We decided to take our time on our way back up to Michigan for the summer, so I did my usual travel planning thing of researching campgrounds on our route that allow for the driving distances we want to attain each day. So in Georgia, that meant the small town of Unadilla, close to I-75, and included in our Coast to Coast membership. The park costs us just a $5 electric fee per day.

Spending a week in small town Georgia has meant we have to stretch a bit to find meaningful and interesting things to do.

It so happens there is a National Historic Site about an hour’s drive away. Andersonville is the site of a national cemetery as well as the historic site where 45,000 Union prisoners of war were imprisoned. Almost 14,000 of those imprisoned died there.

Andersonville also has a prisoner of war museum on the grounds which was as thought-provoking as it was sobering. Exhibits explored POW experiences over time, including the civil war, WWII, Vietnam and Korea. The cemetery is still in use today, and our sightseeing there was limited because of a service happening during our visit.

The next day we ventured further afield to Providence Canyon State Park. We took Olive along to hike through the beautiful canyon, and I’m afraid we all got a bit overheated. The red clay soil was quite lovely, but what was surprising were the vibrant colors in the different strata of soil, including a pristine white glittering soil that somehow made it onto my skin. (Always wanted to be part pixie!). Another surprising thing was that the canyon is relatively young. It resulted from poor farming practices that cut the trees down, and erosion took hold thereby causing the loss of the town and buildings that had been there.

The several mile hike in and around the canyon was so much fun – it was worth the 3 hour round trip to the park.

Of course when in Georgia one must partake of peanuts and pecans. The RV park we stayed at had pecan trees, but they weren’t in season. So we did travel a ways to a nut store and also found a sausage store we went back to a few times for their smoked spicy breakfast sausage.

Not since traveling to Istanbul and the Kedi (cat) Park have I seen so many stray cats. They were all over the RV park and we also found a flea bitten stray dog at the gas station. Ray got injured when he tried to grab the dog’s collar to help capture it for a man who said he’d give it a good home – but the man was scraggly and toothless himself, making one wonder if his motives were pure…. Regardless, we were unsuccessful in capturing the mutt, as was the animal control officer who arrived to help.

Georgia had a few surprises for us and ended up being a nice spot to travel through and get to know a little better.