It was the kind of road that I love and Fred hates to drive - lined with big old trees - winding - occasional clearings where you can see the hills that surround the valley - but travel speed is slow - the road is narrow and has no shoulders - but it's pretty! We wound in and out amongst the hills and trees until we finally hit a semi-big highway that had traffic lights, I swear, at every other intersection and then onto the BIG (Interstate) highway heading for Chattanooga, TN.
Then came the fun!
The gal who suggested what road to take neglected to tell us to change from highway 27 to highway 24 before we got onto the major south-bound road - so we managed to go right through the centre of old Chattanooga and we finally ended up in a War-type Museum in a place called Ft. Ooglethorpe, Ga.
No room to park there so we pulled into a Church parking lot down the road to figure out exactly where we were and how we were going to get out of there and get going on the right road again.
Aha! Highway 2 meets up with the BIG Hwy I-75 so we could easily get back to Chattanooga, TN and get onto the right road to get through Georgia and into Alabama.
So, back we went - everything went well until we encountered BOTH Road Work and an accident.
I bet it took us twice as long to get through there as it would have going back through the town - but by this time we really had no choice - we kept going and finally got into and out of Chattanooga, TN (again) and into and out of Georgia (again), this time on the right road - quite a trip!!
Georgia has never been a positive experience for us. It was that great road through the centre of Georgia where we encountered those funny little "grease monkeys" when the van broke down on the way back from Florida - some 30 odd years ago.
So, we've finally made it through Georgia (all of 18 miles two times) and into Alabama.
The next day, Saturday, was the day of learning how to set up the GPS so it would work for us and we might be able to avoid all the wrong roads and colourful language.
We set in the supposed route and were so proud of ourselves!! Now, we THOUGHT it was set for this innocuous female voice to come on and tell us where we were, when to make a turn and when to take a different route. Yeh, right!!
The computer is secured on the shelf above the driver so we can have it running when we're driving. The radio is set on an off frequency that matches the frequency on the GPS thing. All set!!
Well, the system worked really good but no voice!! So there I was with the usual collection of maps, books, directions (all having different sized scales) having to totally disregard the GPS cuz the voice thing wasn't working.
Needless to say, we made it to the park but with the usual blame thing about the GPS system not working and taking the wrong turns.
Rainbow Plantation Escapees Park
This park - it's called the Rainbow Plantation Escapees Park - is much larger than the last one in Tennessee and that creates a whole different atmosphere.It's big, flat and there is a enough space between the sites for at least three RV's. On one hand, it is less crowded but on the other hand, more isolated and less likely to meet your neighbours.
This park has house and leased lots - that tends to change the character of the place but there are some standard things that happen at all Escapees Rainbow Parks - like the 'social hour' at 4 every afternoon, 'ice cream social' on Sundays and things like that - what differs is how well these activities are attended. It seems the bigger and more diverse a park, the lower the attendance at the 'social' activities.
It's a beautiful setting with 'living oak' trees lining the roads and dispersed between sites.
We're about 10 miles from the beaches at Gulf Shores, AL to the south and about the same distance east from the west side of Florida - Pensacola.
We expect to be here for almost a month and have so much exploring to do.
We are on-line the whole time we're here - that makes me happy.
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