TTS Hop 8
196 miles via GA 32, US 221, US 41, GA 31, FL 145, FL 14, I-10, US 19, FL 59, US 98 and US 319. Cumulative tow miles: 1,849.
Does that route sound complicated? It was. This was arguably the most complex route we have had on any hop in any of our trips. The Google map initially offered 3 routes and I waffled back and forth over them for hours. The shortest route had too many turns. The middle route took me down a narrow street and through a roundabout. So I opted for the longest of the 3 routes.
Naturally, the GPS couldn’t find it. So I traveled over 50 miles along the route, hoping that the GPS would eventually catch up. It didn’t. I came to an intersection where – God forbid – I had to use my gut instinct and chose to continue further on US 221. So the route we took ultimately was “none of the above.”
This made for a pretty stressful trip. I was comforted only by the knowledge that I was traveling in approximately the right direction (thanks, compass) and that there were no low bridges within 100 miles (thanks, Low Clearances). Despite being, in a sense, lost, the route ended up shorter than the route I had planned to take.
The final error was that we entered the wrong destination address, using “US 98 W” instead of “US 98 E”. I was cruising along, thinking I still had 8 more miles to go, when our target – the Ho Hum RV Park – suddenly appeared on our left. Some quick braking and a sudden left turn and we were home. Whew!
Our overnight stay the night before the hop was the General Coffee State Park, about 7 miles east of Douglas, GA. This was just an overnight, but it was special in that it was our very first state park campsite. We have avoided state parks because most either don’t have RV camping or don’t have RV camping for a big rig like ours. General Coffee not only had RV camping but had lots of spacious sites. Most of them were 30-amp electric sites but they did have a couple of 50-amp sites. None of the sites have sewer, but they do have a dump station and in any case the lack of a sewer connection for a single night is no real problem.
Campsite at General Coffee
We got there just before sunset and didn’t have a lot of opportunity to look around, but I liked what I saw. First, the park is huge – we had to drive 2 miles into the park to find our campsite. Second, it seems to have a lot of amenities. Beach (apparently with canoe rentals) and possibly horseback riding as we passed a stable with 3 horses. Very nice. I don’t know what else is in the area – Douglas itself doesn’t have anything that would attract me – but if you ever find yourself looking for a campsite near Douglas GA, consider General Coffee State Park.
We picked a site (yes, they let you pick your own site) that was heavily wooded and pretty secluded. Very, very quiet and very, very dark. One negative: there is absolutely no television reception. No cable, no over-the-air. It was a quiet night with DVDs.
The dogs enjoyed the nature trail walk in the morning.
Morning walk