George L. Smith State Park, GA

Jeff called me on Friday morning and said, "I'm in the mood to go somewhere this weekend." That's all it took to get my mind going as to where we would go. Only there was one small problem....our RV was currently being serviced. And, with it still be during the summer, I knew it would be tough to find reservations in a decent location that didn't cost a small fortune. Plus, since we had not pre-planned the trip, we had not packed. So, we needed to pick something close to home since we only had the weekend. Jeff didn't have any particular place in mind so I started calling around only to be in sticker shock at some of the hotel costs. Yes, my motorhome costs me money too but it's mine (or at least it will be when it is paid off). Paying for a night's stay at a campground doesn't come close to the cost of the hotels in the same locations.

You'll notice in Anna's picture above that there is a short clump of hair hanging in the middle of her forehead. Evidently, she decided to cut some of it while visiting with Grandma & Papa or at least, that is what she told us. It's not the first time Anna gave herself a haircut. Actually, the last time it happened, Rachel gave her the haircut. Oh well...the great thing about hair is that it does grow back when you are young.

We decided to go back to George L. Smith State Park in the end. We were fortunate that someone had called Friday morning and cancelled their reservation. We were able to get a two- bedroom cottage for the weekend. As usual, this state park didn't disappoint. However, on previous visits, we had stayed in our motorhome at the campground. This time, we stayed at one of their cottages. For the cost of one night's stay (if you were lucky) at a premium hotel on the beach, we got a two-bedroom cottage for the weekend. And, it was a nice cottage! It had two full beds in each bedroom so it could have slept eight people comfortably. And, each bedroom had its own full bathroom. We had a full kitchen, living room with fireplace and a large screened in porch outside. The park itself was beautiful as usual but there was one major negative aspect that we noticed this time that we had not noticed before. The stagnant water around the covered bridge smelled like sewage. It didn't smell like that in the entire park but it certainly did in the area on the opposite side of the covered bridge.

We arrived Friday night. The girls woke us up bright and early Saturday morning by stampeding into our room and jumping in our bed.

We ate breakfast and then drove to Statesboro Saturday morning to take the girls to Splash in the Boro again. We weren't as impressed this year as last year. The park opened at 10 am and we were there when it opened. It was actually enjoyable early in the day before it was crowded. But after lunch, it was way too crowded for my liking. And, it was even more frustrating that the larger children were playing in the area targeted for little ones who could not swim. Anna was frustrated because she was getting pushed around by the larger children. By 1:00, we had decided we had enough sun and enough of the crowds and we left.

We stopped at a store on the way back to the park to pick up a few things...among them, a copy of the latest Harry Potter book. I began reading it immediately. It is a great book thus far. I'm about half way through. I just hate that it is so long as my time is short these days....particularly since I'm taking some coursework by correspondence now.

We ate dinner again at Crabby Joe's in Medder. We ate our dessert on the back deck so the girls could watch the geese and feed the turtles. As usual, the food and atmosphere were great.

Overall, we had a great time. We have another trip planned for this coming weekend but I'm not sure if we'll have our motorhome back in time or not.