Feb 7

Feb 7 Campground Review: F.D. Roosevelt State Park

We opened up our 2020 camping season this past weekend in Pine Mountain, Georgia at F.D. Roosevelt State Park! Our rig was fully repaired from the rodent damage, and we were ready to go. We love this state park on the south side of the city, only about an hour from our home (and about 80 mi from the center of Atlanta). We have stayed in several loops in this campground, and have also done many day trips to hike, swim, and visit Callaway Gardens. It's a great little weekend getaway!

We camped with our next door neighbors again (@CampingwithFluffy), who are super compatible with our style of camping. Our kids are the same age, the same disposition and energy (um, wild), and both families like to do a good mix of adventure and relaxation, plus eat great food.

Jeff's famous breakfast for Saturday brunch!

For this trip, I had booked our campsites months in advance in order to get the coveted sites 204 and 205. These are lakefront and have a huge open space between the gravel pads and the water. The kids had an awesome time throwing rocks and sticks in the lake, looking for turtles, and tromping through leaves.

After some balmy days leading up to the weekend, when we were sure Spring was coming soon, Saturday was suuuper chilly. We weren't too worried though because we had hats and jackets - plus we just had our furnace repaired in the rig from the last time it didn't work. And we travel with backup Vornado space heaters just in case.

Because it was so chilly, we scrapped plans to go hiking on the Pine Mountain Trail and stuck pretty close to our sites. The kids rode bikes and played at the playground, we took several walks around the campground loops, and everyone roasted marshmallows and petted the sweetest dog on Earth, Danni the pyrenees puppy.

Sometime in the middle of the night our furnace stopped working again. So frustrating. We're going to have a mobile tech come out and look at it next week because hauling it up to Marietta can either be 45 minutes no problem or two hours with rain and traffic … and there's not even fun at the end!

All of that aside, the next morning dawned bright and sunny with the promise of a warm day. And it was! We finished up our chili from the night before for lunch, dealt with some extremely rude tent campers who arrived early for our spot and asked us no less than six times - each - when we were leaving (and even got the park ranger involved 🙄), and were back on the road headed home by 1:00 p.m.

All in all, a great shakedown trip to kick off the 2020 season! We are really looking forward to our next trip over President's Day weekend - Camp Gulf in Destin, FL!!!