I didn't take that many pictures this trip but couldn't pass up not taking a picture of this covered bridge and mill dam. Placard says this is the longest in-use covered bridge in the country... eat your hearts out New Englanders! The water coming over the dam made that lovely, loud sound.
The path headed toward the cache at this park stayed pretty much along side the river and the river was flowing quite quickly with plenty of little white-water sections to keep the sounds up. Really, really nice.
It was hot and this was a pretty good trek. When I got back to the van I decided to slip out of my hiking clothers and put on a pair of shorts and I headed back to this area to wade around a little bit. The water was deliciously cool and had I not had a itinerary planned out I could have just sat in one of these pools for hours.
Camping: I learned a lot my last trip out with the van and things went really well this time. I did make a couple notes for next time but nothing worth shouting about. Biggest improvement... dinner!
No hotdogs this time. This time it was a perfectly cooked and very delicious Bubba Burger with a side of potato sticks instead of those yucky Pringles and, thanks to a suggestion by my friend Darcy, a delicious apple for dessert. Nice... really nice. After dinner I met the most delightful older couple who I enjoyed visiting with and hearing of their adventures as they are now working on their third visit-every-state adventure! Holy smokes!
Andersonville. Not a state park and no geocache on the property but it's a place I wanted to see. Earlier in the day, my second day, I had visited the state park at Magnolia Springs which has on its grounds the remains of Fort Lawton, another confederate prison camp built to accommodate the overflow from Andersonville. During the last couple of years college students from Georgia Southern have been doing extensive archeological digs here. Anyway, I wanted to see Andersonville, a National Park and Cemetary built around what once was Andersonville prison camp. Also on the grounds is the national POW museum. Regretfully the museum closes at 4:30 PM and I arrived later than that. Regardless, I'm glad I made the visit.
The POW cemetary part of the national cemetary. No way my camera could capture the many thousand tightly-spaced headstones. It was an awesome sight.
Row after row after row of POW headstones. While here I learned that they are so close together because the POWs were buried in mass graves, shoulder to shoulder. Hence, the proximity of the headstones to one another.
Every POW headstone is numbered and all but a few identify the individual. This identity and numbering system was done by a prisoner who kept a journal that was found after the camp was abandoned. The headstones were placed many years after.
BUGS! STINKIN' LOVE BUGS!! I thought love bugs were restricted to Florida and further restricted to certain secions of the interstate system. I certainly had my full of them when living in Florida and would have considered my life pretty darn complete if I never saw, or ran into, another one again. Then again, you never run into one of them... always two! Anyway, during my second day out while traveling from one park to the next I get hit by some bugs. First thought, based on the color and splatter pattern... love bugs. Impossible, thought I. More and more and then I knew for sure.
After the first hits. These things really stink, too.
Hard to see here but in a short while my windshield was pretty well covered. The meetings with these disgusting creatures continued throughout most of the day and the coverage was pretty complete. Driving home, mainly west/northwest, as the sun started going down it became harder and harder to see out of the windshield. Only one way to get some relief...
... all better, for a while :) Those who have had the misfortune of getting their vehicle plastered by these suckers know that they are NOT easy to get off. Blasting with the high-pressure did all right and I certainly could see better driving into the setting sun but the real scrubbing happened the day after I got back.
A wonderful trip. 680 miles in parts of the state I've never been to and 7 official geocaches found. I will indeed be doing this again :)
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