Hales Landing Park

We arrived at Hales Landing Park on March 22. We were not sure how long we would stay. The park is all non-reserveable sites. We liked this park from the moment we drove in. It is small with only 26 sites and is very quiet. It sits right along the banks of the upper end of Lake Seminole.

This park is a COE park. It has been a while since I have talked about COE parks, but I will repeat what I have said. We LOVE COE parks. They are a great value and we have never been disappointed. We do not qualify for the senior pass yet, so we don't get he 50% off, but it is great that folks over 62 can get that discount. We are planning to stay at COE parks all the way back to Missouri.

You could say that this park is still part of the Flint river. The park is on a branch off of the main path of the river. It makes the water quiet, with plenty of lily pads and birds. It is really a pretty setting.

Our site #8

As soon as we pulled in we were greeted by the camp host. They have been great. They even offered us some firewood at no charge. We have met some other campers while we have been here. We have met more folks here than we met the entire time we were in Orlando. I guess people in Georgia are very friendly.

Here is the lake/river view from our site. 

The weather was perfect the first few days we have been here. We should have gone paddling or something, but we were just lazy and relaxed and read. I did go for a long walk up the road, but that was about it for activity. I saw one car the entire hour I was walking. I did have a nice conversation with this goose.

My friend the goose.

The forecast looked like rain for Thursday evening all the way through the weekend. We decided if we were going to get the boat out, we better get motivated. It was getting a little more windy than we like, but the trees were doing a pretty good job of keeping the water flat.

We got the boat ready and were able to launch it right in front of our site. We love that. We always start out by paddling into the wind or up river if there is a current. The problem was that the wind was stronger than the current, so we went down river. In a couple of the open areas it got a bit windy, but not too bad.

Nice Day on the water.

I think we have become stronger paddlers. We seem to be able to paddle longer and with more power to get through the windy spots. We saw a few birds including a couple of Great Egrets, a few ducks and a Red Shouldered Hawk.

Great Egret in flight

A couple of Coots

There is a hawk in the center of this picture. Can you see him?

After paddling downstream, we were concerned that the wind would die and we would have to fight the current getting back to camp. Thankfully that did not happen. We had light winds blow us all the way back. We just had to guide the kayak through the twists and turns of the river. We then paddled around a small island that required us to be in the main channel of the river for a short time. Kim had reservations, but I talked her into it. This was one time I was right. We made it just fine and completed the circumnavigation of the small island. We had an outstanding day on the water.

We cleaned the boat and left it in the sun to dry. I read a few chapters of my current book and then we cleaned and packed up the boat. I fixed the last of my deer steaks for dinner. They were sure good with Tim's Killer Meat Rub. While we were eating, the front hit. I finished and then put the grill away in the rain. The front looked bad on radar, but it seemed to reduce in strength over us and all was good. It quit raining and we had a quiet night. We were awoken this morning to some more hard rain. It looks like we will have rain most of the day and on into the Easter Weekend. To most, that would be bad, but we look at the bright side. We will have a very quiet campground. We have decided to stay here through the weekend. We are not far from a church in Bainbridge for Easter Sunday. They have a mass at 1PM, we should to be able to make that.

I may not write for a few days as I am caught up and we may just be hunkered down riding out that rain. We will check in again in a few days from Alabama. That is unless we need to build an ark. It is really raining right now.