Tuesday, 7 March 2023
When Dext and I were walking this morning, I noticed an unusual camper not far from us. It was a pop-up camper, but not like any other I've seen because it popped up perpendicularly, where others pop out sideways. It was about 3'x3' at the base and, when it was closed, might have been about 8" high. Open, it looked like it was 5' tall. One side was hard, 2 sides were similar to a modified version of the usual popup with a screened space sticking out, and the 4th side was covered by an awning that sheltered a cooking area. I think it might have used hydraulics to open up the top part. It looked European, or maybe Canadian. I'm certain it wasn't of American manufacture. I think a couple was staying in it.
I'm always interested in seeing new kinds of camping equipment, and these days the variety keeps growing.
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| today's route: the lowest blue line that then goes way up north |
As we were leaving the campground, we saw deer by the road near the park entrance. That was reassuring for me because I'd been certain that was deer country, but neither Dext nor I had seen any.
I also saw what I think were 2 wild turkeys, but both had drab colors. The bird book says females and immatures are smaller and duller than the males, so I think that's what I saw. There aren't that many birds that big that are shaped like that.
We went back through Fargo which has a population of 250. In case you were wondering, Fargo, ND, (the famous one) has 125,994 residents. This Fargo seems to serve the function of being the largest town near the national wildlife refuge and a crossroads.
As I drove west, I passed pines at various stages of growth, obviously being farmed.
About 30 miles from Fargo, I came to Statenville, which has an unusual history. A highway sign said it was an unincorporated town, but online I learned it was disincorporated. And then had a hard time finding out how a town gets disincorporated. Statenville is the county seat of Echols County, and I found some interesting history about the county too. The town was originally named Troublesome (per Wikipedia, I'm not making this up) but in 1858 changed the name when it got class (i.e. when it became the county seat). Then in 1995, a new law resulted in Statenville joining dozens of other GA towns in having its incorporation charter revoked for lack of an active government. At that point, Echols County became one of only 2 counties in Georgia that has no incorporated towns.
But wait, there's more. The Georgia State Constitution forbids banishment outside of the state's boundaries. But apparently it was legal to banish someone from 158 of GA's 159 counties, and Echols County became the county of choice - the only one someone wasn't banished to. Apparently who got banished were criminals. Clearly they never bothered to stay in Echols County but instead moved to another state, but that's what Echols County was - a place of banishment. (Banishment was upheld as lawful by the state supreme court as recently as 2011.)
I saw a Confederate flag flying below a US flag. It's beginning to look like I'm going to have a real problem during my stay here with cognitive dissonance.
I passed huge fields that looked like they'd been laid to waste, and I couldn't tell what was going on there.
A whole lot of people around here really like azaleas, and I saw huge bushes of them blooming in every yard we passed.
We stopped in Valdosta so I could arrange to pick up my blood pressure meds farther along the road, and while we were stopped I walked Dext and we all had some lunch. The route through town took me past the county courthouse, which was really pretty as county courthouses go.
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| Lowndes County Courthouse built 1905 in the Classical Revival style |
And from there we got on I-75 for more than an hour, then turned west for another half hour. Of course I couldn't really see anything much of the country I was traveling through. Interstates are really only good for getting from one point to another, not for exploring the US. I did see a billboard urging visitors to come to Ellijay, "Apple Capital of the Peach State." Ellijay is way up in the northern part of GA and I may be able to get there later in my stay.
North of Tifton I saw a HUGE Confederate flag on a very tall and strong pole in the middle of not a whole lot. I keep seeing these situations.
And I saw a whole lot of religious signs and was surprised that none of them addressed abortion.
A sign told me this was an Alternative Fuels Corridor, which was something I don't remember hearing of. Across the Lower 48 there are 55 such corridors that have been designated by the Federal Highway Administration as providing "sufficient alternative fuels and charging facilities." We live and learn.
At Cordele, "Gateway to South Georgia," we turned west. I enjoyed that part of the drive much more because it took me along US-280 through a whole lot of countryside. For much of the way, trees and bushes were absolutely dripping with wisteria. It was an incredible display. Also quite a few very large pecan orchards. Also lots of blooming dogwoods around here.
We passed a sign for the turn to get to Andersonville Historic Site. I've heard of Andersonville - well, it's notorious among Civil War sites. I'm really torn about whether to visit or not. It was built to house up to 10,000 US Army prisoners during the war. At its height it had more than 32,000. It was notorious because of its conditions: no shelter, contaminated water, little food, extensive disease - just under 30% of prisoners died while in custody. The cemetery created for them is now a national cemetery that's still in use. The whole site is now managed by the National Park Service and includes the National Prisoners of War Museum.
I just want to say I'm increasingly astounded at the vast extent of responsibilities for the Park Service. I'm finding them in charge of an incredible number and variety of places all over the country. I remember when we had that stupid government shutdown in 2019 and all kinds of places I wanted to visit were closed. That was less than a year into my travels, and I now realize I'd barely scratched the surface of what the National Park Service provides our country.
Anyway, today I just wanted to get where we were going.
Which turned out not to be the place of refuge I'd hoped for. I'd made reservations for the next 2 weeks, but it was clear almost immediately that this was not going to work out.
I was greeted before I'd found the office by a guy who was clearly an employee, very nice, said he'd take me to my site and I could later on walk over to the office to pay what I still owed. But the office looked like it was quite a distance from the campground - it was right by the 2 golf courses which were part of this whole complex. So I decided to drive the RV over now before settling in.
That involved going back out to the highway and going down to the next entrance, then taking a very narrow winding road full of potholes. Then paying and going back to start all over. The nice guy was back to greet me and took me to our site - which was on a very definite slope. I almost started crying at the thought of sitting at such an angle for any time at all, let alone 2 weeks. I explained I had no ability to level myself, he called the office and they found an unexpected vacancy in a very level site - but only for this one night. They agreed to refund me what I'd paid.
They were very nice about it but were stuck because at that moment they had a whole group of RVs in for some kind of rally, and they had a whole other group coming in when this batch left. They literally had available only the spot I was rejecting.
I walked Dext, found the very small dog park, and then got online. I found 2 KOAs in this general vicinity (I wanted a KOA for its internet connection and its predictability) and picked the one back in Cordele because it looked flatter than the 2nd one which was built on a hill. The nice guy in Cordele took a reservation for 5 days and told me he'd go out personally to check the 4 sites he had available and see which one was the most level.
I figured tomorrow on my way to Cordele I'd make a side trip to Plains, since it was so close by.
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