THE ATLANTA SLOG – August 24

We had choices about which way to turn as we approached the Georgia border.  Left would take us further north of Atlanta and into the beautiful Georgia mountain country where a right would expedite our timing and shoot us past Atlanta with a lot less mileage and wandering.  Given the now increased pressure of being so close to home, we decided on Atlanta. 

Our journey home was planned almost entirely around missing any cities along the way.  Finding them and their traffic stressful at best, we figured there just wasn’t any reason to torture ourselves.   That being said, Rob was a bit worn on all the back roads and we figured with Covid and being midday – how bad could it be?  Right.

Anyway, the day was about what we SHOULD have expected.  Atlanta is one of the worst cities in the south to travel through and this day was no better than any other.  The journey passed.  We fought our way through the fast paced and crowded highways without any opportunity to enjoy the day or those wonderful mountains just an hour or two north! 

Having succeeded on our quest, we finally came out on the other side to find that our options for camping were pretty slim.  The closest and most convenient campground boasted the birth of the confederacy.  Neither of us had it in us to endure that kind of energy or display so it was bypassed without much thought.  The next was poorly reviewed and we ended up making in all the way across the state, pulling into the Army Corp property at Strom Thurmond lake just shy of our home state border.

Despite having no cell service to secure a mandatory pre-registration, we fought our way through the continually dropped connection and worked out a site with the campground welcome staff.  Our site was one of the prettiest we’ve ever had.  The lake is large and pristine and the water was very high with all of the recent rains.  We were practically ON the water with a large site and an amazing view. 

I snuck in a couple miles around the campground area before the rain started coming down.  We pulled out the awning, our chairs and happy hour necessities and let the day melt away as nature provided a soothing balm.