10 Apr - (edited) Arrived at Ellijay GA, Plum Nelly Campground

 

Pulled chocks at 0833 hrs this morning at Whispering River Resort near Walland TN and headed south to Ellijay GA, stop #5 on our trip.  129 miles total and 3:07 travel time including one pottie stop.  Uneventful trip except for a little rain on the way down, which was forecast and a slight amount of "pucker factor" as we passed under a posted 13' 7" railroad bridge - our rig is advertised at 13' 4".  That is closer than I would normally go and needless to say we passed under it at a dead crawl with the four-ways on !!  Our GPS is programmed for 13' 6" reroute so it did not show an issue...!  All is well, nothing scraped but there could not have been much room up there.  Anything that close and you pray they have not repaved the road without updating the measurements!

So here we are at Plum Nelly Campground.  Quaint little place, bigger than it looks on Google Maps or on their web site.  Out name was on the outside whiteboard when we pulled in and as I got out of the truck in the rain to head into the office, a southern male voice in the distance greeted us and quickly led us to our camp site.  I asked about paying and it was obvious his priority was for us to get set-up before the heavier rain arrived.  "Y'all are fine.", he said.  "She will take care of that one of these days!"  Nice!  I like it!

So why Plum Nelly Campground in Ellijay GA?  Well, not too far from here live some great friends, Brad and Beth Herren.  Brad and I served together in the Air Force at Loring AFB ME back in the 70's and have stayed in touch ever since.  Brad retired as Vice President of Sales at Kimberly-Clark Corporation and they live in Big Canoe GA.  Brad and Beth travel around the Country with their beautiful Class A motorhome.  We've seen each other several times since we left Maine in 1977 to include attending our daughter Michelle "Goober" wedding in 2001 at Camp Dodge.  Brad was one of "the guys" who was always around Michelle when she was born in Maine.  Hence, Michelle is our "Maine-iac"!  We also have seen Brad at a reunion of the Maine group at Wright-Patterson AFB in 2007, another reunion of the Maine group in 2016 in southern Maine and finally at the Air Force Academy FamCamp in 2017.  We are excited to see Brad and Beth and spend some time with them here, starting tonight when they will come here to see our RV, share a cold one or two (we did that a few times in Maine LOL) and later hit one of the local barbecue restaurants.  

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Brad and Beth arrived this afternoon and they received the nickel tour of our Alliance Paradigm fifth wheel.  We then enjoyed some adult beverages and had a great time.  Brad and Beth as Georgia residents, honored us by placing the Georgia sticker on our RV travels map.  Not many states left, and another one down today! South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware and we will have visited 49 out of 50 in an RV (Alaska was a rental)! At the end of this trip the map will be complete!

Brad approves as Beth applies the Georgia decal on our map! 

We then headed south from the campground to one of the local barbeque restaurants, called Bigun's Barbeque.  Brad says this is the best Georgia barbeque in the state.   

The best barbeque in Georgia according to Brad!

They were surprised there was not any bigger crown than there was.  We got right in and placed our order.  I ordered Combo plate with pulled pork and brisket.  They have a huge selection of sides and you get two with each meal.  I selected collard greens and back eyed peas along with corn bread.  The greens were served with pepper sauce which is a vinegar-like liquid.  I am used to eating greens (spinach) with vinegar, salt and pepper and that is the way mom always prepared it.  As a child I ate all the weird stuff few others liked, like spinach, pickled herring, sardines, etc.  I've told the story on how my dad used to get me to go to the barber shop - He promised me raw oysters!  We would get a pint, pour off some of the syrup and fill the pint with vinegar, salt and pepper, then let them sit in the fridge for a day or so.  Then he and I would sit at the kitchen table and eat them. Memories! 

(CW) Corn bread, blackeye'd peas, pulled pork with smoky barbecue sauce, brisket with smoky barbecue sauce, collard greens with pepper sauce

Doreen ordered pulled pork with baked beans and cole slaw.  Brad got us a side of fried okra to try and a cup of Brunswick stew!  Both were really good!

Tomorrow we will travel east to the private residential community of Big Canoe GA where Brad and Beth live.  Will will have lunch there at their club followed by a concert and an evening grilling out at their house.  Looking forward to it!