Howdy, Campers!

Great day on the road today from White Springs, FL to Auburn, AL.

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Stephen+Foster+Folk+Culture+Center+State+Park,+White+Springs,+FL/Chewacla+State+Park,+124+Shell+Toomer+Pkwy,+Auburn,+AL+36830,+United+States

267 Miles today
530 Miles total

Let's start tonight where we left off last night... with Stephen Foster. Mrs. Cliche' and I got up before dawn today, had our coffee, read the news and waited within our mosquito-proof aluminum enclosure until there was sufficient daylight to assess the flying vermin situation. It was a "2" on the 1-10 scale. Good news! We only had to use kitchen spatulas to clear the path needed to get the bikes off the truck. Lucky for us it wasn't a "4"... we don't carry canoe paddles in the Airstream.

We swooshed and swatted our way to the truck which was easily 30 feet from the door of the Airstream, offloaded the bikes and peddled hard until we broke the speed-of-mosquito. That gave us a chance to tour the grounds so we could learn all we wanted to learn about Stephen Foster, which fortunately wasn't much because we tuckered out before reaching the main building. Anyway, I suspect they were not open for the day yet anyway (that's what I told the Mrs.). Fortunately, Wikipedia came to the rescue. This is quite a fine park with splendid buildings that depict long ago life of the South (north Florida being culturally and historically part of the South while the Florida peninsula is culturally something else all together). One can sense the devotion that the people of the State of Florida have for the man who wrote their state song ("Old Folks at Home" for those of you who missed last night's entry). So, you might think his commitment to Florida was strong and singular... right? That his love for the beautiful Suwannee inspired the lyrics and melody that we still sing over 150 years later... right? Well, you would be wrong. According to Google, Stephen Foster never laid eyes on the Suwannee. He was from Pittsburgh and moved to New York City! The closest he got to the Suwannee was a boat trip on the Mississippi River. Additionally, he wrote the state song for another state, too (Kentucky "My Old Kentucky Home"). I was shocked! It was like discovering that your beloved Dutch Uncle shacked up with your Dutch Aunt when he met her at a convention in Vegas and that he had another family you didn't even know about in another state.

Anyway... all of that doesn't detract from the fact that the people of Florida today have a nice park with a remarkable carillon (that's a musical bell tower for those of you who don't feel motivated to Google it) that plays... wait for it... Stephen Foster tunes on the half-hour. The Suwannee itself is a modest river that certainly will be on the short list for location shoots for "Deliverance 2" (I'm guessing none of the original cast would answer the call to appear in the sequel even if they were not in their 80's by now... "Once was enough!" might be Bert Reynold's response). There are some truly creepy southern houses on the roads around the park, complete with sagging shutters, peeling paint and Spanish moss is such abundance that it blocks the sun from actually shining on even the South-facing clapboards. Worth a stop. We plan to be there again in September. I'm hoping that's not mosquito mating season!

So... on to Alabama... or actually Georgia since that's where most of today's travels took us. We headed up I-75 for 60 miles or so before turning West on GA 520. We kicked around Albany, GA for a couple of hours. Mrs. Cliche' id'd some shops she wanted to visit and I picked a restaurant. We drove around from spot to spot mostly scaring locals with 6 1/2 tons of silver vehicles coming through parking lots that were better suited to a Prius. The shops delivered none of their rich bounty to Mrs. Cliche'... a complete strike out. Lunch, however delivered. Blackbeard's on N. Slappey Blvd makes a nice fried catfish. Ocra, cheese grits, hush puppies all arrived as sides. I added a chopped pork sandwich to get reacquainted with Georgia BBQ. None of that pulled pork here... that comes later in the trip.

We got to Chewacla State Park in Auburn about 3:30 (that's Central Time). Unhitched, got the trailer cooled down, the TV working, hot and cold running water, etc. We were safe and settled! The dogs ate their familiar combination of kibble and freshpet which was kept cold for them in the fridge all day while we drive in 90+ degree temps and blazing sun that would have driven Lawrence of Arabia to the shade of his camel. We looked out the window of the trailer at one point and saw people here preparing to eat and even sleep in small buildings made of cloth! It struck us as a bit primitive. Those feelings were validated when we saw them use burning sticks of wood to cook their dinner. I think these are the Alabama prehistoric life re-enactors we read about in the AAA guide book. Remarkable! We love the commitment they show and the attention to detail. Lucky for them the Alabama mosquito population is a fraction of what Florida re-enactors face.

Chewacla is a very pleasant park. Many of the buildings here were built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930's. Substantial, rustic stone structures. A lasting statement of how our country and its people worked through some of the darkest years in our history. There are not many camping sites and we like that. Ours is in the back of the park and well shaded. Much of the park centers around the lake which was busy as dinner time approached on this Saturday in June. I didn't take any pics of the truck and trailer in their site (if you look at last night's pic from Florida, this site is essentially identical.. save me the work and look there if you want to see the trailer doing what it does best). However, here's a shot of the lake with kids jumping from a diving platform

I was looking for a plaque or marker or something that told me what Chewacla means. I didn't see one. Judging from the lake, I'm thinking it's a Native American word meaning "brown lake". Frankly, I've seen better looking water in the opening sequence of Science Channel documentaries on municipal waste water treatment facilities. That said, I didn't see any life guards tackling kids in an effort to prevent them from entering the murk. The kids who were visible (as opposed to any beneath the surface who would not have been visible from a canoe immediately above them) were having a blast. I'm thinking this is how it's done here.

We are having a great time visiting these exotic places and learning how people from cultures so different from ours live their lives!

Tomorrow on to the even more exotic land... Mississippi!