It started a week before camp. I injured the sole of my right foot, with several layers of skin missing. It got worse and worse until I finally went to the doctor on Thursday, who ordered me to keep my foot up and wrapped, and take antibiotics for both the foot AND strep throat which I also tested positive for (he then asked to do a pregnancy test since I was already on a roll here… heck no!). Not only that, but my oldest came home Wednesday night from church screaming about his stomach hurting, and then hurled all over once he went to bed.
But we made reservations in February… and our friends had just made reservations days before to join us… and none of us wanted to be out that significant chunk of change. So off we went!
Chuck lovingly did nearly all the packing, as he always does. He knows how to make an ungodly amount of gear fit on the back of his truck (camping gear for five people… four bikes and a bike trailer… several coolers and bins and tents… it’s unreal). Due to me being undecided about going (mainly due to my fear of a digestional reaction to the antibiotics, which wouldn’t go well with limping on one foot to a faraway bathroom), packing happened at the last minute. We originally planned to leave at noon, but I had a training class at work that popped up at the last moment also.
We ended up actually rolling out at 430pm. Picked up lunch on the way out of town. The trip was supposed to be 2.5 hours and ended up being a little over 3. The kids cooperated for the most part. You’ll be surprised to hear that I left their tablets at home (I usually pack them for long drives, but this wasn’t THAT long).
We arrived at dusk and checked in. I had reserved 40ft sites because I like a lot of room, so we had to drive around and choose sites with a red sticker on them (they are all color coded according to size/type, which is nice!). Loop 1 is more secluded and has more shade, where as Loop 2 is more typical RV-style spacing. It was pitch dark by the time we got completely set up, and we just all had a snack and went to bed since the trading post was closed and we had no wood for an evening fire (you cannot bring wood in from other places at most campgrounds).
We got up the next morning, had a great breakfast, hopped on our bikes, and checked in at the trading post. I found our traditional patches, a magnet, and mug.
Afterwards we put up the tarp, which took four people since none of us knew what we were doing. I normally drown myself in YouTube videos of “how to use this new product I just got”, but didn’t have time this time so we were actually having to refer to written instructions and common sense.
The rest of the morning involved playing around the camp site and relaxing.
Then it was time to put the boat in the water. Chuck has this great canoe, it’s super wide on the bottom. He also has a battery and a small motor. On the first trip out, Chuck went with Kristen and the two youngest kids (K and M). They were gone about two hours and Kristen took 200+ photos with my nice camera and killed the battery. While they were gone, J and Austin tried fishing.
Austin, J, and I went out next. We went left at the fork instead of right, and saw the other end of the swamp. We ran into a paddle-in campground called Mixon’s Hammock which was pretty neat–for an adult-only trip, one day. We got stuck. We turned around.
As we were headed back, we heard thunder in the distance. Then the battery for the motor died. We ended up having to paddle back, upstream, in the pouring down rain. J was a little terrified at first but we stayed in good spirits and made it back soaking wet.
While we were on the water, Chuck, Kristen, and the two kiddos did the Nature Trail.
After drying off at the campground (this! This is why I have TALL tents!!), we cooked dinner. Ribs, baked beans, corn on the cob. While Chuck was cooking the kids and I learned how to play Old Maid and Go Fish. Dinner was great, the sleep afterwards was incredible despite thousands of mosquito bites (even though we bathed in bug spray).
The following morning we had breakfast and packed up camp again. We could hear the rangers at the trading post in the back office saying “Oh my God, come look at this RADAR” before we left, but couldn’t check ourselves until we got to Fargo because there’s NO data service at the park.
Anyway. We made it to Valdosta before we hit the massive line coming through. Sideways rain, tornado watches and warnings, the whole 9 yards. We parked at a convenience store for the worst of it, then eased over to Bojangle’s for lunch to ride out the tail end of it. Everything after that was smooth sailing.
Of course we had to lay out all of the gear to dry before it could be packed away into the garage to prevent mold.
Overall, we had a great time. My foot continued to heal, the antibiotics didn’t kill my stomach, the kids had a blast, and everything went pretty smoothly. Despite torrential downpours half the day Saturday and all night that night, both of our tents stayed dry on the inside.
I’m not a fan of most Georgia State Parks reservations not being site-specific. I like seeing photos of all the sites online and being able to pick a specific one and knowing what I’m getting when I arrive. We lucked out, the park was not very full and we got a good spot. I just hate leaving that to chance, especially if we were to go on a busy weekend. The mosquitos were already thick in mid-April, so this is about the latest in the spring I would personally go. Weather was in the low 80s during the day and mid 60s at night–perfect.
Camp Minion 