Florida/Georgia/Alabama/Tennessee/Arkansas

Monday, May 04 - We took our time and left Spirit of the Suwannee in Live Oak around 8:30 am. Our drive on I-75 was pleasant, especially since we feared that thunderstorms would be upon us. Atlanta South RV Resort outside Atlanta at McDonough, Georgia. One night cost of $32.40 with discount, but we have 50-amp service.  Therefore, we can do a few loads of laundry. The park entrance is very nice looking, with the newly constructed clubhouse.

The park is very lacking in physical beauty, but the web site says they are “working” on the sites. A lot of trailers and what looks like long-term sites. The manager told Ray that two years ago two tornadoes crossed paths right on top of the park and yet no one was injured. A few big rigs that did not heed the signs of high winds and take their slides in found the slide sucked out by the tornado. Quite a story. Many signs of the huge trees that were put on their sides and have been cut out of the way. The pines here are so tall, you don’t expect to receive satellite tv, but the tornadoes have taken out the limbs at least sixty feet up the bark, so we are enjoying satellite after six nights on cable at our last stop.

Tuesday, May 05 - It rained last night, but the skies are clear this morning. We delayed our departure due to notice that there was a major traffic jam on the interstate.  We didn’t run into any delays, except the normal flow, at times on seven lanes. Once we went through Rome, Georgia, we were in the Appalachian foothills with winding curves with hills and everything is so green due to all the rain. We saw a lot of standing water in the ditches beside the road. We were soon crossing over Little River Falls located off scenic Highway 35, next to the bridge in Gaylesville, Alabama. The formation of Little River Canyon begins here with a rushing 45-foot waterfall. Moving in the RV meant no photos were taken.  The drive today was highly stressful, so Pepcid was in order - my leg was banged up on the shinbone when I opened the door and forgot the steps were going to automatically come out because the motor was not off yet. My mistake.
This is a very nice park on a huge lake, problem is they have had so much rain, a lot of sites are either under water, or look good (grassy) and when you drive on them, you are bogged down, which is what happened to us. Needless to say, Ray was not a happy camper... but he drove the RV out (made a horrible mess of the grass/mud site).

Mountain Lakes Resort is located on the Tennessee River's 68,000-acre Guntersville Lake, Langston Alabama. The lake is noted for its speedboat races, fishing tournaments and other water sports. Only seven miles away is the Guntersville State Park Lodge and Convention Center and 18 hole golf course. When we pulled into the park, we found that most sites were very soggy from the rains.

However, we have a bigger problem with Canada Geese everywhere and oodles of babies. The goose poo is everywhere so when I walked Mitzy, I had a hard time keeping her out of it and my shoes were full of it.

We could only find a 30-amp site that we hope we won’t have trouble pulling out of in the morning, and we can get satellite here out in the open. It is mid-70s so quite pleasant outside and so far no bugs. They become a nuisance. Oh, well it is only one night stay, so anything can be endured.

Wednesday, May 06 - Still at Mountain Lakes Resort. The storms started around 3:30 am and kept us awake. Very large rain mass and lots of thunder. We have survived our first “tornado warning” and we are so glad we purchased our new Emergency weather radio before leaving Florida. With Mitzy in tow, we got in our truck, parked next to the rec building in the park, and listened to NOAA. Wasn’t sure we could take Mitzy into the rec building, but would have if the warning was imminent. Not only was Guntersville, Alabama in the tornado warning area, but also there are flash floods on roads in this area. We didn’t have to go in the rec center and we are now safe and sound in our RV debating leaving and heading towards our next one-night stop @ Cherokee Landing, Saulsbury TN. We figure the flash floods are on side roads and will not affect SR 72. We left around noon CDT with light rain most of the way.
We arrived at Thousand Trails Cherokee Landing in Saulsbury around 5:30 pm and had to call the park ranger to open the gate. The ranger guided us up hill to a rather large site, but not quite level. Very pleasant woman and most accommodating. This park has no site for satellite, but we were too tired to care after our ordeal with the long wait before departure. Did not hook up anything but electric for the a/c. We heard from a neighbor that there are no more than ten RVs in the park at a given time because the sites are not usable and the roads are washed out and have potholes. Too bad, as the setting is beautiful and the hardwood trees are magnificent.

The location is also out of the way, so that may be another reason no one stays at this park.
Thursday, May 7 - We left Cherokee Landing around 8:30 am to drive 230 miles to Golden Pond RV Resort in Shirley Arkansas. As we traveled, we saw many flooded rivers that have made marshland out of farms. Sometimes we saw a foot of standing water covering the land. After five hours and bypassing Memphis and driving Rt. 16 through the Ozark Mountains, we arrived. The drive was beautiful with twisty turns through treed forests around 1,200 ft. Cattle farms everywhere. Golden Pond is a very small park located near Greer’s Ferry Lake. The owner was very nice and led us on foot to a pull-through site. He allowed Ray to wash the entire coach of the mud acquired during our last two stops. The nearby stream was overflowing into a pond,  the landscape is quite rough and steep walking is required.

Friday, May 08 - We are stuck in the park waiting for a huge mass of thunderstorms to go through the St. Louis area that includes Branson. Ray hopes that the path of the storm will be northeast of us once we hit the road again.  We left Golden Pond around 11:30 am with wet roads. Fortunately the park owner gave us different road directions to take out of the park or we would have run into flooded areas. It was a great 2-lane road, but very narrow. The Ozark forest is beautiful and Route 65 to Branson at 50 mph sometimes rose to 1,500 elevation and is a biker’s dream.b:if cond='data:blog.pageType !="item"> >