October 4 Providence Canyon Redo, Georgia National Fair, Ocmulgee Mounds

 Friday, October 4

Greg spies the gator (we assume same one?) again this morning, and a pretty heron looking for breakfast. 

Not likely to go for a swim here!

And speaking of breakfast, we use our new egg cooker which does an egg, some pre-cooked bacon, cheese and a little salsa in one minute in the microwave!  The finished product fits perfectly on an English muffin!  New favorite breakfast!

We see two white tail deer on the way out the camping area and decide to re-visit the canyons this morning to see what the lighting may be.   Quite nice! The story is that these canyons were formed by poor farming methods, where one thing led to erosion and mother nature took over.

And then we head for Perry and the Georgia National Fair which just opened today.  We pass quite a few pecan orchards along the way.

The Fair is easy to find in Perry, and parking is a breeze. 

It is a little overcast this morning, but the rain holds off and there are quite a few people here including many youth groups.

I remember the big ride at our little Dallastown Fair in the 1960's - and here it is!  The Tilt-awhirl!  Seems pretty tame now....

The pig races were a hoot.  Some even had a swimming portion!  The announcer mentioned that their pigs went to a school somewhere in Florida to learn to race.  They are encouraged to run because the winner gets a bigger treat, though they are all rewarded.

And this magician was entertaining (especially if you were under 12).

This was my favorite shot from the large animal barn...talk about contented cows!

Lots of "Fair Food" with your usual candied apples, cotton candy, sausages, corn dogs and more.  We had to try some warm Georgia Peach Cobbler with ice cream  - it was delicious!

From here, we decided to move on and visit the Ocmulgee Mounds National Historic Park which wasn't too far away.  This area was visited by most of the known cultures of North America, beginning with the paleo-indian culture way back around 1500BC!  These mounds were probably built in the Mississippian era around 900-1350.   

  

There are many mounds here, but the Earth Mound has been excavated and reconstructed. It still has the original clay floor with a raised platform with a bird symbol and built-in seats around the perimeter.  Here is a diorama of what it may have looked like inside.

And this is the actual mound.

A clay pot was the only item found in this mound, though other items from the area included many pots which were painstakingly reassembled, with missing pieces fabricated.  The floor has been carbon dated to 1015.  So much history that most people are totally unaware of....

We head back towards Perry and spend the night at their local CrackerBarrel where they have parking for RV overnighters.  We usually try to give them some business, so Beth has a catfish dinner while Greg goes with a grilled chicken salad.  Pretty quiet area and nice and cool.  A huge class A pulling a toad (towed vehicle) joins us later and puts down levelers and opens slides - both no-no's in our boon docking experience.  They run their generator most of the night!  Some people!