson, Braxton's 13th, and brother-in-law, Karl's 66th birthday! Thanks right, it was a birthday week celebration. Cookie-mama (sister) planned a full day of activities at Ft. Benning.... from simulated firearms at the shoot-house to eating lunch with our soldiers. We also visited the Nation Infantry Museum and made a pit stop at "Ranger Joes" military surplus store. Braxton and Brice went bonkers when the saw all of the "army stuff" at Ranger Joe. And yes they did talk Pappy into buying a cammo back pack for both of them. But all in all, it was a pretty cool day for all of us!

That evening all 24 of us gathered at Lain & Steve's for burgers, birthday cake and plenty of swimming for the kidos. Thanks so much to Steve and Lain for opening their home to us and topping off the day with "happy birthday" to the birthday boys.

This morning (Wed July 13th) we headed over to Pine Mountain for a ride through Wild Animal Safari. If you haven't tried this local attraction it's worth spending a morning for the variety of wild animals you'll see and (of course) feed. From zebras to kangaroos and giraffes - they pretty much had all you'd expect to see at one of these farms. Taking the 1-hour long zebra painted bus tour through the park was something the grandkidos won't soon forget. There's just something about a giraffe sticking it's head through your window and seeing that foot long tongue wrap around your food pellets .... you just can't ignore that kind of fun now can you!

I just don't know how we could top a week like this for the g-kids .... except maybe a trip to Disney World. Naw... don't think I'll ever do the Disney World thing again..... but, then you never know do you?

(Having issues with photo uploads - so if you want to see a full album of this trip go to my facebook pagehttp://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.228014617233075.66003.100000736148554)

Detour to Mississippi

Monday morning we received word that my Mississippi cousin, Ellen, passed away on Sunday. Grammy and I hurriedly picked up some clothes and broke camp, heading to Laurel, MS. We arrived in Laurel Monday evening and stayed at a little campground called Sleepy Hollow. It was perfect for us for a couple of days.

Ellen's funeral was Tuesday morning. We learned that she planned her own funeral which I thought was eloquent and spoke directly to her warmness and friendly nature. I'll always remember Ellen as we were kids playing in Grandma's backyard and eating water mellon.

Afterward, we spend the day with another cousin, Lucy and her husband Don. Wonderful visit with our Mississippi family.

We packed up and headed home Wednesday morning. About the time we drove through Talledaga AL it started to storm as hard as I've ever seen. The weather stayed with us all the way through Birmingham and beyond. By the time we finally arrived at the GA state line it was 3:30p and still raining. I imagined us arriving in Atlanta at 5pm with the storm that had been following us all day. No way!

We concluded that it was a better idea to spend the night and head out the next day. It was a good idea - we found a cozy little park in Tallapoosa GA called Big Oak RV park. Predictably, it continued to rain this morning when we finally headed home for sure.

Post Script: Any time that we run into a local drought, I believe it's an acceptable remedy to pack up the Montana and plan to go camping. When the camper is on the blacktop the rain is not far away! However, it's my policy to forget the weather and get out there and camp.

Happy trails and roadways ahead.

Pappy

Very cool evening last night at the Foley, AL Hot Air Balloon Festival. There were about 40 balloons that fired up and "glowed" for the crowd. A couple of them lifted off but they don't generally fly that late in the day.

Another interesting discovery at the event is that no one minds you wondering around through the maze of balloons. Which means you can get up close and personal with the equipment and crews that power up these giant colorful orbs. The pilots and crew were happy to talk to us and answer our questions.

This is one of those events that Grammy and I would definitely do again.

Our camping buddies, Butch and Bonnie Lenoir, told us about an early morning beach worship service that they learned about a couple of years ago. So, this morning we all headed over to the park's pavilion and found a rather impressive crowd of Christians gathering to worship our Lord. Foley First United Methodist Church has been meeting on this beach for the past 61 years to hold these special summer services. Most of the 150 worshipers this morning were members of the Foley church while 30 of us were visitors. Happy we attended!

Gulf Shores State Park- It's hot here too!

Grammy and Pappy cooling. Beach very hot - 94.... water pretty darn cold - 78. Kinda weird but refreshing.

Ah, to sleep late. The wonder of it. That is, I wonder how Grammy can sleep so late and why I'm always the first up and out. Here we are where it doesn't matter when we rise and I'm up at 5:30a.m. Grammy of course is nicely nested in the camper snoozing away. Oh well... good time to blog... right?

Nearly all of the 500 sites here at Gulf State Park have been filled. As my brother-in-law, Steve, would say: Unbelievable! There was even a traffic jam of 30 campers as they were trying to nudge their way through registration yesterday afternoon. Happily, we are in the very back of the park where it is quiet and traffic is at a minimum. Wonder how long it will stay that way??

Got pretty hot yesterday so Grammy and I made our way to the beautiful beaches of Gulf Shores! Surprisingly there were very few people on the beach - but that's ok, cause I usually draw a crowd when I stretch out and soak up some rays:)

The beach was pretty darn hot and the water was pretty darn cold which felt pretty darn good. Grammy wet her pretty little painted toes - which was enough for her and I headed in for a full dip - which was good enough for me to cool down for the rest of our beach lounging.

After the beach scene we packed up and headed over to Doc's, a local eatery, and had some lunch. Doc's Blue Plate Special is always good, cheap, and different every day. They advertise it by airplane on the beach, but when you get to the restaurant don't look for it on the menu. It's not there. If you don't know to ask for the Blue Plate Special, you'll order their "Lunch Special", which is double the Blue Plate price. Go figure.

It was a very nice, cool evening, last night. Just right for riding our bikes around the park to look at everyone else's rigs and how they set things up. Some were, as grandson Braxton would say, ginormous - and some were very tiny. But they all were here to have a good time. Today, I will ride back over to the most interesting site we found.... with a camera this time. I've just got to get a pic of the tent we saw. It had a regular size air conditioner duct taped into a hole in the side of the tent. This one you've just got to see to appreciate!

So, until next time with a few more pics....

Pappy

Gulf Shores State Park- Here we are!

Grammy doing what she likes most

while I'm working around the

camp site:)

Good morning to my Blooger peeps! Grammy and I had a delightful open road drive down here to the L.A.'s golden coast. Yesterday we had a rather uneventful haul down here - uneventful is good - I guess one could classify a torrent downpour around Opelika & Auburn included in the uneventful category. It's during those un-events when I have a tendency to go white-knuckle on the steering wheel and have to remind myself and Grammy that all is well...all is well....all is well.

(ah, if only a little bit more of that wet stuff could find it's way to dear Oconee).

When we stuck our body parts outside this morning at 6 a.m. we found it surprisingly warm (imagine that at the beach). Honestly, the mornings at home have been so cool, that I guess they would be equally appealing down here. Note to self: get used to it. It's the beach!

The breeze however is picking up now and with the shade from camper, it seems this my be a beautiful day. Oh, I'll try to do better about updating our ledger this time around - with WIFI in the campsites my task shall be less of a hassle. Later.

Pappy

Gulf Shores State Park- Here we come!

Well, we pull out tomorrow a.m. en route to Gulf Shores. It's been over a month now since we took the Montana out - went to Mississippi to visit my cousin Ellen. Ellen has been fighting a brain tumor for over a year now and it was wonderful to visit her along with our other Mississippi kin. Great trip.

Well, the visit part was really good but we experienced a nagging issue with the Montana's landing gear. After much consternation we were able to make it home ok, but the camper had to go to the shop.

Now, campers are much like boats in that they are very enjoyable while you're using them, but theres usually some mechanical issue just under the enjoyment scale that seems to be waiting to go wrong while your in midst of the fun. In the Mississippi trip it was the landing gear. On other trips it's been fuses, turing signal lamps, electrical harness, oh yes... and a low hanging roof line which jumped out and caught the side of the camper. It's always something isn't it.

If you'er going to run with the big dowgs up and down the highways and byways, you just can't be a goober, a wiener, or a winer. Things happen. Things go wrong. But we won't let that small stuff get our spirits down. The Montana now has shiny new landing legs and two new motors - willing and ripping to head down the road ..... so,

Like my old boss used to say.... "Don't sweat the small stuff. And remember... it's all small stuff"!

So, here we are ready to pull out. And.... it's raining. Yes, it's actually raining. I'm not kidding or complaining because we've only had 1/2 inch since our Miss trip.

Heck, if I knew all it took was to hook up to the Montana to get this rain.... I wouldn't have waited so long for another trip:)

Happy Trails and Roads Ahead,

Pappy

Hiking Brasstown Bald, and Water Falls

Helton Creek Falls, Brasstown Bald, Helen, and Playgrounds Galore - Here we come! Wish there was more time to spend today, but alas we must return to flatlands tomorrow morning. See you next camping trip! Pappy.

This was a go, go day. Up early and headed to Brasstown Bald (which you might know is the highest elevation in GA. We huffed and puffed our way up the trail to the summit. What a wonderful day it was. We were told by a old gentleman who volunteered at this park that there was a really nice waterfall not too far from Vogel State Park. He called it Helton Water Falls. So, what could we do, but check out Vogel and then head over to Helton Falls.

Vogel is a really nice park although a little small for the size of our rigs. The kids however found what was really important - The Playground! It really doesn't take much does it:)

Next it was off to Helton Falls. This is a little known hide away waterfall that was located at the end of a very, very narrow dirt mud road. Very bumpy and very fun (don't ask Grammy). Check out the photos and you can almost feel how cold this mountain water is.

A Camping Birthday Party for Grammy

March 16th, Grammy, Hannah & I headed up to Unicoi State Park near Helen, GA to camp with Butch & Bonnie & grandkids and celebrate Brenda's birthday.... and our 40th wedding anniversary which will be on Sunday March 20th. What a deal!!

Brenda mentioned that I was getting a little "snooty" camping at Unicoi in our 5th wheel for our 40th - since we celebrated our 20th anniversary in the middle of the Okeefenokee Swamp. What can I say except that I tend to be a little more extravagant in my "older age". Do I have a great wife, or what! I love you Honey!

Of course we had to travel to BabyLandGeneralHospital to check out the Cabbage Patch Kids, ect. This place has done really well since they opened 35+ years ago. Only now, their "Kids" are made in China:(

Hannah adopted an appropriate "Kid" and named her, uh, well you'll have to ask Hannah for the child's name. They all had fun and they it was time to head back to camp and other "camp activities" - as Hannah likes to say.

Hannah Clair, Hannah Marie, Dustin, and Tristen hanging out in a convenient tree in the park.

If it looks like they're having fun - your right!

More to follow in days to come. Pappy

Crooked River State Park

Brice aboard the USS "Ground Hog".

Mandy, Brice, Bonnie, and Brenda listening out for any wild things to come out of the jungle:)

Bonnie, Brenda, and Mandy ferrying over to Cumberland Island. It 'twas a little chilly on deck.

Mandy spotted this gator taking a snooze after making a mad dash into and out of cannel. It's mating season in the Okeefenokee:)

Well it's been one month since I've blogged about our trip to Crooked River State Park. This place is wondrous. Kings Bay Submarine Base is located adjacent to the park, and although we didn't tour the Base, Brice did find a land-locked sub that he just had to climb on.

Cumberland Island is just across the river -bay which is accessible only by ferry twice a day. The ferry departs from St.Mary's and it's just a 45 minute ride across. Braxton's BSA Troop made the trip on Thursday and we went over on Friday. A walking self guided tour of the ruins of the old Carnegie Estate was an interesting adventure - particularly while walking through the narrow foot paths of jungle like foliage . Wild horses and other wild creatures abound on the island and when we heard something running toward us through the thick jungle it got the "lady-folks" a little on edge. All went well though and the rain held off most of the time.

The Okeefenokee Swamp was just down the road apiece so we boarded one of their tour boats and visited about 50 alligators in the swamp. All of them were very peaceful and meant us no harm, but Mandy was startled by the one pictured here. It seems that this was the beginning of mating season and some of them started bellowing. This one let out a bellow and ran into the water where he made some more menacing growls and made the water jump. Then, as quickly as he went into the water - he came back out and began taking his sunbath. Mandy excitedly told us every detail .... several times:)

On Thursday, we watched the Shuttle Discovery blast off for it's last voyage. We watched it from the beach at Fort Clinch State Park, FLA. It wasn't a whole lot to see except for a sparkler in the sky and a very very long plume of smoke. What can you expect from 100 miles away! Still, pretty neat!

The day before we left to come home, we contacted some old high school friends in Jacksonville, FL. Lloyd and Vera Able both graduated from Baker High School which has now been torn down and we haven't seen them since the 20th reunion. Anyway we couldn't pass up an opportunity to visit them since we were so close to Jacksonville. Those of you who don't know the Ables would enjoy their company. They traveled the world while Lloyd was in the Navy, and they had many adventures to talk about. Even though you may never have met them, you may have seen some of Lloyd's work. In the motion picture "Top Gun", Lloyd was one of the Navy Pilots flying the dog fighting scenes. In the closing credits, you can find him listed as LTCMD Lloyd "BOZO" Able. Very Cool! Who says I don't know important people:)!

That's all for now folks .... next trip.... Unicoi State Park, Helen, GA.

February Camping in South GA

Well, we have been so looking forward to this week. Our first camping trip of 2011. We'll pull out tomorrow morning heading for Crooked River State Park near St. Mary's, GA. When we planned this trip in December we didn't know what kind of weather to expect - after all, it snowed on Christmas day and then again on January 10th. We prepared for COLD weather, but the weatherman says next week will be beautiful. We hope so!

Mandy and the G-boys will join us at the park and spend the week camping with us. Should be a blast and we can hardly wait till morning breaks so we can get on the road again! Chow for now. Pappy.