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Published: June 15th 2015
Fried Catfish
Southern FlavorTravels with Just One Snowbird, SELows June 2015 Campout, Cedar Creek RV, Cave Spring, GA
Summer Edition! While away at this SouthEast Loners on Wheels campout, I was asked to write an article for the club newsletter. I obliged, but now I am turning it into a Travels with Just One Snowbird Blog. There’s some fun stuff here.
At the last minute, I opted to leave Winston at home, and that was the smartest decision I have made in a very long time. The trip started out very well, until the inside temperature of the RV hit 81 degrees. I turned on the dashboard A/C and nothing but hot air came out. How could this be? Moya is only 3 years old, and the A/C has hardly been used. That being said, I knew right then that it was a good thing I didn’t bring Winston. He is sensitive to the high heat and he would have been miserable. More on the A/C later.
I never never never, did you get that, never will camp in the summer again. It is so bloody hot! The total distance was about 530 miles. I was going to stay at a
Wal-Mart overnight, but it was too hot. I would have had to run the generator all night, positioned right under my bed. I also knew I would have to run the rooftop air all night, above my head. I figured I would be vibrated to death, not a bad thing under certain circumstances; I found a cheap campground, plugged in, turned on the rooftop air, and watched what ended up being my last TV for a week. It got cool enough late at night; I was able to turn off the air, and actually needed a blanket.
The next day I travelled on to Cave Spring, GA, Cedar Creek RV Park. Located approximately 90 miles northwest of Atlanta, Cave Spring, population under 2000, is situated in low rolling green hills with picturesque Cedar Creek flowing visibly along the roadway. It was named for the limestone spring which produces 2 million gallons of water daily inside a cave in the center of the 3 square mile village. One of the most notable things in town is the Georgia School for the Deaf. Despite a rocky history, the boarding school currently boasts about its innovative programs.
ignore between the words STOP Rainbow
It did seem the rainbow was ending right in the bath house! if you don't want history.
STOP Georgia School for the Deaf provides comprehensive education and services to deaf and hard-of-hearing students between the ages of three and eighteen. The school offers day and residential programs which meet the academic, social and physical needs of students in a total communication environment. It was established in 1846.
STOP Cedar Creek Campground, about two miles from town center, has about 100 RV sites, some creek side and some across the drive from the creek. There are 20 or so tent sites creek side. The camp store rents kayaks and tubes, and has an upstream shuttle service that seemed popular on weekends. There is a golf driving range complete with braying donkey on the other side of the fence. Most importantly, the store sells and rents 50 to 30 amp conversion cords. Can't stay here without one if your rig is 30 amp. Cost to rent, $25. Cost to buy, $25. I had one that I bought before I did my cross country trek in 2013 to UT – I figured I might need it then. I used it then and I used it now. It cost $18
then.
Most of us arrived on Sunday to 90+ degree temperatures with equal humidity. The rooftop air conditioners were humming. Happy hour under the covered picnic pavilion renewed old friendships, and forged new ones. A loose, general itinerary for the week was established.
Cars to drive us around were limited. Monday, Edith rented a car which was a great help, the costs to be shared by those riding. Enterprise picked her up at the campground, drove her to Rome, GA, about 20 miles away, and she returned with her hot little red rocket Kia. Some of us drove to Cedartown, about 8 miles away, and searched the local stores for some tubes or rafts, only finding kiddie tubes at the Dollar Store. We raced a rainstorm home from town. Big black clouds, big pelting rain drops. At the exact same time, something caught all our eyes. Standing at the edge of a clearing, off to the right was a large pure white animal. Someone said, "Cow," then someone said, "Horse," and in unison we all said, "UNICORN!!" Whatever it was, it looked just like a Unicorn through the rain. It gave us pleasant thoughts. We looked for it
every time we passed that spot, but never saw it again. Back at the campground later that afternoon, I gave an impromptu smartphone lesson how to attach a photo to a contact record. There were a lot of belly laughs over silly and scary pictures now associated with our club members.
Tuesday we headed for Cartersville, searching out the antique and thrift stores and bargains, as well as a visit to the Booth Western Art Museum. Facts from their website:
ignore between the words STOP if you don't want history. STOP Opened August 2003
120,000 square foot building
Only museum of its kind in the Southeast
Second largest art museum in the state of Georgia
Houses largest permanent exhibition space for Western American art in the country
Named an Affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution in August 2006
Named for Sam Booth, a mentor to several of the anonymous founders
Main art galleries feature Western artists of the 20th and 21st Centuries
Permanent Galleries include:
American West Gallery, Cowboy Gallery, Faces of the West, Heading West, The Modern West, Sagebrush Ranch, James and Carolyn Millar Presidential Gallery, War is Hell, and a two-story Sculpture Court
A reference library for Western American art, culture and history. The Library
also has small collections of reference materials on Civil War history, United
States presidential history, and local history that support the collections of the
Booth Western Art Museum.
All collections are non-circulating
Glass elevator with real weights – one of only two in the country.
STOP We watched an introductory video and followed a docent led tour. Our guide, quite a good looking 60ish y/o man, had a pleasant personality but I found myself laughing at his quaint facts, "This is a painting," and "This is a sculpture," or "We won't go in this Hall of Presidents Room."
We lunched at a local deli and all agreed the sandwiches were wonderful. Downtown parking was at the railroad station and we saw many very long freight trains drive slowly thru. The town recently elevated one of their main streets to go over the train tracks to alleviate traffic tie ups. Once back at the campground, some went out for dinner at Southern Flavor in Cave Spring. Catfish, fresh hamburger Steak, and Broasted Chicken with
complimentary banana pudding were thoroughly enjoyed by all. Cost under $8 for most. The waitress was asked if she knew where all the "chicken" trucks came from, and she told us she didn't, she "wasn't from around here." When asked where she was from, she said, "Cedartown." About 8 miles away. The cook came out to check on us. Camo hat. Camo shirt, black shorts. Feed store apron. A few teeth missing. I had a great deal of difficulty understanding his western Georgia accent. This is the only place I have ever visited where they can make the word ANT into three syllables, AY-UN-T. He caused a laugh. I just nodded my head politely as others tried to interpret. More belly laughs as later some played a new game to us, Apples to Apples, in the dark, at the picnic pavilion, with the bugs.
Wednesday found a group heading to tour Cave Spring. U.S. 411 runs thru the middle of this very tiny one traffic light downtown. You MUST press the crosswalk button to safely get to the other side of the street. This is a major road the logging trucks and chicken-to-the -slaughterhouse trucks use all day and
Art Work, Booth Museum
This painting was larger than life size all night. The town is so quaint, many tourists stop for a quick bite or ice cream or home made fudge. The entire town feeds the local stray cat, momma and her four kittens. By the end of our stay, daddy had been captured and snipped, momma was on her way to do the same, and all four kittens had found new homes. A few treasures were purchased by our group, helping along the local economy. One local shop owner missed out, though. She let us 5 ladies out of her very crowded shop spending only a total of $30 due to her unwillingness to bargain one bit on her high prices. Her loss. Let her keep all her dusty stuff. I did find in her shop, a chenille bedspread. Some time ago I saw Starfish Pillows made out of old chenille. I never found one cheap enough; she charged me $20. Lunch at another local hangout, Creekside Restaurant. Catfish, fried beef liver, fried calves liver, Broasted Chicken, and complimentary fluffy white cake with homemade creamy vanilla frosting was a big hit. Most lunches were $5.99. We visited historic Rolater Park, toured the constant 57 degree cave, saw, but didn't
drink from, the head of the spring.......we didn't have bottles or glasses.....mothers and children were cooling off in the shallow spring. Workers were busy getting the park in shape for the annual art/car show on Saturday. We stopped at the Visitor Center and were greeted by the man who proudly announced he was in charge of the parking for this event, and he was also a teacher at the School for the Deaf. We plan on attending the festival and pray for a cooler day with a breeze. Bonnie and Edith went on to tour the Georgia School for the Deaf which they said was very interesting.
Thursday some stayed at the campground and veg'd out while others went to Rome to see some more sites including Berry College. The group toured some of the main and mountain campuses, went on to see The Cradle (Possom Trot, the very first school rooms,) the Old Mill Wheel (one of the largest at 42 feet) and the Berry Family Residence, Oak Hill, briefly toured the museum, but got rained out of touring the gardens.
Plagiarized from their website
: ignore between the words STOP if you don't want history. General Store, downtown Cave Spring
Not really a general store anymore. A junque shop whose owner was never there. We saw a lady 'buy' a cat carrier by putting $10 under his door. STOP Berry has the world’s largest contiguous college campus, spanning more than 27,000 acres of woodlands, meadows and streams. There are 47 primary buildings on campus, including 15 classroom facilities and 10 residence halls. The newest halls, Audrey B. Morgan and Deerfield, house approximately 350 students and feature beautiful vistas, spacious common areas and outdoor fireplaces. The 131,000 square-foot Steven J. Cage Athletic and Recreation Center offers students a state-of-the-art home for Berry's thriving intercollegiate and intramural sports programs. Highlights include a 2,000-seat intercollegiate sports arena, two racquetball courts, an eight-lane pool, and fitness center. The Kilpatrick Commons area, adjacent to campus dining, provides a serene and peaceful respite in the heart of the campus with waterfalls and an outdoor fireplaces. Martha McChesney Berry founded the Berry Schools for academically able but economically poor children of the rural South—those who usually could not afford to go to other schools. These schools of the early 1900s grew within three decades into Berry College, a comprehensive liberal arts college. As a result of her 40 years of work with the schools and college, Martha Berry is among Georgia's most prominent women of the first half of the 20th century.
Martha Berry was born on Oct. 7, 1865, in Alabama to Thomas and Francis Margaret Rhea Berry. The family moved when she was still a baby to Rome, Ga., where she lived for the remainder of her life. Martha's father operated a plantation and was a partner in Berrys and Company, a wholesale grocery and cotton brokerage business in Rome. In 1871 he purchased a residence located approximately two miles north of downtown Rome, which was later known as Oak Hill.
Young Martha lived there with five sisters, two brothers and three Berry cousins whose parents were deceased. Educated by a governess and tutors at home, she attended the Edgeworth School, a finishing school in Baltimore, Md., for less than a year. She received no other formal education but traveled around the country and to Europe on several occasions.
Martha Berry was very devoted to her father, and she rode horseback along with him into the nearby hills and mountain areas, visiting with poorer landowners and tenant farmers. Her father often assisted these families with their needs, and Martha developed a desire to help them also. She never married, (was engaged Taking a break in Cave Spring
look carefully and you will see the 'General Store' across the street. That's it, the entire town once, but would have had to give up her education work if she married) choosing instead to make this desire her life's work.
In the late 1890s Martha met three young boys crossing the family's property near Oak Hill on a Sunday afternoon. She learned they did not go to school or Sunday school. They were not familiar with basic stories from the Bible, so she entertained them with some of these stories. She invited them to return the next Sunday with their brothers and sisters. Soon whole families filled a small log cabin that had been built years before near Oak Hill as a playhouse for the Berry children and later served as a quiet place for Martha to read, write, and contemplate. When the group overflowed the cabin (which still stands), she built a small whitewashed school building across the highway from Oak Hill on 83 acres of land given to her by her father. She also used an abandoned church a few miles away at Possum Trot, and two other facilities were located at Mount Alto and Foster's Bend. These four Sunday schools grew into day schools for the children.
Martha eventually concluded
that, in order to have sufficient impact on the children, she needed to keep them at the schools rather than have them live at home. She had a dormitory built, and on Jan. 13, 1902, she opened the Boys' Industrial School with five boarding students on the land near her home. After the school was incorporated the next year with a board of trustees, she deeded the 83-acre tract to the corporation. This school later became known as the Mount Berry School for Boys, and on Thanksgiving Day 1909 she opened the Martha Berry School for Girls approximately a mile from the boys' school. These were high schools also offering lower-level studies in the early years. The Berry schools became models for vocational, agricultural and mechanical schools throughout the world by showing how the needs of people in poor rural areas could be met. Through her schools Berry blazed a trail for the establishment of an agricultural and mechanical school in each congressional district of Georgia.
In 1926 she established Berry Junior College, which in 1930 expanded into a four-year school. The high schools were closed in later years following Berry's death in 1942. The college has continued its founder's focus on providing students with a comprehensive education of the head, the heart and the hands. Her motto still endures: "Not to be ministered unto, but to minister."
STOP Just for convenience and cost savings, Edith returned the red rocket rental car while in Rome. We divided up the costs, added in some extra for Cheryl's gas and thanked Edith and Cheryl for carting us around.
Friday we said farewell to Bonnie and Sandie who were headed to Atlanta to spend time at the once monthly Smith Antique Market, a world class, multi day, 900 vendor antique show/sale. The rest of us spent another lazy day trying to keep cool near the shady creek. We met Peco. Peco is a 2 year old Noble Parrot who always goes camping with his human family. His wings are clipped so he doesn't fly. His human mommy takes him for walks!! He follows her around the campground and golf driving range either on her finger or walking behind. Yes, walking behind. He came over for a visit, but didn't talk, just bobbed his head at us.
Saturday morning we went back to Cave Spring to find out what their Festival was all about. Rolater Park had been transformed into a white canopied city. About 100 craft vendors were selling, from soap, to jewelry, to bonsai, to crocheted blankets, pottery, woodworkers, etc. no real bargains, but some beautiful stuff. Cheryl let Mr. Healing Hands massage her foot, and made a purchase. Uh Huh. A few of us grazed the food vendors for lunch, and others went to Cedartown looking for a draft beer. While Edith and I were eating lunch, a dead branch from the overhead very very tall unknown type of oak tree fell to the ground two feet off Edith's left shoulder. It broke in two when it hit the ground making such a loud, sharp noise it badly frightened us. If it had been any closer, we would have ended up in the hospital with serious head trauma. We did not move, though, we finished eating, then moved. We were joined at our lunch table by a stately older couple from Rome, GA. He was a Son of the Confederacy, she was a Daughter of the Confederacy, raised in AL. His ancestor was one of the founders of the School for the Deaf in the 1840s. Lunch items included Moroccan chicken and veggie stuffed pita, polish sausage/hotdog, pork BBQ and Curly fries, finished off with freshly fried mini peach pocket pies and homemade Peach ice cream. A short walk brought us to the house of one of the last Cherokee chiefs who lived in Cave Spring. The locals are restoring this log cabin structure as money allows. The Trail of Tears passes thru this town and there are signs following its path…..a very sad story in US History. Last stop was a garage sale we were told not to miss. We should have, but Edith did purchase a jar of homemade Scupperdine (blend of two grapes ) jelly.
Once back to the campground, Cheryl was offered the use of a tube and floated down the creek. Finally someone ventured in!
Farewells were said at happy hour as some are leaving early on Sunday morning. Nice campground, nice Campout, next time here it just needs to be 20 degrees cooler.
I was up and out by 7:30 Sunday morning. I knew it was going to be hotter than Saturday, and I just wanted to get as far as I could before I sweltered. It didn’t take long. I made the decision to turn on the generator and run the rooftop air. That managed to keep the inside of the rig at a toasty 86, but better than the 95 it was outside. I made pretty good time, no traffic thru Atlanta. I was going to spend overnight at a campground in Florence, SC, but it was only 2:00 when I hit there, so I continued home to Wilmington, about 530 miles total for the day. Son Tim came over and in 30 minutes we unloaded the entire RV. That was a wonderful treat. God Bless Sons.
During the week I called my local RV dealer and spoke to the service tech who advised me they don’t touch dashboard a/c, but referred me to Advanced Automotive around the corner. I called them and the very nice mechanic figures it is one of two things, a stuck valve or a fuse. He told me to check the fuse, and I said NO, last time I tried to do that I ended up shocked and on my ass. He told me to drop it off anytime when I got home and he would look at it. Next I looked at the Winnebago Warranty, 12 months, 15K miles, expired. I do have an extended Warranty, I called them to confirm coverage, and they will cover anything above $200.
Monday morning I had to be up early so Tom, my Irrigation System GURU!!! Could check out my system that my neighbor told me wasn’t working while I was away. Tim planted a plant for me last week and cut a wired. Everything in the house worked, now the sprinklers didn’t. I was up at 6 and inside the RV wiping everything down and mopping the floor. Of course the sprinklers came on. Nothing wrong there. Tom came over, I showed him the wire Tim severed, and he told me it wasn’t Irrigation wire, he didn’t now what it was. So, my brand new Red Oleander plant is safe, didn’t need to dig it up again. Tom tested all programs, and all is well. He is my hero.
Then, I dropped Moya off at the automotive repair, very nice people. Might not get to it for a few days, that’s fine. Picked up a very tired Winston. All is well in the world.
So, never never never again camp in the summer. No reason to drive 100s of miles to sit inside a hot metal box, right? I can be home going to the beach. Next planned campout in September at Myrtle Beach, then on to the Chesapeake Bay later in September. Cooler.
Until we meet again
Kat Out.
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