Taking a turn to the north–Georgia

With forecasted storms for the panhandle area of Florida once again coinciding with our travel day, we got an early start so we could stay ahead of them and get settled in our new location.

Driving a familiar route, we made our way through Alabama and into Georgia.

 

Our destination was the Pine Mountain RV Resort – we had spent a couple weeks here back in 2015 when our truck was in the shop in Atlanta – and it’s a nice resort.  We arrived and got all settled before the rain arrived, and we didn’t get any severe weather at all, so that was a relief.  Once that rain moved through, the weekend was supposed to be beautiful, and we were looking forward to a couple of nice pool days!

We didn’t think the RV Resort would be very crowded at the end of April, but when we checked in we found out that there was a Escapees Rally (Southeast Region, I think) coming up the next week, and RVer Bootcamp that weekend.  I guess we were pretty lucky to get a site!

We did enjoy some nice relaxing pool time over the next couple days, and I finished an entire book!  We didn’t feel the need to do any sight-seeing while we were there, since we had seen everything when we were there before, but on Saturday some people at the pool told us about the Pine Mountain Trail, which parallels the highway through Franklin D. Roosevelt State Park, from Pine Mountain to Warm Springs.

After an early dinner, we put the top down on the Jeep and headed out to FDR State Park.  We didn’t have time to do any hiking on the trail, but we could drive along the highway over the mountain.

It was a beautiful drive through the mountains, with several overlooks of the surrounding valleys.

The road twisted and winded it’s way through the mountains – it was a fun drive in the Jeep, and a popular route for motorcycles, too.

We pulled into one overlook and met a whole group of bikers out for a ride on this beautiful day.

We talked for a while and took a few pictures for each other before going off in opposite directions.

Tom’s new friend – he had a very strong Louisiana accent, and we could hardly understand him!  Friendly guy, though!

We stopped at one more overlook, at the peak of Pine Mountain . . .

then continued on to Warm Springs.  This is the location of FDRs Little White House, and the springs that were used to try to treat polio.  We’d toured Warm Springs when we were here before, so we didn’t stop this time.  We just drove through and then headed back the way we came.

On the way back, we drove through the state park campground.  It’s a nice little campground, but not one that we could get our motorhome into!

One more overlook that we missed on the way up . . . that’s Callaway Gardens down there.

It was almost time for church by then, so we headed back to town.  It was a beautiful day for a drive!

Back in town, we spotted this cool VW Bug!

Tom was wearing his “Navy Dad” T-shirt, and it caught the priest's attention when we arrived at church.  It turns out that the pastor is a retired Navy Captain – he was the Chaplain on the aircraft carrier, USS Constellation (CV-64).

On Sunday, it was time for us to move on and we had another fairly short drive . . . although it would take us through Atlanta.  Typically something a lot of RVers try to avoid, but we would be on I-85 and I-20, so not really going through the middle of Atlanta, and it was Sunday, so traffic should be light.

We got off to a good start . . . until we got a couple miles down the road and Tom realized that he had forgotten to remove our Progressive EMS off the electric pedestal!  That was a first!

It took several more miles for us to find a place to pull over, but we eventually did and un-hitched the Jeep so that Tom could drive back to the RV Resort and retrieve the EMS.  That was almost an expensive mistake!

Once he got back, we got on the road and made our way to Country Boys RV Park in Madison, GA.  It’s just up the road from Eatonton, where Tom’s cousins live, and we spent the next several days visiting with them in the evenings – at their house, at the RV Park, and out to dinner several times.  It was a very warm week, and we made a couple of trips to  Dairy Queen, too! 

Madison is a cute historic town, and one night after dinner at a pizzeria in downtown,we walked off our dinner while admiring the beautiful architecture.

There was a park with an outdoor stage surrounded by gardens,

and a beautiful county courthouse on the square.

After our walking tour, we also took a driving tour through several old neighborhoods – there are some gorgeous old homes in town!

We had a great week visiting with Andrea and John, discussing retirement plans and talking about RVs.  Thanks for hanging out with us, guys – we had a great time, and we were glad to be able to see Emily one evening, too!

Meanwhile, back in Michigan, Bryce was one of several recipients in his class, of the Jack and Maryann Heppinstall Memorial Athletic Training Student Scholarship.

This award is intended to encourage athletic training students who have demonstrated the capacity to achieve educational and professional goals, the motivation to achieve these goals, and the leadership and initiative to seek opportunities to further their progress in the profession of athletic training. AT students are encouraged to incorporate Jack Heppinstall’s criteria with focusing on a consistent and balanced combination of academic, professional, motivation, leadership, AT Club involvement, and clinical initiative characteristics.

The more casual version . . .

He’s certainly in his element at MSU and within the Athletic Training Department, and we’re so proud of how well he’s doing and the success he’s having!  I think he’s going to have a very successful career!

And he’s handsome, too!!

And in Virginia, Nicolas’ ship went back out for another underway.  One of the local spouses captured some great photos of the Ike as it passed by Fort Monroe.

It looks pretty amazing, doesn’t it?

During this underway, Nicolas was pinned with his Surface Warfare pin, indicating that he has completed all surface warfare qualifications on his ship.

We’re very proud of him, too – he’s making progress and earning more responsibility on the ship. 

He works long, hard hours, but he still gets to see the sun once in a while!