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Experience: 2022 Christmas Camping Across 4 State Parks in 5 Days

“Slow travel rejects speed, emphasizes soaking in the local culture, and encourages us to savor the journey, not rush it.” –The Art of Slow Travel, by Bhavana Gesota

Most everyone we told of our Christmas travel plans tried to convince us to rethink our winter camping journey in subzero temperatures.  

"You might want to reconsider," they'd urged, each in their own way.  

"It's going to be dangerously cold.  How will you stay warm in a camper?" 

We'd recently downsized from a 30-foot 4-season Keystone Outback to a 21-foot non-insulated 2022 Little Guy Max Rough Rider.  We were looking forward to seeing what it was made of.....and, perhaps more importantly, what we were made of.  

We weren't wavering on our decision.  The plans were made, and we would set out with two full propane tanks, an indoor-safe propane heater, an indoor electric heater, a supply of firewood, and an electric blanket.  We'd monitored the weather and were keeping close tabs on the conditions of the roads.  

We weren't worried about the extreme temperatures, either. With three radiant-heater dogs (who sleep at our head, hips, and feet) and each other, we were looking forward to all the cozy snuggling and excuses to linger in bed with coffee and read or write or watch Netflix or listen to our favorite seventies bands until the sun came up and warmed the walking trails a half a degree or more. 

With any trip, things happen that we don't anticipate - - like when the bananas freeze and all turn dark brown and ooze goo, and the jar of olive oil freezes solid when we'd planned on searing steaks.  Or when the propane, which converts from a liquid to a gas in the pipelines, freezes and renders that first heating plan completely ineffective, taking us straight to our backup heat.  Those kinds of things.  A few minor setbacks mixed in with some more serious ones.  

So it is in life.  Determination, a plan, a road map, forecasts, obstacles, challenges, a burning desire to experience life ~ even in extreme elements.  It's all part of the journey.  

I'm so glad we stayed the course and savored the moments. It was worth it to experience "slow travel," without a novel-thick itinerary, to "camp our way across states," breaking down the drive into short segments.

Here are the “Slow Travel” savored moments from our week away over the holidays.

First Stop: Burdoc Farms, Crofton, Kentucky. Most memorable moment: goofing off in the snow in our pajamas, taking pictures of the White Christmas winter wonderland as one of our daughters clicked her heels in sunset snow.

Second Stop: Rock Island State Park, Tennessee. Most memorable moment: enjoying the peaceful sounds of the waterfall at the dam.

Third Stop: Fall Creek Falls State Park, Tennessee. Most memorable moment: taking in the beauty and sounds of the frozen waterfalls and cascades.

Waterfall at Fall Creek Falls State Park, Tennessee

Fourth Stop: Harrison Bay State Park, Tennessee. Most Memorable moment: sunrise on the bay.

Fifth Stop: Red Top Mountain State Park, Georgia. Most memorable moment: writing all day on a rainy New Year’s Eve Eve.

Sixth Stop: Lunch with my aunt and uncle at OK Cafe in Atlanta, Georgia. Most memorable moment: sipping coffee at the retro dinette table, celebrating their December birthdays.

Seventh Stop: Home for New Year’s Eve with one of our sons. Most memorable moment: eating collard greens, black eyed peas, and ribs as we watched the Peach Bowl.

Experiencing places + savoring the journey through slow travel = just the right pace!

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Gathering Around a Campfire of Blessings: My Gratitude Goals for 2023

"Start to count your blessings.  Start today. Make a spiritual inventory of all your blessings.  See if you can't get to one hundred.  So much good happens to us but in the rush of daily life we fail even to notice or acknowledge it.  Writing it down focuses our attention on the abundance already within our grasp and makes it real."  Sarah Ban Breathnach, Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy

When I missed the last couple of steps at work and broke my ankle at the end of September, I was a spoiled brat. I wanted help, but I wanted to do it all by myself. I wanted to go to work, but I wanted to stay home. I was fine when I planned my day but cried out of sheer frustration when I couldn’t get things done with my normal efficiency and speed. In those moments, I learned that I had to focus on the blessings to get through the challenging times. I had to remind myself to dwell on the good things:

I have people in my life who truly want to help me.

My injuries could have been much worse.

This phase is temporary; my ankle will heal in time.

I have mobility with a knee scooter loaned to me by a friend.

The minute I allowed self-pity to seep in, it clouded my whole world. I had to make a deliberate effort to keep all of my thinking positive, or I got sucked into a dreary hole of darkness with branching tunnels and no apparent end.

My gratitude goals for 2023 include keeping gratefulness at the forefront. I tend to be best at counting my blessings when I’m outdoors – just like we do when we’re sitting around the campfire, thinking about the beauty of life and the power of moments. I plan to spend more time around the campfire, fire pit, and the fireplace this year, and to write about my blessings through Gratiku, Three on Thursdays, Five on Fridays, and other ways of expressing thankfulness. When Simple Abundance inspired us all to keep gratitude journals when it was first published (I’m rereading it this year as my guidebook in the area of gratitude), I noticed a more appreciative outlook in my own life; while I won’t have a designated gratitude journal, I will devote days to blogging about blessings!

Campfire at a campground in 2022

Oh – and one more thing: I’m going to keep my awareness of those with injuries and disabilities heightened. When I see a person with mobility challenges, I’m going to be sure I hold the door and ask if I can help. As I hobbled around with my broken ankle, I was dumbfounded at the complete lack of manners and sensitivity of so many people, and amazed at the graciousness and awareness of others.

I know who I want to be in those situations where I can make a difference. I not only want to count my own blessings this year, but I also want to be a blessing to others for whom such simple gestures can make a powerful difference.

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My One Little Word for 2023

As we move toward the beginning of a brand new year starting at midnight, on this last day of the year I'm taking time to reflect on 2022 and all the living we’ve done in its 525,600 minutes.  My blessings far outweigh my challenges and setbacks.  

Last December, I chose listen as my One Little Word for 2022, which Ali Edwards has made popular since 2006.  I suppose it’s what daily writers do: we listen to the world around us.  We listen for what inspires us and what we can take from conversations, moments, lessons, experiences - and time we share with others - to make sense of our world.  

What we do with all the listening is what invites me to choose pray as my word for 2023.  It wasn’t my first serious consideration, or even my second.  My initial choice was believe.  During my week of Covid confinement in December, I almost prematurely announced believe and all my reasons for choosing it.  It’s the essence of my Christian faith, the verb of what we do with our faith to trust in God’s plan.  It’s what gets us through tough times.  Long moments of pondering all that I don’t want to be quick to believe led me to think more about the power of sharing.  Share was my second consideration. I share what I experience and what I believe as truth, often on my blog. 

Then I thought of my word listen this year, and all of the listening that happened through prayer.  I wondered:  what if I spent an entire year with the word pray as my guiding light word?  My little Caribbean blue Rav4 has been my twice-daily prayer chamber for years as I make my way to and from work.  I don't turn on the radio ~ I pray.  I believe fully in the power of prayer and the difference it makes.  I see miracles that have happened because of prayer, and I often wonder about the miracles that happen that we never see, also because God answers prayer.  

As we step into 2023, I've chosen an action verb again.  Pray.  What a blessing I feel already!  

If you’re taking a One Little Word as your guiding light this year, please share in the comments below or send me a Facebook message - - I love all the thinking that goes into OLW choices!  Cheers to you in 2023!  

Tomorrow, I will begin daily posts in the areas of my seven goal categories this year.  They are: Reflection, Inspiration/Spirituality, Self-Improvement, Creativity, Literature, Experience, and Gratitude.  I've never succeeded at keeping New Year's Resolutions, but what has worked for me for the past 12 years is establishing goals and adding an accountability measure in my writing through a month-end checkpoint.  More on this beginning tomorrow!
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Reflections on 2022 in 26 Pictures

2022 has been a year of living life in full gear for the first three quarters and slamming on brakes the last three months of the year before returning to a snail’s pace. As a traveler with a hopeless case of wanderlust, three curveballs slowed me down between September 27 and the end of the year: a broken ankle right before Fall Break (I had to cancel a hiking trip to Fort Mountain State Park in Chatsworth, Georgia); a collision with a deer (I wasn’t hurt – but I had to listen to what the good Lord was trying to tell me about slowing down a bit…..first my heels, then my wheels); and then I tested positive for Covid (we missed The Piano Boys in concert at The Fox in Atlanta after buying the tickets a year in advance).

In 2023, I’ll be adjusting my sails for a new concept called “Slow Travel.” But for now, here are some of my memories from 2022, in pictures:

Time together sharing the warmth of Callaway Gardens Christmas lights- November

My One Little Word for 2022 – January
Presenting at NCTE in Anaheim, CA with my writing group at http://www.ethicalela.com – November
Visiting San Antonio in February – so hot I had to buy a t-shirt at the Alamo one day, but didn’t have enough clothes in my suitcase for the cold temperatures the following day!
Scriptural Meal at the Biblical History Center in Lagrange, GA – May
Sharing picture adventures with my hiking, rockhounding daughter
Spending time over the holidays with our 5 grandchildren – December
Taking Aidan to visit Mom’s grave at Christ Church Cemetery, St. Simon’s Island, GA – December
Watching eagles dive for fish in Ketchikan, Alaska – June
Dogsledding on Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau – June
Camping throughout the year – here, on the peninsula at Dames Ferry Campground, Juliette, GA
Christmas Day Church Service
Trolley tour of Vancouver, B.C. – June
Breakfast at the Mallery Street Cafe, St. Simons Island, GA, with Dad, Aidan, Ken, and Jennifer – December
Enjoying a White Christmas in Kentucky
Gibbs Gardens in full bloom – Ball Ground, GA – April
With my son and his family at Pine Mountain, Georgia – November
Black Rock Mountain Overlook – April
Ken’s new dog, Kasa, rescued and adopted after a gunshot to the front paw – July, Brunswick, GA
Briar and my stepson Andrew on a sunset kayak paddle – Lake Juliette, GA – May
With Briar on the glass walk at the Space Needle – Seattle, WA – June
Suspension Bridge at Fall Creek Falls State Park, Tennessee – December
Broken Ankle – at home in Pike County, Georgia – September
November 1 – at home after hitting a deer
Spending time in front of the stone fireplace at the Grove Park Inn – Charlotte, NC – April
Great coffee and time with Boo Radley, Ollie, Fitz, and Briar – Kentucky, December

Blessings in 2023! I wish you a Happy New Year! Stay warm and cozy.

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Own Form

I’ve been writing through Lightning Paths by Kyle Vaughn since October, and today is the final poem exercise. The prompt calls for writers to create their own form and write one. I enjoy the Golden Shovel form, and spent a month last year writing Multiple Shovels. Vertical lines may appear in one line, a Double Shovel, a Triple Shovel, Quadruple Shovel, and yes – – I even made it to a Quintuple Shovel. Here is a Double Shovel from my spooky October theme from 2021, when I visited Salem, Massachusetts. Here’s a Triple Shovel. Here’s a Quadruple Shovel. Here’s a Quintuple Shovel. 

Today’s writing is a double golden shovel poem using two lines from Elizabeth Willis’s “The Witch.” Lines are emboldened vertically. 

Double Double Golden Shovel 

with herbs and frogs she concocts
a potion which may at first 
glance appear soupish ~ then 
she will call to powers that 
will not be weak but will 
make her stew an acting agent,
rancid only in deed ~
the enemies of a witch sip 
fresh hell from silent spoons, 
butter creamy film residue 
of wickedness from whose actions 
her spell placards exacting
righteous evil are cast upon her
neighbor who soon goes missing….

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Circular Poem

I’ve been reading Kyle Vaughn’s Lightning Paths since October, and working my way through the daily exercises from cover to cover. Today’s prompt is a circular poem – it’s hard to master digitally, but I’m writing mine and posting a picture in its concrete shape. I’m thinking of my grandchildren roasting marshmallows at Dowdell’s Knob in Pine Mountain, Georgia when they visited for Thanksgiving.

Roasting Marshmallows at Dowdell’s Knob with 2/5 Grandchildren

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One-Word Poem

I’m writing my way through Kyle Vaughn’s Lightning Paths, which I began in October Now, I’m on the final stretch toward the end of the year. Today’s challenge is a one-word poem – and don’t let it fool you. It can be a bigger challenge than any other kind. It can have a title.

Christmastime

Joy
Our grandchildren (L-R: Sawyer, River, Saylor, Aidan holding Beckham) in Ridgeland, SC December 2022
At Callaway Gardens Fantasy in Lights, Pine Mountain, Georgia – November 2022
Sunset on a White Christmas at Burdoc Farms, Crofton, KY – 12/25/2022

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Two-Line Poem

I’ve been reading Kyle Vaughn’s Lightning Paths this month, working my way through the writing exercises from cover to cover. Today’s prompt is a two-line poem.

At High Falls Campground

There was better medicine in nature
than in the 5 Covid prescriptions I was taking

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Monostitch

I’m reading through Kyle Vaughn’s Lightning Paths from cover to cover this month, writing my way through the exercises. Today’s challenge is a monostitch poem, or a poem of only one line. It can have a title.

Little Guy Max

who has the biggest personality on the campground?

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Tiny Poem

I’ve been reading Kyle Vaughn’s Lightning Paths from cover to cover, writing my way through the daily exercises. In today’s prompt, a tiny poem is the inspiration. Writers compose a tiny poem in four to six lines – its conciseness of words is its criteria, and it could take many forms – the Haiku, the monostitch, the tanka. 

The Gift of Nothing

The gift of nothing
can be
the gift of everything.

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