Land Between the Lakes

On my phone, I can only post one-picture blog entries.  Now that I'm where I can use my computer to do it, I can put the pictures with this one and post it.

My friend Norajean told me I should go to Land Between The Lakes on the KY/TN border, and since it was about 200 miles from Memphis, I did.
I stopped at the South Welcome Center on June 12th, and bought a basis/dispersed camping permit good for 3 days for $7.  There was no cell signal, so I went back to town for ice and enough internet to let my kids know where I was. It was a hot sunny day so when I got to the area I would camp in I was glad to find a shady spot by the lake shore. It was beautiful.

I set up my privacy tent and hung my hammock and sorted out some things that needed sorting out, and read some more of the series I've been reading.and started to hear thunder.

It was very distant and not in the direction the wind was coming from, so I didn't really think it would come to where I was. Just in case, I fixed dinner and that was done just in time.

It rained. Off and on all night and into Wednesday morning.

I was reminded of things I already knew but had failed to practice. Assume it WILL rain. Don't put the totes on the ground; they'll get muddy. Don't let stuff block the sliding side door of the van. Don't park on a place where all the water goes. Especially, check the weather report before you go to a campsite with no internet access.

I spent a lot of Wednesday drying stuff that shouldn't have gotten wet.

My original plan had been to camp at that southern camp one night, then explore and camp at one in the central part of LBL on Wednesday night, then explore again and camp at one of the northernmost camps Thursday night. I felt torn, because that first site was so beautiful and I wanted to stay. As it turned out, I couldn't actually drive out of there until Thursday anyway due to the rain and mud, so I spent 2 nights there.

On my way up the trace, I stopped to say hello to the bison herd at the southern bison range.

They had calves, and obligingly came to me so I could take pictures. Then they ran off, only to all come back and watch me do a K-turn with my trailer.


I checked out the exhibit and film and gift shop at the Golden Pond Visitor's Center, and filled up my water containers. Three was 4G Verizon signal there so I caught up with some internet stuff and a raccoon investigated my trailer hoping for goodies.

Then I moseyed down the road, got a shower (available at the campgrounds with more amenities and nightly fees, for $2), found the Twin Lakes campground and took a nice but unspectacular site on solid ground. With 4G Verizon signal. That last enabled me to connect with who I needed to to plan my next stop.

Besides lots of camping, hiking, boating, etc., there is a planetarium, a living history farm, a nature center, the bison and elk prairie... I'll leave those things for another time when I can get the annual pass and spend more time here.

Did you notice, in one of those last pictures, that the hood was up?

DuPuis Management Area

In January, before I went to the Alafia, I camped at DuPuis Management Area's family campground.  I posted when I got camp set up and promised more later.  Later has arrived.

The campground loop goes around a good-sized pond, and is quite pretty.  I met up with several friends from one of my Facebook groups there.  If I were camping alone, there's a neat campsite on a spit of land that juts into the pond that I would want to grab!  I understand there's also an alligator - well, of course there is, it's Florida - but I did not see one.
This was the first time I used my new Connect-tent with my 10 x 10 canopy.  It made a nice stand-up-in-it space.

Osceola National Forest

Since I usually try to post about where I've just left, rather than where I am, I kind of didn't post for a month because I stayed put for two weeks and it's a newly resurrected habit so I forgot.

Anyway - On my way to the Osceola National Forest, I had a bit of excitement. A light turned red, I hit the brake, and nothing happened. I leaned on my horn and hoped no one was going through the green light! One "house-call" by the mobile mechanic later, the offending brake line is repaired and once again Maxine stops when I tell her to.

On my way south, I stopped at Cobb Camp in the Osceola National Forest overnight, but this time I stayed two weeks, camped with old friends, met some new ones. I got to sleep in the hammock and enjoy the 10x10 canopy with the connect-tent. It was a lovely, relaxing time and furthermore the weather was great. OK, it did get cold toward the end, but that's ok. Didn't have to shovel it.

Trish and I walked every day and I usually hit my step goals.

Today's Yard, Cherokee NC

After a month at SC daughter's house, I'm spending this weekend camping with friends at Yogi in the Smokies, Cherokee NC.  It's a twice yearly gathering which I've been unable to attend for way too long.  It's good to reconnect with old friends and make new ones.  And it's wonderful to sleep in my hammock, which is the only way I wake up and my body doesn't hurt.
The pool is still open here.  Today was too busy to even think about swimming but if tomorrow is warm enough, I might.  It is so much more pleasant here in the mountains, cooler and drier.  Creekside camping with the soothing sounds of flowing water, bugs, campers.  Life is good.

Andersonville Civil War Village, and the POW Museum and Civil War Prison

I stayed at the Andersonville City Park campground in mid-April, on a beautiful spring weekend, to explore Andersonville GA. It's a pleasant small campground right in town. $18/night, and you register at the Visitors Center at the Drummer Boy Museum.

I set up camp and set out to explore Andersonville.

The first thing I did after setting up was to walk to the Drummer Boy Museum.

Lots of artifacts
and mannequins
dressed in
Civil War attire,
and a model of
Andersonville Prison
in the middle of the room.

There is also a pioneer farm, which includes the original jail, a blacksmith shop, and a functional mill.

This is the Cherokee Rose, Georgia's State Flower.

At the entrance to the RV park is the Old School House Antique Shop, one of several in town.

I was there browsing when a local man came in to show the people there what he'd scored at a yard sale: Some 27 volumes of Little Leather Library books. Yes, once upon a time you could get a tiny book of Shakespeare along with your Whitman's Chocolates.

I was charmed by the architecture and landscaping of this historic log church just downhill from the campground.

When I left Andersonville, I visited the Andersonville National Historical Site. This includes the POW museum, dedicated to POWs in all wars.

Prisoners would arrive in Andersonville by train and be marched to the main gate of the prison.

There really was no prison. Whatever could be scrounged served as housing.

The only water source was a sluggish stream through the middle of the prison camp, with the latrines downstream but other sources of pollution upstream.

"In desperation, a group of soldiers began to pray for water. Soon, a storm broke out, and thunder roared, and where lightning struck the prison ground, a fountain of pure spring water erupted. Whether it was the prayer or construction of the prison that caused the underground water to well up, no one knows, but that clean water saved the lives of thousands of Union soldiers, and continues to flow to this day." (quote is from site linked.)

Whitewater Creek Park in Oglethorpe, GA

I loved my week at Whitewater Creek Park.  I was so glad to have a week off from work so that I could extend my originally intended two or three days to eight.  I'm writing this from my lakeview site at Dames Ferry Campground, about which I just posted a blog, and at which I also extended my stay.

One of the neat things about traveling is variety.  These parks are quite different, but not in ways that make one better than the other.  Staying at them in the same month does invite comparison, though, so I'll indulge that temptation after I tell you more about Whitewater.

This is part of the campground from the fishing pier. My neighbors had lines in the water all the time!

I got to have a campfire.

Every morning, Ranger, the superintendent's dog, would come greet me and get petted. He's a sweetie - given time, he could probably have made a dog-person of me.

A storm went through the area while I was there. The predictions were for rain, hail, sleet, and high winds. I've had my fill of high winds, so I rolled up my awning, put everything away in the bays, and helped my neighbors batten down their hatches. We lucked out: all we got was rain. LOTS of rain, but not even any wind at all. I heard they got more serious weather not far away, but it missed us.

The bath house is centrally located in the campground.

Right near it is a screened pavillion, with a brick fireplace and lots of tables inside.

Downstream - downpond? - from the campground is the beach. There's another pavillion down there for groups to rent.

There's another fishing pier.

And you can just sort of see the campground from there.

Whitewater Creek Park is a county park.  Dames Ferry Park is run by Georgia Power.  They are similar in amenities: bath house, pavillion, campsites with more or less shade, more or less shoreline.  Fishing, boating, even with an outboard motor.  Swimming probably - I haven't found where you swim in Lake Juliette but I'm sure you could.  Whitewater has some full hookup sites.  Dames Ferry is all water and electric, with a nice dump station on the way out.   Dames Ferry has a 2 week limit, so they really don't need full hookups, whereas some people do keep their campers at Whitewater for the whole season.   They are both very pleasant places to be and places I would like to return to - WITH that kayak that's sitting in Virginia because I didn't think I'd need it over the winter.

They are different in atmosphere: the difference is one of open space or filled space, sunlight or shade, lawn or woods, living room or family room.

I'm not saying Dames Ferry doesn't have shade - it is definitely wooded.  But it's a more manicured woods. It has well defined sites with gravel and landscape timbers and concrete and steps.  It has lawn.  Its shorelines are well defined and sometimes created with rock and concrete steps.  There is no question about where your rig is supposed to be.  There are iron fire rings.  The campground loop is a paved road with gravel roadways off it to the sites.

Whitewater Creek's shade extends all the way to the water's edge.  There is down and dead wood lying around for the campfire.  The sites have numbers, and poles with electric, and water hookups, and sometimes sewer hookups, but you can park your rig however you think best.  You can gather rocks for a fire ring if you can find them, or just sweep away the debris.  It's the kind of place where you might catch a mess of fish and feel comfortable inviting your neighbors to join you for supper.

And that's what I love about my nomadic lifestyle - When I drove into Whitewater Creek, what I desperately needed was peace, quiet, informality, woods.  And there it was.  When I came to Dames Ferry I needed sunshine, beauty, electricity and a place to stay away from other people 'til I got over the darn cold.  And there it was.

Now if the cold would just get the heck out of my nose!

(I have lots more pictures to go, tune in soon for Andersonville, Plains, and the Global Village.  And the other big news, relative to Time Traveling.)

And leave comments.  Don't let the bot-filter scare you off.  I just hate spam is all.

Dames Ferry Park at Lake Juliette in Georgia

It's peaceful, and beautiful, and quiet - it has electricity - I'm not quite well yet - and really, I just didn't want to leave, so I sprung for another night and don't have to leave 'til tomorrow.

This is my camp, seen from finger of land that's off to my right when I'm in camp. I hope I can come back here, for a longer time, WITH my kayak.

This was my neighborhood on Easter Weekend. On the finger of land I'm shooting from is a picnic pavillion, which was rented by folks having an Easter party, with easter eggs hidden for the kids.
The RVs next to me had some sort of gathering - I could tell from the bits of conversation that there was lots of food involved.

There are no bad sites here, just a nice variety. This one has a patio. Various sites have more or less lake access, or more or less shade, or more or less space.

There are tent sites also, some in the sun

And some in the shade.

There's another pavillion up by the bath house, and the bath house is well built and clean.