Hi, My name is Eddie Jones and I live in Franklin, Ga. with my girlfriend. We have a trip coming up that we would like to share with you. We like to take little adventures and this will be one to remember. First a little background.



While we have been preparing for this trip, I have been searching the Internet for information on doing this very same thing... probably like your doing now, without much luck. With all the great natural beauty of the Chattahoochee river, I'm surprised there isn't any more info out there about doing a trip like this than there is. Hopefully this blog will help others thinking about or wanting to take this trip.

We plan to go down the Chattahoochee river all the way to the ocean in Apalachacola, Florida and connect with the Intercostsal Waterway. From there we will ride the ICW west to Panama City Beach, Florida where we have rented a beach house with a dock. We will be going on our boat which is a 1986 28' Chaparral X278 cruiser. Onboard our boat will be Debbie and me and two other friends. We have friends Randy and Robin Haynes with another boat going with us. Their boat is a 26' Renken and they will be taking two of our other friends with them also. So that is a total of four couples going on this trip. Randy and the people on his boat have done this trip before. Me and the people on my boat have not. It should be a blast.


We only have 4 days to go and we are excited. We plan to leave on 4/29/09 at around 6:00 am to head to Lake Eufaula as it's called around here. It's real name is Lake Walter F George. It's a 45,000 acre lake on the Chattahoochee river system on the border of Georgia and Alabama that was constructed by the US Army Corps of Engineers in 1963. If you've never been there you shoud go. It's a beautiful large lake with 640 miles of shoreline and excellent bass fishing. The bass population had a disease that killed off the larger fish a few years back, but I hear that the size of the larger ones are starting to return. Anyway... we are trailering the boats to Eufaula and putting in about an hours ride from the dam and lock. We have more friends coming through and picking up our trucks and trailers and driving them on down to Panama City and meeting us at the beach house.


You might be thinking, "Man these guys must be rich or something, two big cabin cruisers and renting a large beach house with a dock".......Nottttt. We both have very little (comparitivly speaking in our boats, and with all the people going, the beach house is only costing us $126 a couple for 5 days and 4 nights and we expect burn around $300 of fuel each in the boats. We are leaving out on Wednesday 4/29 and returning on Sunday 5/3. So it's really very reasonable. Trust me..... we're not the Yatch club white shoes, white slacks, and captian hats drinking champaign type of people. We are more the Redneck Riviera type with cut off jeans and tank tops with a beer coozy in hand. Our boats aren't brand new and they don't sparkle but they look nice, run good, and are paid for.



We'll be taking pictures and video on the way down and I will post them with other information that I think will be helpful to a first timer like us or just stuff that we find interesting.

Check back and follow along on our trip.