Back in Florida

August 31 - September 3

Fairgrounds,, Tallahassee, Fl

Aunt Carol is excited.  Her son and family live in Tallahassee.  Time with the grandkids is on her schedule!!

Momma is in need of her chiropractor so it looks like we will be departing a day early as the chiropractor is only open Monday - Thursday.  If we time it right, she can slide right onto his table on Thursday afternoon and have a more comfortable weekend.  

Aunt Carol and Uncle Steve will be heading on to St. Augustine, Florida.  

It has been a delightful 3 months of travel loaded filled with memory making adventures as we meandered on the highways.  A summer to remember.

Don't they sell dogfood?

 August 29, 2021

Hillside Family Campground, Cochran, Ga

Getting to our campsite was almost as long a trip as it took to arrive at the campground.  We wound over unpaved 'roads' that twisted through the campground and trees to land at the edge of a field for our full hook up sites.  They definitely don't have an 'age of rig' requirement here.  

The convenience of the location to M & T Meat was the enticement to camp here.  

Momma and Dad love shopping at the meat counter.  They always make an effort to arrive with lots of freezer space.  The only thing wrong with the market as far is I'm concerned is that no meat ever comes MY way.  I would surely enjoy some chicken and rice!!

I'm Chloe

A trip back in time

August 28, 2021

Scenic Mountain RV Park

Milledgeville, Ga

Another missed opportunity!  If they had taken me with them today, I could have had some new playmates.  I may have been overwhelmed though if these peacocks decided to fan their tails.

 

These peacocks were located in a pen at Andalusia, the home of writer Flannery O'Connor.  
 

Andalusia was a cotton plantation and farm in the 1800's until purchased by the Flannery family in 1931 when it became a dairy and beef farm.  

Flannery was diagnosed with lupus in 1951, so she moved to the farm to live under the care of her mother.

This was the period when Flannery O'Conner wrote.  

The home was gifted to the Georgia College.  The docent was a current student of history attending the college.  Touring the home, the lifestyle of the 1950's was on display.

Many of Flannery's books were available for purchase at the ticket counter.   

I'm Chloe

Ice Cream Fix

 August 26-28, 2021

Scenic Mountain Resort, Milledgeville, GA

Aunt Carol said that this is not the best location for the ice cream 'fix' that seems to have developed into the routine of this summer's excursion.  Three locations were located (researched) so on the afternoon of arrival, the two-legged headed out to Cravers ...not much selection...so on to Blackbird two doors down.  Out of choccolate??!!  Who ever heard of such a thing!!...and no pistachio for Aunt Carol.  Everyone thought that the cherished parking spot that they lucked out on in the historic downtown area was  good sign....wrong!!  So they headed up the road to DQ for blizzards.  

The following day, Baskin Robbins was tried out.  Slow service, dirty tables,  no waffle cones, and small, inconsistent serving sizes.  You couldn't tell a one scoop cup from a two scoop cup. huh????   But they did have chocolate and pistachio flavors.

Ice cream pickings may be poor, but Milledgeville does have quite a bit of history, especially when you take in the fact that it was once the capital of Georgia.  A visit to the Old Governor's Mansion, complete with tour, took everyone back to the Antebellum period of the 1800's. 

The three story structure once housed several Georgia governor's families, with each governor paying for their own upkeep and living expenses, including the servants needed to keep up such a large structure.  Yes, some were owned slaves in those early days but not all.  

The photo below is the equivalent of the 'man cave' where the men played cards and gathered.  It was interesting to note that this room was twice the size of the lady's parlor where the females did their needle point, etc and gathered together.

The large ballroom had ....what looked like small stoves...but they were acturally incense burners ....to assist in masking the body odors of the attendees who were gathered in a non-climate controlled room,  wearing many layers of clothing over a body that had probably received the equivalent of a sponge bath. 

 

I'm Chloe

 

I got to go visiting

 August 23-24, 2021

Sweetwater Lake CG, St. Matthews, SC

I could hardly believe my good fortune.  I actually got to go with everyone.  That's right. I wasn't left home alone.  I was welcomed with open arms, lots of pets and scratches.  Now this is the life!!

I call her grandma but she is really just a good friend with a generous heart and a comfy sofa.  And did I mention that there was a BIG yard for ball chasing...even though it was a tad on the warm side outside?  No worries, the AC was doing a great job cooling the house and me.

The only problem with the visit was the missing chair at the dinner table for me.  I even volunteered to clean up any falling crumbs but the food must have have been really tasty as no one dropped anything😔

What a great visit everyone had with RV friends Ted and Colleen.

When we returned to our campground, Dad  visited with the locals.

Our rig was backed up to a fence that separated us from some potential playmates.  They all had the same unique markings of the streak of black on their shoulders and a black stripe that ran from mane to butt.  When I heard them bray, I didn't understand a word they said.  Maybe they were asking me to hop the fence and play with them?

I'm Chloe

Asheville by trolley

 August 21-22, 2021

KOA Asheville East, Swannanoa, NC

Asheville is a very diverse city.  One of the best ways to take it all in is the Trolley Tour.  Everyone agreed that the tour guide/driver. Matt was either born to do this job or had worked hard at gathering loads of information and weaving it all into an excellent, story telling, with a bit of humor,  presentation as he used his expert driving skills navigating the good sized trolley through the crowded streets of Asheville.

The tour began in the historic district with beautiful old homes that had been patiently, expertly restored rather than torn down.  This home was purchased for $18,000.  The low price was due to the poor condition of the home/property.  The buyers spent $400 thousand to bring it back to life as a Bed and Breakfast and sold it for 1 1/4 million.

It was marvelous to see the old area brought back to life.  It seems Asheville believed in restoring and/or repurposing buildings rather than tearing them down, thus this area had beautiful buildings.

  We even saw a once gas station repurposed as a beautiful jewelry shop.  Who would have thought?  (Where's the pic, Momma?)

This popular siding is called pebble dash.  It is similar to stucco but has pebbles in the mix and is tossed/dashed onto the building.

As we traveled to another area, the shops and tall buildings took over our view of the city.

The shorter building was constructed without stairs or elevators.  To gain access to the upper floors, you take the elevator/stairs in the taller building and cross over to the shorter building.

Check out the details on these building

Thoughout the city, there are 'statues/works of art' designed to bring on smiles.  Here's one of a gal with drinking fountain.

It sure has a 'real life look' to it.  Makes you do a double-take.

This building once housed women seeking mental health treatment.  

Next door was a dormitory where the women were locked into their rooms at night.  There was fire that quickly spread via the dumb waiter and several lives were lost that night.  One life taken was Zelda Fitzgerald , wife of Scott Fitzgerald (the Great Gatsby) who suffered from schizophrenia.  She was a marvelous painter but when her mother gathered the paintings Zelda left behind, her mother didn't appreciate the artwork and offered it to neighbors. She then  poured kerosene and set the rest aflame.  Now there are only a few of Zelda's paintings left in circulation.

The foundry area is very artisy.  The artists are encouraged to paint murals on these buildings where glass blowing, pottery, and other crafting takes place.

The tour took us to Baltimore Village.  These homes were occupied by workers at one time and have since been turned into a village of shops.

But beware...that lovely historic looking brick walkway may look enchanting, but it is way too uneven for mindless walking.

This area is definitely dog friendly.   If only they would have let me ride on the trolley.

My thirst quenching drink would have been free, unlike the drinks the two-legged had to purchase.

Did you recognize that pebble dash siding?

One of the sites on the trolley tour was the Grove Inn. 

The original Inn had only 100+ rooms, but when the Inn changed hands, the new owners added an additional 400 rooms.  We had received a recommendation to enjoy lunch on the scenic terrace so with our two day trolley pass, we did just that on the next day.  What a view as we enjoyed our meal from the limited menu. 

The question remains, did Covid influence the limited menu or have they always had a smaller selection of dishes?  Either way, we enjoyed our stop at the Grove Inn, rocking by the HUGE fireplace as we were waiting for our table.

And by taking the hop on, hop off trolley, we were exposed to two other drivers.  The first driver on our second day REALLY made us appreciate how lucky we were to have Matt on our first day ride!!  Then, when we boarded the trolley at the Inn for our final ride, we lucked out once again.  There were 3 additional riders, all from Florida, and all second day riders so.....the driver varied the route a bit to give us some different views as we road the remaining trolley stops headed back to where we had left our vehicle.  Life is good!!

Dad said Asheville was okay to visit, but not his ideal spot to take up permanent residence.  Time to move on.....heading to South Carolina for our next stop.

I'm Chloe