DAY #184
No sleeping in late today. the next stop on the journey was F.D. Roosevelt State Park, and it would take a little over five hours drive time to get there. Leaving early is important especially on longer drives because I don’t like getting into someplace I’ve never been before late in the day, I like to leave a cushion for the unexpected. Having said that, I was up and ready to go by 9:30 am. Getting the trailer ready for travel went smooth (thank you) and I was able to pull the trailer out of the rather tight camping spot without wracking it into one of the trees, and that’s always a good thing.
I decided to go freeway-free this day and it meant about an extra hour of travel time. Some of the roads I ended up on were pretty narrow, what with the trees hugging the white line on the edge of the road. Traffic was light so I could cheat a little and drift over the center line from time to time. It was a winding, hilly, and relatively slow trip but in the end, what with the scenery, it was well worth the ride.
At around 3:30 pm, I made it to F.D. Roosevelt State Park. The park is located approx. eleven miles from Warm Springs, GA, and about five miles from Pine Mountain, GA. Coming into the park from Warm Springs, the navigation app informed me that I would have to park the vehicle and walk the rest of the way into the park. I wasn’t too happy this trip with the map app on the iPad. I had used it instead of the google map because the iPad gave me voice directions and I couldn’t figure out how to get google to give voice directions. Going through a couple of the small towns, I found the app vague in giving directions and once even omitted a turn that I should have made. I know that I’m towing a small trailer but geez, having to find a place to turn around can be a chore.
I ignored the app and proceeded on finding the administration building where I stopped and registered. From there it was off to the campsite where I could began to set up at what would be home for the next week.
As I set up, everything was going along routinely until I came to having power in the trailer, I didn’t have any. I plugged in from the trailer to the electrical box at the campsite and when doing that, noticed that the 30 amp receptacle in the box looked ‘fried.’ After plugging in to the box, I checked and sure enough there was no power. I surmised that was where the problem was coming from. Called the park office and was able to get someone to come and look at it. One of the positives of getting to a place early (and boy did that come true today) is if needed, you can usually get help before everyone goes home for the day, you’re not stuck until the next day without (in my case power) whatever. It was kind of a comical scene watching as the three maintenance guys tried to correct the problem, none of them seeming to really know what they were doing. After a hour and half I started thinking (almost out loud), just put me on a different site. Finally, after a number of trial and errors (and a new receptacle installed) there was power to the trailer.
After the power situation had been corrected, I had a problem hooking up the water, it kept leaking from where the hose attached to the spigot. After the power situation, I was beginning to get a bit frayed (but not to the point of embarrassing myself) when a camper from the site across the road came over and after I told him my problem, he asked if there was a washer in the hose end of the connector? I checked and sure enough, no washer. Feeling a whole lot silly, I found the washer, installed it and viola, the water was no longer leaking.
With the problems solved, I could kick back and see what kind of a place l’d be staying at. The campground sites are pretty close together with not a lot of ground coverage so you don’t get the feeling of being all alone. The site turned out to be fairly level (Yea!), if not a tad on the small size. The bathroom/shower is a walk from the campsite so it looks like I’ll be using the bathroom in the trailer a lot more frequently this stay. It’s kind of goofy not wanting to use (call me odd) it since that’s why its there. There is no OTA TV reception (that’s it pack up were outta here) but there is a decent Verizon signal. The campground itself is located in lovely surroundings so while it may not be perfect, it works. Plus during the week it’s still early enough in the season that it’s not very busy and that helps to give a larger cushion of space.
Some views of the campground from site #108 (that’s where I’m staying).
Now that the kinks have been worked out, I think I’m going to like my time here.
The Journey. 