2025 Big Truck across the Southeast, day 5

Day 5 - this is where things take a turn. We are about to be on island time, which as you know will be a bit of a struggle for me. Luckily, this is a sacrifice I am willing to make. Things started very quietly. I snuck out to grab a few shots to remember Stone Mountain by, and did a quick cleanup of everything outside. We haven't perfected the nomad lifestyle, but I would put our family of 3 up against anyone in a competition to break everything down and be out of the campsite. Everyone knows their role, and we don't get too attached to a campsite unless we're going to be there for 3 or more days, which only happens every few years. Today - here are the keepsake pics from Stone Mountain Park.

After some very mild encouragement, we were wrapped up, dumped, and on the road. The next few hours were very,

very,

very,

very frustrating. Then came the rain.

Finally, after the 4hr 15 minute drive that took nearly 6 hours, we saw palm trees.

Our home away from home for the next 4 nights:

As I was suggesting that we explore the area, I was shoved out of the way while Kimberly and Jordan donned swimsuits and instructed me that we were going straight to the pool. Fair enough, they had been talking about a pool for the last 4 days (all over 100 degrees, so this makes a lot of sense in retrospect). We checked out the pool, then more importantly, found a spot to grab some food. We were starvig and not in the mood to make anything, so we hopped in the Jeep and found this joint.

Not bad for 5 minutes of research. We wolfed down some fried seafood, toasted our friends the Reinkes who are on a parallel vacation, and headed for the beach.

Here, the payoff was immediate. Something about the ocean, sunset, fresh air, breeze, etc just makes all the trivial stuff fade away.

The sunset crept in, and the fact that we had the lighthouse as a backdrop (Old man Marv Beute loved lighthouses) just felt right, like he could be right here with us in his pleated dockers, short sleeve button down and snap on Lego hair. As any beachgoer would.

Once we got back to the campground, Kimberly and I decided to scout the walkable beach for tomorrow morning. Ahem, or early afternoon. We are on island time...

Tomorrow - island things on an island schedule. Cheers!