Here We Move Again - Cooper's Furnace

A couple of months have expired since the last post.  Christmas and New Year were spent driving the 1.5 hour trip to the kids house many, many times.  I'm afraid to even calculate all the diesel we burned.  One of the trips was to stay for several days and baby/dog/house sit.  We had a blast doing that.

But now it is near the end of February and we are moving to our volunteer position at Cooper's Furnace Day Use Area.  Generally speaking, we are moving from Carollton, GA to Cartersville, GA, right at about an hour's drive.  The back roads that we have been using to get to the kids' house are not going to work for moving the rig.  They are just too small and draped over with low hanging tree branches.  We'll have to take the dreaded I-20/I-285/I-75 route.  These roads are always choked with traffic even on a good day and lately there have not been many good days because of heavy construction.

The job at Cooper's Furnace Day Use Area is set to be our easiest gig yet.  We'll have a place to stay from the end of February until December with a 4-day on 4-day off schedule.  If we are on during a weekday we only have to be there to open the gate in the morning and close it again at night.  If we are on during a weekend then there are just a few hours in the gatehouse to go along with the gate opening/closing routine.  No maintenance to do, no bathrooms to clean, no mowing to be done (by us).  We just have to be "present" for security and to answer visitor questions about the Etowah River.  Sweet!

Dropping anchor at the entrance to Cooper's Furnace Day Use Area

You can't see it in the picture above but our RV pad is a double site.  There is room for a second rig that will be our co-hosts for the season.  Only right now the people that were supposed to come have dropped out of the program and the volunteer coordinator is scrambling to find somebody to fill in.  Since the park does not open for another 10 days we have the place to ourselves.  We are one mile inside the locked gate and have solitude like never before.

This is a really great set-up.  We are on a large pad with picnic tables, lamp poles and paved patio.  All this is situated alongside the Etowah River but the brush is so thick we can't see it, even with it being winter and all the leaves dropped off.  We can hear it, just can't see it. Cell phone signals are non-existent down in this river valley and our satellite dish is just barely getting enough of a beam to tune in a few channels.  When the leaves start coming in that will be all she wrote for TV.  However I did notice a pole across the road that I am pretty sure the previous hosts were using for their satellite dish.  We'll have to check into getting the equipment we need to go that route.

But for now we're enjoying the moment.  While it is the most solitude we have ever had we are by no means in a remote area.  In just five minutes we can be in the town of Cartersville where they have all the essentials such as Walmart, Publix, Kroger (with attractive diesel prices) and a Sonic Drive-In.  Everything a fulltimer could need.  Plus, we are now only thirty minutes from the grand baby.  I hope they don't get tired of seeing us.