Travels with Snowbirds, SELows Stone Mountain campout, April 2019, adventures continue, and alone time.

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I wrote the following over several days, so it might not flow as well as others I have written, and I finished it up when I got home. Seems like my iphone really chewed up data while I was at Santee SP, and I used it sparingly. I am now home and can add the few photos I need to easily. Read on:

Friday found us using another segment of our Atlanta CityPass and touring Fernbank, a Natural History museum with walking gardens. The special dinosaur exhibit was amazing. Featuring the flying Pterosaurs, there were many mini films, interactive displays, and hands on features pleasing to both children and crusty old seniors. We were told there were 500 kids there that day for class trips, and they were loud. Being an experienced Nana Field Trip Chaperone, the kids I saw were being led thru the displays with very little guidance by the adults. They were quiet for the movies, though. There was a GA coastal plain exhibit which could have taught even the littlest so much. In a more perfect world……..

Saturday many ventured to the Stone Mountain Village, which is a whole other amusement area with its own ticket. There are shops and restaurants for free, but if you want to see the movies and ride the train, you buy the ticket. Since I had already done the Sky Ride, I did not want to buy the ticket, so I wandered a bit and opted to take the shuttle back to the campground. The group purchased tickets for veranda seating at the 9:00 pm laser show displayed on the mountain. Another short shuttle ride from the campground, and a very long steep walk and $13 gave us a cushioned folding chair in the Alabama terrace with free cookie, bottled soda, and unlimited popcorn with a birds eye view of the ultra patriotic display. Lasers, fireworks, and every patriotic song ever written over 45 minutes. It really got my feet tapping, for sure. The long steep walk beat me down. Who knew Georgia was so hilly! Not as young as I used to be. Thankfully, fellow camper, Bobbi, knew the walk would be an issue for 2 of us, and she had parked her car close by earlier in the day, and cut off over half our walk back to the shuttle. That was very sweet and appreciated so much.

Most campers left early Sunday morning. Threats of strong thunderstorms scattered the group, quickly. I had previously opted to stay an extra day, as did a few others. Some went out for a wonderful breakfast at a nearby diner with awesome cakes! The rain was intense, but the lightning and wind never really materialized, and by 4 we were outside for happy hour.

I started to break camp Sunday night, and was on the road by 8:30 Monday morning. Sick again. I spent all of January and February hibernating in my house to avoid getting sick, and March and April slammed me. I think my earlier sinus infection has returned, and my cough is ferocious. Of course I left the codeine cough medicine at home…..so opted for the on hand Mucinex pills…….which are the same formula as many other cold tablets. (I buy the cheap store brand for $2.99 rather than the $10 name brand.). They do dry me up and cut the cough. I decided to spend a few nights at one of my favorite places, Santee State Park, on Lake Marion in the middle of SC. I couldn’t get 3 nights in the same campsite, but moving is easy when you don’t put out a lot of stuff. As it turned out, the site I moved to was empty anyway, go figure. My new site has a great view of the lake, and the sewer dump station, and lots of kids. Easter week. But, I really like it here, very peaceful for me. There are many fisherman here, towing boats that they launch at the boat ramp. Lots of grandparents with the kids. I see two seniors pushing little ones on tricycles using modified broom handles, so cute, and then they get on their ultra slick tri wheeled motorcycle all decked out in their black leather outfits.

Some days when camping, you laugh at the entertainment, and some days you ARE the entertainment. This morning when I pulled into my new site, I did it on one try. I backed in and landed perfectly on the first attempt and no one was there to watch. Yay me! I watched the new camper in the adjacent site back his very long trailer into his site on the first try, around a tree! Now I am watching him unload what looks like 30 plastic tubs and put them under his rig. That must be something trailer owners do, since trailers have very little storage, they pile everything possible into large color coded plastic tubs and pile them underneath their units. In another site I see a grandpa teaching his pre teen girls how to put up a tent. Dragonflies are buzzing, woodpeckers are pecking….can’t see them, don’t know which kind, and Winston is sleeping. I found General Hospital on my air antenna, and all is right with the world.

Part of the pleasure I get from writing my travel blog is talking about the funny things. people do. But, that is not always easy as I frequently travel with friends, and they probably would not enjoy reading my interpretation of their adventures. So, it is often easier when I am by camping by myself to meet and talk to stranger campers and hear and relay their tales. As I was enjoying the lovely afternoon sitting outside, crocheting, a lady my age came up to admire and stayed a half an hour. She and her husband are in a Class C. She drives their car behind them, as they don’t want to tow. They are on their way home to somewhere in upstate NY from 3 months in Zephyrhills, FL. He has had replacement of both knees, and, while he has totally recovered, he still needs a long nap every day. Imagine that!

My new next door neighbors are cuties. Mid 30s, I think. 2kids, 10 and 3. The 10 year old boy is so polite! Only asks once when he needs to interrupt, says please and thank you, etc. when their setting up camp chores were done, his dad walked him thru putting batteries in the walk-in talkie and off he went on his bike to fish from the nearby dock. Dad, Ben, drove the truck somewhere and came back with a small fishing boat attached, which he did. It park as easily as he did the trailer. He managed to keep it all within the boundaries of his campsite, and did not block my limited water view. This guy is a camper who gets how to be considerate. That does my heart good.

The camp host stopped by to see if all was ok. Camp hosts are generally full time campers who are hired by the campground and free campsite is part of their pay. They can have many duties including cleaning bathrooms, neatening messy campsites when empty, and enforcing 2 auto per campsite rule. Boy could she talk! She and her husband have a 3 month contract, and she said her work is generally easy.

I am watching Jeopardy. How did this guy get so smart?

I spent a lot of time today looking for the birds I was hearing. I never did see the loud woodpecker. I have noticed that the robins I see here are not as plump as those in Stone Mountain, and their orange breasts are not as vivid. No herons seen yet. I don’t ever see robins at home in Wilmington, but have lots of cardinals.

I just went to grab a handful I of mixed nuts from the container in the closet. It was stuck to the shelf. Upon further investigation, I found the maple syrup had fallen over. Its top was not fastened down securely. What a mess. I wiped everything down, but can’t get it off the shelf. Growl. An ant magnet. I left damp rags soaking on it and hope it will come up in the morning. Growl. (Post note: now that I am home, while locking up the RV for the night, I found a brown sticky puddle in the ground under the space where the closet is. I don’t want to think about it.)

Wednesday I did absolutely nothing except take cold pills every 4 hours exactly and they knocked me out almost immediately. I took 3 naps Wednesday, and still managed to sleep all night. I did manage to wash the inside of all the windows, and wipe down the kitchen, bathroom, and all the cabinets. I like it when Moya is clean.

Up very early Thursday morning, and on the road at 8:30, after a very easy breaking camp and sewer dumping. No traffic anywhere and I was home by 12. I took hours to unload, but I had all day.

Good trip. I love RVing for sure. I hate the fact that my hands are getting so weak and I have to ask more and more people for help doing mundane things, but most don’t seem to mind at all.

My next camping trip will be with the SELows in June, to Bandit’s Roost, an Army Corps of Engineers campground in Wilkesboro, NC. Until then.



Kat out

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