[VAL] Winter Camping

[<gillguy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

    Hello all
    We returned home Sunday afternoon from a great weekend in North Georgia. 
We camped at Sleepy Hallow campground in Sautee, 6 miles from Helen GA. This 
time we were in Site #7 (this was our 2nd visit to Sleepy Hallow). This 
turned out to be a great site since the area across from us by the stream 
was open, no tent campers. Draw back was that everyone who entered the 
campground passed by since this was along the entrance, but no big deal 
because traffic was light, there was a huge family with about 10 campers but 
they mostly stayed at their campsites.
    Weather was beautiful! Tuesday it snowed a little. Then warmed up some, 
though the night was cold. Wednesday it warmed up then we took the kids over 
by Vogel State Park, played in the snow some. Then we took Cooper Creek 
road, which is a two path road about 18 miles over to Hwy 60. Yes I took our 
'02 Suburban 4X4 thru there. It was beautiful, snow all over for most of the 
way then about 10-12 miles it cleared up and the trees still had a lot of 
fall foliage on them, leaves of many colors, Gods work is awesome! Once we 
got on Hwy 60 it was a few miles over to Brasstown Bald. Lots of snow up 
there. The kids had a blast, snowball fights for 3-4 hours, then we made a 
huge (5') snowman. Not wanting to leave it, in true redneck fashion we made 
a snow ramp to load it in the back of b-laws truck to take back to our 
campsites. You should have seen the looks we got, both loading and unloading 
it. Some of the other campers came by and wanted to know where all the snow 
was, it was a blast, we also brought back a pretty good arsenal of 
snowballs. Thursday was another beautiful day, the weather was pleasant and 
we had Thanksgiving dinner outside. Friday, John (b-law) and I entertained 
the kids while our wives and grandmother went shopping. We hiked all thru 
the woods crossing streams picking up fools gold out of the water, then 
after a 4 hours it was back to the camper and lunch. After lunch the kids 
headed back over to the stream where of course they all ended up in it a few 
times. After several clothes changes we made them stay away. Then they 
decided to start making snowballs from the snowman, needless to say the 
snowman didn't last much longer. Saturday we took them over to Blue Ridge to 
ride the train, they had it decked out as the "Polar Express" Santa Claus 
and all.
    Sunday was the return home, pretty good trip once I got back off the 
Interstate, made good time on the backroads which is a lot more scenic. Once 
you've been on the Interstate you've pretty much seen the whole country, but 
the back roads are really where it's at. After parking the camper and 
unloading the wet clothes, blowing out the water lines, I had to get about a 
hundred pounds of Georgia red clay off the wife's burb. But a great trip, a 
great time. It was also possibly our last in the Airstream. Guy in FL is 
supposed to buy it once his insurance company pays off his trailer that was 
totaled. But I probably stay up on the VAC list even if I'll be towing a 
Forest River Rockwood 8317SS.
    Take care, God Bless all
Bobby