"Rainy Night (and Day) in Georgia"

Sorry it's been so long since I last posted.  I had promised myself that I would do a better job at posting more often and I've done an even worse job than before!

To catch everyone up. . .

I went camping with the Dixie Chapter of the Tear Jerker's September 20 - 21 at Cloudland Canyon State Park on top of Lookout Mountain in Georgia.  

Cloudland Canyon State Park  (Note: Not my photo)

For those of you who have never camped at a Georgia State Park, they have what I consider to be a rather unusual and frustrating reservation system.  You can make reservations in advance, but you can't pick your campsite - those are on a first come, first serve basis.  Now normally if I were camping alone like I will be doing in the future that wouldn't be a big deal, but when you are camping as part of a group like we were, it makes it very difficult to get campsites close together - at least for us later arriving folks.  Cloudland Canyon State Park is a beautiful park and very popular, so by the time I arrived on Friday afternoon around 1:30 (check-in was at 1:00) there were only 4 open sites left in the loop I needed to be in (the more favored loop too!).  I had made my reservation in advance, but that didn't guarantee me a site in that loop.  Needless to say, I ended up on the far side of the campground from the rest of the group, but that was O.K. at least I got in the loop I needed to be in and it was a nice walk to the other side to visit everyone.

However the challenges didn't end there . . .

Heavy rain fallin', seems I hear your voice callin' "It's all right."

A rainy night in Georgia, a rainy night in Georgia

It seems like it's rainin' all over the world

- Benton Brook

Yep, you know what's coming. 

Friday was a lovely day which I spent visiting with folks I hadn't seen for a while, but I knew rain was in store for Saturday and Mother Nature didn't disappoint.  The rain started lightly about 4:30 a.m. and continued through the afternoon on Saturday.  I had my awning up, knowing I would have to take it down when I woke up Saturday, before it really started raining hard, and I almost made it too.  Of course as soon as I went to take it down, Mother Nature thought it would be fun to see how wet she could get me in 5 minutes and let er' rip!  

I love my awning - Egon (the man who designed, built and made everything on the tearbaby) created what I consider to be a most ingenious awning.  The only problem (for me) is it can be hard to hold the long pole that feeds through the loose end of the awning while trying to bend the first tent pole to fit through the hole to attach and detach it.  This is made even more difficult when you have buckets of water pooling in the awning. I had to continually empty the water off / out of the awning to try to get it detached.  Unfortunately this created a waterfall over the exterior light by my door.  I knew I'd be lucky if I didn't have any leaks from all that water. Luck was not on my side that day.

Later that day when I returned from my outing I found the carpet pretty soaked by the door.  Since it was damp and overcast out, I couldn't really hang the carpet out to dry, so I left it inside with the fan blowing on it to try and dry it out - but to no avail.  Every time I got up during the night I had to step on cold, wet, squishy carpet - Ick!  And it was a chilly night too - and you know I had to get up more times than normal!  Of course Sunday was beautiful, sunny and warm and I had to leave.  I did get the carpet hung up when I got home and all is good now.  I resealed around the light and will be adding an extension of the rain guard over it to help with any future times that I can't get the awning down fast enough!  Guess I need to practice more with connecting and disconnecting the awning tent poles.  

In honor of the rainy day I give you "falling water" at Cloudland Canyon State Park  (Note: Not my photo)

It is a good thing for me to have to learn how to fix things with the tearbaby.  Living on the road on my own I will have to rely on myself to take care of minor repairs.  I am grateful to have a dad and brother who are not only knowledgeable about how to build and repair things, but also for their making me have to learn how to use tools and repair things myself - though I do get nervous about screwing things up.  All in all, it was still a great weekend with great folks!  

(Sorry, with being gone most of the day Saturday and all the rain - I never got out to take photos of the park - the ones of the park posted are from the Park's website).

Camping at Old Stone Fort State Park

The tearbaby and I went camping this past weekend at Old Stone Fort State Park in Manchester, TN with the Tennessee Chapter of the Tear Jerkers.  We were celebrating the chapter's 5 year anniversary.  The campground hosted 32 Tear Jerkers with 18 unique teardrops and tiny trailers (the people were unique too!).  Great bunch of folks and a wonderful weekend.

Tearbaby resting in its campsite.

If you are interested in teardrop trailers or other tiny trailers out there I HIGHLY recommend that you go to one of the Tear Jerker gatherings.  You don't have to camp, just visit for the day.  Everyone in this national / international group is warm and welcoming, and they love sharing their knowledge and experience with anyone interested in these tiny trailers.  Just to go the Tear Jerkers forum and click on CALENDAR along the top banner of tabs to find a gathering near you or join the forum for even more helpful information.

These people are also packed full of ideas and ingenuity!  Two of my favorite qualities!  I have learned so much from them after attending just 2 gatherings, of which I'll touch on more in future posts.  But for now, I wanted to share with you some pictures of Old Stone Fort.

Old Stone Fort is "a hilltop ceremonial enclosure begun 2000 years ago and used at least through the fifth century".  The spectacular setting occurs where two rivers converge creating a high, isolated "bluff" between them.

The Woodland prehistoric period people constructed wall-like mounds around the edge of this 50-acre high bluff, with two parallel mound walls oriented to the summer solstice sunrise.

This mound site was most likely used for ceremonial purposes.  There is a 1 1/4 mile trail that takes you around the perimeter of the Old Stone Fort where several of the mound walls can still be seen.

With beautiful views of the rivers and falls (several side trails take you down to the rivers edge).

There is also a small museum and gift shop and other trails throughout the park.

Now I am quite embarrassed to admit this next part.  I am a backpacker, primitive camper from way back and know the proper provisions for hiking - good shoes and plenty of water.  However this day I was not properly prepared.  Shoes - Teva sandals - WRONG!  Bottle of water - left in the car - WRONG!  Now in all fairness, I hadn't intended to go hiking - just went to tour the museum - or I would have been better prepared.  That said, the 1 1/4 mile trail was relatively easy and I managed quite well even though I lacked the necessities (though that bottle of water in the car didn't last long once I returned!).  All in all it was a lovely hike and a beautiful area of middle Tennessee steeped in unique history.  Check it out if you are in the area.

*(Note: Pictures were taken with my phone - still learning how to use it, it's new.  Again, had I been prepared to hike I would have brought my camera!).