So, our story left off with us leaving Orlando. And that post was somewhere in the middle of December. The I’m-going-to-do-a-post-each-week goal hasn’t been going so well this year. But I digress, which I do, a lot. Which is why I’m so far behind.

So where was I? Oh yeah, South Georgia. SOWEGA is it’s know.  (South West GA) maybe it’s been called that all along, but it’s been a long time since I’ve really spent any length of time there.  I grew up in South Georgia in a teeny tiny town called Climax. I went to Bainbridge High School in the town down the road. We were headed there to see friends and family through the holidays.

Our very first stop was in  Monticello, Florida for 3 evenings before Thanksgiving. We were with friends we had met at a retreat for Christian couples who ran photography studios together. We fit the bill. We met Carol and Allen there and kept in touch over Facebook. When I put it out there about what we were doing, Carol said they had connections and for us to visit sometime. So, we did. It just happened to be the week of Thanksgiving. When we left Florida that Sunday afternoon, it was 80 degrees. When we woke up the next morning, it was 34 degrees. QUITE the change!! And I LOVED it! I really enjoy cooler weather.  We arrived after dark and had to park. One of many RV rookie mistakes……

The boys made new friends and we reconnected with old friends. My mom even got to come visit since she was just down the road. It was a great location for our first stop.

As we prepared to leave on Wednesday, we noticed that the RV sat much lower than we remembered. It had settled into the ground, into a hole. When we landed, we put our landing gear down in the softest, lowest spot there was. So, when we went to hitch up, we had a hard time getting the pin on the RV high enough for the hitch in the truck bed. We thought we had figured it out and gotten all hitched up properly.

As Mike pulled forward, the truck kept going and the fifth wheel RV fell. Hard. ON THE TRUCK. um. hmmm. HOLY **BLEEP**! I won’t write the words I’m certain that came flying out of my mouth. There my house sat on my truck. On my crushed truck. We carefully extended the supports of the RV and tried again. This time we got it right. I figured that we’ll never make THAT mistake again. Oh but don’t worry, there are so many others to be made 🙂

We finally got hitched up again and now we raced against the clock to get to our next destination before dark. Barely a word was spoken on the hour-long drive. Mike was upset about the truck. I wasn’t as upset as I thought I would be. “It’s just stuff. It can be fixed” I kept saying. Well, it was true. Having a truck that was crushed in the back because we lived in an RV traveling was okay with me! We arrived at relatives just after the sun had set and had just enough time to get set up.  All this required a stiff drink for Mike! LOL

Thanksgiving was nice, although the weather was way too warm. It was about 80 that whole weekend. I don’t really like warm weather, especially during Thanksgiving and Christmas. The Friday after Thanksgiving we went to a football game at my high school. It was a playoff game and one of the best games Mike had ever seen. He played high school football and said the game was amazing. It was the first football game my boys had ever been to, and we all had a blast. Go Bearcats!!!!!

Saturday morning we got up and headed over to Swine Time in Climax. Yes, Swine Time. It’s a festival about pigs. In South Georgia. I went every year during my childhood. There’s a parade to start then a festival with food, entertainment, contests and games, tons of local arts and crafts and lots of other stuff. It was pretty cool introducing my family to a piece of my childhood. Brooks even participated in the greasy pig chase!! I have ridden in the Swine Time parade many times and even clogged (type of dance) on the back of a flatbed truck! I even won the peanut rolling contest one year. You had to roll a peanut across a gym floor using your nose the fastest. I didn’t so much roll the peanut as I did push it. I put my nose to the floor and shoved the peanut in front of it as I made it as quickly as I could across the floor. I left some of my nose behind, too! But I won 🙂  Later that afternoon we got to hang out with dear friends I hadn’t seen in forever. It was so great connecting with people from my childhood.

On Sunday we headed over to Cedars Farm Plantation and got to visit and hang out with Jessica, Derry and their awesome kids through Friday. Cedars Farm is a unique hunting plantation and so gorgeous. We loved it there!!  That Thursday evening I had a gathering of a few friends from high school. It was discussed that I wasn’t quite sure where we were going the VERY NEXT DAY, since we needed to leave Cedars Farm. My dear friend Heidi and her husband graciously offered us their yard to park in for the week. We had a blast there, too! The boys played with their son Hunter and had the time of their lives. We went to a football party to watch the high school championship game, a Christmas party, a Christmas event at a church and  the town Christmas parade. We also went target shooting and hunting. Bryce shot his very first doe!! It was all so awesome.

It’s still hard to wrap my head around my lifestyle sometimes. Not because it’s hard, but because it’s so amazing. It truly is. I may not have EVER seen some of the people I saw had I not lived in and RV and been able to travel. Part 1 of South Ga was awesome. Stay tuned for Part 2!!!

 

~Ann