Hardridge Creek (COE) 3/19/26 - 3/22/26 (#29)

Well, I've gotten behind again. We went to Hardridge Creek (our go to) CG in March. First time camping with two dogs. It went well.

2nd trip in the new camper. We have a few issues & a few warranty items that we'll take to the dealer next month to get sorted out.

Stayed in our favorite site #69. This was the first weekend the park opened back up from Winter. New hosts & check in but it was a quiet & relaxing weekend.

Life Events & Reed Bingham (SP) 12/16/25 - 12/19/25 (#28)

My 93 year FIL (an invalid in a wheelchair since 2019) & 90 year old MIL lived independently in a Retirement Community in FL. Neither of them have any dementia ... AT ALL. His at home medical care consisted of 8 hrs a day/ 7 days a week. But, that left many hours for my MIL to fill. And, at 90, she was not in any shape to be cooking & caring for him.They had tried meal services, extra night time care, etc. & none of that worked out.  In reality, he should have moved to a Nursing Home after his accident. But, MIL was able to assist better in the beginning. She is worn out & can't do what she used to do, just a few short years ago.

In September, they decided it was finally time for them to move to an Assisted Living Facility (ALF). About a year ago, knowing that this day would eventually come, we had toured several facilities in GA & FL & shared with them our findings. They eventually selected one just a few miles from their existing Retirement Community in FL. We went back & forth from GA --> FL, several times to help them get ready for the move. 

We got them moved in on October 6th. It didn't go well. They had a different idea of what assisted living was, than reality. He re-hired his old daytime CNA to do the things he needed/wanted done .... his way. He was fine for a little bit. Then he started feeling bad & refused to get out of bed. By the end of the 2nd week he had to be hospitalized. During the hospital stay, it was suggested that he be put on Hospice Care from home. He begrudginly agreed & was released. 

Hospice started coming in once a week but FIL would never be honest about how he was feeling. All his vitals continued to be good so they were just giving palative care & medications when necessary.

After the day care CNA left each day, instead of using his call button to ask for whatever assistance he needed, he continued asking & relying on my MIL to help him. She would do what she could (& shouldn't have been doing) & would only call for assistance if it was something way beyond her capacity. 

In the middle of November, while looking for something for my FIL, my MIL fell & fractured her tailbone. She was hospitalized for several days & had to go to re-hab for three weeks. During this time my FIL had no choice but to use his call button after hours. He went into a depression & refused to eat or drink many days during her absense. Note: His depression consisted of anger & he would lash out at anyone who would walk through the door (us, Hospice, friends, ALF staff, etc.). 

MIL was finally released but was given strict instructions to use her walker & NOT do anything that would risk her falling again. FIL continued to ask her to do stuff for him as if she could just carry on as usual. She started using the call button more & that made him upset.

We had been travelling from GA --> weekly since November. 1) To visit with them, handle hospitals, Drs., rehabbers, etc. & 2) During our visits, we started getting their house ready for sale.

We decided that we needed a break & since we had not been camping since the drive home with the new RV. We decided to go to Reed Bingham State Park (site #29), a little less than 10 miles from our GA house. It was a welcome reprieve for a few days.

We spent the next week getting ready for Christmas & heading back to FL. Our custom has always been to celebrate Christmas Eve with Greg's family & Christmas Day with mine. Always come home Christmas night.

We drove down on Christmas Eve & had dinner with them. We got take-out from one of their (& our) favorite shrimp restaurants. FIL wasn't feeling well but he had a few bites to eat & thanked us for coming. We decided to swing by, on our way out on Christmas morning. FIL was very agitated & the CNA said she had called Hospice to come in & see if they could give him something to calm him. We said our goodbyes & headed to my Niece's house, about 1.5 hours away. 

About an hour after arriving at my Niece's, we got a call that he had passed. We headed back to FL & dealt with all that had to be done immediately.

The next day we spoke with the funeral home & they were able to have the funeral on the 28th of December. The funeral was to be held in GA (4 hours from Jax & also 4 hours from our home in another part of GA). We then drove home to get clothes & headed back to FL so we could take MIL to the funeral. Funeral went well & more people showed up than expected - around 75. When you live to be that age, there isn't a whole lot of family or friends left. We stayed a couple of days afterwards & made sure MIL was ok ..... she was. 

Don't know if I've ever mentioned it or not. Greg is the only living child. His sister died in 2019. Her husband died in 2024. We don't have children & his sister only had an adopted daughter. She had a falling out with MIL/FIL many years ago & is no longer in the picture.

So, we were worried about her not having anyone around. We told her she could come live with us or into one of the assisted living facilities near us. She thought about it for a few weeks & finally decided to move to a facility about 30 minutes from our house. It is a family run business that a great grandfather built in 1978, on their 400+ acre farm. It's now run by the fourth generation.

As if we didn't have enough on our plate .... I was doing laundry on January 6th. As I came out of the laundry room a puppy came running up. About the same size & coloring as Coco. Tried to find her owners but knew that she had been dumped. Tried to find her a home to no avail. So, we now have a new family member. Here's a pic of both of them with our Great Niece. Benita (aka Bennie) on the left.

We moved MIL on January 19th & she is doing very well. She still has good & bad days. Mostly, she is having a hard time adjusting to not having somone to care for/worry about. But, she's made new friends & has gone on several outings with them, mostly to restaurants ... really good restaurants. We visit often, take her shopping and/or out to lunch & have brought her to our house to spend the day a few times.

Meanwhile, we are still going back & forth to FL. We had to move the furniture they had taken with them, back to the prior house. We went through & got anything she wanted to keep as well as what we wanted. We hired an Estate Sale company & had the sale a couple of weeks ago. We have now turned it over to a realtor to make any repairs & get it on the market, hopefully by the end of the month. 

Hopefully, we'll be able to slow down moving forward. We are going to squeeze in another camping trip next week & will try to post right afterwards. First camping trip with two dogs ....

Gunter Hill (COE) 9/25/25 - 9/27/25 (#27)

We wanted to leave the dealer & get to Gunter Hill before dark..... 

In transferring stuff, we were in such a rush, we were throwing everything anywhere we could find a spot in the RV & car, with no thought whatsoever of organizing anything. Note: That goes against every fiber in my being. 

During this time I realized Coco was missing! The sales person casually mentioned that he had seen her headed to 'that' building over there --- pointing to the ONLY building adjacent to the RV parking lot. Grrrr, couldn't you have said something when you saw her walking that way????? I panicked & as I was running over there, I realized it was a Veterinarian Office! They thought someone had dropped her off! She had casually strolled over there when we were busy. They gave her back & we finally got the old RV emptied & said goodbye to the salesman. 

We (Greg) had driven my car back to Alabama. It took way longer for the sales process & walk through. We left the dealership around 5:30. Later than we had expected. 

The campground was only about 1.5 hours away & it looked like we would make it just before dark. 

I got in the car to lead the way, I pulled up Google Maps & put in address & punched 'start' on my phone. As I was on the on ramp to get on the interstate I realized I hadn't adjusted my mirrors from the 'Greg' settings. Oops. I haven't adjusted my mirrors in many years. I couldn't take my eyes off the road so I was just flipping buttons until I found the right button to adjust. Whew, got that done. I then realized that my phone wasn't 'talking' to me to tell me how to go. There was a lot of traffic & I didn't want to keep looking at my phone. 

Ok, no problem, I knew which exit & there were then only 2 turns to get on to Selma Highway which is the road to turn off of, onto the campground road. I knew if I could get to the campground road I knew 'the way' in. We had been to Gunter Hill before. The only problem was that we were coming from a different direction. 

We exited & as I was looking for the road to turn left I realized there were no street signs. I found a spot to pull off (so Greg would have enough room to turn off as well). I got out & explained to him my delimma that I thought we had passed the road but couldn't be sure. I got my tablet out which I knew would 'talk' to me & we headed back in the direction we had just come from. Made the turn & then another to get onto Selma Hwy. 

By this time it was getting darker & darker. At this point Selma Highway is just a two lane road with very few street lights but I still felt I would be ok. EXCEPT, I couldn't see anything. My headlights weren't working! I still had just enough light to continue. I found the campground road & there are NO streetlights. I tried the high beams & they were working but obviously had to shut them off when we met a car.

FINALLY got to the gate at the campground & there was no attendant. Thank goodness we had been there before & I knew basically which way to go to get to our site. Note: By this time it is pitch black.

We found our site (#10). Our normal routine (with our towable) was to always check the breaker box BEFORE backing in. Even though all the spots in the loop were in (Catoma), were concrete we felt the need to follow our old routine. We stopped by the driveway to do just that. Did I mention, it was PITCH BLACK. We couldn't find a flashlight! Panic & frustration is definitely bubbling at this point. Greg finally located a headlamp & tested the breaker. Note: in 5 years of camping we  had NEVER set up in the dark. 

I stood on the site to guide him in. Greg got in the RV to backup. When he put it in reverse, the back lights were so bright you could light 1/2 a football field! Good to know, for the future.

Got backed in, water & electric connected. Got the bed made & called it a night.

p.s. I realized I had accidentally turned the headlights off when I was trying to adjust the mirrors!

Got up the next morning, miraculously found the coffee pot & coffee. Spent the day 'learning' things about the new rig. Note: It's all electronic & very confusing. But, everything worked as it should.

We only stayed two nights & then headed home. A virgin run I don't ever want to experience again!

New RV (Grand Design / Lineage 25FW)

As mentioned in my last post, we stopped at a couple of dealerships while in Northern Alabama in September.

We had talked about getting a driveable RV, instead of tow behind. Our thinking was that it was getting to be bothersome to setup the tow behind. Not to mention the stress of pulling a house behind you.

I wanted a larger RV (actually wound up going smaller). Our last one had plenty of storage both inside & out but it had a murphy bed & it couldn't be slept in without putting out the slide. It also had a great outdoor kitchen with a lifted 'lid' for opening which meant you could still cook when it was raining. We thought that was a game changer for us. However, we couldn't find a driveable model with an outdoor kitchen, in the size/length we wanted.

We stopped at the Great American RV dealership & looked at the Mercedes chassis Grand Design Lineage model. We liked the layout & it had plenty of storage, just without the outdoor kitchen. On the way home, we (Greg) took it for a test drive & he liked the way it handled.

We thought we would be able to find a Grand Design dealer closer to us in SWGA. But, the dealerships we found didn't yet carry the Lineage line (they only came out in 2024).

So, we made the decision to go back to N Alabama & get the one we looked at. 

We went through the very long sales process as well as a walk thru & then we had to transfer EVERYTHING from our old RV to the new one. What a rush that was! 

But, we drove away with it!

Oak Mountain (SP) 9/18/25 - 9/21/25 (#26)

It's been a while & I woke up this morning at 2:30a, thinking that I really need to get caught up in my documentation of 'things going on'. 

In late September, we decided to go to a garden festival in Jemison, Alabama. I was able to get reservations at Oak Mountain State Park in Pelham, AL.

We stayed on site #A03. Little did we know, it would be our last trip in the 'old' pull behind RV (Forest River, Flagstaff / Microlite 25BDS). And, I didn't get a last pic of it on the site ... boo.

The festival was about 30 miles south of the campground.

It was held at a beautiful nursery/garden center - Petals from the Past. Actually it was more of a meet & greet for around 40 YouTubers/Vendors. Here's a link from Just Dig It Farms for more information: Great Fall Garden Festival.

Our main purpose for going was to assist our neighbors Hoss Tools, setup & breakdown their booth display.

We were concerned about it being hot at this time of the year but the Hoss spot at the festival was in afternoon shade. We don't watch a lot of YouTube but we were familiar with several of the vendors through our friends at Hoss & it was good to meet a few. 

During our drive to & from the festival we passed by a few RV dealerships & decided to stop & shop .... see next post.

Hardridge Creek (COE) 8/8/25 - 8/11/25 (#25)

Never say never. We have always said we would not camp in the heat of summer, ever again, especially in the south. But, I had the opportunity to attend a Barn Quilt Class in Fort Gaines, GA & our 'go to' campground - Hardridge, is just around the corner.

But .... we got a spot right on Walter F. George Lake, & the weather cooperated! Our spot (#45) was on a peninsula with 4 or 5 other campers, but none on our 'living' side.

Highs were only in the mid 80s & waking up to lows in the high 60s was a delight. The only issue was, it was quite windy most of the time.

Had to hang a table cloth to block wind in order to cook our eggs for breakfast.

We arrived on Saturday, got set up & settled in for our 3 day stay. Of course, Coco had to go meet the neighbors right away. Wendell, Carol & their rescue pup Lizzy loved having Coco escape across the road to their site.

My class was on Saturday. It was at a facility in Fort Gaines, taught by Timothy Shaver who is also instrumental in coordinating The Red Clay Barn Quilt Trail in the area. There were only eight people in the class, including me. Everyone did a great job. Here are a few pics of their quilts.

And .... here's mine.

I wasn't pleased with it after class, so I brought it home & added a bit more red/orange. Like it a lot better now.

We relaxed on Sunday & went to the Silo for lunch. Came home on Monday. Couldn't have asked for a better trip. Next one is planned for later in September. Next post coming up after that ....

Chattahoochee (SP), Cloudland Canyon (SP) & R Shaefer (COE) 4/2/25 - 4/9/25 (#24)

After postponing most of our trips due to moving to Georgia in November 2024, we finally made it back to camping. We left on the 2nd for a one night stop at Chattahoochee Bend SP just outside Newnan, GA. No pics, as we had stayed there before. Our site was #124, a pull through, easy in & out. Didn't even have to unhook.

We left the next morning headed to Cloudland Canyon, just outside Trenton, GA on Lookout Mtn.

Our site was #46 at the end of the loop in the West Rim CG. It was private on the living side w/enough distance between the neighbors on the other side. We had stopped at Sam's Burger & Deli outside of Rome on the way up so only had snacks for dinner. The back door neighbors had a bunch of kids so Coco made her way over there any chance she got. They gave her lots of hugs & kisses.

On Friday morning, we went for our usual CG walk to check out other sites (FHU #10, 12*, 15, 16 + W/E 24, 25 & 26) were all acceptable. Took a ride over to the East Rim CG (tight small sites) & the Interpretive Center & walked a bit of the Overlook Trail. While we were gone a new camper moved in across from us. As I was getting my bag out of the truck Coco hightailed it over to welcome the new people to the neighborhood. The lady picked her up & was loving on her before I could get over there.

Their names were Becky & John from Iowa, making their way back home after being gone since Dec. 2024. Turns out Becky is a quilter so we had much to talk about & John is a retired business owner so he & Greg had plenty to discuss as well. John now paints & carves wooden pieces as a hobby.

They were travelling w/two dogs (one friendly, one not so much). The friendly one had a short meeting w/Coco.

Coco & I got up the next morning (Sat) & went for a hike on the West Rim Loop Trail. We only walked about 1.5 miles of it as it was quite rocky with lots of tree roots & quite a drop down in the Canyon.

Here's a pic of Coco on a flatter portion. We got to a creek bed on this portion & Coco would NOT cross over & it was too wide for me to carry her & try to traverse the wet rocks, so we turned around & went back to the campsite.

Had dinner & just relaxed the rest of the day & night. Pollen was horrendous & everything was covered in it.

Woke up to very loud thunder on Sunday morning & it rained all.day.long. We put the murphy bed up & stayed inside. Coco relaxed as well. Pollen problem solved for the time being. In anticipation of the rain, Greg had packed up most everything outside. It finally quit raining by late afternoon so we got the chairs back out & had a couple of drinks under the awning before bed.

As we were leaving the next morning Becky & John came over to say goodbye & to exchange contact info. John also gave us a travelling gnome he had carved. We told them it would travel with us where ever we camped. Here's a pic of it at the next CG.

Speaking of the next CG, we headed south to R Shaefer Heard COE park on West Point Lake, GA. We had also been there before. This time it was raining when we got there. We waited for it to taper down to a drizzle & got set up in the rain. We were on site #46 this time which is on the lake directly across from the boat ramp so we had some entertainment during the day.

It was quite chilly after the rain & Coco doesn't do well with cold, so here's her solution.

The next day was beautiful so Coco & I went for a walk & then we relaxed the rest of the day. The site we stayed on before was just a couple of sites down & no one was in it (it's a steep one) so we took Coco down there to watch the sun set.

We got home on Wednesday afternoon & got most of the camper unpacked.

We were supposed to have guys coming to screen in our front porch on Thursday, but as with most help these days, they didn't show. They came today (Fri) & worked about three hours & left saying they'd be back Monday ...

As a side note: We purchased 1/2 a cow & Greg picked it up from the processor so we have a freezer FULL of beef!

Our next scheduled trip is for October but we may find time to take a couple of short trips before then.

Kolomoki Mounds (SP) 5/19/24 - 5/22/24 (#23)

We had a couple of other (longer) camping trips planned for late spring but we decided to put our FL house on the market & didn't feel we could spare the time. During the midst of doing all that we felt we needed a break for a few days so we scooted over to Kolomoki Mounds SP.

This was our second time staying there & we got the same spot (#11). It's on the end of the sites by the water w/no neighbors on our 'living' side. 

Weather was perfect & it was truly a relaxing time with only a few walks around the campground & out to late lunches/early dinners, so no cooking for us this time.

On the first morning, we woke up to 2 school buses pulling in at the public area just across the way from us. It was a fishing field trip of about 60 or 70 teenagers. They were typical kids but not too loud.

Later that day we saw a couple of boys fishing on the lake just in front of our site. Turns out they were brothers. The younger one had a slight disability & the older one was very patient with him.

We ate at Blakely Chicken as well as White Oak Pastures. We were a little leary about the chicken place because when we got there it didn't look all that great but the food turned out to be good. White Oak is kind of a go to for us, plus they allow dogs so Coco got to go. 

White Oak, sells their own dried pet treats such as cows ears, various types of animals hides but into chewable size pieces for various sized dogs. They are quite expensive so we just decided to try one of the beef treats. Coco loved it so we stopped by on our way home & purchased a few more.

Here are a couple of pics:

Coco relaxing in Greg's lap

Close up

Brothers fishing

Just chillin

Overall, it was a very nice short trip which was just what we needed. Our next trip is scheduled for October. Hope the house sells & we can get moved to GA full time before then.

Hardridge Creek (COE) 3/5/24 - 3/8/24 (#22)

 1st trip of 2024. Hardridge Creek once again. Arrived on Tuesday & back to the farm on Friday.

We got our favorite site (#69). No pics but you can read & see pics from the last time we stayed on that site Hardridge #69.

We ate at The Silo again & also drove over to Eufaula, AL & ate at the Eufaula Sandwich Co.. They allowed dogs on the patio which allowed us to take Coco.

Didn't do much else except walk the short trail & sit outside & read while enjoying the beautiful weather. 

We did have this pair of bald eagles visit our site one morning.

Next trip is scheduled for beginning of April. Until then ....

Hardridge Creek (COE) 11/13/23 - 11/15/23 (#21)

Trip #21 (last one for 2023) was at Hardridge Creek once again. It's obviously become our go to since it is so close to home.

Our favorite site (#69) wasn't available so we settled on #28. 

As you can see it was private on the 'living' side but neighbors were a bit too close behind us.

We had originally planned on staying three nights but cut it down to only two since heavy rain was predicted the last night into the next morning.

We didn't even put up the fence for Coco since we were only there 2 nights. And, even thought it had rained earlier in the week, there was a burn ban, so no campfire ($500 fine). The first night we had a small fire in the grill since that was allowed.

We were going to go to Kolomoki as our last 2023 trip but rescheduled for 2024 due to being too busy for the holidays.

So, that's it for 2023. Next trips start in March of next year.