Bluff Creek COE (Alabama side of the ‘Hooch)

COE campgrounds are some of our favorite hangouts. COE (Army Corps of Engineers) campgrounds are always well maintained, and feature beautiful scenery around lakes, rivers, and waterways. Bluff Creek COE is a small camp located in Pittsview Alabama, situated on the Chattahoochee River just south of Columbus Georgia and north of Eufala Alabama.

 *  We have visited this campground once before, in fact it was our very first shakedown trip when we acquired “Clark” back in February of 2021. At that time, we explored a bit deeper of the surroundings, which included a visit to Ft. Mitchell National Fort and Cemetery and backroads leading down to and around Lake Eufala. Definitely worth a visit.
*   We did drive around the area of the western side of Ft. Benning, the towns of Ft. Mitchell, Seale, and Phenix City. One very cool oddball attraction that is worth a swing by was the Drive-Thru “Museum of Wonder”. 
*  The closeness of the local Paper Mill made for some wildly imaginative ghost stories around the campfire inspired by the railyard clanks and groans and huge saws chomping/shredding wood: we had Dragon VS. Robot Wars!   Add to that the nighttime air exercises of multiple jets from Ft. Benning circling around the River in very low altitude made it surreal.

 

March pictures of COE Camps (album 2023-3)

Holiday COE Campground (West Point Lake, GA)

Whoopsie! We checked-out of Bluff Creek COE in Alabama 24 hours too early, and didn’t realize the mistake until halfway to our next destination in LaGrange Georgia. Fortunately, the camp hosts at Holiday COE Campground on West Point Lake were very understanding, and lucky for us they had an opening in another campsite for the night. So we stayed at two different locations in this very large campground which made it nice to see the lake from two perspectives.
Our stay here was pleasant, but the rocky rollercoaster of situations continued. Severe thunderstorms for two nights kept us glued to the phones for weather alerts as tornadoes touched down all around the county. We did just fine though, in spite of  water well outages, and two tigers on the loose from Animal Country Safari! 

March pictures of COE Camps (album 2023-3)

Whitetail Ridge COE (West Point Lake, GA)

Whitetail Ridge COE is super close to the Holiday COE (Only 1 mile apart). This campground is much smaller than Holiday, but equally as scenic being on West Point Lake. 

March pictures of COE Camps (album 2023-3)

 

 

We headed to Columbus in February to attend to some repairs for “Clark” (the RV), as well as undergo some Physical Therapy for Cindy’s arm.
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Coachcraft
The hydraulic system, which controls the four leveling jacks/stabilizers and the three slide-outs, needed an overhaul. A more than desired extended stay was in order since Coachcraft had to send off one of the jacks to Macon for a rebuild which took a while. 
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Flat Rock Park
Located in Columbus, this park is a beautiful place to relax right by the Creek, which spills over the large flat sided rocks and even has an impressive waterfall formation. Developed back in the days of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), there’s plenty of stone walls, pavilions, etc. Part of the Dragonfly Trail runs through there and is a great place to bike or run.
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Uptown Columbus   
Downtown (known as Uptown) has always been a fun locale. The Riverwalk near TSYS has been improved due to the newly built Mercer Medical School, and the renovated City Mills Hotel. Waveshaper Island is still a hotspot to sit back and watch the kayakers and rafters speed down the Rapids of the Chattahoochee River. Kadie the Cow has made a new home for herself near the Splash Pad and the zip-line Crows nest.
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Blackstone Griddle
On our wish list for some time, we finally bit the bullet (after stumbling on a fantastic deal at WalMart). It was Christmas in February!
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Buena Vista scenic ride.
We enjoyed a beautiful day out in the car to drive around the scenic hills of Buena Vista Georgia. Although we didn’t make it back to the whimsical and visually stunning “PasaQuan” this particular visit, we did check off lunch at the “Ranger Burger”, a place going back many years at Ft. Benning.
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November 2022

Moochdocking in the beautiful Pine Forest of Mom and Jim’s. Quick trip up to Columbus at Coachcraft for Clark repairs. Spent Thanksgiving with Bigfoot in Ft. White.

GA/FL in Nov picture album

Thanksgiving picture album

December 2022

Wonderful times spent with loving family; Happy Hours with Lee and Denise, Caleb visited and we got to hear more about his exciting new job with Blue Origin, a self-driving electric Tesla ride, Festival of Lights at Spirit of Suwannee, and Christmas festivities.

December pictures

January 2023

Happy New Year! Mom’s Birthday, a visit from Jared, Lydia and Kris, O’Leno State Park, Gilchrist Blue Springs, bike rides on Columbia county dirt roads, Cemetery TLC, a bad bout of Bronchitis for both of us.

January Pictures

 

 

 

Back in Florida;

Clark gets to rest until 2023

 

 

 

 

 

       

We’re back in Florida at our “home base” at the ‘Pine Forest’ homestead. Thanks Mom and Grand-Jim for a winter home to rest, reminisce, enjoy friends and family this holiday season, and plan for Year 2 of RVLifeFull-time. CHEERS!
These past 7 months, we’ve traveled 17,000 miles! (9,200 in the RV “Clark”, plus 7,800 more in side trips with the toad car “Lois”). What an adventure!!
So good to be back safe and sound, and we’ll be ready to roll again in 2023!

   

 

 

 

Hulaween Music Festival 2022
Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park – Live Oak, FL

 

         Hulaween (think hula-hoops and Halloween) is our favorite annual music fest we attend. It’s held at the beautiful Spirit of Suwannee Music Park in Live Oak, FL.
The Fest is four days of music on multiple stages, highlighted by the fantastic String Cheese Incident who play multiple sets each day. This years attendance was at it’s highest, rumored to be close to 40,000 people! Folks camp all over the oak tree filled park, in primitive areas or as we did, in designated electric & water campsites. Not only is Hulaween about the music, but also features Spirit Lake where artists bring the cypress water area into a magical land of  paintings, art installations, fire sculptures, and performance art like silk ropes.  Oh, and of course, because this always occurs during the Halloween weekend, there are costumes!

          There’s much more to say about this experience, but I’ll keep it short and sweet. Enjoy the full alum of pics with the link below. If you’ve never been and want to know more, just shoot me an email. 🙂

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Hulaween pics (album 81)

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