New Orleans/FL Trip (Day 39) - Tampa, FL – Cordele, GA

We left the RV Park around 9:00 am and hooked-up the VW in a nearby grocery store parking lot after getting a few supplies for the trip. It began raining shortly after we left and by the time we reached Ocala, FL it was raining really hard with reduced visibility on the highway. There were several accidents and many people just pulled over to the side of the road to wait it out. We got off to get gas and it finally happened – we got caught in a tight situation at the gas station and we had to unhook the VW to extract ourselves (We cannot back-up when towing.) To make the event really special, we had to do this in the middle of a driving rainstorm without much shelter at the gas station. After we got dried off and back underway, the rain eased up a bit and we had an uneventful trip under clearing skies the rest of the way to a Georgia State Park in Cordele, GA.

We are staying at a great state park called the Georgia Veterans Memorial State Park. The park is on a large lake and has a military museum, army equipment (tanks, artillery pieces, etc.) on display as well as a WW II and later collection of military aircraft, including a B-29 bomber. There is also a large hotel & conference center, an 18-hole golf course, and a boat marina in the park – all run by the State of Georgia. The park is first class and looks like a great place to come for a conference or an extended camping trip. The RV sites are mostly pull-through and all have water, electricity, and TV. No sewer hook-ups, but there is a dump station in the park.












There is another strong weather system due in the area tomorrow, so we are going to try and get an early start and get to Gadsden, AL before the worst of it arrives. We will be visiting with high school friend Paula Smith (Schell) and her husband Dallas then starting home on Saturday.