We woke up to 42 degrees, but we were glad to see that the lake here at Hamburg State Park was smooth as glass. It looked like our decision to stay an extra night might pay off.
While we were going through our morning routine and waiting for it to warm up, we noticed our neighbors a couple of sites down were preparing to launch their Sea Eagle FastTrack. Linda & Wayne had emailed us a few days ago saying they have just missed us several times as we've traveled through Georgia.
They were planning to arrive at Hamburg today and we had originally planned to leave today. However, they came in a day early and we stayed an extra day. Linda talked to them briefly yesterday.
I took a picture as they paddled behind our rig.
We stepped outside in our pajamas to say "hi" and tell them we'd be out there on the water a little later and would probably see them out there.
After I finished up the last of a few emails, we got ready. Ordinarily, we would have gotten out our FastTrack kayak as well, but since the Foldcat was ready to go, we decided it would be an electric motor day rather than a human powered day. :)
We took a couple of photos of our rig as we headed out.
I set the trolling motor on its lowest speed, and we slowly crossed the smooth lake.
We considered fishing, but our 3-day licenses had expired and we didn't want to get new ones. So, today was just a leisurely tour around the lake.
We dodged some stumps and "stick up" as we got back into a shallow cove where we admired to colors of the budding trees.
We listened to the honks of the geese and the echos of the woodpeckers pounding the trees as we floated out in the middle of the stumps and had lunch.
The literature says that alligators can be seen in this lake, but we saw only turtles - lots and lots of turtles.
We continued on around the edge of the lake watching the squirrels and birds, and looking for deer. We spotted Linda & Wayne, so we motored over to chat with them as they paddled past the campground.
We expressed our mutual admiration for such a gorgeous day, and they invited us over to their site for hamburgers this evening. Of course, we accepted. :)
From there we continued our lake tour across the glassy surface.
We went to the dam and the mill ....
and then turned around to finish the rest of our trip. It was a perfect day to be on the water as the temps got up into the upper 70s.
As we approached our campsite, we got a shot of Linda relaxing and Wayne doing a little bank fishing at their site.
We took our boat out, cleaned it, dried it, deflated it, and packed it up. We completely re-arranged the back of the truck cab so all three of our inflatable boats from InflatableBoats4Less.com would fit better.
The Foldcat takes up a lot of space. The hull itself in its bag with the oars and our canopy (which we didn't use today) fills the floor behind the front truck seats. Then there is an accessories bag that has our pump, fishing rod holders, and other stuff. The boat seats are bulky and I have to put them in the back of the truck. Then there is the electric motor and the battery.
So, the Foldcat is an awesome inflatable fishing boat, but it's not great for RVers tight on space. Still, we make it work and, though we don't use it often, we've taken it on three magnificent tent camping trips that are highlights of our time on the road.
Once we got everything packed away, Linda took our leftover bait down to Wayne & Linda and talked with them until dinner time while I took care of some business.
We joined them for some burgers and conversation until the sun went down and it started to get too cold to remain outside in our short sleeves. Thanks Wayne & Linda - wonderful to finally meet you and we'll see you again I'm sure. :)
Tomorrow, we'll make the hour long trip up to Mistletoe State Park where we'll stay at least a week. Hopefully, we can snag the wonderful site we had last time. :)
We are going to be at Mistletoe starting on Thursday of next week. Hope to get to meet you as you folks are the reason that we are staying at Georgia State Parks. We are at Skidaway Island State Park now. Thanks for all the great info you post.
Posted by: Patricia Cuddeback | Wednesday, April 02, 2014 at 03:46 PM