Heading to Iowa!

Once we returned from the Florida Keys, we knew what we would keep in the motor home and what would be stored at home. Bob and I were ready to start our trip to Iowa, specifically, Forest City and the Winnebago factory for some minor repairs to the motor home. We said our good-byes to friends and family and we were on our way. Our first stop was just for one night at Three Rivers State Park near Sneads, Florida. Our plan was to spend one night and continue to Ft. Rucker, Alabama to see Bobby who was attending school on the base. Three Rivers is a nice park with a small campground. We had reservations for site 15 which was just perfect for our new rig. Unfortunately, after our long drive we weren't able to get out for a walk because it rained. The next morning, the weather had cleared.

 After packing up, we were on the road in record time and we made it to Engineer Campground, West Beach at Ft. Rucker before noon.

Since we had driven all day on Friday, and we didn't drive the car anywhere before moving to Ft. Rucker, the battery was dead when we went to unhook. Our campsite was still occupied and that was a problem. As we were hooking up battery cables a car came around the loop and Bob wanted us to hurry. I took a look at the car and its driver and knew we were okay---it was Bobby! Once the car started, Bob pulled Sol over to a gravel parking area and I drove the car around the campground loop while Bob and Bobby went back to the office to check on our site. It wasn't long before they came back and we had a new site which I thought was better than the original.

 The site was a pull through with the patio area in the shade for most of the day.

 After we got settled we set off to find a place to eat lunch. The first two places we tried were closed on SATURDAY! I don't believe I have ever seen restaurants that close on Saturday. So the third one was open and we ate Mexican burritos and enchiladas while catching up. We saw Bobby on Sunday and Monday evening.

When we weren't visiting with Bobby, Bob and I did a little geocaching near the campground. We didn't do much because of the heat and humidity.

Since Bobby had studying to do, we left on Tuesday. After hooking up the car, we decided to tow it to the dump station while it was still running. What we failed to remember was that the doors automatically lock at nine miles per hour. That's right, the doors locked and with the key in the ignition, the automatic door lock doesn't work. And yes, the windows were all in the up position! I quickly did a search on the phone and found a locksmith that was in the town closest to us. We drove to the location and there was no locksmith....YIKES! We continued down the street and Bob pulled over quickly into what used to be a gas station....the locksmith had moved about 300 yards from her original building. Within minutes she had the door unlocked and we were on our way to West Point, Georgia.  We had a reservation for R. Shaefer Heard COE Campground on West Point Lake.

 Once again, Bob made an excellent choice of sites when he made our reservation. We had a lakefront site that was level and shaded. If I am mentioning shade a lot, it is because the temperatures were in the upper 90's! The shade made all the difference in keeping Sol comfortable.

 Bob loaded geocaches on the GPS and we set off to do a numbers' run on Wednesday. The geocaches were located along a country road and were spaced about one tenth of a mile apart for quite a few miles.

On our way back to our camp site, we happened on  Fort Tyler  in West Point Georgia. The fort was the site of one of the last battles in the Civil War. As we climbed the hill we read all the information about the fort, but once at the top, we forgot to get a photo! On our way back to the car, we did find the geocache in the parking lot.


Thursday we set off toward Columbus, Georgia. We geocached a bit along the way, but only found a few. We ate lunch in The Cannon Brew Pub in downtown Columbus.

After lunch we strolled along Chattahoochee River Walk. Since the last time we visited, there is a white water raft area. We watched as a dad and his two daughters kayaked through the rapids. What we didn't get a picture of was when the dad was teaching them to roll their kayaks! When we first saw the littlest girl go over, we thought she was in trouble, but he helped her complete her roll, then watched as the older daughter rolled her kayak and came up beside it.

The reason for the white water is the dam.

While we were watching the people in kayaks, Bob spotted an osprey trying to eat his catch on the nearby rocks. Not long after we both took pictures of the osprey, a kayak got too near and the osprey flew off, flying very low as his fish was quite big!

The next day we hiked River Park Trail in West Point. The trail begins near this train trestle.

 We followed the trail through the woods near the river. Several ravines had wooden bridges which are great photo ops!

 We spotted this little fellow on the trail.

  The trail was not marked very well and we ended up taking a short cut back to the beginning after about a mile. Yes, it was once again hot and humid.

Saturday morning we drove to LaGrange, Georgia to tour Hills and Dales Estates before heading to Columbus to meet Bobby, his friend Eric and his wife. The house was gorgeous, but photography was prohibited. The house belonged to Fuller Callaway,  the younger Callaway brother. The older brother built Callaway Gardens in Pine Mountain, Georgia. After our tour of the 1916 mansion, we walked in the gardens which were started in the 1850's by another family.

The gardens are beautiful and huge! We could have spent several more hours walking through them, but we had to get to Columbus!

We made it to Columbus where we met Bobby, Eric, and Sherlye at The Cannon Brew Pub. After lunch, we said our good-byes to all and headed across the river to Phenix City, Alabama, to visit Chattahoochee Brewing Company before heading back to the campground.

Sunday we did another numbers' run for geocaches in Alabama. We found most of the ones we were looking for and are getting closer to the number 6000!

Monday, we went back to the River Trail and walked the entire loop trail which was a little over three miles

We have enjoyed our trip so far, but it was time to move on. We had more people to visit and places to see. Tuesday would be a moving day.