Callaway Gardens (part 1)

I was up and at ‘em pretty early this morning so I could get on my way to Callaway Gardens in Pine Mountain, GA.

While only about 35 miles from where I’m camped, I budgeted an hour to get there.  With back roads and having to go through LaGrange, it was the right amount of time.  Skies were still overcast from last night’s rain, but that meant the temperatures stayed in the very pleasant range for this visit.

Once again I was able to have two very personable people give me a tour of one of their home town’s attractions.  Gerri and Mike Jones have often posted about these gardens on their blog, and have included fantastic pictures of what they’ve seen.  So, when I figured out I was in their neck of the woods, I sent them an email and they readily agreed to meet at the Gardens this morning.

Little did I know that Mike used to work here, so he knew how to get around to the best spots for an abbreviated visit.  This place is huge, and it would take days to see everything that is available.  There are miles of walking trails as well as miles of bicycle trails (all paved), a beach, fishing, golfing, tree top adventure…and the list goes on and on.  The day pass for seniors is $15 for those who are interested.  My hip was giving me a bit of trouble today, so we opted for the driving tour to localities and short walks to see the major features.  I believe the driving route is about seven miles.

I had done some reading about the gardens and knew that first on my list was to go to the Cecil B. Day Butterfly Center.

I’ve been in aviaries before, but never a butterfly center.  All of the species in the large enclosed glass building are tropical varieties that are not native to the US.  All species are imported, and arrive in their chrysalis stage.  It was very interesting to view all of the hanging chrysalis’ (don’t know what the plural of that is) and see some of the butterflies emerging.

Butterflies are as challenging to get photos of as birds are.  They seldom still still long enough for you to focus.

I’m not sure who this mature lady with all the white hair and ‘laugh lines’ is, but get a load of that exotic butterfly on her shoulder!    Must be her sweet nature??  I do know that mosquitoes find her especially attractive.

After a bit, we fluttered over to see the Ida Cason Callaway Memorial Chapel.  Her son had it built in her honor after searching for the perfect spot for years.  Sadly, he died shortly before it was finished.

                        It is located next to one of the many small lakes, and in a very peaceful setting.

                            The stained glass windows of the chapel depict the four seasons at the Gardens.

I took more pictures than I’d want to put in one post, so I guess I’ll continue tomorrow.  Another highlight was a visit to a spot that brought back many memories to me.  I found it very surprising since I’ve never really been in Georgia before.  Stay tuned…

Thanks for stopping by… talk to you later,  Judy

Got my feet wet today

Never did get out on the water yesterday.  It was a warm sunny day, and the checkout time for the campgrounds on the lake is 3:00 in the afternoon.  That means all kinds of boats with big motors were buzzing around.  I decided I’d wait for today after the weekend warriors had gone home.  I think it was a good decision.  I needed to do laundry anyway, and I always enjoy the quiet that descends on a late Sunday afternoon.  It also meant that last night and today no people were trooping through my site (a pet peeve of mine), and I wasn’t required to listen to other people’s choices of loud music selections.  I did, however, pump up the kayak last night so it would be all set to go this morning.

With such a nice little beach in back of my site, I put on my water shoes and walked the kayak out into the water around 10:00, and hopped in.  That splash of yellow is my life jacket and you can be sure I always wear it. 

The water was nice and calm, and as you can see, not many other boats out there creating big wakes.  My former kayak and this one are both Sea Eagle 330s.  It’s the cheapest model so it doesn’t really track as smoothly as I would like.  With only one person in it, any wind plays havoc with you.  Oh well, I’m pretty much a fair weather paddler anyway. 

If the truth be known, I really prefer paddling a canoe.  It’s hard to feather your stroke with these plastic kayak paddles, but I can’t be hefting around a canoe.  I’ll just be taking pleasant little paddles and enjoying the scenery (like this blue heron perched at the top of the tree) as I slowly zig-zag my way along quiet waters.

                                            I did find a green heron working the shoreline.

         As I tried to sneak up for a closer shot, it kept moving along ahead of me.  Camera shy, I guess.
I didn’t go too far or stay out too long this morning as the sun was blazing away.  I didn’t want to end up burnt to a crisp.  I decided I’d better drive down the road about ten miles and do some grocery shopping.

On the way out of the campground, this handsome fellow made his way across the road.  Too bad there weren’t any hens around or maybe I could have gotten a shot with him all fanned out and showing off.  Aren’t those some big spurs on the backs of his legs? 

Next to the Piggly Wiggly was a Great Clips hair salon.  As many of you ladies know, getting a good cut on the road can be a challenge.  I usually end up at Walmart where it is like Russian Roulette.  I’ve never been to a Great Clips before.  Turns out it was a good cut, and only $9 for seniors.  The lady even gave me a coupon for $2 off the next time I visit a Great Clips.  I’m glad I gave it a try.  Only problem is that I'm all itchy as usual after a haircut.  :)

By the time I got back to the rig, storm clouds had moved in and the rain started to come down.  It was a nice rain for a couple of hours.  Tomorrow I’m off on another little adventure, and a chance to meet up with some other bloggers.  The rain and clouds should be gone by then.

                                                                               THE END!!

Thanks for stopping by… talk to you later,  Judy

A resolution I never dreamed of.

After reading all the helpful suggestions people made about my kayak mishap, I went outside this morning to pull the kayak all the way out of the bag to take some pictures of the mouse hole. 

                                   This is it.  It’s about three inches long and two inches wide. 

As I pulled it entirely out, I discovered more destruction.  Perhaps one hole could have somehow been repairable.

On the opposite side I found an even larger hole and a mouse nest.  It seems a female mouse had taken up residence, and brought in plenty of bird seed and shredded paper and such.  Yuck!  My hopes of finding repair solutions slowly sank.

In the meantime, I had been emailing Jeanne and Eldon (Where’s Eldo bloggers).  They are also in the area, and had planned to come over to my site this evening for a cookout.  As I got back on the computer, I found that Jeanne had sent me another email.  In it she said they would like to give me an extra Sea Eagle 330 that they had.  What’s that you say??  Jeanne is the kayaker in that pair, and it seems that the 330 came to them when they had ordered a different model.  They never use it, and have just been toting it around in one of their storage bins.  I couldn’t believe it!  I was overwhelmed! 

They brought it along tonight when they came over.  Yahooie Louie!!  I’m back in paddling business.  It’s hard to get my mind around the generosity of new found friends.  We have been following each other’s blogs for some time, but it’s the first time we met in person.  As I’ve said a number of times before, “ I get by with a little help from my friends.”

Anything else I saw or did today pales in comparison to this wonderful experience out here on the road.  Thank you again, Jeanne and Eldon.  I’m sure you can all guess what I’ll be doing tomorrow morning… pump, pump, pump, and then paddle, paddle, paddle! 

Thanks for stopping by… talk to you later,  Judy

Bad news and Good news

I had a very nice adventure today that I’ll talk about in a little bit, but first I want to get the bad news out of the way.  My plan for tomorrow morning was to take a nice paddle on the lake in my inflatable kayak.  So late this afternoon I dragged the Sea Eagle out of the basement storage area along with the paddles and the air foot pump.  I had decided to pump it up tonight so tomorrow all I had to do was get it down to the water, and hop in.  As I went to take it out of the storage bag, I discovered that a mouse had eaten a hole the size of two golf balls in the side of the kayak.  Of course that mouse, which probably did that while I was at Anahuac, didn’t touch the three seat backs that were in the bag.  Nope, it chewed the side of the kayak!  Grrr!!  I don’t think there is any way to patch a hole that big, so I guess I’m literally sunk.  Phooey!  What a bitter disappointment that was.

On the bright side, I drove to Warm Springs, GA, this morning to visit FDR’s Little White House.

This State Historic Site is managed by the Georgia State Park system, and includes the residence, grounds, museum, and pool complex.

President Roosevelt had The Little White House built so he could enjoy the warm springs here in hopes of curing the debilitating effects that he suffered from Polio.  He made 41 trips to Warm Springs before and during the time he was president.

The Little White House is in the middle of the bottom right picture.  The building on the right is the servants quarters, and the building on the left is the guest house where many important dignitaries stayed.  Interestingly, Eleanor seldom accompanied Franklin when he came here.

All of the states in the union, and Washington DC, have paid tribute to FDR by providing stones in his honor.  Each native stone along with the appropriate state flag line the walk way.  This walk was an education in itself.

On April 12, 1945, Madame Elizabeth Shoumatoff was working on a water color portrait of FDR as he posed in the living room of his retreat.  As he was posing, he suffered a massive stroke, and died shortly afterward in his bedroom.  Madame Shoumatoff immediately quit working on that portrait and never finished it.  This famous “Unfinished Portrait” is hanging in the museum.  A year later, the artist painted another portrait from memory and photos in oil, and it too hangs in the museum.  A difference between the two is that she changed the color of his tie.  The room with these portraits has other poignant displays about FDR’s passing while “Going Home” plays in the background.  I found it to be very moving as I remembered how my parents held FDR in such high regard.  He was only 63 when he died.

A short distance from the museum and Little White House are the spring-fed pools where President Roosevelt took treatments in the water with other polio victims.  There is also a small museum attached explaining the facilities and including Roosevelt’s founding of the adjacent Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute.  As you can see, the pools are empty now.

But here’s the really good news… twice a year the pools are filled with the 88* warms springs water from 3800’ below the earth’s surface and the public can purchase tickets to participate in a therapeutic soak for an hour and a half.  This opening of the pools will take place over the Memorial Day Weekend, and I found I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to soak in this historic place.  So, a week from Saturday, I will join a limited number of other people for a soak from 10:00-11:30!  By the time I finish I just know all my little aches and pains will be gone, so I’m taking myself out to lunch at a well known Inn in Warm Springs to enjoy some tasty fried green tomatoes and other Southern delicacies.

Thanks for stopping by… talk to you later,  Judy

friday's letters/4

{this is one of my favorite kindi students...chocolate. whenever i asked him what was on his shirt he would get really excited and yell "it's SUNNY!" oh and timmy is behind him trying in any way possible to get in the photo}

dear boss,
thank you for surprising me by switching my schedule. a four hour workday on friday kind of rocks.

dear doctor,
i know that you were trying to talk about tissue survival rate or something (i kind of zoned out) but i couldn't help but laugh when you mistakenly said "your survival rate is 30-50%".

dear middle school students,
i know you don't think i'm funny but thank you for laughing at my cheesy jokes anyway. takes the stress of being a teacher away.

dear mogis,
i know i taste good to you but can you please leave me alone and possibly bug the hubs for awhile? i'm starting to get stares in class from scratching so much.

dear kindi student parents,
please stop changing your kid's names. a)it's already hard enough to memorize the names of the 200+ students that i have and b)when you change their names to genius, strawberry and storious, it's hard for me to keep a straight face during class.

How could I get lost?

I arrived at the Holiday COE campground on West Point Lake yesterday with the help of ‘Jack-in-the-Box’ (my GPS) and the directions from the lady at the Georgia Welcome Center.  So today I decided to visit one of the other COE campgrounds on the lake and the Visitor’s Center.  I decided I didn’t need Jack since I’d already driven these roads…big mistake!

I eventually found the campground I was looking for.  Fellow bloggers will be staying there a night or two, so I wanted to see how their accommodations compared to mine.  The R. Shaefer Heard campground is closer to things I want to visit in the area by about 20 miles.  Despite the extra mileage, I’m happy with where I am at.  Many of the sites there were closer together and the back in to the sites had very steep downward grades.

After taking a drive around, I headed for the visitor’s center where I enjoyed all of the displays and watched a five minute movie.  Then I had to take the obligatory drive across the dam built by the Army Corps of Engineers in the early sixties.  There are an unbelievable number of parks and recreation areas along the lake that the COE manages.

They have also brought back breeding ospreys to the area by providing hacking stations and nest platforms.  I believe there was a young chic in front of and under this adult osprey.

It was at this point that I decided to head back to the rig.  As often happens, I turned the wrong way and eventually ended up back in Alabama!  Yikes!  I found I-65 and headed to exit 2 which after about 30 miles took me back to the rig, I thought.  Well, I missed the turn for the campground and ended up in Alabama for a second time today!  Egad, I guess I’d better never leave home without Jack around here.

I spent the rest of the afternoon perusing all of the pamphlets I got at the Georgia Welcome Center yesterday to see what I might want to visit tomorrow.  I think I’ve whittled it down to either the Calloway Gardens or Warm Springs where FDR had his hide away White House.

After setting up my gas grill and cooking supper, I brought out my computer to the picnic table and began to assemble this post.  That’s the first time I’ve ever done that outside; probably due to the fact that I have great internet reception for my air card without needing the Wilson antenna and amplifier.    It was great sitting out there with Emma and blogging away.

It also allowed me to grab the camera and hop down behind my site to try to get a nice sunset picture.  While I was waiting for the sun to make its exit, a river otter swam right past where I was standing near the water’s edge.  Cool Beans!

                               What better way to end an interesting day in Georgia (and Alabama ).

Thanks for stopping by… talk to you later,  Judy

My new campsite is a Georgia Peach!

After doing the final packing up this morning, I stopped at the dump station, filled up with gas at a pre-scouted gas station, and was finally on my way for a 140 mile uneventful journey to my next destination. 

We traveled to a new state, Georgia, and a new time zone, Eastern.  That meant I lost an hour along the way.  I arrived at the Holiday Campground on West Point Lake that the hosts at Prairie Creek COE campground had recommended.  If you remember, my plan was to get a non-reservable  site to plunk myself down in to wait out the Memorial Day weekend.  I’m happy to report that I was successful!  Surprisingly, when I arrived, the hosts at this COE campground said they were expecting me.  What?  It turns out that the folks at Prairie Creek gave them a call on my behalf and asked that they welcome me and see that I got a good site.  Wow!  Talk about customer service and going the extra mile.  I was flabbergasted to say the least.  What a lucky person I am.  At the gate house, the gentleman told me I was lucky there were any sites available as this park is usually full all of the time.  He then told me he thought I’d like #103.

He was right.  It is a real peach of a site.  There are no sites to the right, and the nearest site to the left is about 50 yards away.  As I was getting back into the rig to drive it out of the tricky parking space I was in at the gate, I overheard two southern gentlemen proclaiming, “Oh my God, she’s driving that thing herself!” 

As I maneuvered through the ultra skinny entrance gate without hitting any of the curbs, they loudly proclaimed that they’d be willing to help me get set up (poor little woman and all).  I stomped on the brakes, stuck my head out the window, and said I’d surely appreciate it if one of them would be willing to help direct my backing into the site.  Since I’d never been there before I figured it couldn’t hurt.  You never know what kind of challenges may present themselves.  It turned out this site was a piece of cake, but I still appreciated having someone in my rearview mirrors using hand signals.  I declined their offer to get me all hooked up, as I wanted to do a little more maneuvering to get in just right.  I appreciated their kindness, and I think they felt good helping what they envisioned as a damsel in distress.

This is the view out my front windshield, and across the road.  It’s so nice to see some water that isn’t all mucky brown.

This is the little bay that is behind my rig.  With almost two weeks here maybe I’ll finally get my inflatable kayak out to go for a little paddle.  My hip is feeling better so I think I could manage getting down there.

“Quit trying to take my picture, and let’s go for a walk!”, says my companion.  Okay, after taking my time getting everything set up we did just that.

We headed for the water behind the rig.  It’s almost like having my own private little beach.  Don’t know if there are any alligators here or if a little swimming is allowed.  I’ll find out tomorrow.

The water is crystal clear and it is a very secluded area.  I think I’m going to enjoy my time here.

Thanks for stopping by… talk to you later,  Judy