Leaving Carrollton

I have gotten hopelessly behind in keeping up the blog. The two months here have flown past and tomorrow we hope to hit the road north. We were supposed to leave yesterday(Saturday), but I woke up around 4:00 Friday morning with an intense pain in my right kidney area. My first kidney stone! So after spending the morning at a quick care clinic and the emergency room at the hospital I am drinking lots of water and have a supply of pain meds. Everything seems to be progressing OK we are planning to leave tomorrow.

We have enjoyed our time here once again, visiting some new stores, working on projects with Mom and volunteering at the soup kitchen at least two days a week. A sprained ankle a couple of weeks ago has kept me off the trails here at the park since then and I miss the walks. We were able to celebrate Mom's birthday with her.

Rebecca and her family stopped in for a couple of days to visit while on their vacation and we enjoyed some time with them. One day with them we visited a historical gold mine near here at Villa Rica. The museum there also had artifacts from the Villa Rica Electric Light and Power Company which also was a Coca Cola bottling company.

The old Coke bottling equipment on display.

Some of the old mining equipment.

They had a chance to pan for gold. We had a cold spell while they were here, so coats were necessary.

An old grist mill on the property.

Rebecca in the remains of an old house there.

Liam exploring a tunnel.

Another shot of the remains of the property owners house.

Carrollton

  I haven't posted for awhile, so here goes. We are doing the usual things here, I went up to the big flea market one Saturday morning. Volunteering as a cook at the soup kitchen on Monday and Thursday mornings and every morning on the last full week of the month. I have been enjoying catching up with all of the workers there from before and meeting a few new ones. We have taken Mom to a couple of surplus outlet stores, and we went out to lunch together yesterday. Most days we go over to her house in the afternoon and play games or just spend time with her. The weather here has been nice so I have been able to get out and do a little hiking here in the park.
  Last week I notice a small antifreeze puddle under the Jeep wherever we parked and found that the water pump was leaking. If we were back in Sioux City I would have changed it myself. but I hesitate to tackle things like that on the road. I called the shop that had changed the radiator last year, but his mechanic had surgery and wouldn't be back for a month. I tried another shop, but his priority was foreign cars so he recommended a shop across the street. Great place, got me in on Thursday, was a friendly guy and looks like he did a good job for a reasonable price.
  One thing that we have missed here is a campground library. Most of the private campgrounds have a small one where you can borrow or trade a book. We stopped by the office one day and asked if we could start one in the laundry room here. They gave it their stamp of approval so we started working on it. Janice's sister had a set of bookshelves that she didn't need any more, we bought a box of books at an estate sale and the library here gave us two more boxes and said to come back if we needed more. Here is the finished product:

There are several temporary workers that winter here, so I hope that they will enjoy having something to read in their off time.

Back to Carrollton

As we left Noccalula Falls this morning, we stopped as we usually do to feed the geese there above the falls.

We stopped at Anniston, AL for lunch and then headed into Georgia. We were running low on propane, so I had planned to fill at a Flying J near the campground where we usually fill, but they were waiting on repairs to their propane filling machine, so we went on to Little Tallapoosa Park where we will be for the next two months. If we run out, we will have to pack up and go back for propane later. Had to detour around an accident after we left the Flying J. We are parked in one of our favourite sites here in the campground. I drove Mom over to her house and I think that she was glad to be back home. We really enjoyed her company while she was with us and hope that she can do it again some day.

Back in Noccalula Falls Campground

We stopped for lunch in Harpersville, Al yesterday. We arrived here late in the afternoon and set up. We all seemed to be tired so we just sat around and played a game until almost bed time. The park here is not as crowded as usual and the black squirrels are out playing. Temps are supposed to be in the 40s today and lows tonight in the high 20s. There is a nice walking trail here along the edge of the river valley.

The park is named after the falls which are flowing pretty good today.

They have a little wedding chapel here and I really like these holly bushes along the side of it.

Here is a short video of the falls.

Sherling Lake

We left Gulf Shores today and headed toward Gadsden,AL. Stopped for the night at Sherling Lake Campground near Greenville, AL We had to leave some new friends behind in Gulf Shores but hopefully we will run into them again down the road. This seems to be a really nice campground. Very wooded area and a lake below it. We have a pull through site with real easy access. We have a wooded hillside on one side of us. I took a short hike down the road to the lake and took a few pictures.

There are a lot of sweetgum trees here, there are little spiky balls hanging on the tree still, but many of them are on the ground. Not something that you want to step on!

There seems to be a golf course across the lake from here.

I couldn't resist a short hike on this trail along the lake.

This looked like some kind of holly.

Tomorrow we will head off to Gadsden.

Barber Marina

Yesterday afternoon we decided to take a drive, so we went to Barber Marina. It is about 20 miles from here and I had heard that it was interesting. When you get within a half a mile or so from the marina, you start to notice unexpected things in the woods.

But the best treat of all is the Lady in the Lake in the marina.  http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/36350

On the way out we stopped at a replica of Stonehenge in the woods.

Not a bad way to spend a little time on a Saturday afternoon.