Georgia Veterans State Park - Trip #10

This past weekend we reached a milestone.  Since we bought our travel trailer in August, we have made ten camping trips!  That's a pretty impressive statistic considering that I have not retired YET.  This past week we traveled further than ever before and we did some sightseeing that we had always wanted to do.  We had originally scheduled this outing for next weekend, but I had built up some extra time at work and needed to take a four day weekend this weekend so I made the calls and was able to get our reservations moved up.  
Thursday morning, we left the house at 8:00 AM and headed for Cordele, Georgia, home of the Georgia Veterans State Park.

This park was beautiful.  We had no idea that the park we were headed to was so nice.  It is on Lake Blackshear, which is huge and apparently full of fish if the fisherman we saw was any indication.  As we entered, on the left was a beautiful golf course.  To the right was a Veterans Memorial Museum and on around the bend was a lodge and villas.  There were three campgrounds with two of them having sites on or across from the lake.  The third campground was wooded with really nice size drive through sites.  Since we were arriving on a Thursday, we had no trouble finding a site on the lake.  

We were set up in no time, had sandwiches for lunch, and then left to survey the area around us.  At the entrance to the park, we had seen an interesting store so we went there to gas up and check out what was on the inside.

Well of course they had sausage just as advertised.  In fact they had more sausage than I had ever seen at one time.  We bought a link of the mild smoked sausage to try for our breakfast the next day.

We returned to our site and grilled hamburgers for our supper along with a link of the sausage we had bought.  It was sooooooo good.  It had almost no fat in it.  We went back the next day and bought some more to bring home with us.  

This is our view.  I can drink my coffee in bed and look out my window at this. It is so serene and beautiful.  By the way, while we were eating our hamburgers we watched the man at the site next to ours casting for bass from the bank.  He caught one right after another.  It made me wish we had come prepared to fish.  I will next time.
On Friday, we wanted to explore the park since there appeared to be so much there.  After a breakfast of pancakes and sausage (oatmeal for me, I'm dieting), we set out.

I included this picture because Bubba liked it.

 This picture was taken on our walk over to the marina.

 These are the villas behind me in this picture.  Each one has a screened in porch with a lake view.

Behind Bubba in this picture are a lot of pontoon boats.  They have pontoon boats for rent.  That would be fun if you had family or friends with you (hint, hint).

I have never seen dogwood in bloom like I did in this part of Georgia.  They were everywhere and all of them were full of blooms.  I love spring!

Established as a memorial to U.S. veterans, Georgia Veterans Park is home to a display of aircraft, armored vehicles, weapons, uniforms, medals, etc. from the Revolutionary War through the Gulf War.  All of this is free.

After a busy morning, we were adventurous once again as we headed to Smoakies Bar-b-que.  I had researched restaurants in the Cordele area online and found a lot of good reviews for Smoakies.

This is it.  It doesn't look too impressive from the outside, but there were enough vehicles in the parking lot to be encouraging and since we were being adventuresome we went on in.  The reviews were right.  This was a really good place to eat.  Bubba and I both had chicken, Cole slaw, and Vidalia onion rings (I know, I know.  So I can have onion rings on this special diet I'm on.)
We returned to the camp site to enjoy some down time.

These are our recliners that we bought for Valentine's Day.  This was the first time it was warm enough to enjoy being outside for long at a time.  Supper was grilled pork chops, hash brown potatoes, and broccoli.

Saturday we had reservations on the SAM Shortline Railroad.  We boarded the train at the park and headed out for Plains, GA, home of President Jimmy Carter and then on to Archery, the boyhood home of President Carter.  The train stopped at Plains for an hour.  I thought we would never have enough time to see everything, but Plains is a really small town.

 Jimmy Carter was the 39th President of the United States serving from 1977 - 1981.  His was one of the first presidential campaigns that I was really interested in.  Maybe it was because he was from Georgia or maybe because his character appealed to me after the Nixon years.  Even Amy who was about Amelia's age during this time sat at her little school desk and shouted, "Vote for Jimmy Carter, Praise the Lord, for President of the United States!"

 This is downtown Plains.

 Even the peanut has the Jimmy Carter smile.

This is peanut butter ice cream.  Although I'm on a diet, how could I go to Plains, Georgia, and not eat peanut butter ice cream?  Oh, I only ate one cone.  The other is Bubba's. 

 Brother Billy's famous gas station.  Billy Beer is still available in the little stores.

This is obviously a picture of Bubba and the train.

We saw a sign at the train station that said the Carter's home was just a five minute walk.  We were starting to run out of time so we really hustled to get a glimpse of the Carter home.

This is pretty much all we could see.  The conductor said that there used to be an observation platform here that you could actually see the house from but Homeland Security intervened and made the Park Service take it down.

According to the internet, this is what the Carter's home looks like.  It is the same home they have lived in since the 60's except for their years in the White House.

We hurried back to the train and went on to Archery, his boyhood home.  Bubba had read Carter's book, An Hour Before Daylight, so he knew a lot about Carter's life there.

This is the home Jimmy Carter, his two sisters, and his brother were raised in. The inside has been restored to the way things looked when Carter was growing up.  We recognized some of the things we had read about in the book.  For example, his mother would go to her nursing job and leave a list of chores on a black table in the living room for the kids to do before she came home.  There was a list on that table.  Carter said that they jokingly referred to the table as their mother when they were growing up.

 This table was set for Sunday dinner.  I know that it is fake food, but the fried chicken and deviled eggs sure looked good.

This is the little country store that was right next to the Carter home.  Earl Carter (Jimmy's father) owned it.  It looked like the store my dad used to tell me about going to when he was a little boy.
I think that it is just amazing that we live in a country where a man with such humble beginnings and a unpretentious life style can become President of the United States.  I've read that Jimmy Carter's presidency was complicated by the fact that he didn't know how to play the political games it takes to get things done.  Maybe he had too much integrity to be in Washington?  He returned to Plains, GA, after one term and continues to live in his home that he built in the 60's.  He still teaches Sunday School on a regular basis at the Maranatha Baptist Church. Whether you liked Jimmy Carter as President or not, you've got to have some respect for Jimmy Carter the man.
We rode the train back, went for supper at a Cracker Barrel in Cordele and went to bed early after a very satisfying day.  The next morning we left by 8:00 and were at home before noon, with plenty of time left for an afternoon nap.
Our trips we are making have really added a lot to our life.  We enjoy planning them almost as much as the trip itself.  We've discovered that camping is alive and well.  The park we were at this weekend had 177 sites and it was full by Friday evening.  We've also learned that if you don't make reservations at least a month ahead of time, you may be out of luck when you get ready to go.      I am looking forward to retirement more than ever.  I want to be able to go during the week and stay longer when we want to.  The only thing that could make this lifestyle better would be if some of our family or friends would join us!  Amelia is coming for a visit soon and we are planning a camping trip with her that will include fishing, bike riding, and roasting marshmallows.  I can't wait!