When you visit Wormsloe Historic Site you enter and drive over a mile down a straight road covered by ancient live oaks covered in Spanish moss. It is a pretty incredible sight! At the end of the road is a museum and nature trails that lead to the tabby ruins of Noble Jones’ colonial estate. Jones was a carpenter who was part of the first group of settlers to arrive in Georgia from England in the early 1700s. The museum had a great little documentary about the history of those first settlers and the role Jones and his family played.

We didn’t spend too much time at this site as we had to drive to Fort King George and then on to Tampa. The nature trails led us from the tabby ruins to other restored structures that showed what colonial life was like in the early 1700s (hint, not good). Given the heat, humidity, and bugs we experienced in the two hours we were there, I don’t think it would have been that pleasant to live there.

On our way down to Florida we went a bit out of our way in order to swing through Savannah and visit 3 more state parks and historic sites. We went straight to Fort McAllister and setup our brand new tent that I got for my birthday. The tent is much bigger than our old tent and you can take off the rain cover and it is mostly screen – much better for camping in the Savannah marshes in the humid summer heat.

After the tent was up we walked a nature trail that went through some woods to the banks of the Ogeechee River and its marshes. I neglected to put on our 100% deet bug spray and we were slaughtered by biting flies and mosquitoes.

In the morning, before heading out we swung by the fort and where they let Trey borrow a wooden rifle to patrol the grounds with. What a brilliant idea! He had a blast pointing it and shouting “Kaboom!” – it kept him so preoccupied that I didn’t have to worry about him messing with the historical ruins and artifacts.

This historic site is an earthwork fortification, meaning that there weren’t above ground buildings but instead mounds and trenches. It is one of the best preserved forts we’ve visited in Georgia. Several of the underground barracks and storerooms are restored and you can go inside of them to see exactly how the Confederate soldiers lived while defending it during the Civil War.

Once again – kudos to the staff at Fort McAllister for coming up with the idea of giving kids the toy rifles!

The weekend before Trey and I headed down to Florida we hit Cloudland Canyon State Park in the opposite direction. Only about 20 miles south of Chattanooga, it is Georgia’s most northwest state park. Like the Grand Canyon, there are trails that follow the rim of the canyon and then some that go down into the gorge.

One of my few complaints about Georgia’s park system is its camping reservation system. Camping in a tent costs $22 – about the same as in an RV (a few parks do offer a couple walk-in sites at $16 with no reservations available). To reserve a camping site you have to use their online system and it charges a “convenience” fee and requires a minimum 2 night stay. So for me to reserve a spot for us to camp for one night it would cost over $45 (and be for 2 nights). We had originally planned to camp at the park but Friday nights fill up quick and our lack of reservations forced us to camp in a nearby Days Inn. I suppose it was worth it because in the end, the motel cost us less than the tent reservation would have.

Trey and I enjoyed the amazing vistas on the eastern rim and then hiked down to the first waterfall that cuts through the mountain. It was a very strenuous hike and I was impressed with Trey who made the whole hike on his own.

We’re running out of time! 12 more parks to visit and only 5 weeks left until our self-imposed deadline. We’re cramming to visit them all so this weekend was another roadtrip to see several parks. We hit John Tanner first, then passed by James Floyd on our way north to Cloudland Canyon.

We had hoped to camp at James Floyd, but when we arrived the campground was already full (it hadn’t realized how busy the campgrounds are on Friday nights). Instead we walked around the lake and played on the playground before continuing north where we got a cheap motel room for the night.

You may notice in some of our recent photos of Trey that he has a red stripe on his chin. He recently fell while running in our driveway and got a perfect vertical scratch up his chin. It is so perfectly straight and centered that it looks fake – as if we drew it on there.

Of all the state parks we’ve been to in Georgia (over 52 now) this one is the simplest. It’s a lake with a beach. That is about it. Of course there are some other amenities but they all revolve around the lake: camping near the lake, a nature trail around the lake, a playground by the lake, paddle boats on the lake, etc…

With that in mind, going to John Tanner State Park on a cloudy day is a bit of a bummer. Nonetheless, it just threatened to rain and never actually did so we still had fun in the water. My photos aren’t the greatest because of their stormy nature, but all that really matters is that Trey had a blast in the water.

I’ll address your burning questions right now – no, little Obamas do not live in the Little White House. Little White House was Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s home away from the “big” White House. He came to Warm Springs in the 1920s looking for a cure to his crippling polio. Though the warm, buoyant waters didn’t rid him of his condition, it was great therapy and did improve his condition a good bit.

Throughout his presidency during the Great Depression and World War II, FDR visited his cottage in Warm Springs to relax and hang out with “ordinary folks”. His interactions and friendships with the poorest of rural Georgians are what inspired many of his New Deal programs. If you are planning a visit to Little White House or just interested in FDR and Warm Springs, I highly recommend the movie “Warm Springs” starring Kenneth Branagh. This historically accurate biopic was filmed on location in Warm Springs and came out in 2005. Continue reading →