Refreshed from our mini-vacation, we packed up one last time and hit the road eastbound for Georgia. After a long month we were ready to be back to normal. But the thought of trying to ascend the steep, narrow mountain road towing our 8,000lbs home and then navigating the narrow campground to get into our site left my stomach in knots.
We tried to forget our worries by playing what we had come to call “the alphabet game”. The idea is that we each have to find the letters of the alphabet starting with A going through Z but you can only use a sign or license plate for one letter – once it has been used for one letter by one player, it cannot be used again by any player. This was fun, but quickly grew competitive (particularly when Chris started losing consistently) which led to Chris cheating and soon descended into cussing each other out.
It took Chris a minute but he finally grew up and realized I’m just better at games than him. Junior was happily watching The Jungle Book in the back seat and was blissfully unaware of what a cheater his father was, fortunately for him.
As we drew into Georgia, though, the fun and games wore off and the nerves began to set in. Once we conquered the Atlanta traffic, we were just an hour or so from the park. We had gotten lucky with the weather so far and as we drove into Clayton, about 15 miles from the park, we saw the peak of Black Rock ahead. The sun was catching the window of the visitor’s center near the summit signaling that it was crunch time. We decided to pull in at the gas station in Clayton. We stepped out for a cigarette one last time before the ascent.
“Alright, this is it. This is the moment of truth. Think she can make it?” Chris said smirking.
I exhaled deeply and glanced up at the mountain. Not 5 minutes before it was a beautiful, clear day and I could see the peak of the mountain. Now clear skies had been swallowed by a large storm cloud looming over the summit. I chuckled flatly and gestured upwards rolling my eyes. Chris lifted his head to see and quickly dropped it again shaking his head gently.
“Of course.”
“Well let’s do this then. Come on.” I said, dreading what lay ahead.
Surprisingly, despite the ominous weather, we made it up the mountain to the campground with no trouble. The rain started just as we were getting set up, but I was just thankful to be home and ready to get settled.
Chris took the week off se we could finish getting settled. We spent the next couple of days walking around and taking in the new surroundings. Though we were at Black Rock before we left for Tennessee, we were at the maintenance compound halfway down the mountain. Now we were a few hundred feet higher up the mountain and far from the privacy of that site.
Our new site sits on the corner of where the road through the campground splits and the doors of the camper face the road instead of the thickly wooded mountain slope behind us. It was a little bit of a downer those first few nights. Schools hadn’t gone back yet so the campground was still very full. Late into the evening people were walking past our fire chatting as they walked. It’s not a big deal, but as people that enjoy our privacy, it’s definitely the worst aspect of living in a campground. One of the things we liked about Vogel was how private our site was compared to the rest of the sites, here it’s definitely the opposite case.
But the high temperatures were around 72 (22 Celsius) and the evening lows were around 60 (15 Celsius) every night with low humidity and a steady cooling breeze. It was a wonderful feeling that weekend to sit by the fire with long pants on and enjoy it. We both remarked at how positively lovely it was to be home again.
Being at the summit was different in other ways too. With no light pollution from the street lights of the suburbs or the glaring lights of the maintenance shop, there was no light to be had. The thin tree canopy further extinguishes most light from the moon and the stars, so the darkness was thick. Sitting by the fire and looking around is like staring into the abyss. Furthermore, at night time, the crickets, cicadas, and frogs all come alive and the noise is near deafening. It drowns out the fireside conversations of nearby sites and people moving around.
The blindness from the darkness and the deafness from the night critters creates a disorienting effect that is strange and hard to define. You become more aware that there are people and beasts beyond the darkness, but your ability to know where they lurk is significantly diminished. To enjoy it, you just have to accept it. Perhaps it’s one of the reasons why people like camping; it’s vulnerability but in an exhilarating way.
Most mornings here are spent in a cloud. It’s grey and foggy everywhere you look. In drier mornings the campfire smoke and the fog hang silently in the air and blanket the summit. I can barely see the campsite across the road from us some mornings. But usually by around 9 or 10am the sun begins to penetrate the fog, the cloud lifts, and the views are spectacular. The little birds are chirping, people are friendly and happy to be on vacation, the wildflowers are in bloom, and it’s warm but not hot.
Junior has also had a blast exploring with us. He’s taken to mushroom hunting with me. We’ll walk around the campground and look for cool new fungus on the forest floor and the base of rotten trees. When he finds one, he’ll squat down and say, “Whassat. Mushooooooo.” It’s adorable and I applaud his keen eye for finding them even when I can’t. We’ve already collected a fine portfolio of cool and unusual fungus and I look forward to reading about and teaching him mycology one day. His undying love for the outdoors is heartwarming. He often wakes in the mornings or from his naps with a hearty plea for adventure as he frowns, points to the door and says, “ow-siiiii”.
We love exploring and discovering all the different kinds of life here at the park. On one mushroom hunt, Junior discovered a furry little caterpillar and laid down in the road to make friends with him. Last week we rescued a tree frog that had found his way into the bathroom. He makes friends with every single living creature in the park. He pets every dog that comes walking past (and there are a lot), he wins the hearts of every adult, and he has a few pet rocks that he totes around the campsite with him on our walks. He even made friends with an older couple’s pet love bird that they brought camping with them.
We also made some human friends. After a couple of days we were sitting outside the camper enjoying Junior’s nap. I looked up from my book to see that a camper was arriving at the site across and to the right of us. The couple, clearly new at maneuvering a camper, were having some trouble backing into hill-side site on the corner. She was behind the camper trying to guide him in, while he was driving trying to see over the hood of the car. From my vantage point I could see that he was about to steer himself right into the storm drain in front of him and to the right, so I ushered Chris to go and give them a hand.
It’s still fresh in my memory the first time we back our camper into a site. Though I wasn’t driving, the pressure of being Chris’ eyes behind the camper, and therefore the responsible party should he collide with anything, made my hands shake and my heart race. It’s a nerve-wracking event in which help is greatly appreciated.
So Chris ran up to give them a hand and, within a minute or so, they had successfully backed into their site and Chris joined me again at the camper. A few minutes later, after the couple had gotten their camper leveled, the man came down to say thank you for Chris’ help.
He was of average height and stocky stature. His bald head, long grey goatee, and tattoos gave him a slightly intimidating appearance, but his thick German accent meant he had a good sense of humor. His name was Volker, and this was their maiden voyage with their new camper. His wife’s name was Bren, and she was American. She had short, blonde hair and tattooed arms. It turned out that they had met because of the motorcycle club they were both members of and this seemed pretty fitting for their appearance.
We became old friends fast and quickly discovered that we had so much in common. That evening we invited them to our site for some drinks and we shared stories and laughs into the evening. Bren was easy to talk to. She had a wicked sense of humor and an intellectual outlook to match it. We talked about everything from silly stories, to world travels, to being a mother, to the very core of life itself. We shared similar beliefs about many things and looked at the world in the same way. This made her good company.
Volker’s sense of humor is killer and we spent much of our conversations with him splitting at the ribs. Though he spoke with an unmistakable German accent, his command of English made it easy to talk to and understand him. He’s lived a rich life having joined the German army in 1982, traveled the world as an engineer, and has never said no to an opportunity for a good time. He has both wisdom and the appreciation for laughter which made him good company also.
His accent and inherent German-ness made punchlines out of fringe details of his stories. One night he was telling us about the difference in temperatures between Canada and Germany. He said:
“The only things the same about the Fahrenheit and the celsius, jah, is that -40 Fahrenheit is -40 celsius, right? What’s the difference?? Dude, it’s fucking cold, jah??”
He had genuine anger and confusion in his voice that sent us nearly falling out of our chairs as we cried with laughter.
On another occasion he told us a story where he and Bren were on a road trip and she turns to him and says “how do you want to spend your retirement?”
For him this was a big question, one that is akin to “do you want kids?” Or “do you want to get married?”
He thought for a second before answering: “on a golf course”.
Bren was quiet for a moment, then suddenly began sobbing.
“‘What’s wrong with you??’ I asked her, because she is crying… like what the fuck? So I immediately am confused and I ask her this. She says, ‘I don’t think I want to spend my retirement on a golf course, I don’t even like golf!’ I start laughing so hard and she starts to get mad like, ‘WHY ARE YOU LAUGHING??” I was laughing because I said, ‘not a golf course – THE GULF COAST!’”
We were howling. They were guests at the park for 4 nights, and we spent every evening with them laughing, drinking, and swapping stories. They told us that they had been discussing the possibility of going full time in the RV and we spent a lot of time talking about why we did it and why they’d love it, as well as the downsides of the lifestyle. We talked about plans to visit them in Acworth (about 2 hours away just outside of Atlanta) and I truly hope we make it happen. We were sad to see them go and hoped to be neighbors with them again soon.
On the flip side, we’ve had some rather unwanted visitors. The creepy crawlies in the area are big and poisonous. There have been 2 dogs bitten by copperheads (snakes) in the last month. One dog was laying under his camper when he was bitten. A rattlesnake was also spotted at the visitors center just last week on the same day the a copperhead was found behind one of the bath houses.
Then there’s the people. Most are wonderful and at very least friendly. But now and then some odd balls can wander in. We had our first experience with one such character last week.
“Craig” was in his late 30s and had grown out his mullet in favor of an undercut on one side of his head. He donned a worn striped t shirt that reminded me of a train conductor, and suspenders on his shorts with one side unclipped. He was a little overweight and walked awkwardly.
The guy seemed nice enough when he approached and was talking to Chris because he couldn’t find his site. I came outside to him standing in our campsite talking to Chris and joined them for the conversation.
He was cheery, but very talkative and would go off on tangents, like inner monologues with no break, and sometimes begin giggling uncontrollably at odd times. He told us that he was a disabled veteran and showed us the huge scars running up the length of one shin and over his knee. Then he told us that he was bipolar and was no longer taking his medication and I realized that this guy was manic. I had been trying to figure out what it was about him that seemed familiar, and it was the mania. I’ve worked with clients and have friends and family who are bipolar so I’ve seen my share of mania.
This fact made me uneasy. Not because he was mentally ill, but because I didn’t know him at all and he was sitting there telling me he was not taking his medication. He went on to tell us that his friends had him committed in May and that made me more nervous. Then he told us about the land he owns in Mississippi and that he and his friends live there just playing music and living life they want to.
He didn’t seem like a bad guy, but my 2 year old was asleep a few feet away and my gut was telling me it probably wasn’t the best situation. We told him it was time to turn in for the night and he thanked us for a nice evening and went back to his site without incident. The next day he came and knocked at the door and gave us a tea pot that his friend, a master potter, had made. He told us he was headed out to ramble on to the next place and we wished him well. Though he was a nice guy, he definitely gave me an uncomfortable feeling and I felt relieved when he left.
Other than our strange meeting with “Craig”, we’ve had an easy breezy stay at Black Rock so far. We’re glad to be back with our friends, Jessica and Kevin, and we love getting to call such a beautiful place our home. Even the lack of privacy, which was a curse to begin with, has grown on us and now we rather enjoy the fact that it invites conversation with so many new and (mostly) awesome people. We look forward to the adventures that lay ahead of us here for the rest of the year at our peaceful natural haven.
Ramblings of a Rambler 