Business Travel and Maiden Voyage in our New Camper

I've been traveling a lot for business the past few weeks but last week I actually went somewhere besides Marietta, GA. I attended a conference in Salt Lake City, UT. It was absolutely gorgeous there in the Spring. The mountains surrounding the city were still capped with snow and the spring flowers were in bloom. Just beautiful.

My one treat for the week was visiting the Family History Library. It is the largest genealogy library in the world. Unfortunately, I didn't have nearly the enough time I wanted to spend there. And, also, I didn't score any major data that I was hoping for but enjoyed the research nonetheless.

Me outside of the Salt Lake City Temple

After I finished in the library, I took a tour of Temple Square. Of course, I never realized I had Mormons in my family tree until I started doing genealogy research. But, it was still an interesting tour to take even if a person doesn't have familial ties to the Mormon church. I even had my own personal tour guides. They got a laugh when I asked them if they were polygamists. :-) I knew that would get them going. I was glad they had a sense of humor.

Weekend Trip

I flew home last Friday and then drove to Cordele, GA, to meet Jeff, Rachel and Anna at Georgia Veterans State Park. It was our first trip with our new Fifth Wheel camper. We had a great time. The weather was beautiful and I was so happy to be back home with my family. On Saturday, we drove to Albany and visited the Flint River Aquarium. The girls also played at the river walk area in the water and at the playground before we returned back to Cordele.

We enjoyed a great weekend together. I'm happy to report I won't be traveling anywhere for business over the next three weeks. It's good to be back home.

Veteran's State Park

We spent this weekend at Georgia Veteran's State Park which is located in Cordele, GA. We had a wonderful, relaxing weekend...something we truly haven't done in a while. Usually, we tour the area where we are visiting but not this weekend. We stayed at our camper pretty much for the duration. It was pretty cold this weekend....down in the 20's at night....which is unusually cool for Georgia temperatures at this point in the year. I guess it must be that global warming. :-)

We talked about the trip in advance and decided that we would pretty much hang around the campground for the most part and just relax. We stopped at Stripling's when we arrived at the park and picked up some meat to grill. They have the best sausage. And, they have some nice steaks for reasonable prices. So, we bought some steaks and grilled them for dinner Friday night. We bought some sausage which we used for sausage biscuits for breakfast on Saturday morning. And, we bought some hotdogs that we cooked over a camp fire for lunch. The only meal that we ate out for this trip was dinner on Saturday night.

Jeff built a nice camp fire which he kept going most of the day on Saturday. The girls played in the woods near our camper or right outside of the camper and Jeff and I relaxed by the fire. We all went for a short walk to the ranger station and back after lunch. I took a nap after we got back. I don't remember the last time I did that but it was nice. Even the cat took it easy on Saturday. And, no I did not pose him. I actually found the worthless feline stretched out across our bed just like this.

We tried Daphne's Lodge for dinner on Saturday night. Daphne's Lodge is located almost directly outside of the park. One of my coworker's recommended it to me last week. I asked him in advance if it was a family restaurant or one more appropriate for couples only and he said it was a family restaurant. I think we were the only people there with children though. But, the girls were well behaved. I think if Jeff and I ever go again, it will be just the two of us though mainly because of the price of the entrees. But, I thought of it as more of a couple's restaurant.

New Year's Plans

Rachel and Anna are going to be traveling with Harold and Gail after Christmas to visit with family in West Virginia. Jeff and I had been tossing around ideas of where we would go in the RV while the girls were gone. We have reservations in Orlando at Fort Wilderness right now. As much as I'd like one trip to Disney for just the two of us, I think I might enjoy a place that's a bit closer and with less people. So, I suggested Savannah. I think that will be the place that we will go. If the weather is nice enough while we are there, I'd really like to visit Cumberland Island. I've wanted to go there for years but never felt like the girls were quite ready for that when we have visited the Georgia coast with them.

Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Day comes, by statute, once a year; to the honest man it comes as frequently as the heart of gratitude will allow. ~Edward Sandford Martin

To our friends and family, we wish you a blessed Thanksgiving. If you're traveling to be with loved ones, we wish you safe travels.

Veterans State Park and Albany, GA

Simba perching in the front of our RV

Jeff decided he wanted to go somewhere this weekend so we picked Georgia Veterans State Park again since it was close by. The weather predicted a chance for showers but we were fortunate in that we didn't get rained on at any time. It was actually a beautiful weekend but we could tell the summer heat was rolling in; along with the mosquitoes, and gnats. Jeff and I both agree that November through April is the best time for camping. Once the heat gets bad, it's just miserable to be outside unless we are at the beach. And, the girls hate the heat and don't tolerate even short hikes when the heat and humidity increase.

We decided to try the Parks at Chehaw on Saturday morning. They do provide a military discount on admission. And, they do have a place for both tent and RV camping on site which we didn't know. We drove through the campground and it was nice but not as nice as the state park. The girls loved the huge playground area though in the park. There are two separate admissions; one for the park (for those who just might to have a picnic, etc.) and then the admission for the zoo portion. While we did enjoy it, I would recommend going to Dauset Trails Nature Center as there is no admission cost there and the animals are much more friendly in the petting zoo portion. We are glad we tried this once and it was something enjoyable to do in the nearby area. They did provide an awesome demonstration of the cheetah's speed and we enjoyed seeing a baby monkey that was only 3 weeks old (see below).

We ate lunch at Blackbeards Seafood & Bar-B-Que in Albany, GA. The food was very good.

In the afternoon, we visited the Flint RiverQuarium. This was located in Albany, GA, also and was very close to the Parks at Chehaw. They also provide a military discount for admission. And, like the Parks at Chehaw, I've attend other aquariums that we much more impressive but this was a nice place to visit at least once. They had a catfish display and Rachel tried her hand at noodling a fake catfish. I can't imagine people doing that for real. EWWWW!!!

The part the girls enjoyed the most though was playing in the water outside of the aquarium and there was no cost to do that (see below). If you go to this area in the warm months, bring a change of clothes or bathing suit for the kiddos so they can enjoy this.

On Sunday, we walked around the park. We checked out the Lake Blackshear Resort which is also located in Georgia Veteran's State Park. It was very nice and the view of Lake Blackshear was gorgeous from the back of the resort.