After our time in Nashville, our next milestone destination was Andersonville, GA. to spend some time with Amy’s parents. We broke the trip up into three stops over a two week span. We stayed at an Alabama state park, a brand new private park and a return visit to an Army Corps of Engineers (COE) park that we stayed in last year.
Lake Guntersville State Park
Lake Guntersville State Park is a large state park on the shores of a large lake. Our site was in the back of the park where there appeared to be long term residents, something not normally seen in a state park. This was an enjoyable stay. We took long hikes on two separate days and had dinner at the lodge overlooking the lake from high on a hill.
The park was pretty full on the day we arrived. We later found out that there was a fishing derby going on and had one more day of competition. Once the derby was over, the park began to empty. The last day of the derby was a Friday and it was strange to see more RVs in the park on Thursday and Friday then the weekend that followed. In fact, one reason we selected this place was the availability of sites over the weekend. We intentionally did not book all our stays for this trip south and weekends in October can be tough as people are making weekend trips for leaf peeping.
Our only negative to this park was the road leading to the park. The road was narrow, hilly, and very curvy with some curves sharp enough that we needed to drift into the oncoming lane to prevent the RV from tracking onto the soft shoulder.
Greensport RV Park
One site we did book several months ahead was Whitetail Ridge COE, a place we stayed last year and we were able to book one of the best sites in the park before heading to Andersonville and Amy’s parents. The distance from Guntersville, AL to LeGrange, GA, where the COE is located, was a bit too far for a single day trip, so we wanted something somewhere in between. Amy found this new RV park that had some positive reviews. The reviews were not wrong.
Greensport RV Park is a relatively small park with planned expansion actively under way. They opened for business at the beginning of this camping season after several years of development. The location is relatively secluded and located on a large body of water. It was very peaceful and they had some shared spaces along the waterfront where one could sit on a swing and enjoy the view. We really enjoyed our stay here and would return if we were in the area again.
Whitetail Ridge COE
This COE, located in LeGrange, GA, just across the border from Alabama, is our first repeat stay. When we stayed here last year just before landing in Andersonville, we walked the park and noted the sites that we thought were the best in the park. We booked four nights in one of the best lakefront sites and we were looking forward to our stay. The weather was gorgeous when we arrived and was expected to be the same through the next day before the rainy weather arrived.
We took advantage of being right next to the water and got our kayak out for a short ride along the shore. Dan wanted to try and get some drone footage of us riding in the kayak so after we returned to the campsite, we got the drone ready and went back out. We did a couple of loops around the cove while the drone dutifully followed us.
When the weather turned wet, we went into town to gas up the truck and check out a new local brew pub. The food and beer were pretty good. While we were there, the local college appeared to be having a faculty social gathering of some sort.
Andersonville, GA
We had a quiet visit with Amy’s folks, especially compared to our stop here last year when Dan spent most of the time working on the rig. Our plan was to stay in the same site we did last year because it suited our needs nicely. When we pulled onto the cement pad for the pull through site we noticed it was washed out at the front of the pad. This caused a 5-6 inch drop right where the rear tires of the truck would be. We didn’t like this situation for unhooking and hooking back up to leave so we decided to take a back in site that worked out nicely.
We got up early and ran around the prison yard at the National Historic Site on a couple of occasions. When we didn’t go running in the morning, we walked over to take photographs at the cemetery and check out the visitor’s center. All and all, it was a very relaxing visit with Amy’s folks.
Gunter Hill COE
As we head west, we had one more stay in Alabama before making it into Mississippi. Once again, we found a COE campground just southwest of Montgomery, AL. Gunter Hill is probably the best maintained COE we’ve visited thus far. The roads through the park are in great shape and all the sites are concrete pads that are both long and wide. I don’t think we saw a single site in the place that would not be acceptable to us. We didn’t do much while here but our departure was eventful.
As we were preparing to leave, going through our normal tear down procedure, the TPMS (Tire Pressure Monitoring System) we have for the RV tires alerted us to low pressure on one of the tires. The tires are supposed to be at 125 psi and one was reporting in the 80’s. Once we got the slides in and could easily access the tire, we confirmed the reading and added air to bring it to proper inflation. We then inspected the tire by using the leveling jacks to raise that side off the ground. As soon as we rotated the tire a bit we could see the offending object in the tread. We decided that it would not be wise to ride on it so we had our first experience of changing a tire on the RV. Because we got started earlier than we normally do we ended up leaving at our usual time of around 10:00 AM. So much for getting to our first come first serve destination in Mississippi early but it turned out not to matter. We were pretty pleased with ourselves and how well we handled the incident and got everything done with only a few choice words.
You are getting pretty brave there with that drone, flying it over water. Glad to hear the flat tire situation worked out OK. Yet another first!
Good drone work. The stills and videos really add to your blog.
I was especially taken by the photo of the Belted Kingfisher, and the graves at Andersonville. We are still living off the courage and sacrifice of the Civil War soldiers.
I suppose changing The tire on the rig is somewhat of a rite of passage, so congratulations 😉. Photos and drone capture were great. I especially liked the foggy photo.