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.)

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