Camping this past weekend!

We left Wednesday morning to go camping. We joined a new club, with new properties. Our trip this time was to Dahlonega, GA.

You can see pictures in my gallery.

So, anyway. We were intending to go to the Allison property. There was a mix-up with the accommodations, so we went to look at a different property (there are three properties in the Dahlonega area). We weren’t even going to TRY to go to the Yahoola property, since it has a very steep road and it was going to rain on Saturday, thus making it impossible for us to get back out. Therefore, we went on to the Etowah River property. We found a beautiful spot and, since it was after dark, we only set up the tent and blew up the air mattresses. (Side note: Ozark Trail air mattresses are notorious for slow leaks… and both of ours have ’em. Ugh!!)

We had a decent night and got up in the morning and the kids got into their wetsuits and hopped into the FREEZING (well, 40-degree-ish) water. Since I don’t have a wetsuit, I stayed on shore with JL. After a while, he went down with Robby & the kids and I worked on putting the pavilion together. It is NOT a one-person job! However, I got the main frame put together and left it for later for everyone to help get it put over the tent.

We ran into town to get food (we didn’t bother taking any with us since we were only about 10 minutes from Wal*Mart there) and a few other necessities. By the time we got back, it was dark again, so we didn’t put up the pavilion again.

Friday morning, the guy in charge was going to come down to the camp site, so we got up and put the pavilion over the tent and cleaned stuff up a bit, organizing the totes and whatnot. After visiting with him and another couple who showed up shortly after he did, the family changed and got into the water again. The air was warm, but the water was cold, so I only stepped in for a minute, then got back out. I sat up by the tent and read my book a bit.

Friday night, it rained. Nothing major, and our setup kept us from getting wet, which was great! It rained most of the night and a couple times during the morning hours.

Saturday morning, we heard vehicles coming down the road: two trucks and a third vehicle pulling a 33-foot trailer, which they intended to pull into OUR spot. They said they had claimed it six weeks ago by tying up a rope, then came by to look at it two weeks ago and found the rope was missing. First of all, the club rules say that to mark a spot, one must have their member number on a piece of equipment that they leave in the spot – so their rope didn’t count; and Second, if they really wanted the spot, why didn’t they re-mark it when they found their rope down?

Anyway, they pulled their trailer down past us a little, arranging it so they could pull it into our spot after we left. Robby got in the car to ride up and call the guy in charge, only to find that their heavy equipment had torn up the (wet!) road and there was no way we could get the car up the hill (that last hill before the camp site is pretty steep). So he parked the car and he & Bobby walked to the gate where he could get cell signal.

He talked to the guy in charge, who said basically that they hadn’t marked the site, so it was ours fair and square and “tough cookies” for the other guy. Robby sent Bobby down to get the guy to come up and talk to the guy in charge, but he wouldn’t go. He did, however, send his partner up to drive Robby down (but Bobby wanted to walk, so they declined). When his partner got back down, he said to the guy, “He called Bill.” and they got very quiet.

So, short of it is, we get to keep the spot.

The kids got in their gear and got in the water for a while, then around 5ish, we went downtown to the “Bear in the Square” thing that they do every year, that happened to be this weekend. We walked around a bit, pausing by The Fudge Factory for a treat, before heading back to camp.

Sunday morning we got up and had a little service around the campfire, then worked on packing up. We clearly marked our number on most of the stuff and left it there, in anticipation of being able to go back regularly this summer.

Our trip home took about as long as our trip there, as we had several stops (first to get the stuff we were taking on top of the car secure, and then one to drop off something and another to pick up something). We arrived home around 11pm Sunday night.