Georgia - Day 10 - in the Cordele campground, round 2

Cordele KOA, Cordele

Saturday, 18 March through Sunday, 2 April 2023

I'll use some of the same categories I used on round 1 to organize these next 2+ weeks.

Nature

The tree next to my window has started budding out - pretty but likely contributing to my coughing fits and clogged sinuses.  It's not bad, though, when I close all the openings (windows, skylights, door) and turn the fans on.  But I'm a fresh air lover, so that's not what I'd prefer - though I prefer that to not breathing.

We had several days where it was really chilly all day, and I ended up using up the propane trying to keep us all warm.  In fact, I filled up twice while I was here.  It wasn't really all that cold in the daytime (50s) but it got down to near freezing a couple of nights.  I guess spring in Georgia means yo-yo-ing temperatures, because it also got up into the 80s a few days.

Gradually over these weeks, I've seen this grove of pecan trees start to leaf out, which means to me that spring is here.

And more flowers are starting to bloom.  The campground has quite a bit of amaryllis planted in the ground, and they've all started to bloom now.  And sitting in the KOA's dog park one afternoon, I noticed that the honeysuckle on the boundary fence is also blooming.  One of my favorite fragrances.

I saw a bluebird.  Not exactly a gesture of spring, but that reminds me that I haven't seen any robins at all.  Lots of mockingbirds and various sparrows and finches and a tit, I think.

On our early morning walk, Dext and I saw the dark shapes of large animals walking near the main road.  I didn't want Dext going to check them out but was curious what they were, so I figured out a different angle we could go to get them in view - but they'd vanished.  I'm guessing they were deer and they went down a narrow country road across the street from the campground.

The only other animals we've seen here have been a few rabbits.

Several days we had some heavy rain - sometimes for a short time, sometimes for a few hours.  It usually resulted in cooler temps.  One afternoon the forecast was for rain to start around 2:00, so I took Dext out at 1:30 but heard so much thunder I cut it short and took us back.  We got inside about 2 minutes before the downpour.  It didn't last long, so I took Dext back out for a short walk.  The thunder made Dext and the kittens nervous anyway, so I was glad to be indoors with them.

When the weather was like that, I plugged in the power strip to protect the computer and anything else that needed plugging in.  And a couple of times, the strip was triggered and all the power shut off, so I was glad I'd done that.

Posts

At the beginning of this period, I still had 3 posts left for Florida (disgraceful to take so long) and now 9 posts to do for Georgia.  This post that I'm writing is #9 for Georgia, and I'm relieved to say I've caught up on all the others.

The post I did for Okefenokee State Park here in Georgia reminded me so much of the cartoonist Walt Kelly who created the character and the comic strip both named Pogo; Pogo lived in Okefenokee Swamp.  One of his most famous quotes was actually a pun based on something Commodore Perry said during the War of 1812.  The way it showed up in Pogo was on a panel showing the ghastly destruction caused by indiscriminate littering and pollution and one of the characters said, "We have met the enemy and he is us."

But my favorite was the obituary Walt Kelly wrote for himself.  Not long after he died in 1973, the last strip appeared, showing Pogo and one of the other characters in a dinghy in the swamp.  They were talking about how sad they felt (without saying why), and then Pogo said, "He allus said, "Don't take life too serious . . . it ain't no how permanent.'"  A great epitaph.

As I experienced in round 1 before I went to Macon, I've continued to have a hard time keeping track of what day it was.  I'm immersed in each day as I write about it for the blog, I spent quite a bit of time making reservations for all of April and more, and then there was any given day I happened to be living in.  It got disorienting having 3 realities.

Reservations, travel plans

Speaking of those, I made reservations in 8 state parks, 2 KOAs and 1 private campground that would cover my time for the rest of the month traveling around Georgia.  Then I booked myself into a KOA in South Carolina for the first part of May, and suddenly had the bright idea of making a reservation now for Memorial Day weekend, before everybody got booked up.  Which, it turned out, wasn't so easy to do because a lot of people were already booking for then.

Then I extended my stay here in Cordele twice more, once because of needing so much more time to catch up, and again because I started running into reservation/nature trouble.

I'd planned to leave here on April 1st, as usual, but the manager said I might want to be sure I could get a place to stay wherever I was planning to go.  He said March 31st was the ending date for people who'd been doing long-term stays in Florida, and they tended to surge north on April 1st.  He said last year he'd been completely booked that night, and everywhere else he called was like that.

With that hint, I went back to the RV to see what I could find, and he was absolutely right.  I couldn't find any state park or any private campground available anywhere I wanted to go.  So I extended here to leave on the 2nd, when I could get a spot at High Falls State Park for a few nights.  

Then on the 30th the state park called me to say the creek they sat on flooded the campground and it had to be closed till they could clean things up.  I had a reservation for the 2nd and 3rd in one campsite, then made a separate reservation for the 4th until the 7th in a different campsite (I'd had to cobble them together because of lots of others' reservations).  They said they thought I'd be able to stay on the 3rd no problem, so I booked here in Cordele for yet another night, leaving on the 3rd.  So nice of them to be so accommodating.

Then today (the 2nd) I called High Falls just to be sure they'd been able to reopen, and it turned out they'd canceled not just the night of the 2nd, but also the night of the 3rd that I'd reserved at the same time.  They said the campsite I'd booked for the 3rd that they'd canceled was available and that I should go online to get it.  But instead, I decided to take this chance to go someplace I'd wanted to earlier but couldn't get into.  

I'd forgotten that FDR (the president) spent a lot of time at Warm Springs, GA, and now there's a state park not far away from there.  So today I was able to get in for the one night I'd suddenly gotten available.  It's north of Columbus, where I'd intended to visit that day anyway, so it works out fine.  But if I hadn't called High Falls today, I'd have gotten in tomorrow after a long drive from here, via Columbus, to there, only to find that maybe someone else had already booked the site I thought I had.  A real piece of luck.

But that meant rearranging all my travel plans, because I'd intended to spend 2 of the 5 days I'd be at High Falls by running into Atlanta (it's an hour away) to see several things of interest.  So now, I'll be going to Atlanta directly from the FDR State Park, and then going on to High Falls for the night of the 4th.  Running up to Atlanta on the 5th, then back down.  I'd planned to have 2 days to rest at High Falls, but now I'll just have one.  But it works out okay otherwise.

And while I was at it, I figured out and wrote down directions for every place I wanted to visit up until I went from High Falls to Milledgeville on the 7th.  It wasn't so bad except for trying to find more reasonable ways to get to things in Atlanta than Google wanted.  Google sees no priority in anything but what it claims is the fastest route.  I prefer adding an extra block or two to make left turns onto busy roads where there are traffic lights, for instance.  And what Google thinks is the fastest route turns out not always to be - nothing to do with traffic conditions but often I suggest an alternative and it's not only shorter but it takes the same or less time.  It all took my time, but it's done and ready to go.

Critters

Both the kittens are showing a lot of interest in the great out-of-doors - meaning, when I open the door, especially the screen door, they're right there wanting to lean out.  And since I haven't forgotten the time Bucky did a lot more than lean, I've taken care to shoo them back while Dext and I are coming and going.  But it's worrying.

One day I had to take some of the drawers out, which I'll talk about in the next section, and it fascinated the kitties.

The pan was in case of leaks during faucet installation.

I think they were playing
"go in and out the window."

I think these photos show how much bigger
they're getting.

Remember that blue-and-white toy that once depicted a mouse that the kitties were mutilating?  Well, this is what it looks like now.

And they still love it.

The kittens' behavior is starting to take on some patterns.  For instance, sometime around 7:00 PM I can expect them to suddenly burst into frenetic activity that can last for half an hour.  They race all around the RV, leaping from the bed, running to the front dashboard, then climbing the front seats up to the upper bunk, scrambling around up there (giving me near strokes about whether they'll claw my TV), then leaping down to the front bench seat, and leaping either onto the table or onto the rear bench seat (where I'm usually sitting) before a flying leap back onto the bed.  And over and over.  They are oblivious to what exactly they're leaping on - using their claws to gain traction on the seats - or ON MY LEGS OR FEET!  Almost every night I'm bleeding so much from a claw stab that I have to put Band-aids on so I don't bleed on my sheets.  Which means I can't sit on the back bench seat with my legs stretched out while I read, because I'll certainly be used as a springboard.  It would be hilarious if I weren't getting mauled on a regular basis.

One day I opened the tool drawer under the front bench seat (the drawer takes up the right side of that space and the water storage tank takes up the left side), and when I turned around I saw a tail disappear into the depths of the drawer.  I think it was Jimmy but couldn't find either kitten in the cabin so don't know for sure.  All I do know is that he got behind the drawer into the water tank section and wouldn't come when I called.  I finally just left the drawer part-way open and waited.  Sure enough, eventually I had 2 kittens in the cabin again and I didn't see which one came out.  A big adventure.

Once I saw Jimmy on the bed by the rear window and Bucky on the back of the front bench seat, both staring intently at each other.  Resulting of course in the usual flying leaps and jousting with each other.  The knights of old could have learned a few moves (if they hadn't been weighted down by armor).

I saw an old Calvin and Hobbes cartoon where Calvin asked, "Do you think babies are born sinful?  That they come into the world as sinners?"  And Hobbes answers, "No, I think they're just quick studies."  Which pretty much sums up the way I'm feeling about the kittens.  Remember how sweet they were when I first got them?  No more.  I can't wait until they grow up - I hear they'll start sleeping more as they get older.  Can't wait. 

Campground life

One evening while I was eating supper, a guy ran his big Class A RV into my ladder on the back.  I put my plate on the stove to thwart the Marauders and went outside.  The campground manager had been escorting the guy to his campsite and told me I was parked far enough from the road and the guy had just swung too far out on his turn.  The guy was real nice about it, saw the bent ladder and said he'd pay to fix it, but I pointed out other damage to the ladder that he obviously hadn't done and said not to worry.  What's another bend in the ladder at this point?

I never did hear from that one repair guy, and the manager said he'd heard the guy was retiring and leaving the business to his son, who didn't seem to be picking up the slack.  So the manager recommended another local repair guy, and he did answer his phone and agreed to come see what he could do for me.

What he did was 2 things.  He went to a Home Depot (I think) and bought a new kitchen faucet much like what I'd had.  But unlike the old one, the new one can be taken apart and the filter cleaned out.  That's why I had to take the drawers out - to get to the water lines and connections under the sink.  This is the old faucet.

I took this photo to email the repair guy so he could go shopping.  The new one looks just the same except: the handle is on the right side, not the left.  We tried reversing it, and the only reason that didn't work is that the blind's too close.  You can see that if this old one were reversed the handle would be aiming into the blind - and that's why I couldn't reverse the new one.  Not such a bad thing, really, because I only use cold water so as not to use power for the water heater.  (Soap was designed to cut the grease on pots and dishes, even in cold water.)  The cold water knob is always on the right side, and that's what I was used to when I first moved into the RV, so that required an adjustment to the left side.  Now I'm learning to adjust back to the right side.

Of course, once the drawers were out of the cabinet, I had to clean them before putting them back in.  It's incredible how kitty hair can work its way into even closed drawers.

The other problem he tackled was the frig, with its ever-fluctuating temperatures and water leaks.  The repair guy checked all the parts he could get to (both inside the frig and outside the RV) and said his equipment tested a part called a thermistor as malfunctioning.  He said he'd have to order the new part but it shouldn't take more than a few days to come in, so I agreed to it.

And in a few days he came back with the new part and installed it and said he'd check back with me in a couple of days to see if the temp in the frig seemed to be regulating better.  I told him not to bother.  It was becoming increasingly clear to me that the only 2 ways to solve this problem are either time travel (go back in time to the day I decided to replace my very good old frig with this one and change my mind) or replacing this frig with yet another one (which I can't really afford).  In fact, the new part does seem to be making some difference in the temperature level in the frig, though it's still not as reliable as I'd want.  But it's good enough, and that's a lot better than it had been.

In the campground, I saw a man about my age who was really bent over - all the time.  I saw him walking from the bathrooms back to his camper.  He was traveling alone and was using what I'm sure was a homemade camper: it looked like a square box on wheels with a sort of canvas tent opened up on top of it.  

A couple came in and stayed only for a night, and I noticed them because the woman, even with a cane, was having great difficulty moving - coming down the camper steps, walking to the table.  Dexter and I passed her and she smiled and said something I couldn't understand.  I wondered if she'd had a stroke.  And I heard her yelling at her husband, sounding angry, and I heard him ask why she was trying to make him feel guilty.  And I closed my door so as not to hear any more.  She might be angry at fate or at her body or even at him, but I wouldn't have thought it was smart to be ugly to someone you're almost entirely dependent on.

I talked several times with another couple in a large Class A that had 5 very small dogs, one of which was blind and deaf.  Once when Dext and I walked past the woman giving that one a chance to do bathroom duty, the woman made a quick movement to protect the dog from Dext.  But I told her he'd be fine, and he was - just kind of sniffed to be sure which dog it was, remembered it was the helpless one, and turned away.  Dexter really is a nice dog.

I talked with some people who were tent camping with family and friends and lots of kids.  They said they were just in the campground for the weekend because they wanted to take the kids camping.  And the kids were clearly having a great time, riding bikes, playing in the playground, like that.

The most common reason I hear for why people are heading to a particular place is to see relatives or visit their kids.  The second most common is retirees traveling like I am, traveling to see something in particular or see an area in general.

With the extra paraphernalia I have for the kittens, I've lost a lot of valuable floor space.  There was never exactly an abundance, but now I have to do a lot of careful walking and some sidestepping.

I'm standing by the door, and my shoe is in the bottom right corner of this photo.  This is all the floor space I have by the kitchen sink and stove and table.  Note the tip of a kitty tail showing from that white cocoon thing, indicating a hazard for walking.  And this is without the other kitty or the full-grown cat or the dog also standing in that space.  It's really crowded in here, and it'll be even more so when the kitties are full-grown themselves.

The manager had been right: on both the 31st and the 1st the campground was completely full.  Then on the 2nd, it was only about a third full.  Such a huge difference.  I guess the tide of Florida snowbirds washed over us and went on its way.  With any luck, I won't be competing with them while I'm in Georgia.

The campground had also been almost full the previous week - on Friday the 24th.  When I asked the manager about all the reserved sites, he said there was a hot air balloon festival in town, and lots of those folks were coming to the campground late in the evening.  Actually, I'd been to town on errands earlier in the day and seen signs: "May 24-26 Watermelon Days Hot Air Balloon Festival."  This is a separate event from Cordele's annual Watermelon Days Festival each June.  For today's event,  the town's been holding it for 7 years and they now get folks in from all over the eastern half of the country.  They say more than 30 balloons are expected this year, which does sound like a lot for a small place like this.

I went into town several times for groceries and to give Dext someplace new to walk in.  It also was a way to shake up my waste tanks so I could go back to the campground and dump them, something I do about every 4 or 5 days.

One day I went a day sooner than I'd planned because the weather forecast was for rain beginning about 2:00 that afternoon till bedtime, then starting up again all the next day.  Better to do chores before it rains than during or after.  And in fact, the rain that day started at 1:50.  how do these weather people know these things?

On one of those trips, I was dismayed to discover no feta cheese in Harvey's grocery store.  There's a dish I make fairly often with cut-up chicken and tomatoes and spinach and mushrooms and feta in a parmesan sauce.  It's quick and easy and tasty and makes enough for nearly a week's worth of suppers.  I've found feta all over the country.  But Harvey's was out - and they very nicely helped me look and then apologized.  So I tried queso fresco instead and that actually worked pretty well.  So, good to know.

A sign outside one of the local churches said, "The smallest deed is better than the grandest intentions."  That reminds me of one of the Jimmy Carter quotes they showed at the Plains museum about how people shouldn't get overwhelmed by how many problems there are to be solved but instead take steps to solve just one.  (And then another, if you have time.)

This ended up being a very comfortable campground.  The manager and his wife were always helpful and friendly - not just to me but to all the campers (I saw them).  The campground was well-maintained, no litter to speak of, everything always clean.  I asked the woman if they ever got any time off, and she said not until another employee came in to help in April.  She and her husband lived in a small cabin in the campground and were on call always to solve people's problems.  They were the only staff in the office - they did everything.  I was really impressed.