20JUL2014

I got up and of course it was raining.  Dane helped me get everything downstairs and moved my bike under a canopy for me so I could get it loaded up.  I rode over the Hathaway Bridge to the St. Andrews area of Panama City to meet a friend for coffee before I left.  The rain only got worse, so I tried to wait it out and do a little more planning, but eventually I knew I just had to tough it out, so I left town about 10AM.  Instead of taking highway 231 or 77 like I’d normally do when I lived in town, I went further east toward Wewahitcha to see some new country.  The rain kept up most of the day, and made life pretty miserable, but I needed to get moving.  After a long day, I finally arrived at George L. Smith State Park in GA (http://gastateparks.org/GeorgeLSmith).  It would have been more apt to name it Mosquito Lake State Park.  They had primitive campsites, but apparently you had to hike into them from the parking lot, and I didn’t feel like carrying my stuff from my bike an unknown distance into the woods.  So, I went to the RV camping area instead, which luckily wasn’t crowded.  My campsite was about 10 feet from a lake that could have passed for a swamp, with cypress looking trees growing out of it everywhere and stagnant water.  The good news was they had a bathhouse, so I got a hot shower, then immediately began to sweat once I got out due to the humidity.  Oh well.  At least it didn’t rain on me while I was there.

Google Map of today’s ride

Cooking up some tuna fish with macaroni and cheese
Cooking up some tuna fish with macaroni and cheese
My campsite at George L. Smith State Park in Georgia
My campsite at George L. Smith State Park in Georgia

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