Camping trip to Black Rock Mtn. State Park

Over Labor Day weekend, we drove up to northeast GA with some friends of ours, Kurt and Shelah, to camp for 2 nights and enjoy the great outdoors. Lately I've been experiencing some queasiness in the evenings, and I was a little apprehensive about being sick in a tent in the woods! Also, I knew that I couldn't make it through the night without a pit stop, but Davey and Shelah both rescued me different times by walking with me down the hill to the bathroom in the dark. Overall I felt great the whole time...until I got home on Monday night!

The drive took about 2 and 1/2 hours, and fortunately we didn't hit any of the weekend construction traffic that everyone in Atlanta had been warned about. When we got to the park and I checked in, the staff said that they advised us to keep all food, even toothpaste, in our car because of the bears and raccoons! Apparently they will smell anything and then come after the food. It was inconvenient to have to drag everything up to the campsite for every meal and then take it all back, but I guess that's better than finding a bear in your tent in the middle of the night.

The weather was pretty nice the whole time we were there. The first night could have been a few degrees cooler, but it definitely wasn't as hot and humid as it has been earlier this month. The GA heat is the reason we don't camp in the summer anyway. We like to stick to fall and spring.

After sleeping in and breakfastthe next morning, we decided to go hiking. Davey and I had hiked at this park before, but we forgot which trail had the great lookout point. Come to find out it wasn't the one we chose. We got halfway through the trail and came to a point where we crossed a road. Davey and Kurt decided to walk back up the road to the car and then come get us girls. We laid in the grass and talked while enjoying the breeze. I think a few people driving by thought we were stranded, but when we smiled and waved instead of looking desperate they probably figured we were alright. After about 35 min. the guys finally arrived and we contemplated our next adventure: find a place to swim!

Davey and I didn't have bathing suits with us, and Kurt and Shelah had left theirs back up at the campsite and didn't feel like going all the way back up there. So, it was off to Walmart we went. I guess we just missed bathing suit season, so Shelah and I ended up with shorts and tanktops. The boys, however, had some fun trying on way too small boys swim trunks! I believe Kurt's was Transformers and Davey's pick was Batman. This was quite entertaining, let me tell you! They finally ended up with some other shorts, and we headed off to "Rabun Beach."

Little did we know that Lake Rabun would be so beautiful! Sorry I forgot to take pictures, but just imagine a lake with mountains surrounding it, and incredibly gorgeous lake houses, or shall we say, lake mansions. We seriously considered showing up at one of the immaculate lake houses and crashing someone's Labor Day party. Instead we settled for the public beach, which was small but still very nice. After lunch at a shaded picnic table, we ventured down to the water. We never really "swam," but just being in the water was nice. It definitely cooled us off after hiking earlier.

That evening we worked to keep our fire going so I could cook "hobos" on the fire. They consist of hamburger meat, potatoes, carrots, and spices wrapped in foil pockets. It took awhile to get the fire right, but we finally enjoyed our dinner and relaxed around the campfire while roasting marshmallows and eating s'mores. Our dog Rudy was so tired he just slept in my lap all evening. Seeing a 30 lb. dog squashed up on my small lap was pretty funny, but he just wouldn't budge.

This will probably be our last camping trip until Baby gets here, but hopefully someday we'll be able to pick up camping again. We hope so!