This was going to be our third time at this particular park. The first time was soon after we got the trailer and it was springtime and beautiful in the park. The second time we met Joe and Judy there. To be honest, our main objective this trip was to buy more sausage at Stripling's General Store, which has one of its locations at the entrance to the park. We were pleasantly surprised as we approached the campsites to find that the park was nearly deserted. With school started everywhere and the weekend over, there are not that many people camping --- just those of us lucky enough to be retired. We had a beautiful pull through site and one end of the campground practically to ourselves.
Monday there was a little cold snap and the weather improved drastically. In fact it was actually cool outside -- great weather for sitting outside and enjoying the beauty of our location. Both of us had brought books we wanted to read so we spent the majority of the day enjoying the cooler weather and reading.
During the day we made a trip into town where we picked up a $2.00 watermelon at WalMart and a sampling of sausage at Stripling's to make sure it was still as good as the first time we bought it. That evening Bubba grilled pork chops and sausage which we enjoyed with some peas and creamed corn.
Note: The watermelon was much bigger than it looks in this picture.
Before we left home I had googled places of interest near Cordele, GA. The Andersonville National Historic Site looked interesting so we decided to check it out and we were not disappointed.
Andersonville was the site of one of the largest Confederate POW camps during the Civil War. During the fourteen months the prison was in existence, 45,000 Union soldiers were imprisoned there with 13,000 dying in captivity. The museum also commemorates the prisoners of war from other conflicts including those captured during the Gulf War. A 30 minute video using the voices of former prisoners told the story of the physical and emotional torment suffered by ordinary men/women under extreme circumstances in service of their country. After the video we went through the museum which contained artifacts of various prisoners in all the wars. Then we toured the site of the actual camp and the national cemetery located there.
Sometimes you don't realize what a number really means until you see it like this. There are 13,000 men buried here. The headstones are so close because they were dying so fast that there was no way to build a pine box for each body so they were laid shoulder to shoulder in trenches. Accurate records were kept by one of the prisoners and there are only a few headstones marked "unknown". We were so moved by all that we saw here. It is a wonderful memorial.
Our GPS took us round and about on some little country roads to get here so Bubba stopped to look at the atlas to determine a better way back. He gave up and we went back the way we came.
The next morning we went to a Cracker Barrel for breakfast and then stopped by the local Harvey's where we bought green peanuts to boil.
And we went back to Stripling's and loaded up on sausage for the freezer.
We enjoyed watching the wildlife while we ate a pile of boiled peanuts and some $2.00 watermelon which was the best we've had all summer.
And after eating boiled peanuts all day, we still had two gallon bags full to take home with us. We pulled them out on the way home and I shelled them for Bubba into a little bowl so he could eat and drive. I'm sweet like that sometimes.
We decided to follow the GPS directions going home. The way it directed us helped us to avoid travel on I-10 and going through Tallahassee. We should have listened to it on Sunday.
I really like how we did two trips back to back. I am for doing more of that in the future. It's nice to come home, wash a few clothes, and go again. It's almost like a "buy one, get one free" deal. We're looking forward to next time with Joe and Judy at St. Andrews State Park.
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