Lazy Day

Yesterday we didn't get going until the middle of the afternoon, mostly owing to the fact that I took a nap. We loaded up the truck and headed south into Dahlonega. But first, we stopped at the top of the mountain.

Vogel State Park is set at the northern base of Blood Mountain. It is also just a little North of Springer Mountain, the point of beginning of the Appalachian Trail. The AT goes right along the top of Blood Mt., in fact the trek up the mountain is said to be one of the most challenging on the whole AT. Anyway, the AT crosses Rt. 19 on the top of the mountain at Neels Gap, and at this crossing is an old and famous store, Mountain Crossings at Walasi-Yi. It is a rest stop for the hikers and a point of resupply. It has a complete selection of most anything a hiker would need, from boots to bags to food to books. It also has a great selection of AT souvenirs and stuff for those of us who haven't quite made the trek up the AT, yet. I bought a new book, just out, written by the owner describing his years of running the store and the experiences with the various characters_er_people who have appeared on his doorstep.

After that, it was down the mountain into Dahlonega. It seems that the areas' main claim to fame, apart from the AT, is that in 1828 it was the site of the nations first gold rush. The old court house in the center of the town square has been converted into a Gold Rush Museum. Unfortunately, due to our late start and the fact that they pull the sidewalks in at 5:00, we didn't get to tour it. Another time, maybe. We did get to go into a couple of the stores lining the square and managed to find a nice little Italian place for dinner.

Today we'll pack up and move again. We've found that we're most comfortable traveling 100-150 miles between campgrounds. That plan will put us at Hartwell Lake State Recreation Area in South Carolina tonight.

Vogel State Park has WiFi at their visitor center but I can't see it from up here in the valley  where we're camped, so I'm connecting by tethering with my Verizon phone. This has worked beyond my expectations. It is a great solution for connecting while on the road. I get on the internet every day and research the area or our next stop. The connection has a limit of 5gigs of download per month but for the month of October while we've been on the road, I've only used about 250 megs of time. Of course, I don't use it to stream video or anything like that, but for my needs, it's been just right.