Travels with haRVy

We spent half the weekend in Chattanooga, TN in the midst of Tate’s family reunion. Her family was very gracious in letting us join their festivities, which included dinner out in town, a breakfast buffet, lots of socializing, and a fun jet boat ride up the Tennessee River Gorge. We stealthily camped in the Days Inn parking lot and picked up a couple of bikes from the vending machines run by the Chattanooga Bike Transit System to ride a bit of the riverfront walk.

Chattanooga’s version of Lombard Street, but for bikes and walkers.

We camped the next night just over the state line in Red Dawn, GA (our 10th state) at Cloudlands Canyon State Park.  The highlight of this stay was the Waterfall Hike down into the gorge. It was just one mile in and another back, but that included over 1200 steps!

Here’s a link to a video of the waterfalls that Al put together: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_fNlEcLlTs&feature=youtu.be

Our next stop was Fort Yargo State Park near Athens, GA where we lucked into the most beautiful lakefront campsite imaginable. It took us about ten minutes to decide that this spot deserved at least a two-night stay.

We rarely have the opportunity to launch our kayaks directly from our campsite, so this one had to be taken advantage of. We spent a few hours paddling the shores of this very placid lake and even found a small creek to explore. Otherwise we mostly kicked back and enjoyed the tranquility.

Back on the road heading south, we enjoyed an hour or two of country roads before hitting the inevitable Interstate (#75). Al did a great job of dodging around many tractor trailer rigs, but it proved quite taxing, so we called it a day relatively early. We had a surprisingly good dinner of grilled trout, turnip greens, and baked sweet potato at our home for the night – Cracker Barrel in Cordele, GA.

The State of Georgia has proven to be much more interesting and friendly than anticipated. We expected to just drive through quickly, but we have found the folks extremely friendly and the State Parks well kept and scenic.

Our next destination is Sarasota, FL where we plan to visit with Al’s nephew and family.