7th Installment June 17 to 21

We’re back on the east coast now.  We’ve just spent 3 days in Washington DC about which more later.  Good news is that we’ve lucked out again on the weather and it has been overcast, but not hot and not too humid either as we visited many of the Mall Memorials and several museums.  It took me so long to write this that we are now in Glens Falls, NY after visiting customers in Baltimore, Philadelphia, NJ, and NY.  We've also been to Buffalo, Niagra Falls and Toronto.  Weather has completely cooperated.  Would like to say the same for the VW which had issue in Buffalo.  Good news is that it is working again and running as well (maybe better?) as ever.   Also, the lights seem to be fixed as they did not go out even though we drove through rain most of yesterday.  The floor still leaks on driver side.   Can't have everything.

June 17 - 21

We left Lake City this morning to go to the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge (Swamp) in Georgia and to go to the Steven Foster State  Park that is in the middle of the swamp at the end of about 20 miles of road paralleling the Suwanee River.  I figured this would be interesting – everybody’s heard of the Okefenokee, but how many have been there? -- and to get there we first had to cross Big Gum Swamp Wilderness Area in Florida which sounded like more interesting scenery.  We found our wan on to Gum Swamp Road (highway 250 on my map) and enjoyed another beautiful drive with hardly any traffic. 

Gum Swamp Road

Tall, skinny pine trees with palmetto understory

We took a short cut on this sandy road through the forest

Back to the highway.  Stopped here a few minutes and I took pictures of flowers beside the highway. 

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As we entered Georgia, we were greeted with this sign

Bummer.

The Suwannee River almost nothing as it comes out of the Okefenokee

Since we couldn’t go into the Okefenokee, we had breakfast at this restaurant in Fargo, GA.  The teams fighting the fire were having a big meeting here.  I learned that the fire had been burning since April 30 and had consumed 230,000 acres so far.  I also bought another walking stick.

I've purchased 3 walking sticks now while on this trip.  One in Ft. Davis TX made from yucca that is my favorite for actually walking.  Another from an unknown Mexican artist who left the stick in Big Bend National Park where I made a donation and took the stick. I think this one is made from sotol.  The third that I got at the Swanee River Cafe was made by Mike Rogers of Mike's Swamp & Indian Crafts.  It has antler decoration.  Not sure what wood it is made of.  The challenge is to get all 3 into the VW.  They're about as long as the passenger compartment, but they do fit by going under the dash and back to the rear.

The one on the right is the one I use for hiking.  The other 2 are more decorative -- and heavier.

Detail of antler on top of stick.

Red part of the map has been burned

Some of tall, skinny pine trees on way to papermill or maybe for export

Leaving Fargo, we headed west to I75 to go north to Atlanta.  We saw a sign for a fruit stand and stopped to visit  Rutland  Farm where we had some homemade peach icecream and some  fresh peaches.  We are in Georgia after all.

A little rainy and plenty of evening rush hour traffic as we came into Atlanta.

We went to Atlanta to visit with one of my friends from Army service in Korea in 1971, Ken Beringer.  We got to Ken’s house in Roswell area of ATL and went out to dinner at the Mellow Mushroom (a chain of pizza places that started in Atlanta).  When we were in Dallas, I saw an old VW bus with advertising for Mellow Mushroom on it.  Then, our relatives in New Orleans recommended that we try the Mellow Mushroom in Foley AL when we got there (but we didn’t), so we were pleased to try it in Atlanta and were not disappointed.  After dinner, we drove to Lake Lanier where we stayed a few days at my friend’s weekend home.

Caught (and released) a couple of these little guys while fishing from Ken’s boat dock

Ken getting the cover off his boat, so we could go for a ride.  The contraption underneath the boat fills with air to lift the boat out of the water.

Ken at the helm. 

Lake Lanier is big – I think it’s at least 30 miles long..  It is formed by damming the Chatahoochee River.  After some years of drought, the Lake is now almost full.

We stopped at this marina to get some lunch.



We were chauferred from the marina to the restaurant by this sweet, Georgia belle.



Ken could not spend the entire weekend with us due to other obligations (like Father’s day), but Reyna and I enjoyed his hospitality in absentia.  Saturday night the 18^th there was a ferocious thunder and lightning storm that knocked out the power, but power was restored by Sunday morning about 8 so the beer in the fridge never even warmed up.  We spent the next two days just relaxing at Ken’s. Actually, that is where I wrote the last couple of blogs.  Finally, on Wednesday the 22^nd we had to leave the lake and we returned to Atlanta for a farewell lunch with Ken and then we headed to Savannah.