Relaxing by the Lake

Red Bud trees blooming along the roads throughout the South

We've been enjoying the beautiful blossoms on the red bud trees and just this week are seeing the dog wood trees beginning to bloom. One of the towns nearby has advertised an azalea festival in a couple of weeks but I haven't seen a hint of an azalea bloom so far--their festival may be in anticipation of future azalea blooms.

For the last few weeks we have been camping at Corps of Engineers campgrounds--a good choice for us old people with the Golden Age pass giving us a 50% discount. The Corps of Engineers have created low dams to form shallow reservoirs all over the south. There are large, multi-fingered lakes everywhere and most of them have more than one campground to choose from.

View from our Twin Lakes campsite on Hartwell Lake
in South Carolina near Georgia border

Our current site is the Twin Lakes COE campground on Hartwell Lake on the border of Georgia and South Carolina. Our site is right on the lake. With a breeze from the lake to help us handle the 80+ temperature, the sound of the wind in the trees and the waves against the shore, the scenic views, boats in the water, kids on bikes on the roads, squirrels and birds everywhere, its not too difficult to relax!

We eat most of our meals in the motorhome but when we do eat out we often find restaurants that are going to offer food typical of the area rather than the fast food places. Lately we've been enjoying catfish. Pearl's catfish was served with a marmalade and pecan crust and she chose cheese grits as one of the sides. She liked  the grits so much that we found the cheddar cheese grits at Wal-Mart and have them w/ breakfast occasionally. We stopped at a restaurant in Alabama for lunch after church and discovered they were offering a buffet of typical southern food including some shoo fly pie (southern variety) for desert. Great meal! 

At every major highway intersection there seems to be a Waffle House. Not familiar with that in Oregon so we decided to try it and were not disappointed. A waiting line seems standard, food was good (pecan waffle) and reasonably priced.

Most of our "seeing" is just enjoying the unending variety God's creation as we travel but occasionally we check out some of the tourist attractions. In Alabama we visited the Gainesville Antebellum Mansion in Demopolis. Our tour guide was a very knowledgeable archivist / restorator who provided us with a great deal of Civil War history along with the description and history of the mansion itself. 

Gainesville Antebellum Mansion in Demopolis AL

While camped near Atlanta GA we visited the Southern Civil War and Railroad Museum. The main focus was the Great Railroad Chase during the Civil War but also included general information on the Civil War and railroads in the South. We also visited the Gone With The Wind Museum. Both of these museums' presentations as well as the mansion tour above confirm the overall sense one has that there is a very different perspective of the Civil War in the South than in Oregon. 

Dave and Betty Shady, served with us at ICA

We enjoyed meeting with Dave and Betty Shady in Toccoa. Reconnecting with friends that served with us at International Christian Academy in Cote d'Ivoire was great. Recognizing how Toccoa is such a center and focus for missions made the experience even greater. We spent a few hours creating a web of inter-connections as we talked of individual missionaries who had attended Toccoa Falls College or taught there or were currently living in the Toccoa area. 

Toccoa Falls near Toccoa GA

A highlight was viewing Toccoa Falls on the college campus and reading the names on the monument there of those who lost their lives in that 1977 flood--another interconnection as we recalled Bob Carter who had survived that flood and came to serve with us at Dalat School with his wife, Becky, only to lose his life at Dalat while saving a student from being swept over a falls.