On Oct 24th we left Stone Mountain and headed to Cartersville, Georgia (way northwest of Atlanta) so we could visit Bill’s sister-in-law, niece and her husband and children in nearby Acworth. It was a nice campground except the campsites were 300 yards from an active train track. Trains ran frequently day and night and never failed to blow their horns. For that reason we shortened our stay from three nights to two. One day we drove over to Rome so Bill could do some genealogy research at the public library. The lady who could have been the most assistance was out due to the death of her husband so the research Bill did was not very fruitful. Rome is named for Rome, Italy. Last spring when we were in Italy we saw the famous statue of the Capitoline wolf with Romulus and Remus brothers feeding like baby wolves. Rome, Georgia has a likeness of the statue in front of their City Hall.
After leaving Cartersville on Oct 26th we spent a delightful four days at a Corps of Engineer park in West Point, Georgia (north of Columbus Georgia). It was a struggle to get satellite tv but Bill worked his magic and we settled into a great site with a view of West Point Lake through the trees. After a busy several weeks of visiting family and friends and sightseeing, it was great to just relax in the beautiful, peaceful setting.
Our next stop was supposed to be a privately owned campground in Hope Hull, Alabama south of Montgomery. We pulled into the campground in the early afternoon of Sunday, October 30 and knew we would not be staying. The campground sat right next to the interstate with a view of the cars whizzing by. We knew we would never be able to sleep and there was no good reason to stay in the area. Bill quickly got online and with no other decent campgrounds in the area, he found a national forest with campsites about an hour and a half toward our route to Florida. We didn’t know what to expect from this national forest campground with electric and water hookups, but we had no other choice and nothing to lose. We can pretty much deal with anything for one night as long as we feel safe.
We pulled into the Open Pond Recreation Area in the Conecuh National Forest in southern Alabama, about fifteen miles from the Alabama/Florida line. We immediately fell in love with this beautiful campground, large campsites and a view of a lake. With Bill’s America the Beautiful senior national park pass, the nightly camping fee was a whopping $8.00. Best of all the campground was quiet and peaceful with a beautiful view. After one night we canceled our reservation in Niceville, Florida and decided to stay here seven nights instead of three.
On Monday we drove to Niceville to see our dear friends June and Randy. June is a great cook and we had a delicious dinner and lovely visit with them. On Friday we returned to Niceville to have dinner once again with June, Randy, their son Chris and grandson Preston. June fixed another amazing dinner and we played a game of dominoes.
We left their house around 9:00 P.M. for the hour and a half drive home. Most of the drive home was through wooded areas. We saw deer along the way with their eyes glowing in the headlights. Near the Florida/Alabama line a car going in the opposite direction flashed his lights at us. The car in front of us slowed down and we could see at least two deer in the road in front of us. The deer moved to the side of the road and the car went by. Just as we passed the deer, one of them decided to run across the road in front of us and we hit it. Bill stopped the car and put on the emergency flashers and got out to check. It was pitch black dark, not a light in sight. He didn’t see the deer and he did not see any damage to the car so we continued home, both shaken and nervous about the rest of the trip. We finally made it home and were very grateful the deer incident wasn’t worse. Bill checked the car the next morning and there is minor damage to the right front fender.
Sunday, Nov 6th we head to a series of Florida Panhandle beach campgrounds on the Gulf of Mexico for much of November. We are really looking forward to being in our home state and near the water again.