Saturday, June 27, 2009

Plum Nelly

Man-Of-The-House and I took a couple days for a shakedown and get acquainted trip with the motorhome. We drove to Ellijay, GA and stayed in a private campground. We searched for a campground that had sewer connections on site, because when I had my experience emptying the black water tank, I didn't want any witnessess!  Several friends who are more experienced campers than we are have had some truly yucky and embarassing things happen to them. Also, since The Lady Anne  is a used motorhome, we wanted to clean out the tanks with some equipment  a friend loaned us.  All went successfully, but I have to say that I am glad that I listened to that little voice in my head that told me to buy new sewer hoses and connections. A look at the hoses that came revealed some cracks and holes…what a messy time we would have had. Disaster averted! (at least for this time, I don’t want to tempt fate)

We also learned how to operate our awning-with the kind help of another camper who climbed all over the rig without a moments hesitation. It seems I had pretty much remembered what the dealer showed me, but when he put the awning back up, he let the pull down strap roll up inside, which meant we couldn't bring the awning down. The helpful camper and I moved  the picnic table next to the camper, he climbed on that and manually unrolled the awning as MOTH and I held down the side supports.

Anyway, we had a quiet couple of days, in the shade of trees and awning while the temps were in the 90s. We always had a pleasant breeze, and when we had enough of the heat, the a/c worked well. We became more acquainted with the motorhome and stored some of our gear, tested the different systems.

The campground is named Plum Nelly, and I think we’ll be back. It was quiet and our spot was rather private. Here’s a view of the mountains from our site:

a view from our site

The road traveled around our site, this is from the road, through the trees to our motorhome.

from the road

nice and private

If you look carefully, you will see MOTH sitting against the camper, contemplating and generally enjoying the breeze in the 90 degree heat. The first night the temperatures were supposed to drop into the 60’s, so we turned off the a/c and opened the windows. By the wee hours of the morning, it had cooled off enough that we were chilled, and I had to put an summer blanket on the bed. HOORAY!

enjoying the peace and quiet

If you’ve ever been in the south, particularly Georgia, you may have been introduced to kudzu. It is an amazing plant and grows unbelievably fast. It was imported years ago from (I think) Japan to be planted on hillsides to prevent erosion. The down side is it covers everything in its path, trees, fences, buildings….anything that will hold still for a few hours. This stuff can grow up to 2 feet in a day. At the campground, it was used to make fencing and as a privacy barrier. Looking away from the back of our site, we wondered what the kudzu was concealing:

whats behind the kudzu

Well for goodness sake! That would be one heck of a fall. And I don’t think I’d want to end up in that catch basin, either.

That's what's behind the kudzu

And here’s one last photo, just because I like it.

pine cones

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