More Bolding Mill, please

On Tuesday we moved to site 26, on the lake.  We had our own little private beach/water access, which resulted in even more kayaking, swimming, fishing and rock skipping.  

The rest of the week was as amazingly rejuvenating as the weekend was.  Sadly, there were no spots available here for Friday and Saturday nights.  So after searching the Internet for hours, we finally settled on Stone Mountain Campground, which was a mere 65 miles away.  Sounds simple, right?  🤣 

Bolding Mill COE, we drove right back

During our first stay (1-night) stay at Bolding Mill COE, we hardly brushed the surface of what this campground offers for our family.  We had to hitch up and head to an appointment for our RV, which needs some repairs, but after the appointment, we drove right back.

Our second night at his campground, we stayed at site 55 because that’s the only site that was available over the weekend.  We weren’t sure if we would stay beyond Tuesday, so we booked site 55 until Tuesday.  Site 55 had a LOT of sunlight, zero shade, zero privacy, and no water access.  We could see why it was available over the weekend.   But we still enjoyed beIng at this campground.

We discovered the “beach” at Bolding Mill, which had zero sand but plenty of water.  The big boys went swimming, but to us Floridians it was difficult to enjoy this concrete “beach” for long.

J and I got up early the next morning and went for a bike ride around the campground.  We saw a dock across the water and decided to go around the lake and find the dock.  We went back to BG and picked up two fishing rods, L, J a bag of rice cakes and a jar of sun butter.  We biked down a wooded trail that led to a fishing dock.  We spent the rest of the morning by the dock and all ate rice cakes for breakfast.

The next couple of days involved many hours at the dock, kayaking, swimming, rock skipping, and playing with clay.  It was a beautiful and relaxing weekend.

Bolding Mill COE Campground, Gainesville, GA

Within an hour of our arrival, 3/5 of us were swimming in our private lagoon,
part of Lake Sidney Lanier. We stayed in Site 23.

Easy to get to, easy to drive through to our site, and amazing views of the lake.  Here we had our first family lake swimming experience (3 of us anyway), someone had their first marshmallow ever, and nature surrounded us in this, what felt like our own private getaway.  This was the perfect place for us to land after descending that mountain.  We only booked one night, but we decided we had to return.

My morning view.  We only stayed one night. Our outdoor setup is a work in progress.
But this was the best morning view yet, despite the wet clothes and styrofoam cooler (which the boys found in the woods).

Amicalola Falls State Park

My morning view at Amicalola Falls State Park - 4 mornings

Although the road to this site was more rough than we had imagined, we spent 4 nights at this mountaintop getaway.  This 4-night stay involved hiking, biking, clay-making, firefly catching, waterfall viewing, and other details I’ll write about at a later time. Suffice it to say that we will not be climbing too many more mountain roads like this one with our BG.

On the road. A.H. Stephens Historic State Park

Our morning view at A.H. Stephens Historic State Park, in Crawfordville, GA

While we stayed only one night here, on our way to the north Georgia mountains, we would go back. It was easy to get to, and we had the perfect first night on the road at this beautiful, well-kept campground east of Atlanta. We stayed in site 8.

We had hot dogs and burgers from the grill, roasted marshmallows, and sat by the fire. We felt the excitement of our first night camping as a family...finally our hard work was starting to pay off.

On our way to the campground, we stopped at our first backwoods country grocery store. It was fully stocked with everything some people might want, but it was far from what we were used to in northern Virginia or Florida. The most memorable item we bought was frozen country peas. When we ate them days later, the boys all went back for seconds and third of beans.

We prepared for months, sorting, donating, selling and paring down our possessions. We still own way too much. I’m embarrassed to say we moved in a 25 foot truck and filled it. I dream of going back to our storage unit one day with new perspective and getting rid of half or more of everything. But we were rushed toward the end. Or we didn’t keep our priorities in order. Of life just kept happening and then moving day came and we packed up what was left and put it away for safe keeping.

Saying goodbye again

It seems three years ago I wrote about saying goodbye to our friends in Monrovia, CA.  I was moved to tears today just re-reading the post, firstly because I still remember those special people and places and they hold a special place in my heart.  Secondly, we just moved again, away from more special people.  Let me take a moment to say how fortunate we have been to meet such adventurous and intelligent and kind and helpful and caring people in the towns where we have lived.