Biding Our Time

July 15-23, 2020

I’m going to combine two stops in an attempt to get caught up before yet another month passes.  (I failed miserably, but I had high hopes when I started drafting this post.)  We’re waiting for a spot to open up in Blairsville, GA so we filled the gap with a stop at Persimmon Creek Campground in NC and a short stay at Vogel State Park outside of Blairsville.

Property Hunters Update

When we last left you we thought we’d found THE place, but alas, it had an offer already.  Well, we tromped around the whole 5 acres with the realtor anyway and also checked out the 5 acres right next door.  And during that visit he gave us the good news.  That other offer fell through!  So by the time we left our happy place at Cardinal Ridge, we had accepted offers for both pieces of property.  That’s right – a whole 10.4 acres of beautiful forested land that met all our criteria and some we didn’t even know we needed like fiber optic wi-fi availability and a driveway.

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Clockwise from left, that’s Pat in the driveway and I’m taking the picture from where the house will eventually go. Those next two are our ridge with the tallest trees showing on our soon to be property. According to forest service maps, this is Chigger Ridge and part of Payne Mountain with our spot at an elevation of 2,008 feet. Next Lucy in the driveway, and yes, we’re busily measuring. Finally the view looking out our driveway down the one-lane county road that is paved as far as our entrance. Bonus! Now we just have to amuse ourselves until our closing date of August 14th.

Persimmon Creek Campground

We now needed a spot in Blairsville, Georgia, closer to our property-to-be and I found a great campground. Unfortunately they were full until later in July. I filled the first part of the gap at Persimmon Creek Campground.

Our little peaceful spot beside Persimmon Creek was perfect. Well almost. At this point it was the height of summer around here and upper 80s during they day. (Really not bad for this time of year and much better than what we would have “enjoyed” in Florida) That means the AC is running most of the time, oh wait, make that ALL of the time. That’s ok, but the power here was a little temperamental and would shut off from time to time. With Jackson, that would have meant we had to relocate since we couldn’t leave him in the hot box while we were off on outings. We miss that boy, but at least we could deal with the power issue and not worry about him. Of course most of the time we were running off to the property meeting with people about tree removal, excavation, etc. so the heat of the day didn’t matter to us.

Ocoee River Scenic Byway

We did manage to do a little sightseeing. We’re within spitting distance of Tennessee and the scenic Ocoee River, site of the 1996 Olympic rafting events. You round a corner in the twisty road and see this frothing rushing river full of rafters. It’s quite impressive.

Looking upriver at the rafters and kayakers and downriver after the big rapids.

Vogel State Park

Still biding our time, so I filled the rest of the camping gap for two days at Vogel State Park just outside of Blairsville. It’s one of the oldest and most popular state parks in Georgia, so two days in a row was all we could get during the height of the summer camping hysteria.

Vogel is on the side of Blood Mountain and quite picturesque. That’s Trahlyta Lake.

There’s a nice hike around Lake Trahlyta with a side jaunt down to Tahlyta Falls.

The vast misty mountains…

And the littles – my toasted marshmallow and magic mushrooms.

Next up: 6 weeks at Trackrock Campground and more property news! See you on the way!