The Rest of Summer

June 17, 2017

I can't recall exactly who made the suggestion - me or my sister - but we decided to go to my parent's Florida home and visit with them for Father's day weekend.

We had a delicious seafood dinner from Roy's and cruised the Steinhatchee River in Dad's boat.

June 26th, 2017

Back at Easter, my cousin's wife said she and I and my Aunt were going to take a girl's trip to the beach.
Well, that didn't work out.
My Aunt said she and I would go somewhere anyway, and we ended up deciding to go to Savannah because she had a friend near there we could stay with.

We visited Savannah: City Market, Riverwalk, and the Parks.
Rode the free Ferry over to Hutchinson Island and back.
Visited some Thrift Shops.

Had planned to go to Tybee Island (Beach!), but didn't make it. (Beach attempt fail #....3?)

Famous Forsyth Park Fountain

Riverwalk view from Hutchinson Island

On our last night we decided to spend the night in one of the old homes surrounding one of Savannah's lovely Parks. Found this great, affordable home on AirBnB.

Whitfield Park

July 16, 2017

My Cousin in Hiawassee called to tell me the beans in his big garden was ready, and to come on up and pick some.

We decided to go up to Bell Mountain Park on our way in.

Some rain had moved through, and we were treated to a gorgeous double rainbow.

For those that haven't been there, previous to being a Park with a paved road, Bell Mountain was a hang out for off-roaders, hikers, and college kids.

The rocks at the top have been graffiti'ed for years and years, when it was still privately owned land.
There's really no way to get it off even if the City/County tried.

People can choose to be mad and upset and miserable about it, or, they can embrace the Art.

Not that I would condone this, ever, anywhere else, but in this particular instance, what's done is done, and there's really nothing to be done about it.
Getting mad won't help, so we chose to embrace the Art, which changes every time we go up.
We look for new and fun pictures. (I do wish the Immature Jerks of society wouldn't write profanity or draw nasty pictures, but oh well. What can you do?)

Picked a good many delicious green beans. These beans are beans that came from beans my great-grandma used to grow. I don't know how long they might have been passed down through the family before her.

July 29, 2017

A couple of weeks later, my Cousin called to say the corn was ready, and to come pick us some.

Ryan found a couple of trails he wanted to walk between here and there so we stopped off for some hiking.

Fall Creek Falls trail in Blue Ridge. 

 Toccoa River Swinging Bridge trail in Cherry Log.

We visited Bell Mountain again, with my parents this time.
Then we picked apples from my Dad's orchard, and lots of corn from my Cousin's garden.

August 5th, 2017

My sister invited everyone to her house in central Florida for my niece's birthday, but my Dad suggested everyone come back to their house in Steinhatchee, and we could go scalloping.

Kev found scallops

My niece wearing her "gobbles", holding a starfish and a scallop.

August 15, 2017

We drove down to Griffin to the nearest place to north Georgia that cracks/shakes pecans for you.
We ate at a Chik-fil-A I never saw before called Truett's Grille. It was retro and very cool.

Cracked and shook peecans.

 August 20th, 2017

We went back up to Hiawassee to watch the Total Solar Eclipse at my parent's house.
And to pick tomatoes and apples while I was there.

The Sun! and (I believe) planet Jupiter

It was this dark at 2:35 in the afternoon.

As you can probably imagine, between travels I spend a lot of time canning and preserving.

Pickett CCC Memorial State Park

June 7th-9th 2017

One day at home to unpack, do laundry, clean car, repack and we were on the road again, headed to Jamestown, Tennessee to Pickett CCC Memorial State Park.

Ryan was interested in seeing if there were any Glow Worms in the USA, like he saw in New Zealand.  I searched and found two locations, here in the South, in Alabama and Tennessee.

We chose Pickett State Park over Dismal Canyons because....I can't remember why. Maybe it seemed less commercial, or offered more to do, or we love the old CCC built cabins.
At any rate, it was a great choice.

We had emailed beforehand to ask about the Ranger-led tours to see the worms, and they answered that the tours were usually Friday (or was it Thursday?) nights. So we planned our trip around that, but when we got there, the tour was planned for the night of the day we were leaving.

I commented that we had emailed and were told the other night, but because I'm not an entitled, rude jerk, I said, Well, that's okay, we can go ourselves.

We like to go on tours with guides/people who know the place/history/etc. and hear what they can tell us that we might not otherwise know, but we're not going to let a minor glitch ruin our adventure. 

A little while later, we saw one of the Rangers in the parking lot and he said he had told (someone) that we had emailed and were told the Ranger-led tour was (the next night), so they were arranging to have a Ranger-led tour (the next night) like we were told.
How awesome was that!?

We went ahead and walked to Hazard cave that afternoon to check things out ahead of time.

It's not really a cave, but a shelter overhang. Native Americans lived here many years ago, and a lot of their left-behinds are in the Archaeological  museum at the park. 

At the time, I didn't know it wasn't a cave. It was dark back behind all the rocks, and I wouldn't go in because I didn't know if there were bears, or snakes, or who knows what back there.

The next night, the Rangers led the group inside the not-a-cave nearly all the way to the back, so that's something we wouldn't have gotten to experience without the Ranger guide.

I don't know if June was getting late in the season or if it was normal, but there weren't many Glow Worms inside the not-a-cave. Mostly they were along the Boardwalk entrance to the area, behind the wooden fence, and across from it in the creek/brushy area.

They were kindly difficult to photograph, but the tiny blue lights are the Glow Worms (which aren't worms at all, but you can read about that yourself if you're interested).

Our CCC built cabin was great! 

The beds were styled for a hotel-like feel, I think, but otherwise the room was like you could imagine being at camp, if there were rows of bunkbeds instead.

It wasn't fireplace season, but I bet it's great in the Winter! 

Nice little kitchen, stocked with pretty much everything you need.

Old fashioned bathroom. (Toilet & shower to left)

We spent most of our time at the cabin out on the screened porch, reading and/or eating.

Ryan cooking us some burgers on the grill. Camp burgers are so delicious.

Pickett park has a lake, and rents canoes for like 5 bucks an hour from the Boathouse. 
There's also a free beach, and playground.

 Besides the Hazard Cave trail, we also walked Indian Rockhouse, Natural Bridge, and Lake View Trails.
All pretty easy walks, with lots of scenery and nature and interesting things.

And visited the CCC Museum, which was the original Park Office.