Summer in Appalachia

We left Bobby Brown State Park and headed for the Georgia Mountains. Our big surprise of the day was unexpectedly stumbling upon Ty Cobb's home town of Royston. I knew my mama would be mad at me if we didn't take this opportunity to poke our head inside the Ty Cobb museum. It's located in a medical office building, which at first seemed a little odd, until we learned how much Ty Cobb donated toward healthcare. This museum is quite a little gem. We saw a 15 minute movie and there was lots of memorabilia to peruse. We just knew Nana would love this place. Mom, check out today's pics, especially the photograph I took of Ty Cobb in an A's uniform. Even tho he played with Detroit for most of his career, his last two years were with the Philadelphia Athletics. We continued further into the mountains stopping for lunch at Chuck's BBQ, a very, very local joint. Ned dined on Chuck's speciality of "pig wings" - don't ask, while I had a plate of pork, with a side of Brunswick stew. Only in the South can you get meat with a side of meat...After our carnivorous lunch our big planned stop of the day was the town of Helen. Admittedly we had been warned that it was a tourist trap. Well, they weren't kidding. It's a very cheesy Bavarian village where people can float down the Chattahoochee River in day glo pink tubes, otherwise known as "tubing the Hooch". Think of it as a low budget Solvang with the Truckee River running through it. We decided to keep on trucking and had a wonderful drive through the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee. This area is just incredibly beautiful and reminded us a lot of Smokey Mountain National Park, with it's dense broadleaf woods. We rolled into Harrison Bay State Park around dinner time on a Friday night, knowing that our chances for a campsite were slim. Even tho the park is pretty filled up, we completely lucked out by nabbing a spot on the lake! We're loving this spot so much we're putting it down as a possibility for next Memorial weekend. (what me plan ahead?) It was so fun watching the sunset from our floaties in the lake. See today's pics - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Harrison Bay State Park, TN

Georgia Camping

Between the Kennedy Space Center and discovering St. Augustine we had a whirlwind couple of days with a lot crammed in. It sure felt good to kick it down a notch and have last night and today be all about the journey and the camping. We were the only people in the campground last night and we very much appreciated the solitude. We were seriously thinking about going for an evening swim, but when the ranger came by to collect our fees he advised against it. Or how he put it was, "It's probably not a good idea, we have a couple of baby gators that have wondered in." Okay, enough said that worked for me! Instead we thoroughly enjoyed coffee on the lakeside swing and taking an early morning walk next to the lily pads. We continued our journey sticking to the Georgia backroads until we reached Augusta. Our plan was to bike along the "river-walk" which sounded great on paper. In reality, we found Augusta to be a bit mundane and not very charming at all. It's entirely possible that we missed the quaint part, but mostly it seemed like Augusta was just one big strip mall sprawl with a couple of downtown blocks. The mercury was really rising by now and a picnic lunch in 97 deg weather next to the unimpressive river was no longer appealing. We opted instead for salads in an air conditioned cafe. We continued our drive on the backroads enjoying the groves of stately pecan trees. Several years ago, we followed this same route, but on the South Carolina side of the river. This side seems more developed. After checking out several state campgrounds, we settled on Bobby Brown State Park. As luck would have it we have another campsite right on the lake, but this time there are no gators. It was still in the high 90's and thick with humidity, (To my Nevada City family and friends, sorry to be whining about the heat when you've had rain, hail and tornadoes!) so we spent the next several hours floating in the lake trying to get cooled off. As I write this, at 8:30 pm, its a nice 85 deg. with not a lick of breeze. The sunset on the lake and the peacefulness of another quiet campground does the soul good. Today's pics - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Bobby Brown Stare Park