Twelve Days of a Dixie Christmas #1

A Countdown to our Favorite Christmas Destination
The Christmas season is taken pretty seriously in the southeastern US, and the Richardson Tribe has a dozen suggested destinations to make your holidays more adventurous. Over the next 12 days, we will reveal each of our favorite RV camping and recreation spots until we reach our #1 Christmas Holiday Destination. Come back each day to see the places this southern family has grown to love.

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1 - Home Sweet Home

We hope our #1 favorite Christmas destination doesn't disappoint our readers. But the fact is, as much as we enjoy travel, camping, and adventure, sharing Christmas day at home with our extended family is most important.

As a rule, the entire Richardson family comes together at Granny and Paw Paw Richardson's home for a Christmas day brunch each year, exchanging gifts, and visiting with brothers. sisters, cousins, aunts, and uncles. It's a lot of fun, and it's a family tradition. We live next door to Granny and Paw Paw, so it's really easy to have our traditional early Christmas morning at home, then walk (or ride) up the hill for our late morning meal.

We are fortunate to live in a rural north Georgia setting surrounded by family where we can run and play to our heart's content. Many of the outdoor things we like to do on the road are also available right here at home. We can shoot our bows and arrows, ride Herbie (our golf cart), fish, and play with our animals (we have four goats, three bunnies, two cats, and eight chickens). 

This year, we decided to add some new outdoor goodies to our stable. Santa brought two motorcycles and two ATVs, perfect for our little family. I suspect these new toys may lead to a whole new set of adventures.

So, there you have it. The Richardson Tribe's absolute favorite place in the whole wide world to spend Christmas day is home sweet home. Now, the day after Christmas, that's another story. We'll be heading for the Smoky Mountains and some snow skiing at Cataloochee ski area, maybe Dollywood, and maybe the Biltmore Estate. We are excited to be staying at a new place in Maggie Valley this year. Who knows what other adventures we might discover.

Merry Christmas everyone. Now, go somewhere and do something!

Twelve Days of a Dixie Christmas #5

A Countdown to our Favorite Christmas Destination
The Christmas season is taken pretty seriously in the southeastern US, and the Richardson Tribe has a dozen suggested destinations to make your holidays more adventurous. Over the next 12 days, we will reveal each of our favorite RV camping and recreation spots until we reach our #1 Christmas Holiday Destination. Come back each day to see the places this southern family has grown to love.

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#5 - Stone Mountain Park - Stone Mountain Georgia

Stone Mountain Park is a southern icon, and it's also the Richardson Tribe's 5th favorite Christmas holiday destination. Stone Mountain has lots of features that make it a favorite. First, and most obvious, is the mountain itself. Billed as the world's largest piece of exposed granite, Stone Mountain is very unique in its looks and its origin. The vertical face of the mountain features the largest bas-relief sculpture in the World. The sculpture is a memorial of three key Confederate figures: Stonewall Jackson, Robert E. Lee, and Jefferson Davis. This side of the mountain is also the site of a spectacular weekend (April thru October) laser and fireworks show. Additionally, Stone Mountain Park has the largest campground in the state, hiking, biking, a passenger train, 4D theater, miniature golf, Duck rides, a gondola ride to the top, farm animals (of course), and much much more.

During the winter months, the large hillside opposite the massive sculpture is converted into a tubing slide and snow play area called Snow Mountain. Even with 60 degree weather, they'll still be making snow. The process is pretty interesting to see. For a fee, visitors can spend a couple of hours enjoying the tubing experience. There is also a kiddy slope and a snow play area. It's as close to a white Christmas as many of these southern kids will ever see.

As the Sun sets during the Christmas season, the park's two million plus Christmas lights and decorations come to life. There are special Christmas shows in the village, Santa is in attendance, and plenty of yummy treats can be found in the restaurant and shops. Evenings are concluded with a fantastic Christmas themed fireworks show.

When visiting Stone Mountain, we RV camp at the park's campground. If you visit the PB&J Adventures website, you will find that we have very mixed emotions about the campground. It has so much potential, and some of the campground is ok, but most of the sites are in pretty rough shape. Still, regardless of the campground's condition, the view across the lake, especially at sunset, is second to none.

If you would like to see more pictures and details about the Stone Mountain Park, click here. 

Come back tomorrow when we reveal our 4th favorite Christmas holiday destination.

Twelve Days of a Dixie Christmas #8

A Countdown to our Favorite Christmas Destination The Christmas season is taken pretty seriously in the southeastern US, and the Richardson Tribe has a dozen suggested destinations to make your holidays more adventurous. Over the next 12 days, we will reveal each of our favorite RV camping and recreation spots until we reach our #1 Christmas Holiday Destination. Come back each day to see the places this southern family has grown to love. #8 - Helen, Alpine Village - Helen, Georgia Ok, I admit it's a bit crowded and touristy, but Helen has to be one of our favorite Dixie Christmas holiday destinations. The "ginger bread" architecture of the simu-German alpine village lends itself to the Christmas season. Enjoy Christmas music and bratwurst as you browse through dozens of nic-nac shops offering-up all sorts of candy, fudge, t-shirts, knives, and otherwise, pretty cool stuff. The Chattahoochee River flows through Helen, barely a creek at this point. In the summer season, visitors can "shoot the Hooch" in inner tubes and kayaks. Tubers can pull over and enjoy a brew and sandwich before proceeding downstream. The water is a little too cool this time of year for such activity, but you will still enjoy sitting by the river enjoying a hot beverage as the sun sets. Then the light show really begins. Everything in the village is outlined with lights, even the horse-drawn carriages. It's an awesome experience. On one particular visit to Helen last winter, the kids found a phone booth. They had never seen a phone booth, but soon discovered the cold hard fact about public phones, they seldom work. While visiting Helen, we like to camp, pan for gold, and collect rocks at Gold n Gem Grubbin' in Cleveland, Georgia. Helen is also very near Unicoi State Park, Vogel State Park, Blairsville, Dahlonega, and Brasstown Bald, the highest point in the great state of Georgia. So, there you have it. Our #8 Christmas destination is Helen, Georgia. Check- in tomorrow to see what our #7 favorite Christmas destination is.

Twelve Days of a Dixie Christmas - #9

A Countdown to our Favorite Christmas Destination The Christmas season is taken pretty seriously in the southeastern US, and the Richardson Tribe has a dozen suggested destinations to make your holidays more adventurous. Over the next 12 days, we will reveal each of our favorite RV camping and recreation spots until we reach our #1 Christmas Holiday Destination. Come back each day to see the places this southern family has grown to love. #9 - Noccalula Falls Park: Gadsden, Alabama For today's destination, we head north to Gadsden, Alabama. With a full-hookup campground, an open air passenger train, a village of century-old buildings, a vintage covered bridge, lots of cool animals, a killer playground, and some rather spectacular waterfalls, Noccalula Falls is already an awesome destination. Add thousands of Christmas lights, holiday decorations, and Santa, and this quaint small-town park becomes a magical Christmas holiday destination. The legend of the waterfall and the Native American (Creek) princess Noccalula are the central theme of this popular little park. Actually, it's not just one little park, it's several smaller parks that, when combined, make for one awesome destination. . While the legend is tragic, and the falls can be spectacular, the city has made this place much more. I believe the falls could dry-up, and the park would still draw visitors. It is a historic and beautiful place that we'd recommend to anyone.   If you read about just a few of our adventures, you may begin notice a common thread:ANIMALS. We really love animals! Noccalula Falls has an unusual collection of species, mostly farm animals, but some a bit more exotic. A stand-out memory in all our minds is the encounter we had with a young buck in the petting zoo. He was such a beautiful creature, and he licked the kids hands. He was no reindeer, but he was cuddly.   So there you have it, our 9th favorite Christmas Holiday Destination. For lots more pictures and details about Noccalula Falls, click here. Come back tomorrow to see our 8th favorite Christmas holiday destination.

Twelve Days of a Dixie Christmas - #12

A Countdown to our Favorite Christmas Destination The Christmas season is taken pretty seriously in the southeastern US, and the Richardson Tribe has a dozen suggested destinations to make your holidays more adventurous. Over the next 12 days, we will reveal each of our favorite RV camping and recreation spots until we reach our #1 Christmas Holiday Destination. Come back each day to see the places this southern family has grown to love. #12 - Parks at Chehaw: Albany, Georgia Albany Georgia may not register high on some lists as an ideal winter destination. They would be wrong. Chehaw is especially inviting this time of year. The air is cool and crisp, the campground is beautiful (virtually empty), the creatures in the wild animal park are in plain view sunning themselves, the native snakes are hibernating, and the seasonal Festival of Lights is pretty spectacular. It's hard to define our favorite feature of this destination. The Jim Fowler (Wild Kingdom) designed  Animal Park is most definitely one of the nicest we've ever visited. However, the kids would have to rank the playground as one of the best they've ever seen too. The bike riding is easy here because it's very flat. In fact, once you're here, you can ride bikes pretty much anywhere you'd want to go in the park. Albany is just a short drive from the Parks at Chehaw and features many entertainment and dining  opportunities. We especially enjoyed bowling at the local lanes and eating delicious seafood prepared locally at Blackbeard's. For details about the Parks at Chehaw, including dozens of pictures and an Adventure Journal entry, click here. So there you have it. the first of our Twelve Days of a Dixie Christmas starts in Albany, Georgia. Where from there? Tune in tomorrow to solve the mystery.