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Published: November 14th 2012
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Karen retired after 9 years at the Baraboo library on Nov 2
nd. Wayne had been semi -retired for the past 4 yehars and fully retired the last 10 months. Our Baraboo home was sold to son Eric and daughter-in-law Pam last July. We purchased a 5th wheel travel trailer and have been camping out in their back yard since then. We are planning on spending about the next 6 months traveling and living in our 5th wheel trailer. Our only firm plans are to go where it is warm and be in Arizona in February since we have plane reservations to fly from Phoenix to San Jose, Costa Rica on February 28
th.
We will try to update this travel blog once a week while we are traveling.
We left home on Monday, November 5
th. We had voted by absentee ballot so no presidential election was going to delay our trip. We made it to southern Illinois the first day, a total of 400 miles. Our first night on the road was spent in Mount Vernon, IL in a Cracker Barrel parking lot with the permission of the manager. And the price was right. ($0)
We had thought that
we may want to drive through Tennessee, Alabama and Mississippi by the way of the Natchez Trace parkway and then head for New Orleans. By the time we got to Paducah, KY the next morning, we decided to head for Florida by way of Atlanta, GA. That would give us a chance to visit with Karen’s sister, Kim, and brother, Terry and their spouses.
We found a nice campground (Shell Mound *** ) near Chattanooga, TN on Lake Nickajack. We spent 2 nights there. We hiked about a mile to the Nickajack dam and lock enjoying the fall colors on the way. This lake is a reservoir on the Tennessee River. On our boat trip in 2009, we did not come this far on the Tennessee River.
It was not easy to find a campground in the Atlanta area that was close to Kim and Terry’s. We did find one about 20 miles from each of their homes. This was the Lakemont RV Park * . We got to park in a parking lot behind the office. It did have electricity and water. We had good visits with Kim and Bruce on Thursday evening and Terry and Cindy
on Friday night. We were treated to 2 very good meals and lots of fun visiting. We also had a chance to visit Kennesaw National Battlefield and hiked part way up Kennesaw Mountain.
The * after the campground or RV park is our rating. I hope we find a ***** along the way.
Instead of going directly to Florida we went further east and south, to Savannah, GA. We had never visited this historic city. We took the guided trolley tour and learned a lot about Savannah and James Oglethorp, the founder of the British colony of Georgia in the early 1700s. We appreciated the Live Oaks with their drapery of Spanish moss. We also enjoyed the riverfront area with many restaurants and boats. We got to tour a 3 masted sailing ship which will be sailing the Great Lakes next summer. I told the captain that there is no better sailing than sailing on Lake Superior. The Waterway RV Park * had seen its better days, but the price was right.
Terry and Cindy had told us how great a place Jekyll Island, GA is so that is where we ended up next. The Island is
owned by the State of Georgia and has a wonderful campground****. The island had been the playground of the wealthy industrialists in the late 1800s and early 1900s. They all had 5,000-10,000 sq. ft. cottages with 8-12 servants each. Their Jekyll Island Club house is now restored as an impressive hotel. The 7 mile long, 1 ½ mile wide island is encircled by paved bicycle paths that we enjoyed using. We camped about ¼ mile from the inter-coastal water way. I am envious of the sailboats I see headed south down the waterway for the winter. Since we have reservations at a Florida campground tomorrow I guess we will have to DRIVE to Florida. We definitely want to come back to this place for a longer stay.
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Harold & Vicki
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We will be looking forward to your weekly blogs. Enjoy the warm weather, we have winter.