Nice campground off I-16 surrounded by beautiful farm country.
Site 12; W/E/S/CATV; Good wifi mornings, poor wifi evenings; Good Verizon coverage; LP available; laundry; clean bathhouse
Campground.
Nice pull-thru site among pines and pine needles. Friendly, helpful young man brought warm cookies to our site after arrival. There is a small man-made pond off-center to the park. It is a ½ walk around. The water was crystal clear.
The water at the park was nearly transparent.
Nearby.
On our (by choice) non-interstate ride here, we passed many beautiful farms. So nice that on our first day I wanted to just drive back a few miles and wander. I was also interested in photographing some of the old farm buildings that might be left behind - in the process of being engulfed in woods - or those still being used.
BTW - I found a website that is a fantastic browse - https://www.vanishingsouthgeorgia.com
The author Brian Brown is a photographer who is cataloging all the old buildings that give old Georgia it's character. I found the site by looking up one of the towns I was planning on visiting - Manassas. I was actually able to accidentally come face to face with some of the buildings that he catalogued, including the train station in Nevils.
Our trip to the park went from Brunswick Georgia over US 25/341 to Jesup. After that, the entire ride was gorgeous! We drove US 84 to Ludowici, and banged a left onto US 25/301 to Glennville, a cute little Mayberry-like town that was repeated over and over from here. From Glennville we took more rural roads going SR 22/57 to SR 169 to SR 129, to Kennedy bridge Road, Dutch Ford Road, and finally Excelsior Church Road.
On Excelsior Church Road at Easter
Each of these last few roads were as nice as any place. I felt at home here. As we drove around on Sunday, I kept getting a weird but wonderful feeling – I know I had never been there, and it looked nothing like I imagined Georgia – I kept feeling almost elated. Then it hit me.
On this blue-sky day, cruising slowly and alone, popping in and out of tall pine groves to one pasture after another, I thought of being a kid being driven through the farms of Sutton Massachusetts and possibly other rural places. It was the sense of a quieter, more peaceful, slower, and less crowded time of my childhood. That was what was coming back to me. Often sights and smells recall the past, but I never experienced anything this surreal. I loved it!
As seen from the driver's seat.
Typical farm in the area.
Some of the named dots on the map were simply intersections, never mind the one light town or the one gas station towns, some of these were lucky to have 4 houses.
My destination was Manassas, simply because it was the name of a band created by Stephen Stills. I had visions of maybe he was born there. I later researched the band and found out he named it after Manassas Virginia, the sight of the Civil War Bull Run battles. Stills was born in Texas. Oh well.
Manassas was typical for the area in that it's main street SR292, paralleled the railroad. A relic of a train station was there. Other small towns we went through were Bellville and Collins.
Manassas Train station.
Some photos from the drive:
This house was very close to the campground and is one I saw on the website I mentioned above.
The house above was just yards from this corner. This is a common road surface.
People were living here so Sandy took the shot quickly.
Sandy captured this farmer spraying,
We saw field after field - even yards in front of houses - with orchards of trees. My favorite photo of this post.
Gordonia-Alatamaha State Park.
Monday, we had nothing better to do so we took another ride ending up at Gordonia-Alatamaha State Park. This park has camping on an pretty open hill overlooking a pond. There is a golf course on the property, whose one hole we could see from the park road didn't look too bad. We just used this as a leg stretch stop and sat on one of three bench swings on the pond. Azaleas were in bloom providing a little photo op.
Gordonia-Alatamaha State Park
On a bench swing at Gordonia-Alatamaha State Park
On the pond at the state park.
This day we went through Daisy, Nevils, and the big town of Claxton.
The Nevils Train Station.
Typical abandoned building.
Claxton was about 20 miles from our campground and had the closest pharmacy, which we needed. They had the usual suspects of fast food joints, but we opted for one of about a choice or two non-chain restaurants, Ocean Galley Seafood. A tiny place where you order from the counter and the one waitress brought your food. It was actually really good. I had another shrimp po boy (I'm going to miss these heading north), and Sandy had butterflied shrimp. Big and juicy. Mm mmm, down home cookin'.
Dining choices in Claxton.
At the order counter of the restaurant I saw this pamphlet. I read while waiting for our food. While I appreciate the author's zealous enthusiasm, I had difficulty following it.
We followed that by going north of I-16 through the towns of Denmark, Register, and Pulaski. The roads were a little faster and though still rural, not as pretty of the towns to the south of the interstate.
Off to South Carolina ...
