Our campground in Jacksonville was located in the NW corner of the city, just off the 295 outside loop. The road to GA was right outside the camp. We started out on Rte 1 NW to Waycross ( formerly the "speed trap capital of the US"). NE FL & SE GA is primarily agricultural, a combination of private residential plots, commercial forests, and cotton fields.
The land is extremely flat and barely above the water table as the evidence of swampland is always close by. Our route takes us off of Rte 1 in Waycross onto SR 182 which goes a little more West to Tifton, GA on Rte I75. Once you move onto the Interstate the density & type of traffic changes. Jan got into the routine on the interstates of counting trucks because there were so many. On I10 in FL a 10 minute count of trucks moving along the opposite lanes from us showed 80 trucks. Multiply this by (6) to get 1 hour and by (2) to account for both lanes, and you get 960 trucks passing this point on the road in (1) hour. A ten minute count in GA on I75 increased to 67 trucks. Using the same multipliers, the hourly total traffic of 18 wheelers increases to 804. We arrived at our campground, just off of I75 in Elko, GA shortly after noon. We checked in, Dave set up his RV and then we went to Perry ( in my PW), about 8 miles North, to get some lunch and do a little sightseeing. ( Jan and I lived in Perry back in 1994 when my job transferred me there on a temporary assignment) We had lunch at our favorite Perry chain restaurant (Cracker Barrel) and then took a cruise through the downtown and out by the apartment complex where we lived. I then took Dave and Jean by the old Northrop plant just off I75. Sadly, the plant appears to be totally vacant. 400,000 sq.ft. of building and 400 acres of land sitting idle. Such is competition in the Defense industry. The plant was originally built to assemble, fuel and arm and ship drones such as those in regular use today in most off our theaters of operation around the world.
We then visited Houston Lake CC in N. Perry where I used to play golf. I wanted to show Dave the 18th hole ( the course's signature hole). We watched a foursome play the hole. We wished it was us!
We also visited the dam on Houston Lake that was washed out the summer I was there. It was built prior to the Civil War and after over 150 years, was destroyed by Mother Nature in a freak storm that dumped over 19" of rain in one day in July 1994. The old dam was made of wood pilings while its replacement is steel & concrete. I wonder if it will last 150 years?
The day ended with a beautiful sunset!
Tomorrow we're off to Decatur, a suburb of Atlanta, where my sister lives.
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