Day: April 6, 2019

DAY #165

The sky’s had somewhat cleared up and more importantly, the temperature had warmed up so I decided to do some meandering around the area.

What better place to start than the park. Magnolia Springs State Park was the site of Camp Lawton, a confederate POW camp. There isn’t anything left from the original fort other than some earthen berms.

Let’s start with the spring that the park derives its name from. Compared to the springs in Florida, this one’s pretty small but it’s home to fish, turtles and even an alligator which I only saw one time, the rest of the time I’m not sure where it was hanging out.

The park was on the small side but offered a couple of nice looking trails (that I didn’t check out), there were lots of trees separating the camping area from the day use area. One thing that was so cool to see were the trees budding, oh yeah, springtime is alive and well in Southeast Georgia.

What I’m about to show has never before been seen. You may want to take the kids out of the room before viewing.

See what the inside of a Georgia State Park bathroom/shower looks like.

After leaving the park, just wandered around in no specific direction.

I think that photos of buildings/homes give a glimpse of the history & the evolving culture of the area.

Traveling through the countryside, came across a grove (?) of pecan trees.

Behind the park ran a dirt road that was interesting to drive down. It was so cool, while driving down this road, I came across five (yes five) cardinals. They are such pretty birds and having seen all of them, wow, I’ve got a lot of folks looking out for me.

The dirt road brought me to Perkins, Ga where I saw this building, kind of unexpected.

As I was heading back to the park I came across this church hidden away along a heavily forested road. It’s history goes back to the 1850’s and included a graveyard across the road that looked to be long forgotten.

A couple of things I’ve noticed since coming up to this part of the state. There are lots and lots of trailer houses in various states of condition, and I know I’m back in the south, what with all the churches everywhere and anywhere.

It was an enjoyable day seeing glimpses and flashes of history of the area. I do love the south.

DAY #164

Today was a washout. It was rainy and cold (relatively speaking). It was a good day to just sit around and watch TV as it faded in and out, and to go online with my poor Verizon service. Damn verizon, I noticed even in town that the strength of Verizon’s signal was weak, geez we’re not that far out in the sticks.

One concerning thing that I noticed from the rain, was water coming in around the vent in the bathroom. This time it was leaking from the other side of the vent edge. I wiped it up and and the leak stopped. I also noticed water leaking in from one side of the slideout (just great). I did some checking and came to the conclusion the water was getting around the seal because the trailer was at a bit of a slant to the right (at least that’s what I was hoping). They didn’t seem like major issues but the leak around the vent was reoccuring. I did some checking and found a Camping World in Augusta, GA, that hopefully would check the situation out and put an end to the water leaking. I Gave them a call and after a bit of phone tag, was able to set up an appointment on the way to the next destination. Going to Augusta would not take me out of my way and I was hoping this could be a quick fix.

Tomorrow was promising to be a nicer day.

DAY #163

I tend to be a very impulsive person. Today I brought the truck and trailer to Billy Bobs consignment and BBQ in Downtown Millen, to see how much they’d give me. After some back and forth negotiations, they offered $25,000 + a full rack of ribs and three sides. I decided to take their offer after they threw in three bags of pork rinds (big bags), and now I’m heading to Costa Rica to start a new life, including changing my name (how does Don Hope sound). This means that first I’ll have to max out all my credit cards and perhaps take out a couple of get as much as I can loans. If your going to burn bridges and start a new life, need to burn them all.

Once set up, I plan on starting a new blog, of course it will be in Spanish. Adios USA, hola Costa Rica.

APRIL FOOLS !

Ended up doing very little today, Other than going into town and picking up some chicken from popeyes (I like their rice and beans), just hung out around the campsite in a catatonic state.

Oh yeah I forgot, did go into town and happened upon this building, who knew.

DAY #162

It’s spring in Georgia and that means the azaleas are in bloom. They seem to be everywhere and are such beautiful flowers.

Today’s blog has been dedicated to these gorgeous flowers, let’s take a look at some of them.

Sadly, they only flower for about a week but when they’re in bloom, just beautiful. So fortunate that I got to see them.

DAY #161

Nice Day, nice park, nice place to be.

Didn’t do much today. I did take a drive up to Waynesboro, GA which is only 15 minutes away, and checked out the local Walmart. I must be getting spoiled, I’ve become so used to Walmart Supercenters that going to a just a plain old run of the mill Walmart is somewhat disappointing. It doesn’t have the bakery and deli selections which I’ve come to rather enjoy.

On the ride back, I got off the main road which was a four lane highway and took the back roads to get a feel of the area.

Noticed the topography of the land changing from flat to slightly rolling hills and while the harvesting of trees remained widespread, more and more fields (farming) began to enter the picture. I did notice that the type of pines were a different variety from what I’d seen throughout Florida and around the Okefenokee.

It was a nice day to spend in the country.

DAY #160

Time to leave Fargo, Stephen C. Foster State Park, and the Okefenokee Swamp. As I had mentioned, the Okefenokee was someplace I had always wanted to visit and after my time here, I wasn’t disappointed. What’s stayed with me the most from my time at the park, was the few hours spent meandering through the swamp (see I told you it would be fun once safely back on dry land).

Time spent on the road getting to the next destination was about 3 1/2 hours, and a nice mellow drive on state highways it was. This part of Georgia remains flat and mainly covered by trees (pines). Timber looks to be the main source of income for the area. It also was very rural which I really liked. It made for a quiet and laid back setting (at least for me).

Pulled into Magnolia Springs State Park and after checking in went to the campsite.

The site was not bad. Not a lot of foliage between sites so you didn’t have that feeling of solitude but they were large enough that you had ‘your space.’ Setting up went without a hitch (I’m grateful for that), and I was at my new home for the next week.

OTA TV was decent in number of channels available, and the selection of stations was fairly diverse in its programming. I did notice that there was a tendency for the stations to fade in and out, which would prove to be frustrating. Verizon strength was week but useable.

One thing I noticed after setting up, the ground wasn’t as level as I thought so I had a bit of a lean to the trailer, not bad enough to undo everything and jockey around but still noticeable