North Georgia

Just a quick post to say we made it to North Shore RV Park in Greensboro, Georgia. This is one of the Ocean Canyon parks, where we can stay for up to three weeks at no charge (it's covered by an annual membership fee). So we'll probably be here a while. We're hundreds of miles out of the way of Hurricane Isaac, so this is a good place to be.

This is a test

From my phone.

True Confessions and ... Too Many Pictures?

True confession - sometimes I have a hard time seeing other people's point of view.  Oh, I understand that we are all different, unique individuals, and we all have different likes and dislikes, and that's okay.  As my sweet mother used to say, that's why they make chocolate and vanilla.  But I still don't understand why more people don't want to live in RV's!

  I have a king size bed, a gas range and oven, a microwave and refrigerator, 2 recliners and a sofa, and two televisions. Central heat and air conditioning, and even a ceiling fan.  (And my RV cost a whole lot less than any house!)  No yardwork, yet we've had some of the most beautiful "yards" in creation on this trip.  There's a place for everything and everything goes right back in it's place.  It takes me all of 15 minutes a day to keep this place clean.  And with all that free time, I can read, watch TV, work on crafts or on this blog, or go on adventures!

Have I convinced anyone yet?  Well, I'll keep trying!  In the meantime, here's some of our adventures from the past week.

This is High Falls Park, near Geraldine, Alabama, right down the road from our park.  We love this place.  Here's a link to tell you more about it.  http://www.seehighfalls.com/tour.htm

This is the back side of the falls.

After leaving High Falls, we went 10 or 15 miles down the road to Buck's Pocket State Park.  Cowboy dragged me down the hiking trail to this lookout point.  Nice view, but I was already worn out from hiking at High Falls. So was Charlie!  We sure were glad to get back to the 5th wheel this day!

This was the highlight of the week, (and the longest, most difficult hike yet!).  Noccalula Falls Park in Gadsden, Alabama.  The story goes like this:  Noccalula was a beautiful Indian princess in love with a nice local brave.  But her daddy the Chief arranged a marriage for her with a guy from a warring tribe, to insure peace and all.  So poor Noccalula, of course, had to go and throw herself over the falls, to her death.  Big Chief Daddy was devastated, and named the falls after his lost daughter.

Read more about it here:  http://www.cityofgadsden.com/index.aspx?NID=278

(I hope these links work - I have no idea what I'm doing)

The Falls.

The Cowboy.

These steps go about halfway down to the falls.  The rest of the way is on a very primitive trail over rocky ledges.  Scary for old ladies!  I didn't make it all the way to the falls, but I did better than I expected.  Again, with the Cowboy urging me on all the way.

Cowboy, of course, wouldn't quit til he got to the falls.  He took this pic from behind the falling water.

But Noccalula Falls Park isn't all about the falls.  There is so much more.  There's a little village of restored buildings dating from as far back as the 1700's. 

This church/school building was my favorite. Can you see the cross on the door?

And, luckily, there's an adorable little train to carry you around the park.  You can get on and off at any of 3 different stops.  This was a very good thing, since, even with the train, we walked about three miles here.  And did I mention, the entry fee for this park was only $6.00 each?  Just $4.00 for seniors over 55.  And there were no extra charges for anything!  We have been so blessed to find so many free and inexpensive things to do on this trip. 

The grounds were beautiful, with so many plants in bloom everywhere.  Can someone please tell me what this bush is?  It looks like one we had on the farm when I was growing up.  I'd love to have another one.  Anyone?

They had a nice little petting zoo, with goats, a llama, and this sweet little deer.  There were other animals and birds, too, but not for petting.  My grandgirls would love this place!

The rest of the week hasn't been quite so exciting, but just as lovely in it's own way.  Mountain Lakes RV park is one of our favorite places to be.  Tim can fish and ride his bike every day.  There are lots of organized activities.  Cowboy has been playing in the ladder golf tournaments, and now he wants to build or buy a ladder golf game of his own. 

Rainbow Chapel is right here on the park property, and they have a very active congregation, and seem to have a very solid theology.  At least one of the regular members remembered us from last year, so that made us feel at home right away.

And, as usual, the neighbors are great.  RV'ers are almost always the friendliest, most down to earth people you'd ever want to meet.

Now are you convinced?



Guntersville Walking Trail

This is the longest post yet, and more photos.  Please let me know if you have any problems viewing.

I'm not a great photographer, but this post is mostly for me, to remember this beautiful walk.

We stopped at the Guntersville Visitor Center a few days ago and Tim spotted this hiking trail that goes right beside the lake.  He finally talked me into to trying it yesterday, and I'm so glad he did.

Guntersville is proud of their history, and they should be.  This sign is in front of the Visitor Center.

It tells about the area being a crossroads for early settlers, tradesmen and explorers due to its proximity to the Tennessee River and established Indian trails. In 1785 John Gunter became the first white man to settle here.  He married the daughter of the local Cherokee chief.  He was given land here and raised a large family. (Will Rogers was his great-grandson). Gunter and his wife died in 1835.  General Andrew Jackson came through in 1813 and recruited several Cherokees to help him fight the Creek Indians at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend...

(other side)...More than 1000 Native Americans crossed the river here in 1838 in what has become known as "The Trail of Tears."  ...Guntersville was practically destroyed during the Civil War by Union raids and bombardments...The area was forever changed in 1939 when the Tennessee Valley Authority constructed Lake Guntersville.

Buried near here in 1835

John Gunter

Founder of Guntersville.

He and his wife Catherine

daughter of

a Cherokee Indian Chief

were the

great-grandparents of

Will Rogers

Beloved American Humorist.

The walking trail is right across the street from the Visitor Center.  

Blue Heron, maybe?  I've got to learn about birds.

We walked a little over a mile down the trail.  This is how it went...water, flowers and foliage, water, flowers and foliage, and on and on, with birds, bees and insects dotted along the way.

Big fishing pier at about the one mile mark.  We turned around here.  It was a wonderful day for walking, about 78 degrees, cloudy, with slight breeze.  But, as usual, that 2nd mile was not quite as much fun (for me, anyway) as the first.

The Cowboy, off looking for another geocache.  He found several on this trail.

After the trail, we had lunch at a local Mexican restaurant.  I've found it's almost always a bad idea for Texans to eat Mexican food outside of Texas.  This place used processed American cheese and mild red sauce, no chile in sight.  And when they say mild, they mean mild.  Very little spice.  Not bad, just very, very bland.

Then it was off to Wal-Mart to load up for another week.  So there you have our exciting day.  Oh, except I did laundry when we got back to the RV Park.  So we get to eat and wear clean clothes for another week.  Yay.  You may not think that's very exciting, but it's all just part of life on the road.

This and That

These are random photos taken with my I-phone.  Let me know if you have trouble loading or viewing them.  I'm still (obviously) learning about this blog stuff.

Eureka Springs, Arkansas.  Pretty town, if you don't look too close.

I love old barns.  This one was somewhere between Omaha, Arkansas and Tupelo, Mississippi.

Lisa Marie's play area.  Not near as fancy as I expected.

Graceland.  Contrast this....

...with this.  The 2 room shotgun house where Elvis was born.

Lake Guntersville, from the golf course at Lake Guntersville State Park.

Another view of the lake. 

The lake again, from our campsite at Mountain Lakes RV Park.

The pool at the lodge at Lake Guntersville State Park.  Someone should come stay at this lodge while we are here.  It is unbelievably beautiful.

The view from the restaurant at the lodge at Lake Guntersville State Park.  I wish we'd have brought our good camera the day we were here.  Although, I don't think my photography skills could ever capture the awesomeness of this place. 

Really, ya'll, someone needs to leave home today and come stay at this state park.  We are right down the road.  I love Mountain Lakes, where we are, but the state park lodge looks like something out of a movie set.  We ate lunch at the restaurant there, and it was good.  Anyone up for a road trip?

Memphis

We were in Memphis for less than 24 hours, but it was BIG fun!  We pulled into Graceland RV Park on Elvis Presley Blvd. around 4:30 P.M.  The nice lady who checked us into the park also told us about Marlowe's Ribs, just down the street.  She said they have been featured on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives and other shows on the Food Channel, and - get this - because we were staying at the Graceland RV Park, they would send a pink Cadillac Limo to pick us up - for free!

Folks, we were tired, and hot and had planned on eating sandwiches in the 5th wheel, then collapsing.  But who could turn down a free ride in a pink Cadillac on Elvis Presley Blvd.  The driver picked us up at 5:30, we shared a plate of brisket and ribs at the restaurant, then he delivered us back to our trailer by 7:00.  Then we collapsed.  The BBQ was probably wonderful by Tennessee standards, but it wasn't the way we do it back home.  Not bad, though.

The next day we woke up to …. rain!  Wonderful, blessed, coool rain.  It slowed down enough for us to walk over to the Graceland ticket center (conveniently located next door to the RV Park), where we bought our tickets, then boarded a bus to cross the street to Graceland.

Graceland was everything I ever heard.  Beautiful house and grounds.  The house doesn't seem very large from the outside, or even when you first walk in.  The upstairs isn't open to the public.  But we did get to see the tv room and the pool room in the basement.  And Vernon's office out back.  And the huge racquetball building, which includes a wet bar, a piano room (where they said Elvis played gospel music with friends on the morning he died) and a huge trophy room.  Then there was another building with all kinds of awards, and gold records, and memorabilia. 

We also got to see the family cemetary plot, but we didn't linger there. 

After a quick lunch back in the trailer, we headed to Tupelo, Mississippi, Elvis' birthplace.  We didn't know we would be coming here, but it's on the way to our next destination.  And I know Tim is tired of driving, so here we are at Tombigbee State Park.  We'll do a little exploring around here this afternoon, then head east again tomorrow.  We don't have a good wifi connection here, so I will have to post this when we go into town.

 The next picture is the piano room in the raquetball building.

T