If you know me at all, you will probably have anticipated I would return home a day early. I was still very sore from the 8+ mile hike at Smithgall Woods State Park and even a little nauseated last night. I didn’t even eat any dinner. I went to bed at 7:30 pm at Laura S. Walker after taking two Advil and an antihistamine. Even with that, it didn’t knock me out and I tossed and turned for most of the night.
Though it had cooled to 76F during the night, I didn’t feel like fighting the trails when the sun came up so I cleaned the cottage, packed and was on the road by 7:15 am. I made it back home around 1:30 pm. I’ve learned to get audio books for long trips and both on the way up to Georgia and on the way back, I completed two audio books. It certainly makes the trip easier.
The office at Walker opened at 8 am and I called while on the road a little after that to notify them I would not be staying the second night. To my surprise, they refunded me the cost of the second night. I didn’t expect that because you had to reserve a minimum of two nights. I assumed they would not offer a refund. I wish I had known that for the eco-cottages where I left a night earlier – but then they may well have said no refund. I suspect it depends on the person who is in the office at the time.
There was one new trick in coming home on I-95. The express lanes in Palm Beach County are now open and I cruised through that area that normally backs up traffic. The regular lanes were backed up but not the express lane. It made getting through that nightmare much easier.
I stepped outside the jeep in the driveway to 93F heat but it wasn’t as bad as Georgia because there was a nice breeze blowing through the yard. Everything was in good shape at home, even the pool (usually has a lot of debris in it).
Everything is unpacked and stowed for the next trip – which will definitely be when the temperatures moderate a little. The heat at my first stop in Georgia really affected me but I seemed to have adapted a little until I did the brutal 8.8 mile trek. In retrospect, I think I came pretty close to heat stroke. I probably had heat exhaustion. When I took the camel back out of my day pack, there was virtually no water left in a 3 liter bag.
The highlight of the trip was the Garden Cottage at Smithgall Woods. So much so, I would definitely entertain going back there in the winter and firing up the wood burning stove. The hot tub would be fun in winter also. Any takers to join me? I assume the prices will be cheaper in the winter.
I am really, really tired. Yesterday did me in and I haven’t recovered yet. I cleared out of the cabin that I truly didn’t want to leave and headed south to Waycross, Georgia. It took me approximately 6 hours of driving which wasn’t too bad until I got out of the jeep and realized how stiff I was from all the hiking yesterday.
Right now, it’s 50/50 as to whether I spend one night here at Laura S. Walker State Park and cut my stay short one day and head home.
The cottage is nice but no where near as nice as Smithgall Woods, but then, I’m paying a lot less for this cottage.
The temperature when I arrived was 95F. If I do hike tomorrow, it’ll be early morning. Otherwise, it’ll just be too hot.
I’m in cottage number one. Strangely, the cottages are really far away from the rest of the park (by road) but only across a lake.
Home sweet home for one or two days, depending.Living room and kitchen
The promised wifi is only at the visitors center and the campground. There is no wifi at the cabins which is strange. Because I only have two bars on my phone, that means this will be short and sweet so the upload times won’t be so long from my computer to the blog.
One of two bedrooms in the cottageThe back porch – too hot to sit out on.Bridge to the other side of the parkView of the lake from the bridge
I will take two more Advil tonight and turn in early again. The itching is back and I keep waking up to medicate it and myself.
I did go into town to a Kroger to purchase enough for two nights. I’m tired of eating at restaurants and all the fried food. I need veggies!
Stay tuned to see if I stay two nights here or head home!
OK, I overdid it today. A few years ago I had determined my maximum distance in the mountains was around six miles. Today I did 8.8 miles in heat. I will admit most of the trail was shady but the “feels like” temperature was 93F. Even in the shade, that’s pretty hot. Again, not a dry stitch on me. Fortunately, the cottage comes with a washing and dryer and doesn’t require you to feed either with quarters.
I started the morning with a hike to Dukes Creek Falls. You can drive to within 0.5 miles of the falls but a trail just next to my cabin leads to the falls also but with a 0.9 mile difference. Like most trails to visit falls, you first go up and then you go down. It’s like a roller coaster.
Trail to Dukes Creek from my cottage
The falls are just a little shorter than Anna Ruby, coming in at 150 feet. They have nice observation platforms for photos.
If you look at the upper center of the photo, you can see additional parts of the falls.Lower part of the fallsDukes Creek Falls
What goes down, must go back up.
Stairs down to falls
The entire trail was in the shade and since it was early morning, once I returned to the cabin and cooled down a while, I decided to try Chunanee Falls, also in the park. I should have cooled a little longer.
Supposedly the Chunanee Falls are 2.8 miles from the visitors center but as you walked the trail, it kept getting closer and then further away according to the markers.
For most of the way, you walk beside Dukes Creek.
Dukes Creek
At approximately 1.7 miles you came to a covered bridge. On the other side of the bridge was a gravel road.
This is Bay’s Bridge – after Elizabeth Smithgall Watts (1941-1994), Professor of Anthropology, Tulane University
I would say approximately 50% of the trail is paved road and the rest is gravel road. Only 0.5 miles up and then down to the falls is actual trail. You walk next to Dukes Creek but what makes the falls is the Alabama Branch which joins Dukes Creek at the falls.
One point on the actual trail to the falls was interesting to me. Some rhododendron formed into some unusual shapes.
Rhododendron branches form a tangled mass!
The falls are only 20 feet high but they are impressive with their width.
Chunanee Falls – the falls are in a 640 acres that originally was the home of Lucy Bryant/Briant, a Cherokee Indian widow. She was granted the land under the provision of a treaty 1817. It was here on Dukes Creek that gold was first discovered in 1828.
The elevation gain was 676 feet, not too bad but I think I did that three times on the hike. According to my “computer” that burned 2, 293 calories. The entire hike took 3 hours and 12 minutes. I stopped at the falls for 25 minutes and had lunch. Not a bad lunch spot!
Those 6.8 miles round trip took it out of me. While I washed clothes at the cottage, I headed to the hot tub after taking two Advil. I will be sore as hell tomorrow but the good news is my hips didn’t bother me other than just typical soreness I would have gotten from the hike. At least I got my money’s worth with water falls this trip.
Just to give you a little perspective, Amicolola Falls is 729 feet and the tallest water fall in Georgia. These two falls were pikers in comparison but they were worth the hike.
You might want to check for my blog tomorrow. I may be dead from exhaustion.
Up until this point, the trip has been interesting but not great. These two days at Garden Cottage and hiking the trails to the water falls has made it an outstanding trip. I really don’t want to leave the cottage. I wonder if Helen has Uber delivery?
Tomorrow I head for Laura S. Walker State Park outside of Waycross, Georgia. Stay tuned!
OK, I should not have left my eco-cottage to travel to Commerce, Georgia and stay at the Hampton Inn. On the other hand, if I had not, I would not have had the opportunity to hike the Laurel Ridge Trail and Anna Ruby Falls trail today.
I’ve stayed at Hampton Inns before and they are generally OK. I thought I was being smart by getting an end room (king bed) on the uppermost floor. I was to soon realize my mistake. The pool was three floors below me. I can take kids screaming and hollering – they’re just having a good time. I figured the pool area would close down around 10 pm.
I didn’t get much sleep the night before at the Eco-Cottage. I got out of bed at 3:30 am and made coffee and stayed up until I packed and left for Commerce. I decided I needed to get some sleep so I turned out the light at the Hampton Inn at 9 pm. I waked at 10:30 pm to adults in the pool area. They started to get louder. At 11:30 pm they were even louder. I called the front desk and asked when the pool area was to close. The host said normally around 10 pm but this was a wedding party at the pool. I asked if he could give me a new room and he eagerly agreed. I’m sure he didn’t want to confront a bunch of drunk wedding guests and tell them to close it down.
He moved me to the opposite end of the hotel and to the second floor. Again, another king bed, so no loss in accommodations. However, someone was constantly going up and down the stairwells and letting the door slam shut each time. The stairwell and door was where the headboard of my bed was. I didn’t get much sleep last night either.
However, everything has turned out more than OK. I got to Helen around 10:30 am. I went to the visitors center and they told me my cabin would be ready around 1 pm.
Visitors center at Smithgall Woods State Park
It was then I decided to hike the 1.6 mile loop called the Laurel Ridge Trail.
Laurel Ridge Trail
It has a 314 foot elevation gain and at the top you get a great view of Yonah Mountain. On a previous trip I climbed Yonah. It’s a 4.5 mile out and back 9 miles) (with a 1,466 foot elevation gain. The U.S. military considers it rugged enough it trains elite soldiers on it. It was nice to see from a distance this time.
The leftmost knob is Mount Yonah. The rightmost knob is Pink Mountain
After the Laurel Trail hike, I went into Helen and bought the obligatory fudge (maple pecan and chocolate pecan) and walked around the town. My last visit was in the dead of winter and I have to say I prefer the winter version. The town was packed. Some of the shops that were closed when I went in winter were now open and I would prefer them closed again. Most were tee shirts, fudge, and tattoo shops. People were hunting shade on a 94F day in Helen. However, I will say 94F in the mountains is preferable to 94F in the Okefenokee.
Helen, Georgia. The town was suffering economically and someone came up with the bright idea of a town makeover of a German alpine village. Let the tee shirts begin!
After the Helen excursion, I headed to Anna Ruby Falls. This was my second visit. The falls are pretty amazing. There are two separate falls: the one from Curtis Creek is 153 feet in height and the one from York Creek is 50 feet high. Both creeks join below the falls to form Smith Creek.
The falls on the left is from Curtis Creek. The falls on the right is from York Creek. The creek below the falls is Smith Creek.
The place was packed. Entrance is $5 but since the falls are on U.S. Forest Service land, the senior national park pass lets you in for free. In the parking lot, a woman decided to back up to let another person out of a parking spot. Unfortunately for me, she didn’t see me and almost hit me. I had to lay on the horn to get her to stop inches from my front bumper.
It’s an 0.4 mile uphill paved trail to the falls and it can get quite steep. I saw a couple of families trying to get to the top by pushing baby carriages. Wonder if they made it.
The trail to Anna Ruby Falls was packed. When I was here in the winter, I was one of about 3 people on the trail.
On my last visit, someone had defaced one of the U.S. Forest Service interpretive signs – about how many millions of years ago the falls had been formed. The defaced sign is still there with the years of formation scratched out. Someone obviously feels very strongly about Bishop Usher.
Someone prefers Bishop Usher’s 4004BC calculation as the date of the earth’s creation.
The highlight came when I pulled up to the Garden Cottage. I’ve never stayed in a place as nice as this. I’ve stayed at the Fairmont at Lake Louisa. I’ve stayed at the Fairmont in San Francisco. I’ve stayed at the Roosevelt in New Orleans. Nothing is as nice as this cottage. If I ever build a cabin, no need to do anything but get the blue prints for this place. It’s perfect. I do not ever want to leave. However, at $375 a night, I could only swing 2 nights.
Garden Cottage Living RoomKitchen – it’s nicer than mine. Also has a dishwasher.BathBedroomCan you guess where I’ll be tonight?
Yesterday, I wasn’t able to include any photographs with the post due to no wifi at the eco-village. I’ve posted the photos and two movies on Day 3, so keep scrolling to see the photos from yesterday.
I was wrong about being the only person in the eco-village. There is a construction worker that was in the other wing. I know because while cooking dinner he set of the smoke detector in his eco-cottage which set off the alarms in the community part of the village. The camp host apparently cannot hear the alarms and the guy had to walk over to the host’s trailer in the rain and get him to come over and reset the alarm system.
At least, when he had to go over to get the host, the severe thunderstorm had abated. As luck would have it, a pretty significant storm passed through. I received the usual emergency texts on my iPhone and it seems Fargo, Georgia was the main area affected. Mother Nature put on quite a light show and then downpour.
Yesterday, when the host let me in my cottage, I asked him what made this an eco-cottage. Was it the construction materials, the source of energy? He didn’t know. Strange.
Even more unusual was my going to bed at 9 pm. I had just finished a book on my iPad and my eyes were tired. I was going to watch TV (they have satellite) when I discovered someone had swiped the remote. No TV. I then fell into bed and actually went to sleep. Better yet was I didn’t take a Benadryl nor did I wake up five times during the night to slather on anti-itch cream. This is the first time since before January of this year that I have been itch free. Pray for me!
I waked at 3:24 am and remembered the host saying the night sky was great at the village. I went outside and at first didn’t see anything much because the “village” is lit up at night and I thought there would be too much light pollution. As I walkedart farther away from the buildings, I was able to see more stars. I was afraid it would be overcast.
The Milky Way
What I like about the iPhone 12 Pro Max is the camera. It can photograph in total darkness. It also has a system that takes a 3 second exposure anytime there is total darkness. When I looked at the photos, you could see more stars and even parts of the Milky Way. Nothing like seeing your home galaxy.
My GPS wanted me to go to I-75 and through Atlanta. Never go through Atlanta unless you absolutely have to. Instead, I used the GPS on my iPad and it routed me along US441 (we know it as state road 7 in South Florida) and other back roads. It added an hour to my drive time but it was worth it. In reality, if I had gone through Atlanta it probably would have been longer with Atlanta traffic. As it was, the back route had very little traffic on it and for once, I was the fastest car on the highway – even though I went the speed limit.
Somewhere along the way I did the drive-thru at Hardee’s. I think the last time I ate at a Hardee’s was when I was teaching at Itawamba Junior College in Fulton, Mississippi. Actually, the Hardee’s wasn’t in Fulton but in nearby Hamilton, Alabama. I think I achieved my yearly salt intake with their ham and biscuit.
Tomorrow, I head out to Helen, Georgia and Smithgall Woods State Park which is nearby. I really hope this place meets my expectations.
I made it to Commerce, GA and have now added the photos I could not yesterday.
It was a pretty uneventful trip from Clermont to Fargo, Georgia. However, once I reached the outskirts of Fargo (also called the side of the road) my GPS told me I still had 17 miles to go to reach Swannee River State Park. For some reason those 17 miles seemed like forever. It reminded me the third time I tried marijuana brownies. The first time did nothing. The second time I was mildly relaxed. The third time I was driving from Jackson to Brandon, Mississippi and it felt like it took 3 years.
Pushing through the time warp, I made it to the park. I actually think this is the second time in the park. My grad school buddy, Charlie Cooper and I, decided to canoe the Okefenokee. We planned everything down to the last detail including getting an entire country cured ham to take with us. The trip was exciting for a lot of reasons, not the least of which a cottonmouth almost dropping in the canoe with us, an alligator almost leaping into the canoe (it missed the bow by a few inches) and the largest raccoon in the world trying to eat our ham one night. Add in having to get waist deep in the Okefenokee to pull the canoe over peat bog blowups and having to listen to bull gators and their mating calls all night long and you get the idea of the fun of the trip.
We camped on wooden platforms spaced throughout our canoe trip. We had to bring a portable toilet with toilet bags with us. They were the little blue bags that attached to the collapsible seat and not like the modern ones of today that solidify any urine in the bag and neutralize the smell of any feces. It also sat out on the edge of the platform for all to see. It’s a good thing Charlie and I were not modest because there was no curtain. We also had to pack our waste out with us in the canoe. You can image what day three smelled like in the canoe. It had prominence on the stern of the canoe unless the wind direction changed and then it was moved to the bow.
When we got to the park, we walked the half mile to the dump to dispose of our waste. On the way back to our canoe, the park ranger accosted two guys who had just pulled up in their canoe and demanded to see their bags of s—t. They didn’t have them and they were written a citation that incurred a stiff fine. At least we could show him ours in the dumpster but he was too busy with the other two.
When I went to register at the park office, I was told that I didn’t have to drive the 17 miles to the park, I could have just pulled into the eco-village. Dumb me, I didn’t know it was in a different location than the park. While I was at the park, I asked if there any trails to hike. She said the only trail that was open was the Trembling Earth Nature Trail which was mostly board walk. All the other trails were flooded and impassable due to heavy rains in the area last week. I decided to give the 0.75 mile nature trail out.
View of the visitors center from the end of the nature trail.
The board walk was old and in need of some serious repair but it was a great walk through the shade with open views of the Okefenokee along the way. One branch of the trail ended in a dead end. The other branch looped back to the visitors center.
BoardwalkA Walk Along the Boardwalk
One part of the board walk had tons of pine cone scales and stripped pine cones. The squirrels had literally covered the board walk with stripped cones.
Boardwalk where squirrels had been busy!Pine cone stripped by a squirrel for the pine seeds
I then retraced the 17 miles and found Cabin 6, my assigned Eco-Cottage. The pin code given to me to open the lock box didn’t seem to work so I headed to the park host and he tried and failed. He then called the park 17 miles away and they said no such pin number existed. They then gave him the correct pin number and I was in.
Eco-village near Fargo
I suspect that I am the only person in the entire eco-village. The cottage is quite nice. Strangely, it has both a regular shower and a handicapped shower, a regular toilet and a handicapped toilet. I don’t know why they didn’t just put handicapped toilets instead of both.
Cabin road 6 on the rightBed and living room. Kitchen off to the right. Bathroom(s) of Cabin 6
I will be eating dehydrated tonight for dinner and tomorrow for breakfast. That’s if I am actually hungry. In Lake City, I stopped for lunch at a Krystal. I haven’t eaten any of those hamburgers in years. The last time I did I had diarrhea the next day. Don’t say I don’t live dangerously after yesterday. I don’t like the odds. Plus dehydrated food on top of that!
There are no trails at the eco-village. There are no people at the eco-village. There isn’t anything in Fargo to see or do. I decided to head to Commerce, Georgia tomorrow to get closer to Helen. I’m doing a Hampton Inn there for one night. I’ll end up paying for an extra night on the trip and losing my fee for the second night here but I was planning on hiking tomorrow. Instead, I’ll be traveling.
As it happened, around 7pm, there was a severe thunderstorm warning.
At the very end, you can hear some rolling thunder!
Wow! I was not prepared for the heat! I grew up in Mississippi during some of the hottest summers ever and I don’t think the heat hit me as hard as it did today. True, I was a lot younger then and we didn’t have air conditioning and I was more used to the heat, and true, I spend a lot of time at home in properly chilled air, but I didn’t think it would hit me this hard. Luckily, with age, comes a bit of wisdom. When I hit the 1.4 mile mark on a 3.5 mile hike, I realized I needed to cut it short. It was either that or heat stroke. I packed 3 liters of water with me and I put a severe dent in the reservoir before the hike was through. I also didn’t have a dry stitch on me. All this with a perfectly level trail.
The morning started off rough. I started with a case of diarrhea and when I got to the park (6.6 miles from the hotel) I had another run (again, no pun intended.). Fortunately, I found a public restroom close to the trail head. It was close. I suspect the diarrhea was due to the Benadryl I’ve been taking for the itching that has plagued me since at least January of this year. I decided to forgo the Benadryl last night and I suspect my gut was telling me it didn’t like the change. Unfortunately, I should have taken the Benadryl because I kept waking up and having to slather on a coat of Sarna for the itching all night.
Lake Louisa State Park is interesting. There are six permanent lakes and several seasonal lakes in the park with Lake Louisa as the largest. The park not only has RV camping, primitive camping, but also campsites for people with horses, cabins, eco-camps, and glamping sites. I passed some of the eco-camps. The tents were solid white but they were in an open field in direct sun, so unless they were air-conditioned, I couldn’t think of a more miserable place to camp.
The ranger suggested I try the Nature Trail which started near the beach of Lake Louisa – the only place you are allowed to swim. The entrance to the beach is by a walkway through a cypress grove.
Entrance to the beach at Lake Louisa
There was some kind of contest going on. There were cyclists, runners, and swimmers. I asked someone if it was a marathon of some type but no, but there was some national group training. There must have been three separate things going on.
Swimmers heading out. I can only assume they were going to swim the length of the lake.
As I made my way back to the trail head and began to gear up, I almost got run over several times by several runners who apparently took my jeep and the point to turn the curve. If I had taken a step backwards, I would have been wiped out.
The trail head for the Nature Trail was unusual. It had the requisite board with all kinds of postings. It only lacked one thing – a map. Luckily, I had picked one up from the ranger station.
Info on alligators, birds – everything but a map of the trail.
Trails markers at Lake Louisa are numbered 1-55. The Nature Trail markers are 21, 23-29, 31-35. It’s more confusing. If I were to hike Dude’s Loop, I would have to find markers 5-7. The problem is there is no trail head to Dude’s Loop. To get there I would have to park at marker 28 and hike to markers 12-14, 4, and then 5-7. So even though Dude’s Loop is only 0.5 miles, you have to hike 2 miles to get there. Anyway, I started at trail marker 21 for the Nature Trail.
It started off nice and shady.
Beginning of Nature Trail
Once you are along the trail aways, you come to the first marker. I was surprised how well the markers were maintained even though they look as though they had been put there in the last century.
This is marker 23 and it clearly shows you the direction to marker 22 and marker 24
You know me, I can get lost in a parking lot. I was leery of the system but as I hiked the trail, it became apparent even I could follow the trail and markers.
The hardest part of the trail was in sand and in the sun.
It was shortly after the above photo that I decided discretion was the better part of valor. The Nature Trail is a 3.5 mile, one way trail. As you might expect, I stopped every few feet to take photos of plants along the way and that kneeling down, getting back up, the sun, the sand all took a toll. It was only 84F but it felt like the time I was doing my masters thesis at Tishomingo State Park when the temperature was 106F and the humidity was 100% and it was not raining. I was soaking wet from perspiration and was seriously drinking water.
I reached marker 25 and opted to cut the trip short and head back to the jeep via the park road. In total I did 1.8 miles with an elevation gain of 23 feet. Who knew they had mountains in Lake County?
There wasn’t much wildlife along the trail but there were plenty of wildflowers to keep me busy kneeling. There were a couple of spots that looked like there were gopher tortoise villages.
Gopher tortoise burrow
There were plenty of mushrooms out even though it was very dry. I did find one of my favorite pore fungi, the earthstar.
The outer layer of the earthstar peels back to form the “star” and the center is a sac-like structure (this one has collapsed) that contains millions of spores. Rain drops hit the very flexible sac and spores pour out of the one opening. When the spores come out, it looks like a cloud of smoke.
OK, it’s time for a story to show you how mean I am. When my cousin Jimmie and I were kids, we would often catch a bus at my grandmother Ruby’s house. It was the local pickup for several kids. One day, a giant puffball (click to see photo) appeared in my grandmother’s yard. It must have been a foot in diameter (at least to a kid like me). Giant puffballs are like earthstars except the outer layer doesn’t peel back to form a star. I already had experience with these and Jimmie and I convinced a kid we didn’t particularly like to take a running start and kick it. He disappeared in a cloud of spores. By the way, giant puffballs of that type are edible.
I rode around the park for a while and I have to admit, it’s a beautiful park. However, don’t go there expecting a lodge or restaurant. I did stop at Dixie Lake, one of six permanent lakes in the park and took a couple of photos.
Dixie LakeDixie Lake
My friend Holley suggested I eat at Branch and Root restaurant. I looked it up on my GPS and found it was 2 minutes away from my hotel by auto. I made reservations for 5:30 and showed up at 5:10. The hostess seated me immediately. And then I waited. And waited. And waited. One of the reviews of the place said the food was good (4-4.5 stars) but the wait staff was excellent. The restaurant wasn’t really busy but there was only one waiter. He looked at me but never came over to the table even when he was at the table next to mine. Later, a second waiter showed up for work and he immediately went to wait on a table that was seated ten minutes after mine. I finally left after 15 minutes without even getting a water glass filled. I ended up at Taco Bell.
Tomorrow I head for Stephen C. Foster State Park in Fargo, Georgia. It should be a 3 to 3 1/2 hour drive.
It’s been a long, long time since I traveled US27. I left the house at 10:30 am and headed west on I595 until it veered off to 27. I used to take students on a field trip to Archbold Biological Station just south of Lake Placid and the easiest way was US27. Back in the day, the road was two lane and you would get your ass run over by sugar cane trucks coming and going. They were reckless and didn’t hesitate to either cut you off or pass into your lane while passing slower vehicles in their lane. The last few years I took students to Archbold, it was 4 lane all the way. However, the sugar cane trucks are still a hazard.
Most of the way to Belle Glade was under construction and you were either traveling 45 mph or 65 mph or variations thereof. Belle Glade had a brief claim to fame during the AIDS epidemic when it was thought people in Belle Glade were getting infected with AIDS from mosquitoes. The line of reasoning was sugar cane is seasonal work and the seasonal workers were housed where there were no screens on the windows and no air conditioning. That led to some panic through the state of Florida but was soon proved to be untrue.
Belle Glade used to be a very small town at an intersection where FL80 connected with US27. It still is pretty much a small town at that intersection but has modernized a tiny bit.
About halfway between Belle Glade and Clewiston is John Stretch Park, a county park that borders the levee of Lake Okeechobee. It’s a neat little park and me and my students would often stop their either on the way to Archbold or on the way back to either have lunch or simply a bathroom break. As you might guess, it’s changed significantly over the years with lots more picnic tables and shelters. Truckers seem to like it as much as I do.
John Stretch Park
It’s a great place to stop and stretch your legs (no pun intended). Careful! The lake has alligators so I don’t suggest swimming.
Up next was Clewiston. I had recently read that the Clewiston Inn was back in business. It closed for a few years but was recently reopened as an Americas Best Value Inn.
Clewiston Inn
This is one of those old, classic, Florida hotels from the 30’s. It was originally built by the U.S. Sugar Corporation for visiting dignitaries or company executives in 1938. It still has that 30’s charm. One time I asked to see one of the rooms and they were happy to oblige. The rooms were small but well laid out and exceptionally clean.
The old Clewison Inn used to be a favorite place to stop on the way back from Archbold for their Sunday luncheon. They had some of the best fried chicken I’ve ever eaten. It was a really classy Sunday dinner (Southern term – supper is at night). It had white table cloths, waitresses in uniform, and fine china. You could see the place fill up just after noon on Sunday from the turnout from the local churches.
One of the highlights of the inn is the Everglades Bar. Inside the very small bar is a mural by J. Clinton Shepherd that covers all four walls with scenes of Everglades flora and fauna. It’s worth a drink at the bar just for the mural. Look for the Florida panther.
The rest of US27 is pretty much one small town after another with plenty of stoplights along the way. I could have taken the Florida Turnpike (I refuse to call it the Ronald Reagan Turnpike) and make the trip in about 3 hours but even though the scenery is about the same as the turnpike, at least the small towns gave you some visual interest. It took me 4 hours to make it to Clermont.
The Home2 Inn Suites by Hilton is a nice place. I did the automatic check in and found my room on the top (4th) floor. I hate when someone is over me and they tromp the floor like elephants all night so I usually opt for the uppermost floor in hotels when possible.
I asked at the front desk about how to find “old” Clermont and the young lady didn’t quite understand what I was asking until I said “downtown.” As it turns out, it was a straight shot west down FL50. She suggested I take 5th St which lead to Lake Minneola.
Pier on Lake Minneola
I found a parking space and got out to stretch my legs and walk the pier.
Lakeside park at Lake Minneola
It’s a pretty big lake.
Looking north on Lake Minneola
From Osceola Street where I parked, it was a short two blocks to “downtown.”
View along Eighth Street heading towards “downtown”
The main drag is along Montrose Street.
Montrose Street
For a Wednesday afternoon at 4 pm I expected to see a lot more traffic.
The length of Montrose Street
Sadly, most of the businesses were closed for the day and there were several stores that were shuttered and out of business. The downtown looks like it is trying to attract people but somehow missing that goal. Most of the activity in Clermont is on the outskirts (if traffic is any indication).
One town in Florida has figured out the secret to bringing people downtown and that is Lakeland, Florida. Most of Lakeland is centered around one central lake downtown and the town square is bustling. Lakeland has figured out something that Clermont has not.
I stopped for dinner at The Southerner. What attracted me was their buttermilk fried chicken. One of the best buttermilk fried chicken meals I’ve had is in Key West at Sarabeth’s. The Southerner’s fried chicken is not very good. It had a coating that was more like a coat of armor and if there was buttermilk in the coating, I couldn’t find it. I couldn’t even tell which part of the chicken I was eating except for the drumstick. The other pieces were cut so irregular it was anyone’s guess as to the piece.
The Southerner
Tomorrow, I intend to head to Lake Louisa State Park and do some hiking. I’ve downloaded the trail map and it is one of the most confusing maps I’ve ever seen. I usually get lost or turned around on clearly marked trails so you may never hear from me after tonight.
I’m on the road again – this time to Georgia. I’ve been a good little boy and have pretty much stayed home since my last trip in May other than trips to the doctors’ offices for check ups and trips to the grocery store (all with mask). I want to get back out into the woods and on some hiking trails. The problem is the heat of summer which seems, for some reason (can you say global warming) is hotter than normal for most places. As a consequence, I will not be camping in a tent.
I can take cold weather camping, spring camping, and fall camping, but as I get older, I don’t seem to take the heat as well. It’s probably partly an age thing and probably partly a thing of enjoying air conditioning too much. As a consequence, I’ll be camping at a Hilton property the first two nights and then cabins in state parks for the remainder of the trip.
The reason for the Hilton for the first two nights is the Florida state park I want to visit outside of Clermont (Lake Louisa State Park) has vacancies for cabins but no two nights in a row. The problem is they require a two night minimum, consequently, the Home2 Suites by Hilton in Clermont. I look forward to exploring Cleremont a little on the first day and hitting hiking trails at Lake Louisa on the second day. I intend to travel up US27. It’s been years since I’ve been on that highway. It’ll take me an hour longer but I get to pass some neat small towns on the way.
The the third and fourth nights are in Stephen Foster State Park in Fargo, Georgia. Who knew there was a Fargo other than in North Dakota? It’s an eco-cabin (whatever that means) and is a one bedroom, one bath, with full kitchen and !wifi! I was planning on eating in town at the only restaurant, the Swannee River Cafe, but Google says it is now permanently closed. The good news is Fargo does have a grocery store. By the way, Swannee is the way they spell the cafe name. I’m used to the Suwannee spelling as in the river.
The fifth and sixth nights are my ultimate goal at Smithgall Woods State Park in northern Georgia. The mailing address for the park is Helen. I spent some time at Unicoi State Park, also near Helen and never realized there was another state park near there. Again, my main purpose is hiking trails and seeing a few water falls. This park is near several water falls that I’ve hiked to before plus others that will be new. It’s also near Tallulah Gorge which I’ve hiked.
What’s special about Smithgall Woods is the cabin. It’s setting me back $375 a night but it looks to be worth it.
Garden Cottage at Smithgall Woods State Park
What I first thought to be a cantilevered cabin over a stream now seems to be a cantilevered cabin over a park road. I’ll take it for the front porch alone.
My last two nights will be at Laura S. Walker State Park near Waycross, Georgia. Thankfully, Waycross is blessed with restaurants. I remember one trip to the Okefenokee Swamp where we stayed at the local Holiday Inn and eating fried chicken every day for lunch. My cholesterol shot up about 80 points that trip.
Laura Walker’s “cabin” is more like a 60’s ranch style house in design but it comes with all the amenities.
It seems like parks are now getting on the wifi bandwagon since every place I’m staying now has wifi. It used to be the rare exception to find a signal anywhere near the park and sometimes not even phone service.
I spent yesterday packing. It’s amazing what nine days on the road requires me to pack.
I admit, I over pack. The blue container contains cooking equipment and supplies like olive oil, coffee, coffee filters, pots and pans. Even though cabins supposedly are supplied with cooking equipment, I find what is often advertised is not what is delivered. The green pack contains dehydrated meals (for Fargo), the short round canister has cleaning supplies, the tall canister has protein bars, carbohydrate bars, etc. for lunch on the trail. At least I can get by with one suitcase which probably has too many clothes stuffed in it.
If I were tent camping, it would add one more large container and one more very large backpack with tent, a foam pad, and more miscellaneous stuff I always think I need but don’t really.
Another afternoon sitting on the patio, listening to music and skinny dippin’. Another nostalgic tune from my iPhone – “Homeward Bound” by Simon and Garfunkel.
I’m sitting in the railway station. Got a ticket for my destination. On a tour of one-night stands my suitcase and guitar in hand. And every stop is neatly planned for a poet and a one-man band.
Homeward bound, I wish I was homeward bound, Home where my thought’s escaping, Home where my music’s playing, Home where my love lies waiting silently for me.
Every day’s an endless stream Of cigarettes and magazines. And each town looks the same to me, the movies and the factories And every stranger’s face I see reminds me that I long to be,
Homeward bound, I wish I was homeward bound, Home where my thought’s escaping, Home where my music’s playing, Home where my love lies waiting silently for me.
Tonight I’ll sing my songs again, I’ll play the game and pretend. But all my words come back to me in shades of mediocrity Like emptiness in harmony I need someone to comfort me.
Homeward bound, I wish I was homeward bound, Home where my thought’s escaping, Home where my music’s playing, Home where my love lies waiting silently for me. Silently for me.
I’m not the homesick type. That was my brother Archie. Too often, I was the get-away-from-home type but there was one instance when I did get a little homesick for something and it was when I was in radio school on Governors Island, New York.
Governors Island, back in 1969-1970, was a really neat place. You could escape the craziness of New York City yet hop on the Coast Guard ferry to the southern tip of Manhattan, catch a subway and be anywhere you wanted in the city. I typically hung around The Cloisters at the northern end of Manhattan or at the USO near Times Square. If you showed up at the USO, you could get either free or heavily discounted tickets to Broadway shows.
The Cloisters
One of the things that attracted me to Governors Island was the architecture of the buildings and also the homes of the military families living on the island. There was something about some of the military housing that struck a note with me, almost like deja vu. The architecture of those homes was very familiar to me – perhaps from my time on military bases with Mom and Dad prior to his being sent to Korea. It was if the housing was frozen in time from WWII days. I mean, the houses even had coal chutes for heating.
Governors Island from the observation deck of One World Trade Center
Add that to walking those residential streets on the island in the fall with changing leaves, and later the snow covering the island, it brought some emotion up from deep within. It was almost like I belonged there among those houses. The park separating the rows of houses was as familiar to me as some of my haunts in Mississippi, or Fort Rucker, or Fort Bending, or Fort Bragg. I was never sure which. I have no idea why because New York was never a part of my life but it felt like home on that base.
I spent a lot of time in the library on base, first reading, then after I found the music carrels, I spent huge amounts of time listening to music on earphones. You’d check out a record, put it on a turntable at the carrel, and lose yourself in the music. “Homeward Bound” was one of those songs that spoke to me during those snowy evenings in the library. By the time the library closed, it was night and I would walk through the snow back to the barracks, often with Simon and Garfunkel lyrics in my mind.
Towards the end of my schooling at Governors Island, I gravitated to Johnny Cash. I never was much of a fan but somehow he began to grow on me. I had seen Cash in concert at Ole Miss (out of boredom) and thoroughly enjoyed his concert, much to my surprise. I still have no idea why I put on “Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison” on the turntable but it got me nostalgic for trains.
I was so nostalgic for trains that when I graduated radio school and was headed for two weeks of liberty before my next duty station, I took the train from Penn Station south through New Jersey, Maryland, D.C., Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and finally into Atlanta. It reminded me of the trains we took to Havre de Grace, Maryland to see Dad when Archie and I were kids. If I’m not mistaken, you could pick the train up at Morton, Mississippi back in the 50’s and head north. If my memory is in error, I guess it was Meridian from where we departed northward.
That was back in the day of steam locomotives that burned coal. The smell of burning coal is so distinct, there is nothing like it. I loved it. Seeing the black smoke coming out of the stack of the engine was a thrill. I remember when the engine pulled to a stop at a station, it would release the steam in a great white cloud. Archie and I would put a penny on the rails of the station and go look for it after the train pulled out, hoping to find a flattened penny.
Sadly, in 1970, the end of the line was Atlanta. The line no longer ran through Meridian and Jackson so I hopped a flight to Jackson to begin my two weeks leave.
I left Mississippi when I was 21. Other than the few years Dad was stationed at military bases in the U.S., most of my early life was spent in the state. Now, I’m looking at 47 years in the state of Florida but I’ve never developed the sense of home in Florida that I had in Mississippi. I guess those early years really are the formative ones.
