Dedication: Day 9 Georgia, Watson Mill Bridge State Park

Nothing worthwhile is achieved without great effort. How you can determine how truly dedicated you are to a cause is by evaluating how long you are willing to try before giving up. Working hard really does pay off, whether it be the intended result or not. Sometimes the result is even better.

Today I slept in a little, with a drive of only 4 hours planned for the day. I was going to head from Savannah Georgia to Athens, Georgia, the hometown of one of my graduate school hopefuls. I had been emailing one of the higher up faculty there in hopes of meeting them while I was here, but unfortunately both of the gentlemen I had been talking to were going to be gone during this part of the summer. Since I had still planned on being in the area I figured it would still be worth a campus visit so I could at least see the campus, the geology building, and the town of Athens and get a feel for the area.

I arrived in Athens about 3pm, and after finding a visitor parking area, I wandered around the campus (with guidance from the campus map board that was stationed near my parking garage). The University of Georgia is quite larger than what I am used to navigating. I don’t know how big Athens really is, but I’m pretty sure that the U of G consumes almost all of it. The campus is really pretty, well landscaped with local plants like blue hydrangea, lilies, and various trees. Every nook and cranny between buildings is well landscaped to include benches and gathering places. It seems no matter where you go you would feel like you have found your own personal oasis. Perhaps this is because it is summer and most of the students and faculty are absent, but I’d like to pretend it is like this all year around.

I found the shared Geology/Geography building with little difficulty. The building was open so I went in and wandered. As with all schools, everything was clearly labeled, and those that weren’t were easy to distinguish. The floor with the rocks was the geology floor. The floor with the giant globe would be the geography floor….in general. I was reading the directory and then looking at some pictures when I noticed a familiar name on one of them. It was the very man who was coauthor of the research the man I had been communicating with published. Not even two minutes later I see a walking image of the picture I had just been examining, so I stop and ask if it was indeed him.

I had caught him at a perfect time, he says. He was just wandering the building, bored, and considering visiting the library to do some mindless reading. He would be more than happy to show me around and talk to me about what the University of Georgia has to offer. We sat and talked about speleothems from different parts of the world for a time, and then he showed me some of the research they were doing now, opening up the labs and showing me specimens. He told me what type of TA and RA offers they typically make- most of the information I need to know to make a solid decision. I was incredibly lucky to have met him, as he is well known in the field. I had considered for a short moment not visiting the campus since the two men I had been communicating with weren’t going to be there, but I was still determined to get as much information as I can. It turns out the determination paid off, well. That makes 2 grad school potentials down, only 3 more to visit to get a good idea of who offers what.

After my visit with the University of Georgia I headed off to my next campsite: Watson Mill Bridge State Park. On the way to Athens to visit the University of Georgia I had stopped by a local fruit stand and picked up some local produce. I purchased 4 1^st-of-the-season white peaches (grown from the standowners orchards), 1 ripe tomato, 1 vidalia onion (from Vidalia, GA, so the real deal), and a few potatoes- all for about $3. You can’t beat that. After stopping by a grocery store to pick up some sausage to slice up, and the leftover jalepeno from my cajun hobo dinner I cooked in Gulf State Park on Day 5, I had a really good dinner in the making.

It turns out the park was absolutely gorgeous. I yet again had chosen the best park I could have in the area. The campsites were large, and the entire area was less than half occupied, there was a quaint wooden covered bridge, the nucleus of the park itself, and trails, waterfalls and more. I had to cook dinner and then eat it while walking on the trails I was so excited to experience them before dark.

The place stimulates each of the five senses: The smell of warm cedar. The sound of falling water. The sight of stone mill ruins and a covered bridge. The taste of camp cooked food. And the feel of a cooler, forested climate. It all added up to the fact that I had made the transition from the humid, warm south (which I did love) to the beginnings of the Appalachian Mountains. I was still in the state of Georgia, but something had clearly changed.

I couldn’t get enough of the park. I had planned the next day to be leisurely so I stayed there until almost check out time, taking pictures and relaxing in the canopy of the cedars and other trees. I was tempted to stay there another night, but I had already planned to visit another well-acclaimed state park up in South Carolina: Devil’s Fork State Park. I am determined to experience as much of America as I can on this trip, and my dedication had paid off today- It will certainly pay off tomorrow.  I’ll see you there-

Nicole