FLOWERS: Seminole State Park

Jul. 8—MOULTRIE — We are now midway through summer with about one month left until the Packers and Lady Packers begin fall sports at Colquitt County High School. That means four, maybe five if I can squeeze it in, more state parks will be visited before the sports season begins.

Unfortunately, there are eight slips left in my jar. I'm going to keep with the tradition I began with and the universe will decide which parks I get to experience before summer's end, and which ones will have to wait for another time.

This week, I pulled Seminole State Park in Donalsonville as my destination.

In the very bottom left corner of Georgia, an hour and a half away from Moultrie, Lake Seminole represents the border crossing into the panhandle of Florida.

The 37,500 acre lake branches off into three major rivers — the Chattahoochee to the north, the Flint to the northeast and the Apalachicola to the south.

At 604 acres, Seminole State Park represents a very small portion of this massive catacombs of waterways.

This week my mom, Kathy Cheney, was my companion. We left midmorning and stopped at Sunny's Grocery and Deli — part convenience store, part restaurant — to buy some lunch to take into the park with us.

One of my favorite things to do is find a hole-in-the wall restaurant. That's usually where the best food can be found and this was no exception. They have a pretty diverse menu and make most of their food from scratch. It is absolutely delicious — at least the bacon cheeseburgers are.

Stopping here to eat whenever I pass through Donalsonville is now a must.

For today's purpose this was an extra excellent pit stop because Sunny's Grocery and Deli is only minutes away from the state park's entrance.

We were able to comfortably find a covered picnic bench within the park to eat without worrying about the food going cold.

In hindsight, I wish I had taken a picture of the burger to show y'all, but I inhaled it too fast and didn't think about it until after. My bad.

After we were done with lunch but before we explored, my mom and I were the nerds that we are at heart and played our favorite board game — Harry Potter Hogwarts Battle — under the shade of the covered picnic bench while we waited for our food to settle.

Even if that's all we had done, played our game and ate lunch, the drive would have been worth it just to be out in nature getting some fresh air and doing something different than the norm.

I mean, not that different if I'm going to be honest, but different enough. We play this board game about once a week, but it was really enjoyable to change it up just a little. Same activity, new location.

After we defeated He Who Must Not Be Named we cleaned up and explored.

Though I did have a great time exploring for the afternoon, the area in which I feel this state park excelled is the campsites and cottages. This would be a phenomenal place to spend the weekend and I would like to go back for just that.

Along the edge of the water are 14 cottages, each with a screened-in porch to enjoy the view of the lake without the pestering bugs. They all also have easy access to the lake for fishing or boating.

In the same area as the cottages are 50 campsites, both for RV and pioneer camping, and this is where I discovered my favorite part of the park.

Okay, I know this may sound a bit weird but I got overly excited about this so try to stay with me.

There are free showers in the bathrooms in the camping area! Nice ones, too, that aren't all grimy with years of muck glued to the tile. I would actually feel comfortable using one.

And, it may be that all state parks in Georgia have this and I just figured it out because that's the first time I've used one, but I am not used to it.

In Washington State you must bring that heavy roll of quarters to be able to shower while camping; and, especially for those who tent camp (me) a lighter carry load to the shower and saving a couple dollars is a big deal.

For those with motorboats, accessing the largest body of the lake is easy to do, making this state park a great place for a quiet retreat at night and lots of options during the day to explore.

Simply use one of the three boat ramps located next to the sand beach swimming area and drive south. Just make sure you are able to note where the branch-off is so when the day's fun is over it's not a panic to get back to the parking lot.

For those without a motorboat (also me) there is the option to rent a kayak or canoe, though they wouldn't be able to reach the primary portion of the lake as it's too far to paddle. This is something I always find extremely relaxing, but after the long drive, I preferred to stretch my legs and walk the 2.2 mile Gopher-Tortoise trail behind the campsites and cottages.

The nature trail is a loop that has two entrances. One with its own parking lot on the left directly before the start of the cottages and after the mini golf course, and the other in the heart of the campground.

We chose to park by the trailhead in the camping area, which is located directly next to a playground complete with wicker rocking chairs for the observing adults to lounge in.

Within a couple minutes' walk of losing sight of our car there was a boardwalk over a wetland, which was far enough from the rest of the park that when we were quiet all we could hear was nature.

Those are my favorite places to be — a place undisturbed by man and you can just take in the Earth as it was intended to be.

As we walked the trail we kept our eyes and ears open but the most exciting wildlife we saw was an egret and a deer. We kept a lookout for alligators, snakes, turtles and tortoises though we didn't see any.

Maybe next time when I come back for that weekend visit.