Radium Springs and Drive to Tallahassee

On Thursday, the 12 of January, we woke up and did our daily things. Putting in the blankets, taking trash up, eating some small breakfast. Then, with coats and a book and a phone, we drove in the jeep around Albany. We passed in a small neighborhood a white little stage, and some other fences. We were looking for the famed Radium Springs, a natural 7th wonder in GA. It's one of those anyway. We saw an old golf course, with a sign barring the road into someone's property, and also a school where a janitor worked. We saw a lot of old small homes, with a lot of trees around them, kind of beachy and deprived. We rolled into the town of Albany, which had a lot of businesses and homes condemned. It was a nice little dry town though, with a bridge across the Flint River and some brick square buildings. There was a lot of palm trees, even though we weren't even in Florida yet. We couldn't find Radium Springs, in Albany. Dad and I went into this business building, very nice with paintings and a marble floor, while Mom and Rebecca stayed in the car. It was a Suntrust bank, and had a nice looking lobby and room. Dad stayed and filled in deposit sheets at a station while I looked around at the desks on the right, and the big counter with nice ladies who said, "Hello, Welcome to Suntrust" every time someone came in. Down the hall were some offices with people at desks working at them, and a couch on the right. Down one more hallway to the left was an elevator, and some offices. One had a desk statue of a horse, and a horse painting. Another room had a lamp with swans on it and a painting of some swans in a pond. Also a little sketch. Finally in another office was a plant, and a painting of a forest. People really have their own separate themes, don't they?

"Um, sir, do you need help with something?" a blonde haired lady at a desk said.
"Oh no," I replied, as I was going down a different hallway. "My dad's writing out a deposit and I was just bored so..."

"Oh well the the safe is back there,"
I felt she didn't really want me back there at a sink, so I walked to Dad, as he drew money from the bank from the lady, in 20's. Dang did she dish it out and count it fast. I wish I was that fast with money. I guess she just practiced a lot. But anyway, Rebecca was not feeling the best, and hot in her jacket even though it was cold outside (we were in the jeep) so she wanted to find Radium Springs immediately. Forgot to mention this before: I took my To Kill A Mockingbird in the bank, and when Dad put a paper somewhere he would give it to me and say, "put it in the book" and then I would place it inside of the book, on the first page beneath the cover. Now in the car I handed them back to Dad. We drove back to that grey thing, which we wanted to look at, half knowing and half not knowing that it was the Radium Springs we'd heard so much about. The grey thing, which was a platform with columns on it, a little one in a garden with a fence around. We parked in a little area, with trees and a place where you look over the river. But we didn't look at that. We went to the right, passing this platform, through a garden with many plants around. On pieces of papers were the plant's names, the Latin ones and the regular more easily pronounceable.

Then there was a concrete platform, with museum panels telling about the springs. Below us was a wooden staircase, and a walkway where you would see the Springs. But, we wanted to look at this stuff first. Topics like the local Indians calling the place, Sky Water, ironically though that the water came out of the ground. The panels also talked about how it was a hotel in the early 1900's, that people would swim in the springs and gamble and such. But because of a hurricane that came through, that structure was destroyed BEYOND repair. Sad. Those panels also spoke about how the springs bubble huge gallons of water every day, and the wildlife and how the spring's water goes through the Flint River all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. Pretty amazing. As we finished looking at this and more about daily life for the Indians and that Ponce de Leon might of looked here for the Fountain of Youth, we went down the steps, me the last because I was reading the panels. There was a white kind of Spanish style all around us. Then we saw it. A kind of pond or lake with green water and Lily pads, and a raised rock circular platform, big in size, surrounding it. There was a line and the old small structure, showing the last part and resemblance to the hotel. It was white. Also, there was some trees, railings, and parts where you could look in the water, only on the left side. There was a bridge on the left going over to a kind of island, with green grass and a few picnic tables and roofs over them. It was nice. That platform around the springs I was talking about, from this view I saw that it was a grayish black rock. There were trees all around with Spanish moss, even though we were only in GA, not Mexico or Spain.

On the platform, we saw some fish as we realized that the water showed really deep. A couple of black fish went around for us. Rebecca even spotted a little turtle, green and brown inside. Then it kicked off it's spot on a rock in shallow water, and made it's way down. Amazingly, we saw blue and green echoing and reflecting off from the sun, and rocks intercepting the pathway underwater. The big fish Mom saw and we did swam throughout the water. The funny thing was you could only see any fish with sunglasses on, because the sun made your eyes not see it. Mom was telling us where it was, and was flabbergasted we couldn't spot these so obvious fish. Then she realized the fact, and let us take turns with the glasses on. It was really cool to see them. Well, we went over and took a few pictures, and looked down to the straight the brown part of the flint river, the trees swaying, leaning over the water, with their Spanish moss on the branches, and the water going along so quietly a dog could not hear it, if the birds would shut up. We went up some stairs to exit, after seeing Georgia's natural beauty that is Radium Springs. It was re-named Radium Springs from Sky Water because in the late 1900's they discovered radium was in the water. So, it was then called Radium Springs. I like Sky Water better. Oh, and by the way the Indians called it Skywater because the water looked so blue. And it continues to look blue. I still like Sky Water more.

We drove around for a little but then came back to the Albany R.V. Resort. We made the slides come in by Dad pressing on a key in the front, pushing in Room 1(that's my side) and Room 2 (Rebecca's). Thankfully nothing got stuck in the slide, like in the couch or on the floor. We then drove into the Sunshine state, Florida. Rebecca and I took a picture under the sign. It said their Governor Rick Scott, and it had a sun on the first o and a picture of the state of Florida, in white with an orange sun. Interesting style. But Mom found a campground online, called the people to reserve a spot, and then we drove in. I was blogging, trying to catch up. That's what I had been doing for the past few days, at any free time I was able and well, and I didn't have any excuse, blogging would be my pass time. We came up to a house far from the road, with a lot of R.V.'s in front. It was a rock pretty regular looking little house. Or at least I thought it was a house. Our R.V. stopped at a pathway choice of two roads that met up in a circle around a patch of grass. More Spanish moss. Dad left the engine running as he went inside. Other R.V.'s, a Class A and a 5th wheel, were on the other road. Mom made me walk the dogs by the grass before I could go with Dad. And then I gave them to her, she was sitting in the passenger seat. I ran to Dad just as he was going into a door inside. Just by was a small birdbath, bird feeder, and small. waterfall. I walked inside.

A counter to the far end of me on the front, with Dad by it and a fading blonde haired curled haired lady on the other side. To the right a large brochure case and another step up into a room. I listened as other guys came in, to sign in and be given a spot. The lady told us to go down a long lane and turn left, and then to pull in. Dad left, and told me to tell Mom to unhook the jeep and then to drive. I went out with Mom as she and Dad unhooked the jeep, and Dad went back to get in the R.V. and she got in the jeep. As we were getting in we noticed a guy in a sedan, who mumbled some words to Mom I didn't catch. He got out of his car and told her something, then coming back. I said hi, on the side of the car. He was an old dude, with sunglasses and a collar shirt. One word I actually heard. "Inconsiderate," he said as he got back in his car. Inconsiderate? When I asked Mom she told me to get inside the R.V. and take something to Dad. Then I did. We got away from the road, and made traffic go again. So now I put cars stopping and a man being irritated together. Unsuspecting we held up traffic, taking one whole road. Mom told me as we parked in a spot that the man told her she should know to unhook first, and that then he could've gone. She also told me he must've just been done with work or something and wanted to go home. The things people do when they want a nap.

We pulled out the slides and went through the whole process. Rebecca and I went to make the dogs go to the restroom on a pet area Dad had showed us on the map. If we went to the back of the R.V.,and walked along back, we would get to it. It was a little field, and Rebecca wanted to go back. When Emma went #2 Rebecca left me alone, intent on playing with her barbies. She said I should just come back because we went with only one poop bag. By the sign detailing rules was a cylinder white tube, and in that I found a wet soggy black poop bag. I made Rocky go and then came back. Mom and Dad were talking to a nice old man, retired, from Tennessee. I went inside after seeing a little brown haired girl playing with a doll. I told Rebecca she should go play with the girl. Then I came out and in some times, getting different stuff and doing different things. After talking to the man, Mom, Dad and I sat in some lawn chairs at the back of the R.V. about some things, and going into Tallahassee later was one of them. A smaller Class A was right by us, and some people got out of it. We were planning to leave but my parents got into talking to a blonde haired lady, who had three children. One of them was also blonde and had a plaid red shirt on, and no shoes in the dirt. He put on boots as he came into the car though.

Mom found out that the lady was a wife of a Representative of Tallahassee, which is the capitol of Florida. They go home in Gainsville, FL, on the weekends, and the husband is also an architect by trade and preaches at a small hole-in-the-wall Baptist church, where people come who don't feel comfortable in a big church. I walked over to the kid, and introduced myself as he said his name was Daniel. Had a light voice, and dark eyes. He had a good personality, unlike many kids my age. I bet he would make a good friend. But he talked about how cool it is to go up to the highest floor in the capitol building, and the museum in the old one was cool. He mentioned a few other things too. I told him about the trip, and he wanted some details on the homeschooling part of it. He asked if I did a certain program FL had. But I informed him we were basically freestyling it with a couple of textbooks, and bringing in different programs into our own Bourne Hybrid, which is what we're doing. I'll tell you more about it in my "The Art of Homeschooling" blog that will debut in a few weeks at the most. But anyway, we talked for a while. Then his Mom put stuff in the trunk, and his sister played a little in the sand. His younger brother brought his book and Daniel his. Rebecca came out and talked to Chrystina, the girl, for a few minutes before they got ready and drove off in a small car. No R.V. That was staying here. I kind of felt bad for it, alone, forsaken, left behind. Tear.

We toured around the big city of Tallahassee, which consisted of palm trees, a few skyscrapers, and a big commercial draw. We saw the big Capitol building, and the old one. It's kinda weird Tallahassee is still the capitol of FL, while Panama City, Miami Beach, and other ones are so more popular. I guess it's to give a town some jobs, or make some unfamous towns famous for SOMETHING. Roswell is famous for it's old Civil War History, take that Alpharetta!

We also saw the FL A and M, where the drum major tragically was hazed and lost his life by his bandmates. That's terrible. Really bad. We saw that pretty brick school and other ones. Hungry, we stopped in a shopping center with big parking lot, and walked a while to get to an Olive Garden. Inside the restaurant we got a nice african-american waiter, who was very satisfactory and kind, with a very polite stature. His name was Jordan. After the grand meal we went back in the car, to the R.V., and I slept in the back once again. So far on the trip, we had seen repair shops (you gotta go it's breathtaking) farmer's market, and a bubbling beautiful spring. So that day, on the 12, was the real day we started having a fun time and real adventure, when we saw Radium Springs. And many, many adventures and journeys, were to come after it.

Sky Water even though the water came from the ground! Imagine that,

Andrew.