Visiting Family in Augusta GA

Thursday:

We got up early Thursday morning and took a walk around the Gunter Hill COE Park near Montgomery AL. After eating breakfast, we finished unhooking and headed out towards Macon GA, the next stop on our trip. We looked at the campgrounds available around Macon and decided to call Arrowhead Campground on Lake Tobesofkey to see if they had any sites available for the night. They had one last pull through site with a view of the lake, so we told them we would take it. We arrived at the campground around 2:00 PM and at the check-in office to the campground Connie met a couple that ended up being our neighbors in the campground. The couple was Emory and Billie Brantley from near Tampa FL. They had just purchased a brand new Tiffin Phaeton motorhome from the Lazy Days dealership in Tampa a few weeks ago and this was their first "trip" in their new RV. They gave us a tour of the Phaeton and even though it was only 36 feet long it was well arranged and very nice both inside and outside. Emory and Billie had camped at Arrowhead a number of times on previous trips from Tampa in their prior motorhome: they had owned the previous one for 15 years. We decided to go to dinner together and they recommended the Fish and Pig Restaurant which was located on the lake. Connie and I got the Fish and Pork combo dinner that included pork ribs and fried catfish. We had a nice visit with Emory and Billie and enjoyed meeting them. They were headed towards Tennessee to go on the Whiskey Tour of a number of distilleries over several days.

Billie & Emory Brantley and their new Tiffin Phaeton

Site 4 @ Arrowhead Campground on Lake Tobesofkey

View out our front windshield at Arrowhead Campground

Lake Tobesofkey

Friday-Sunday:

We headed out from Macon towards Augusta GA on Friday morning. Since we only had 120 miles to travel, it allowed us time to take a walk around the campground, say good-bye to and wish safe travels to Emory and Billie before we left. We arrived at the Heritage RV Park in Augusta around 12:30 PM and were checked into Site 41. We later found out that this RV park in almost 70 years old making it one of the oldest private RV parks in the country.

Site 41 at Heritage RV Park

We did not have anyone on either side of us at the park
Good WiFi in the park along with 3-4 bars of ATT service.

View of the park. Most of the sites are occupied by long term residents
this time of year. We found out that during Masters Golf Tournament week
everyone has to leave the park and they charge very high rates during that week.

We are here in Augusta to visit with Connie's last surviving aunt, Evelyn Bailey and her two cousins, Keith Bailey and Donna Leida who also live here. We got set up in the RV Park, did some shopping to pick up some supplies and then went over to Donna and her husband Stan's house here in Augusta for dinner. We had not seen Evelyn, Donna or Keith in several years and so we spent the evening getting caught up.

On Saturday, all of us went to lunch at Jason's Deli and then everyone came back to the RV park to see The Duchess. Even Evelyn at 88 years old was able to get up the steps and come inside the RV. We visited for a while before Evelyn got tired and they headed back to their homes. We ended up going to Keith's house for dinner while Stan & Donna did some chores that needed to be done.

Connie and Keith (and Opie his Cocker Spaniel)

Keith Bailey is a very talented artist who works with various materials to make puppets, team mascots, bird houses and other pieces of art. Here are a few pictures of a small portion of his work:

On Sunday we went by the local Walmart to pick up a few items and then went over to Cabela's to look at their camping chairs. Connie is looking for a zero gravity chair that she saw on line at the Cabela's website. The store here in Augusta is called an Outpost Store and did not carry this chair in stock. We then went to Whole Foods where we had pizza slices for lunch and hung around until 12:30 PM (local liquor laws) so that we could buy some wine that we found on sale for $3.99 per bottle. We had picked one up at Whole Foods on Friday and really like the wine, so we wanted to get several bottles for the "road".

Our "expensive" taste in wine

 We then went over to Stan & Donna house to visit some more along with taking pictures of everyone.

Mike, Connie, Keith & Donna

Keith, Connie & Donna
Aunt Evelyn

Donna, Keith & Stan

 Donna & Keith put together a great light supper for us, we finished up our visiting and said our good-byes and headed back to The Duchess for the night. While we were taking a stroll around the campground, we met a couple who had just moved into a 5th wheel here at the RV park. He has six months left before his retirement after 30 years in the military here at Fort Gordon in Augusta. They had put their house up for sale, it sold quickly so they are staying in the 5th wheel until his retirement and their decision as to where to go from here. We showed them The Duchess and after taking the tour, I think that they will end up in a motorhome and not a 5th wheel. Tomorrow we travel to Spartanburg SC where we will spend a few days and then go on to Asheville NC on Friday.