We knew that our trip home from the Blue Ridge area would be difficult because we had to pull Rosie, our Airstream trailer, through Atlanta and there is no optimum time to to travel Atlanta's roads. Both Google and Apple Maps were optimistic and suggested that traffic flowed without problems through Atlanta. We knew how quickly that could change and become a nightmare forcing us to arrive home too late in the day. We decided we needed to stop for the night after passing through Atlanta and made reservations at R. Shaefer Heard Corps of Engineers (COE) Campground.
We thanked the volunteers for their service as we checked in. Three COE campgrounds were closed for this year because there were too few volunteers to operate them. We were glad that this park was open.
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| Sign at the entrance to the campground |
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| Rosie's site in the campground |
Most campsites in this park were large with generous spaces between campers. That wasn't true for our site. It was in a cul de sac and our neighbors were very close to Rosie, our Airstream trailer's name. We decided that we would stay in an another loop if we return to this campground.
It was ironic that a neighbor told us how much they liked out site and they frequently camped in it. Then they told us about another nearby campground that they loved and suggested we make reservations there next time. We were not sure they were being helpful or attempting to lessen the competition for our site in the future.
We noticed another problem with our cul de sac while unhitching Rosie from our truck. There was a large patch of Poison Ivy behind our site. We had to be very careful to avoid that area and didn't come down with a Poison Ivy rash.
On the positive side, we had a waterfront site and we quickly summed up that this was a great park for riding our bikes and for using our inflatable kayak. We intended to use our kayak earlier on this trip, but the rain and temperatures kept us from doing so. The weather was perfect here so we excitedly inflated our tandem kayak and enjoyed exploring the lake. We probably spent an hour on the lake and ended up going to the other side of the lake during our first kayak ride.
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| Ready to put the kayak in the lake |
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| On the lake in our tandem inflatable kayak |
When we came ashore, we let out about half of the air in the kayak so that the hot sun would not cause it to expand and create any problems.
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| Partly deflated kayak to protect the seams |
We decided to go for another kayak trip the next morning. I quickly pumped air into the kayak and we carried it down to the shore. As soon as we got in the kayak, we noticed a problem. We were getting wet and the amount of water inside the kayak was increasing at an alarming rate. We were sinking!
We quickly returned to shore and found the trouble as soon as we picked up the kayak to remove it from the water. The glued-on seams around the bottom of the kayak had separated meaning the bottom of the kayak was no longer attached to the side walls. The kayak was going on 10 years old and the glue used at the factory finally stopped working.
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| The seams split beyond what could be repaired |
This wasn't a case of a few gaps in the kayak's seams. The entire bottom of the kayak was unglued and several other seams on the top side of the kayak were also starting to come apart. We knew immediately that our kayak was unsalvageable and we had enjoyed our last ride in it.
We were glad that if one of our "toys" had to irreparably break at this campground, it was our kayak and not our bikes as we continued to enjoy riding our bikes around this campground.
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| Ready to ride our bikes in the campground |
We never knew the correct time while camping at this park. Our site was on the Eastern Time side of the lake. The other side was in the Central Time zone. Our iPhones and Apple Watches were constantly confused and kept flipping back-and-forth between the two time zones. It became a running joke because our electronic devices never agreed with each other.
The restrooms were old but well maintained. Not all of the restrooms had shower facilities and some were long walks from campsites.
We made reservations here to help us decompress after driving through Atlanta and to position ourselves to arrive home after this camping trip to be able to clean up Rosie early in the day. We enjoyed our visit to the park and accomplished our goals while camping there.
Here are some specifics about this campground:
- There were multiple loops in the campground
- Our site was a back in
- Our site had shade
- Most sites had some space on both sides
- Our site was paved with asphalt and we needed to use leveling tools to correct a side-to-side lean in Rosie
- Our site had 20, 30 and 50 amp electrical service
- Our site had a water connection
- Our site did not have a sewer connection
- There was a dump station in this park
- There were several trash dumpsters located around the campground. It was a long walk to the closest dumpster near our site
- There were multiple bathhouses in the campground
- The park did not provide WiFi service
- AT&T provided 2 bars of 5G voice and data service over our campsite
- We were able to watch only ABC using Rosie’s TV antenna. Digital channel seen was Retro
- There were restaurants and shopping nearby
- This was a pet friendly park
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| Along the lake |
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| Rosie at daybreak |
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At the "dump" station
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| Leaving the campground |
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