I'm BAaaack!!!

With pictures and stories but not together in this post unfortunately. I am slap worn out. We had a GREAT time camping, boating, hiking, and fishing, with a few minor(and a major) setbacks and/or irritations. I will attempt to describe the pictures below each of them.



Right off the bat Sarah and I spotted this little mama deer(can you see her? Smack dab in the center of the photo, clicking to enlarge it might help) with a fawn that couldn't have been more than 2 days old. I took this picture before we discovered the baby. It was a WEIRD trip for deer sightings, Atlanta State Park is known for having bazillions of them all over the place and these two were the only ones we saw(multiple sightings in the same area). Of course, having a mountain lion in the area might make them appear scarce. Early Friday morning, the girls(did I say there weren't going to be stories? oh well) and I decided to go on the park's "nature trail". See where the deer is? That is the "nature trail". As is this...



This was the most visible the trail was, ever.
We walked for 2 miles at least, finding the trail only by the colors sprayed on various tree trunks. One place we came to had a very steep, very tall hill to the right of the trail. It was devoid of any vegetation except a few scraggly pine trees, appearing to have been recently burned. As I glanced up to the top of the hill I saw a gold shape slip down to the right. It didn't look like a deer, it didn't spring or leap. Of course, I dismissed it as a deer, didn't want to frighten the girls, and I didn't know if big cats were in the area. Then I came across this strange dug up place that seemed very odd, again dismissing it as something unknown but harmless. I investigated online and found This, scroll down to "scrapes". I saw them in two different places on our trip, including at the bottom of the hill.



Amy had a good time even though she doesn't enjoy fishing. She liked playing in the water and going on the boat.



I'm hoping someone can identify this flower! We found them in a few places in the campground. The stems aren't all that pretty but the blooms sure get your attention.



We found this guy by the bathrooms, as we did many critters including tons of frogs and toads(not one picture though).



The tent pad was a little crowded.



At first, the kids spent a lot of time in the tent. Then they discovered the boat ramp was right down the hill from our site, and they could fish off the shore. The light blue bed in the back was mine, the girls shared the other one.



This is a picture of the back of our boat. The black metal bar between the motor and the trailer(hooks onto the barbell-shaped black area on the trailer) is called a Transom Saver and is used to keep the motor up so it won't be damaged while driving. It is used with a stretch cord to hold the motor even more steady.

After our boat outing Friday afternoon we were hooking everything back up and getting ready to head back to the campsite for dinner. Mark had set the transom saver and was reaching the drain plug(little gold ring on the backside of the boat, under the motor) to let the water out of the back of the boat. The bottom hook had slipped off the rubber area on the trailer, causing the motor to slam down on Mark's right hand. He immediately grabbed it and spun away from the boat. I made him show me and I thought we were headed for the ER for sure. It was wide open but not bleeding. Mark felt woozy and ended up fainting as I was trying to get him in the passenger seat. He was panicked about me having to back the boat up and drive it to the campsite(which I did with NO problems). After we got back, I doctored him up and fixed dinner. The cut, which appears very small in the photo(the end of it doesn't show up), is about 2 inches long. It never did bleed a lot, thank goodness.



The boys went fishing after breakfast this morning, despite the injury. The girls and I broke camp and had it ready(mostly) to pack up when they came back. Mark was still having trouble with the transom saver so we went to the boat ramp to see if repositioning the boat would help. After 10 or so tries, we determined that it would not. But, Mark had a brilliant idea and spent about 40 minutes adjusting the rails on the trailer, the ones that go under the boat. He fixed it so the boat sits higher in the trailer and now the transom saver fits with no problems at all. It is fixed in the photo above.

Ok, now it is 10pm and I'm about to fall over with tired. Night night.
After coming home today and unpacking all of our equipment, it has swollen up twice as big as you see here. He thinks he may go get it x-rayed on Monday.