Bye Bye Georgia, Good afternoon Alabama

We left the State Park this morning around 10 a.m. on our way to Cropwell, Alabama, our next overnight stop.  As we drove away,  I couldn't help but think about our time in Cordele and my impressions of the area.

 We really enjoyed this park, especially after the Memorial Day weekend folks went on home.  It was beautiful, quiet and very relaxing for all of us, but  it seemed an oasis in a very depressed agricultural area.  We drove past large fields of watermelon and peanuts, through groves of pecans and peaches.   Beautiful, rich land, but never really saw any evidence of the owner's of this land.  As we drove around Lake Blackshear we saw lovely, comfortable homes, perhaps summer residences of people living up in Macon or even Atlanta.  But elsewhere we only saw abject, rural poverty.  Every other storefront was filled with Pawn Shops offering Title Pawn.  Perhaps I'm naive, but I don't know of anywhere back home that offers this service, is it really so common to pawn the title of your car or truck?  Here is most certainly is.

There was an image that I couldn't get out of my mind.  It spoke to me as a sign of the times in Cordele.
A old gas station at an intersection, gone out of business.  It appeared to have been taken over and re-furbished into a restaurant, that had then gone out of business itself.  Now it stood empty, falling down, gas pumps stripped and rusted.  A hand lettered sign at the street read " 6 pair of socks, $4 dollars." ...a group of very thin black men sat listlessly under the shade of the building and between the defunct pumps, drooping heads in hands, waiting for some business....

Again, I am thankful for all that I have.


We arrived at Lakeshore Landing RV Resort and Marina around 4 this afternoon.  I found out that we were now in the Central Time Zone, so it was really just 3 - Cool, a bonus hour.  This campground is on the shore of Lake Logan Martin and is quite large, but mid- week, fairly empty.  The majority of sites filled held seasonal campers, so we drove around to find as private a spot as we could.

Dave is so talented in putting Beluga exactly where I want it, even if it isn't where we should be....today I wanted him to park in the site, backwards so I could have the lake view  instead of looking out at a very overloaded dumpster.
After a bit of thinking, in we went and now I have this beautiful sight right through the windshield.  I know we'll only be here until the morning, but my surroundings are important to me and Dave never disappoints!

Just so you don't think I'm too spoiled, I took a shot of our view in the other direction.  Just past this group of trailers are a few that I didn't want to stand in front of to photograph.  They've been here a long, long time.  One has a pickup truck out front with no plates on it and is currently being used as a garbage bin....hmmm

This lake, I understand, is quite famous for its bass population and as we sat eating dinner tonight, 15 or so bass boats idled in front of us, waiting for the bell to start their fishing tournament.  All at once, they  took off  in every direction, shooting huge white rooster tails in the air.  I wasn't fast enough to capture it, sorry.

Tomorrow morning we head toward Memphis, Tennessee and I-40 to begin our turn west.