The main purpose of this trip for me was to see my high school friend Andy (aka Scott Dorsey). So from that perspective, the trip was a success. I did get to spend time with him and we had lots of laughs and fun together. He even got in the Powder Puff spirit and bought a pink shirt for the trip. However, the weather for this trip was awful! It rained every day and every night that we were there.My sister and I headed out after work on Wednesday. We drove about 2 1/2 hours and stayed the night at Stephen Foster SP in North Florida. The next morning, we got on the road around 8 and arrived at Vogel SP around 4. We picked a campsite, got set up and had dinner. Andy got to the park around 7pm. We got his tent set up then took the dogs for a walk then spent the rest of the evening playing a game that he brought with him. The next morning, we set out to explore the park. Not long into our walk, it started raining. We stopped at the visitor's center and sat around waiting for it to stop raining. It cleared up long enough for us to make it to the waterfall inside the park. After having lunch at our campsite we went to a gem stone store not far from the park. The lady working in the store suggested that we go to Consolidated Gold Mines in Dahlonega and take the mine tour. That place was great! It's an underground tour of a gold mine from the 1800's. Before the tour, they show you how to pan for gold. Since it was still looking like it was going to rain, we didn't do anymore site seeing that day. The next day, we took our morning walk and then we went to the Alpine Village of Helen. We walked around looking at all the shops then had lunch outside at a restaurant overlooking a beautiful river. Once again, the rain started and we had to call it a day. On our last day there, we woke up to yet another rainy morning. We spent the morning searching for something that could be done inside but found nothing. We decided to bring the umbrellas and make an attempt to see some of the area waterfalls...ones that were located not far from the roads. After a very dicey, muddy drive down a dirt road, we made it to see Helton Creek Falls. It was well worth the scary drive to see it. It was a 2 tier fall with the lower fall being completely accessible. We were able to walk out and stand directly at the bottom of the fall and feel the force of the water coming down. Next, we saw Anna Ruby Falls which was about 5 times the size of Helton and absolutely spectacular. We were supposed to spend another night at Vogel and head out in the morning but all of us were ready to leave the nasty weather and get home. So we had a quick dinner at the campsite and left the park around 4pm. Andy drove straight through and got to Virginia some time in the wee hours of Monday morning. My sister and I drove about 3 hours and stayed the night at a KOA then completed the rest of the drive in the morning.
The weather was terrible but the company was oh so entertaining. Thanks Andy, for being such a good sport...the pink shirt meant a lot to me.
