78 miles almost entirely on I-75. Cumulative tow miles: 793. Truck miles: 188. Cumulative truck miles: 879. The extra truck miles were due to my shopping trip which included the Booth Museum of Western Art and a sightseeing trip into Atlanta.
This was a short trip – just over an hour – but it was not a piece of cake for the truck as the route is hilly with some fairly long uphill pulls. But, once again, the truck performed flawlessly.
It also wasn’t a short day of travel because, once I was unhitched and set up in Ringgold, I drove 75 miles to Blue Ridge GA to see my Florida neighbors, Joshua and Gary. They own two gift shops there – Blue Ridge Cotton Company and Gather. It being Sunday I was not confident that I would run into the owners, but they were both there. We had a nice chat and I bought a sweatshirt – my first clothes purchase in over a year!
On the trip back to the RV I chose the slightly longer route through Tennessee. This was a more scenic route, running along the very popular (for whitewater rafters) Oconee River. It was beautiful, but the the road had sharp twists and turns and not many places to stop and take photos.
Note to self: do NOT take the RV on this route!
Speaking of RV, the route I took to Blue Ridge included a 13′ 7″ railroad bridge. If I had been hauling I would have sweated this bridge. Bottom line: there is no RV-friendly way to get from Chattanooga to Blue Ridge.
My home in Cartersville was the Allatoona Landing Marine Resort – a combination marina and RV campground on the edge of Lake Allatoona. Also very close to the site of the Battle of Allatoona Pass which I will document separately. Also very close to a major rail freight line – a proximity which became immediately obvious when a train passed and blew its horn in my ear. And, as I soon discovered, trains passed and blew their horns pretty regularly around the clock. I didn’t get a lot of uninterrupted sleep the first night. But I got used to it quickly and slept okay the other nights.
This is an odd RV park. It isn’t large – maybe 100 sites – but very few have full sewer hookups. Maybe 15 sites. I had one of those sites. It was a back-in, which made me a little nervous, but there was plenty of room and I made it on the first try.
This campground had a “weekend getaway” feel to it. It was jam-packed on Saturday with rigs wih Georgia plates and lots of kids. I didn’t see a beach, but there were lots of kayaks and fishing gear on display. And some of the campsites were right on the water. You could fish from your doorway.
So the park wasn’t great but the location was better than expected. If I come back to Atlanta I would consider staying here again.
