Month: July 2020

As we entered the month of July, we moved sites one more time at our current campground in Dillard, GA. We are finally in the home stretch of our self-imposed semi-isolation with plans to head to head to North Carolina in August. We’ve really enjoyed having a steady place to call home, still close enough to get back to Atlanta to visit family and doctors as needed but will be happy to be moving again.

We moved out from beneath the trees to a more open site that backed up to a small pond at the park. This is a popular place for kids to come and fish (catch and release) on the deck behind our site (see pic) and is also home to MANY large, loud frogs, as we discovered on nights when we left our windows open!

July started with July 4th celebrations here at the campground. This included a lot of activities for adults and kids over the long holiday weekend. Events included:

• Watermelon eating contest
• Snowball dance
• Snowball fight
• Tie Dye Shirts
• Parade

We watched the snowball fight (involves making snowballs out cornstarch and shaving cream), both made t-shirts (with commemorative Christmas in July shirts!), and were front and center to watch the parade go by.

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July is our birthday month (Dan on the 8th and Jill on the 18th) so we gave ourselves a new camp sign for our combined birthday. Our original sign had faded badly after 18 months in the sun and weather and needed to be retired. Hoping this one will last for years and thru many more adventures!

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We made one visit back to Atlanta for a doctor appointment and of course, since we were in town, we also had to visit our girls, Savannah and Skylar! They grow bigger every time we visit! We were there just as they turned 7 months and now they are starting to crawl so things are really getting interesting!

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July has been our warmest month but we’ve been lucky not to be feeling the heat that many folks are feeling in Atlanta and other areas of the south. We stuck close to camp most of the time, reading, doing some minor maintenance, hanging out at the pool, and just relaxing. Adele and Brandy have been enjoying time outside but even they aren’t interested in doing a lot when it gets hot. As they say, “The dog days of summer”.

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As we write this edition of our blog we are wrapping up July, getting ready for Lola to make her first move to another campground since we arrived on April 1st. Amazing how the world has changed since we got here just 4 months ago. Our plans have adjusted and will remain flexible as needed but luckily our lifestyle allows for natural social distancing and there are many, many campgrounds out in the country, away from large suburban areas and that will be where we’ll be hanging out for the near future, at least.

Saturday, August 1st, we will cross the state line into North Carolina, just about 30 minutes up the road to Franklin, NC and The Great Ourdoors Campground. We’ll stay there for a week and then move to a campground in Maggie Valley, NC where we’ll stay until mid-September. Updates shall start to be more frequent now that we are getting moving again. Until then, we wish you all the best, stay safe and healthy, and hope your find what you are looking for at the end of your rainbow!

June started much the same as May – move to another site but still at same campground in Dillard. As mentioned previously, although we had the option to remain in the same campsite, we elected to move each month to get a different perspective plus get a different view in a different area. Thus, we moved into our most shady sites of all on the 1st.

Although a nice cool site, it also stayed damp and, thanks to the trees, lots of bird poo. We’ve discovered that all sites have both plusses and negatives.

Soon after our June move, we traveled over to NC to visit a couple of very popular waterfalls. First up was Bridal Veil Falls which is literally next to the road.

Just down the road we came to Dry Falls. This waterfall has a good volume of water so you may wonder why it is “Dry”. As you will see from the pics, the name refers to the ability to walk behind the falls and stay dry. This is a great, paved trail that works down to and then behind the falls give you a unique perspective of what a waterfall looks like from behind.

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A few days later, we took advantage of another pretty day to drive over to Lake Rabun and hike a trail to Minnehaha Falls. A somewhat wet and muddy trail soon led us to a nice stair-step falls.

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Heading towards Father’s Day weekend, we loaded up Lola and temporarily departed Dillard for a campsite along Lake Oconee. This was so that we could meet up with our son and daughter-in-law (Chris & Sarah) along with our grand daughters (Skylar & Savannah) who would be staying along with the in-laws at a home on the river. We had a super, wonderful time on the lake, playing games, playing with the girls, a morning on the lake, and just enjoying each other’s company.

Family month continued when Dan’s mom, Jean, came up to Dillard to visit for several days. We rented a very nice one bedroom cabin in the same campground so we could spend time visiting and catching up. We showed her several of our favorite places (Mud Creek, Bridal Veil, and Dry Falls, Bull Sluice, Highlands) and even had a lunch out one day (outside, plenty of social distancing). It was her first venture out from her place since COVID had started (other than short shopping trips). She had a great time and we were all excited to have a good visit.

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Overall, June was a very fun-filled month with more time with people than we probably have had since early March!

As we head into July, we’ll move one more time (still in Dillard), enjoy July 4th celebrations and start to look forward to a move north into the mountains of North Carolina. (where we’ll stay until middle of September).

We hope everyone remains safe and healthy. We leave you with a great view of our campground from Sky Valley, Georgia.