Hiking at Amicalola Falls, Georgia

Amicalola Falls is quite beautiful and finds nature at it's best. Getting to the camp ground was rather hair raising. The camp ground sits at the top of the mountain. To get to it we had to drive up a twisting, winding road that has a 25 degree rise. I really was concerned as we started making the climb. There was a point that even though I had the accelerator pedal to the floor we were only doing about 5 miles an hour. I thought for sure we were going to start rolling backward. Well we did make it to the top of the hill and checked in at the Lodge. It was easy to disconnect the car as there was no need to continue towing the car as we would need to disconnect any way in order to set up at the camp site. So now we are all set to drive to the camping area. Off we go and would you believe I missed the turn and went right passed it. Andrea was following me in the car and was honking her horn to let me know that I missed it. We went all the way down to the bottom of the mountain. Now we are at the bottom of the mountain and have to look for a place to turn the RV around and make the white knuckle climb once again. Neeless to say that was very frustrating. It took hours for the smell of the brake pads that were very toasty from the decent down the mountain. We did survive and settled in.

Our friends Roy and Susan stopped by to say hi and invited us to dinner at their house Monday evening.

We decided to eat dinner at the Lodge Sunday evening rather than to cook. They had a really nice buffet. During dinner we looked out the window and saw a deer and a fawn just casually walking by. Incredible. The view from the lodge was spectacular overlooking the entire valley and distant mountain ranges. We were in awe of the sight.

On Monday we hiked a trail that was pretty tough so that we could see the falls. Well worth the effort, as the falls are quite beautiful. Even Angel enjoyed it. She is becoming quite the hiker. It is really great that she would rather hike with us then to stay back at the RV alone. Angel rates Amicalola Falls 4 paws.

Today we leave Amicalola Falls and move on to Etowah River Camp Ground which is just 14 miles down the road. We will be there for two days before moving on to Murphy, North Carolina.

More to come later. Happy trails.

Hiking Red Top Mountain

Now, I know it looks like we are goofing off rather then hiking. We stopped to enjoy the beautiful scenery around Alatoona Lake.
We can not put in words what we have seen during this hike.

The hike today was a 5-1/2 mile loop that I thought would never end. It was both exhilarating and exhausting at the same time. Angel was a real trooper and did not complain once during the whole hike. I do wonder if they make hiking sticks for dogs as she did look at Andrea and me with envy with the way the sticks helped us navigate the path. This trail called Homestead Trail is considered moderate in terms of difficulty. I would rate it a little higher (damn hard), but what do I know.

That's it for now. Happy trails.

Red Top Mountain, continued

We can not get over how much we are enjoying Red Top Mountain. As you can see, Angel is also enjoying our stay here. She is relaxing next to the fire ring. Hey, where are the marshmallows?

This morning I changed one of the 12V batteries as it was leaking a little, and you could smell the sulphur coming from it. As with most simple projects it took 3X as long due to the fact that the battery is located under the entry steps so there is no room to work. Besides, when is the last time you lifted a 12 volt battery? Damn heavy. Long story short, I got it done. We should not have a battery issue for some time at least for the chassis battery (that is the one that starts the engine). There is a total of 3 batteries. The other two are called House batteries and they are what takes care of all of the items that require 12V such as most of the lights, water pump and a few other items.

More to come. Happy trails.

Red Top Mountain, Georgia

All we can say is WOW!!!. This area of Georgia is just beautiful. Even Angel has given it a Five Paws Rating. Yesterday and today we did some hiking. Thank you Bill and Mary for the walking sticks as that made hiking the trails a whole lot easier. Time is flying by. It does not seem possible that today is already the 25th of July. Don't pay attention to the date on the pictures as it is a day off. I will have to see if I can fix that. The weather has been just great so far. A whole lot different that what we have been used to in Florida. The mornings start out in the upper 60's and at at the high of the day the mid 80's.

We feel so fortunate to be able to do what we are doing. Going Full Time RV'ing is the dream of many, but the reality of few. We have been blessed with this opportunity.

More to come later.

Sherwood Forest RV Park

Here we are at the Sherwood Forest RV Park located in Palm Harbor, Florida. Andrea and I tried to take advantage

of the Pinelas Trail every day as it is really a great bike riding trail that runs for miles. Sherwood Forest was just an OK place, but we enjoyed it for what it had. QUIET TIME. Angel was not happy with the Black Swan as you may or may not be aware that to a dog a Black Swan in your path is like a Black Cat to us. So she only rates Sherwood Forest as 3 Paws out of five. In other words, this was even more an issue with her than the darn rabbits at Dunedin RV Resort.

It was really great spending as much time with family as we did. Now that we are retired we can do that when we come back to Florida in December.

It was great to hear that all went well for Roy B getting a Stent put in with no complications. I am really glad that we got together with you and Winnie. Good luck to her with her heart surgery next month. We are pulling for a speedy recovery.

Bill and Mary, it was great getting together with you guys and Don and Brenda for lunch.

We left Sunday morning (7/27) for Georgia. After a rough start with getting the car lined up properly with the Tow Bar we were off and running. It rained for a while, but was not too bad of a drive. We filled the gas tank in New Port Richey and was quite surprised to get gas at $2.79 gal. Funny in that we have not been able to find gas anywhere here in Georgia for less than $2.89. When we were in Georgia last Sept. it was so much less than Florida. Not so this time. So far we have averaged 7.5 MPG. Now that we are in the mountains, it will most likely drop a little. We shall see when we fill up next time.

Last night we spent the night at a KOA located in Cordele, Ga. as a rest stop so we could make it to Red Top Mountain Camp Ground today. We will have more to say about this campground tomorrow.

First campground - Dunedin, Florida

Our first stop of many is Dunedin, RV Resort. It is a nice campground and has worked out really well for us as it is very convenient to get to see the family and our friends. Angel has rated the campground 3 and 1/2 Paws out of a possible 5. She would have rated it a little higher but there were too many rabbits around as far as she was concerned.

We met up with Roy and Winnie for lunch on Wednesday. It was great seeing them. Winnie is going in for heart surgery in mid-August and we will keep her in our prayers. It turns out that Roy may need a Stent as he too is having some difficulty. Good luck Roy with that as well. I am sure that all will go well for the both of you.

Dinner with Gordon and Casandra was just great. They have a beautiful condo overlooking the harbor in St. Pete Beach. Thank you for the wonderful dinner and desert. Hmmm, good.

On Thursday we had to re-locate to another RV park due to a maximum stay of 4 days when using a discount program that we belong too. 50% off a price is just too much to ignore so we moved to Sherwood Forrest which is all of 1 mile up the road. No big deal. We are here until Sunday morning where we hit the road and will be going to Cordele, Georgia for an over-nighter.
We are really looking forward to our stay at Red Top Mountain, Ga.

Spending my birthday with the Murphy family

Here we are with the family for my birthday on July 16th. Left to right is me, my sister Christine, brother Jim, sister in law Caren (Jim's wife), sister Mary Lynn, Andrea, and brother in law Mike(Christines husband). It was great being able to spend time with the family to not only celebrate my birthday, but my retirement as well.

This morning we rode our bikes on the Pinellas Trail. The Trail is such a great use of land that was no longer used when the rail road decided to no longer use a section of the rail system. We enjoy the opportunity to ride our bikes without the fear of traffic. This is something that would be great for all communities to have.

Tomorrow we get together with our friends Roy and Winnie for lunch and Casandra and Gordan for dinner. I think we better plan on hitting the Trail every day to work off the good eats that we have been enjoying since we hit the road.

The journey has begun

Well, we're in Dunedin and the RV Resort. Took us 6 hours to get across from Ft. Lauderdale, but it was a pleasant trip. Stopped only once to walk Angel and have lunch. Met up with the family for a retirement/birthday party with Alaskan king crab legs and roast beef. Hmmm, delicioso! Thanks to Mary for a wonderful feast and festivity.

We'll be staying here for about one week and then we move on to Georgia, Cordelle, GA, to be exact. That's only a one nighter before we head up to Red Top Mountain State Park where the camping is supposed to be spectacular. Waterfalls, rivers, bike and hiking trails, all kinds of water activities which we plan to enjoy. We'll sign when we get to Georgia unless some excitement happens before then. In the meantime, we're still on the move.

Thanks to all that have responded, we love hearing your comments.

Andrea & Charlie