Mistletoe State Park For Christmas

As I mentioned in my last post, Gary was not feeling too well for a few days. He was trying to get a bunch of things done around the house while we were home, and at the same time, I think he was actually running himself down more and more. Eventually, the flu bug got him BIG time, and he was down for the count. After a couple of days of bed rest with me watching over him, he began to feel somewhat better, but still far from perfect. He completed doing whatever was necessary to get us on the road, and on December 23rd, we headed back into Georgia for our final round of the camping season. It was a 310 mile ride to get to our stopping point at Mistletoe State Park near Augusta, GA. That's a longer drive than we like to make in a single day. What made it seem even longer was that we drove the last third of the trip in the rain. We finally arrived, having driven straight through with only one brief stop for fuel. It's always hard for Gary to pass up a photo opportunity, so he braved the light rain for a few seconds, and snapped the photo of me entering the gates at the park. We checked in at the park office, and made our way down the long road to the campground. As usual, we drove through the campground in search of a campsite that we really liked. There were many to choose from at Mistletoe, not only because there weren't many campers there, but also because the majority of the campsites were SO nice. Whoever laid out the park did an incredible job. The campground loops are on a peninsula that's surrounded by the 72,000 acre (yep, you read that right) Clark's Hill Lake. Some of the campsites are REALLY close to the water, a bit TOO close for my taste. That makes me nervous and Gary knows it, so to please me, he compromised and picked a site that was picturesque, yet far enough away from the water's edge to make me happy. We were in site number 82, a multi-level, pull-through, gravel covered campsite with some highly unusual features. There was the top level, which was where Dodge and I stayed. One step down was another graveled area where the picnic table, fire ring, and the most unusual feature of the campsite was, a raised deck that measured roughly eight feet square. As far as we know, our campsite was the only one in the park with that cool little deck. Several more steps down, there was grass, trees, and shrubbery on a slope that lead to the water's edge. Near the bottom were two small benches, something else we didn't see in any of the other campsites. Unfortunately, other than for a few short hours during our four-day stay, the weather just didn't cooperate. There was either fog or rain during most of our visit. Gary never got a chance to take full advantage of all the special features of the campsite, but he has already booked a stay for us next fall. We'll be going in late October, so hopefully we will be there in time to see some fall colors. No rain would be really nice too. During the short period of nicer weather that we enjoyed, Gary was out snapping pictures of the rest of the park. I'll be posting some of them soon. I hope that everyone had a fun Christmas. I sure did!