Putting Down Roots for the Winter

Every October for 10 years running we have hosted a fall cookout/camp out.  There is a state park less than two hours from where our house used to be.  We would take a couple of days off on either side of the third weekend of October, reserve a campsite and bar-b-que shelter and have anywhere from 30 to 50 people come and hang out all weekend or just the cook-out day.

This year was no different except that instead of packing the camper for the last trip of the season, we were preparing our camper that is now our home, to be picked up and moved for a four day get-a-way.  I don't know if other full timers think about it this way but I think about the new level of risk.  I am about to take the roof over my head and all my possessions and hurdle them down the highway through a city that is ranked in the top ten for worst traffic in the country.  It has always been stressful driving through Atlanta, even under the best of circumstances, but this was a whole new deal.

With all the craziness of prepping the house for sale (garage sales, Craig's listing, and Goodwill trips), listing and showing the house, the ordeal of closing the sale, Cyndee's surgery, and building the new rig, I just about did not get the reservations for the campsite or shelter.  When I finally did get to it, at the behest of some of the faithful attendees, our normal weekend was not available.  Luckily I was able to get an October weekend but it was at the first of the month instead of the end.

Hard Labor Creek is a pretty State Park just outside Rutledge, Georgia, North of I-20, and East of Atlanta.  Like most campgrounds in Georgia, it is heavily wooded and follows the natural contours of the hilly terrain it is built on.  There are a few sites that are large enough to hold our rig, some are pull-through, some are back-in.  The park has been upgraded and just about all the sites now have 50 amp electricity but none have sewer connections.  With our new 100 gallon waste tanks, four days is going to be a piece of cake.  If we are careful with our water use, we can go almost two weeks with the Majestic.

So, two hours of breaking down, driving and setting up and we go from our home in the city to our cabin in the woods.

 

Not only did we have a very nice spot to park, but it also came with a very relaxing view.  It was hard to tell that there was anyone near us.  And to top it all off, we were within a short walk of the shelter where the bar-b-que was going to be.

 

Saturday came and as the usual routine, the cooking fire was lit at noon so that it could be ready for the grilled food to be put on by 4pm.  It takes several hours to get 500lbs of firewood and 50 lbs of charcoal just right.  But with ten years of practice we have it down pretty good.

 

As the years have passed our menu has evolved a little.  We have graduated from just dogs and burgers to pretty awesome ensembles of beef cuts, side dishes and desserts.  But the biggest change has been an addition of a low country boil.  A 60 quart boiling cauldron of potatoes, corn, sausage, and shrimp with time-honored seasoning courtesy of Old Bay and Zatarain adds to the fragrant aroma filling the open-air shelter.

 

Timing is nearly perfect, the low country boil and grilled food are ready at the same time and everyone fills their plates with the abundant variety of food and sits for a meal under brilliant sunshine and crisp fall air.

This year Cyndee and I felt especially blessed as family from South Carolina came over for the day.  Our Burdett cousins drove over from the Columbia area and joined us for the festivities.  We know how fortunate we are to have family that enjoys being together and we treasure the time we get to spend together.

Continuing our tradition, what cook out would be complete without roasting of marshmallows and making of s'mores?  After 7 hours of burning a huge pile of wood and charcoal, it is just right for roasting a perfect marshmallow and no one in this group lets that opportunity get past them.

 With that marshmallow roast it signals the end to another successful cookout.  The weather could not have cooperated more and the company and conversation were priceless.

But this was only Saturday night, the end of the cook out but not the weekend.  Cyndee and I had two more days to enjoy and we did.  Sunday was a day for exploring, we drove about twenty miles to another state park called Rock Eagle.  It is an ancient sight where very early people had piled rocks, some several hundred pounds in weight, into the figure of an eagle in flight.  It was a large structure flat on the ground and not readily identifiable from ground level. 

One has to get some elevation to be able to look down and see the shape all in one gaze.  But since this effigy had been built on the highest point in the entire county, nobody is sure how these ancient people viewed or used this monument.  Not to worry though, the CCC took care of that for modern day man.

Excavations by archaeologists have revealed very little, it remains a curiosity and is being preserved for future study.

We ate lunch in Madison, GA in the middle of the afternoon and then returned to Hard Labor Creek where we took in a couple of bicycle rides and refreshments while kicked back in our camp chairs under the awning.

Monday came all too soon and it was time to hitch up and return to city living.  Everything worked well.  I did have to fiddle with the leveling system a little but there was no hint of the problem I had with the brakes back in August.  We used a dump station for the first time and it took a little longer to empty the tanks in the Majestic than it did in the Kountry Star.  Because of the way I have to store the dump hose, I have to take the connectors off the hose to store it and reassemble them to use the hose.  Not as convenient as just taking the hose out and hooking up, but not a show-stopper.

The tow back to our city lot was pleasant and within minutes of parking it was as if we had never left.  Back to the corporate grind.