Wednesday, 27 May 2015

Lake Keowee,SC & Cornelia,GA......13th to 27th May 2015

Lake Keowee & our home for the next 6 days to sort out service needs on the trailer and as it it getting near the end of this  adventure prepare the trailer for storage...

Sunrise over the campsite at Lake Keowee....

Last day at the lake which had been the usual beautiful blue skies and suddenly storm clouds but didn't amount to much but does show how quickly they can appear !!
19th May and on the road towing our home on wheels for the last time this trip back into Georgia to storage at the Lake Lanier area.....sadly we're not happy with the storage (long story) but not a lot we can do at this stage and just have to hope for the best...
Well it has been an interesting journey from West to East....more difficult decisions to make than we would have liked but on the whole an enjoyable trip....we are now going to spend the next week with our good friends in Cornelia a great way to round off this trip....
Sorry but this is one of my favourite water-towers....
Our favourite view from Bill & Myra's back deck...
Clarkesville....the county seat of Habersham County...
The Big Apple at Cornelia Railroad Depot.....
One for me a railroad and a water-tower....
A scenic spot on the road to Janis & Jimmy's lake house on Lake Burton where we will be spending the Memorial Weekend...
One view from J & J's lake house across Lake Burton.... 
The new boat dock/deck....
Not all houses are on the lake...not sure I'd like the drive up to this one but the view must be spectacular...
Blooming Mountain Laurel....a cross between our azaleas and rhododendrons ...
This area was devastated in 2013 by a tornado...amazing how quickly the vegetation has regrown and the houses rebuilt...

Late evening sitting up on the boat deck with friends, wine and a neat gas fire pit...
It's been a great weekend at the lake and time to sample Jimmy's malt collection.....our "Maxxium" friends will like that Michael finishes of the evening with a scotch/malt tasting and talk.......
Well folks it's time for me to sign off from this blog....today we head for Atlanta airport and our flight back to Blighty....all being well we will see family & friends soon...
We have driven 5180 miles, of course not all towing, seen interesting sights met up with old friends and had another great trip.....until the next time it's bye for now from
The Travelling Brits....

Sunday, 17 May 2015

Wednesday 13th May....Forsyth,GA to Lake Keowee, South Carolina..

We head north this morning on 83N a lovely scenic drive and one we would like to do again.....
Small hamlets and agriculture and fresh spring green colours...
Bradda Ed is still shaking his "booty" his skirt is shredding by the day, we need to make him a new one for our next road trip.....
Monticello, and what looks to be a small town like many others we have passed through on our travels...
But no the main road runs right "through" the town square much the same as Italy and Greece...we had been warned of this by our friend Bill thank goodness or we would have been seriously worried as the road was quite narrow....this photographer had to concentrate on navigating hence only a couple of pics...
We exited the square on the correct road...phew...
For water tower watchers. A short stubby one!!!!!

Sadly these photos do not show the blooms on this beautiful avenue of magnolia trees.....

Lunch sandwich at a rural fuel/truck stop....
We do smile in a nice way, every town no matter how small has antique shops.....


Prison detail vehicle .....We so wish we did this in UK......
And onto the I-85 !!! Thank you nice truck driver for letting us in and later for letting us move out to the outside lane when it went down to one lane......thankfully road works and not an accident...one of those moments too, as we came down the ramp onto the interstate the song playing is Willie Nelson's...On The Road again !!!
Amazingly this is our first traffic jam in 31,000 miles :) 
And back to South Carolina and on to the Cherokee Foothills Highway north....
Lake Hartwell....when we were her in 2012 the lake level was very low due to drought, good to see it has now risen to normal.... 
And here we are 3 years and some 30,000 miles later back full circle to The Crooked Creek RV Park on Lake Keowee, near Walhalla, SC...
It's a park we like, having stayed here when we hired the camper in 2010....
Driving distance not too far today and time to set up Camp Harris and for me to swim a few lengths of their large pool....then sundowners looking down on the lake...
More soon from The Very Mellow Campers.....




12th May....Carrabelle,FL to Forsyth, Georgia.....

We bid farewell to the beach and head north to skirt around Tallahassee the capitol city of Florida but by no means the largest.... sea mist as we left the beach but it's soon hot and sunny again...
Welcome to Georgia......
A longer "time wise" drive today as mainly more minor scenic roads through small towns (nice alternative to the interstates) and we come upon gems like this.... unfortunately I'm not always able to snap a shot of some of the more interesting buildings as we are suddenly upon them and no room to park our home on wheels...I also have to double up as chief navigator which I do have to say I am much more proficient at than when we first started this nomadic lifestyle...
A fire watchtower as a change from water towers..... 
Lots of water towers today...these are just a selection not the whole package !!!
Not only a water tower.......
We have noticed over the past 2/3 weeks while driving around the amount of "road kill" armadillos, today we also saw 2 "road kill" tortoises :(

My favourite style of water tower :)
Today's song favourite on the radio was The Gambler, a great driving song......
And life is a gamble....our overnight campsite is less than desired !!!
Tomorrow north to South Carolina......that does sound rather Irish !!

Wednesday, 13 May 2015

Sunday 10th May......Walking With Dolphins...Carrabelle,FL

06.15 pre-sunrise on the beach and wow it is so worth the early alarm....
as soon as we arrived at the beach we could see a pod of dolphins feeding right at the water's edge...we could almost reach over and touch them !! The light was too low for good photos but I managed to get a few half decent pics...

Yorkieman awake and vertical on the beach pre-sunrise !!!
Several pods came to feed....they were so close you could clearly hear them breathing...

One of the 2 herons patiently waiting to pounce on breakfast.....as well as 2 herons there were pelicans, black skimmers and various other birds.....all in all quite a David Attenborough moment......
Add the beautiful sunrise and a perfect start to the day.....
Since seeing this starfish and others I have had the lyrics to Seasons In The Sun going through my head,  I've had worse songs get stuck there....
I keep forgetting to mention that this is also a black bear area...we haven't seen any but they do come down to the headland at the end of the beach to feed...
Camp Harris....
We have really enjoyed our time at the beach here and at Freeport...not what we had originally planned but it's one of the reasons we have chosen this form of travel and lifestyle that we can be flexible....watching the weather channel this morning it has confirmed to us that we made the right decision to come south....there are tornadoes and heavy rain across north Texas and Arkansas with very heavy rain in Vicksburg where we were a couple of weeks ago....record snowfalls for this time of year in South Dakota in Rapid City and Mount Rushmore....and tropical storm Ana threatening the Atlantic Coast line....
Tomorrow we move on through Georgia to overnight on route to north South Carolina....
More soon all being well from
The Thankful Campers....