Base Camp
Our home for the week had an amazing view of Lake Lanier. In fact, every site at this County Park had an excellent view of the water and we were lucky enough to be on the sunset side. River Forks Park and Campground is located in the city of Gainesville which is about an hour north-east of Atlanta, giving us a good home base for the week of Thanksgiving. One complaint about this weeks’ site was steep it was to enter and that we had to park on a broken concrete slab. While backing into this spot I was worried about our stabilizer jacks hitting the slab and pieces of concrete were moving as our trailer wheels went over them. We managed to park in the site without damaging our trailer and it made me realize why these spots were less expensive than others in the park. I won’t be making that mistake again. I do have to admit that this County Campground felt very safe because we needed codes to get past two gates to enter the park. Most of the time we feel very safe in the parks, this was just an added bonus this week.
Monday, November 25th
For work today I drove to meet my boss and was able to get some on-site experience. I love the fact that I’m able to work virtually but it was fun to see stuff in person and work with my boss face to face. After a day of driving I just wanted to relax at the campsite and Zac was perfectly ok with that.
Tuesday, November 26th
After work this evening we had reservations with my cousin and his wife in Decatur for dinner. We ended up getting some drinks beforehand at a bar called Victory, where they had a world famous Whiskey Coke Slushy that Zac had to try for himself. We sat in the outdoor section of this Georgia bar in 50 degree weather with Slushies - one of the most Michigan things we could have done. After a round of drinks at this bar we all headed over to The White Bull for dinner. We all decided to try the pasta flight that allowed us to have a small servings of all four pastas listed on the menu. I think each of us had a different favorite pasta of the night, but the dish that really stole the show was the Sticky Toffee Date Cake - it was to die for. We loved seeing family and getting to share a taste of Georgia with them this evening.
Wednesday, November 27th
Zac and I often like to ask each other “what do you think we would be doing right now if we weren’t doing this” and tonight was one of those nights. Mainly because this was ‘Thanksgiving Eve’, where most of our peers were going out to bars or meeting up with friends in town for the holiday. It was hard not to feel some fomo tonight, especially because it was my ten year high school reunion, but we still managed to have some fun. For this evening, we started out with a walk around our campground and explored a little bit more of the lakeshore. We caught another early sunset on the water and then headed into town for a thrilling night of laundry!
After cranking out this chore in about an hour, we headed into downtown Gainesville to see if there was any nightlife we could partake in. We made it into one bar and managed to have one drink before it closed (by the way it was only 9:30), then walked around trying to find anything else that was open. We stumbled upon a honky tonk bar that had line dancing but was packed wall to wall with patrons that were 10 years our junior. Zac tried to get us a drink at this place but we both decided it wasn’t our scene. We were in bed by 9:30pm. I think this is the sign that we are officially too old for ‘Thanksgiving Eve’ bar night.
Thursday, November 28th
Thanksgiving! Zac’s favorite holiday! We drove the hour to my cousins house near Atlanta first thing in the morning. The drive allowed us to get a couple phone calls in with family to wish them a happy holiday. When we arrived we were greeted with a yummy breakfast casserole and then tried to get to work helping the hosts. I made a corn casserole and even helped make some of my grandma’s famous rolls, and the final spread turned out amazing. We definitely overstayed our welcome but it was nice to be around family on a holiday while being so far from home.
Friday, November 29th
Waking up this morning I immediately looked at the weather forecast because it was so cold in the rv. Freezing temps for an rv can be detrimental with all of the water pipes and tanks under the rig, we didn’t want to risk something bursting. It was predicted to get down into the 20s for a few hours tonight so we made the difficult decision to pack up and move the travel trailer a night early to somewhere more warm. We were planning to visit Atlanta during the day but we were no longer sure we’d be able to. I gave my cousin a quick call to see if we could drop the trailer off at his house for the day while we saw a bit of the city and he graciously obliged. We first set off to see the capitol building to check it off our list and then headed to Ponce City Market. We grabbed some pizza and donuts here and Zac got some long overdue new gym shoes. After that we headed to World of Coca-Cola where we waited about an hour and a half to get in - which apparently is not normal, it was just because of the holiday. Our favorite part of this attraction was getting to taste drink flavors from around the world - one of the drinks from China even tasted like bbq sauce! That made us crave bbq so we got some dinner at Fox Brothers BBQ before grabbing the trailer and heading to Savannah.
This was about a three hour drive and Zac was a champ for driving the whole way after a busy day of running around. We tried to find a parking spot for the night at a Cracker Barrel but it was still busy from their dinner rush so we drove over to Walmart. This was the biggest Walmart parking lot I had ever seen and we were the only rv parked in the back. For some reason this made me nervous but I tried to relax and get ready for bed. After a while we heard an announcement over the loudspeakers say something along the lines of “you are not permitted to be on the premises, please use your passcode or leave immediately”. Granted, that doesn’t sound like something Walmart would announce on their speakers but it spooked me. So begrudgingly Zac drove us back to Cracker Barrel in hopes of finding a spot there. Of course they were still packed but I didn’t feel great about going back to Walmart so we waited for something to open up. It took maybe 15 minutes but a spot finally opened where we could park with our long caboose.
Saturday, November 30th
We woke up and quickly headed to the Savannah Visitor Center so that we would be able to park the trailer. When we arrived there was plenty of space and we even got to park for free. We first headed to get some breakfast and then went to Forsyth Park. There happened to be a little farmers market going on that had the most beautiful backdrop of oak trees. After admiring this park and avoiding a wedding that was about to start, we hopped on a free bus and headed to the Prohibition Museum. Here we learned about the impact that prohibition had on crime and the economy, and at the end we enjoyed a cocktail in their speakeasy. We then walked to River Street which had a sort of Christmas Market going on with vendors, hot cocoa and decorations. We grabbed a bite to eat along this street and some pralines before heading up to get ice cream from Leopold’s (all of which had been recommended to us). The food in Savannah really stuck out and we love exploring new cities by tasting their cuisine! We then went back to the visitor center to grab the rv and our truck and found another Cracker Barrel to park at for the night. The next time we go to Savannah we’d like to go on one of the tours - maybe even a ghost tour - after hearing about how much history is in this city. We will be back some day!
Sunday, December 1st
Woke up and made way to our next campground - Crooked River State Park. This was about a two hour drive with the trailer down the east coast from Savannah. We arrived at our site and unpacked then took a much needed shower. Since we had some sunlight left in the day we decided to drive up to Jekyll Island to check out Driftwood Beach. We got there right before sunset and it was pretty spectacular. Just as the name implies, Driftwood Beach was a mix of beautiful and haunting, plus we got our first toe dip in the ocean! We then took a bit of a drive to catch the sunset on the other side of the island and found some Christmas lights on display to drive through. After this little adventure up the coast, we drove back to our campsite for a quiet Sunday unwind.
Thanks for reading, check out the reel below to see some clips from this week!