A. H. Stephens State Park in our U-haul Fiberglass Camper

This past weekend, we decided to take a quick camping getaway to a state park that's about an hour from our house. We wanted to go somewhere close and just relax. We're fortunate enough to live in the middle of four state parks that are within an hour of us. You can actually draw an almost square box between the four parks and we'd be right smack in the middle. So we picked one of those parks to take advantage of the ability to get there quick. Less time on the road means more time for relaxing! We decided to go to  A. H. Stephens State Park in Crawfordville, Georgia.

We had never been to A. H Stephens State Park before but I had some friends who live about 30 mins from it say they like to go there. One of the perks that I heard was that it's not crowded. I can say that proved to be true while we were there. The campground has about 25 RV/Camper/Tent sites with 30/20 amp electric and water. There are a fair number of pull-through sites for those who don't like to back up. Most of the pads are large and would fit any fiberglass rig easily. I had enough room on our pad that I could have put the screen room behind the camper or next to it. Including the camp hosts and us, there were 6 campers in the campground this past weekend. We settled into site 4. The bathhouse was clean and it's on the outside of the loop. The inside of the loop has an old tower built by the CCC to be used as a fire tire and a water tower to hold water pumped up from one of the springs. There's also a large lawn area on the inside of the loop perfect for kids or playing games that includes a playground, horseshoe pits (w/horseshoes), sand volleyball area, and a public water spigot and dishwater disposal area. There are a lot of tall pines in the campground and I found a couple next to our site that were the perfect width for my hammock. In retrospect, I should have picked the site next to us (6) which was a pull-through just for the reason that it had better shade.

Camping in Georgia in July is not for the faint of heart. It's HOT! We hit the 90s this past weekend and combine that with the high humidity down here and it's like living in a sauna. The mornings and evenings were fine. But the middle of the day was scorching. Our camper doesn't have air conditioning. So we're left with the Fantastic Fan and a tower fan that I take when it's hot. Tower fans are great for campers. They may be a bit more expensive than a box fan but when space is a premium like it is in our little Uhaul fiberglass camper, they fit the bill. I strongly recommend them. The nice thing about the tower fan was that I could also move it outside with extension cord and set it up under our screen room for some airflow. We found some water balloons at the camp store for the afternoons to cool us down. I discovered that the little faucet in our camper is a perfect size for filling water balloons!

On Saturday afternoon, we decided to do a tour of Liberty Hall to do something out of the heat. For those who may not know, Liberty Hall in Crawfordville, Georgia was the home of Alexander Hamilton Stephens. Stephens was a politician for Georgia back before the Civil War. He was against secession but once Georgia and the other states seceded, he became the Vice President of the Confederacy. Stephens always wanted a peaceful end to the war whereas Jefferson Davis didn't. The two men did not get along. Stephens was also a good friend to Lincoln. Later after the war, Stephens ended up becoming governor of Georgia for about 4 months before he died. We enjoyed the tour and the air conditioning for the afternoon.

Crawfordville sits in Taliaferro County in Georgia. It's a tiny county and the least populous one in the state. So there's not much there to do except relax around the campsite. I had a great time talking with Ranger Michael who grew up there and is probably one of the most personable rangers I've ever met. The county has so few people that they only have one school K-12. Interestingly, they do year round school. We did find one bright spot just outside of town south of I-20 on Hwy 22. A BBQ joint called Heavy's. It's only open Friday - Sunday but the food is good and the plates are huge. My kids are now referring to it as the restaurant with the loaves of bread on the table. True southern BBQ hospitality with loves of Sunbeam just sitting on every table is a kids dream. The place has a lot of character between old trucks and farm equipment outside, to a hunter's lodge feel inside. (I swear there were more animals on the wall than at the zoo in Athens.) (EDIT: Come to find out, they filmed the bar scene in Sweet Home Alabama at Heavy's.)

We had a wonderful time. And even though I didn't get the opportunity this time to fish at any of the 3 lakes, Ranger Michael assures me the fishing is good. And he has 3 large bass mounted on the wall in the station that he's personally caught to prove it. So if you want a quiet place to camp along I-20/US-278 and like a bit of history, you might give this place a try for a night or two.