Sweet Home Alabama

When I was a kid, if I ever got into a conversation with my Dad about someone travelling to another country, he used to say "why would anyone need to travel anywhere else when there is so much to see here in the United States?"  In all honesty, it kind of annoyed me because I couldn't wait to travel the world.  I was very fortunate in life to be able to travel to several other countries and I wouldn't give that experience up for anything, but I must admit, my Dad wasn't all wrong.  I can't tell you how many times I have turned to Cliff and said - "Why did we not know this existed?" - or "Why have we never visited here before?"

We have spent the past 2 weeks in Northeast Alabama.  The park we were in was beautiful, right on a lake, and no matter which way we turned there were mountains to be seen.  The only problem we found with that was, as a guy we met said.."draw a circle around nowhere and we are in the middle of it."   It made it a little more difficult go  places because it took much longer just to get to the main road.  But the trips we made were spectacular.  In keeping with our goal, we did the high point of Alabama right away.  Again, another drive up, which is always OK with me.

  I think one of the biggest things I noticed about Alabama is that they love and take great pride in their state parks.  All of them are well maintained, have great lookouts and most of them have a lodge with a restaurant (and perhaps a bar) situated to show the best views.  Since we are in the off season, we are very often the only people in the parks during the week, which makes it nice. We also had a great day of geocaching with a nice long hike and we were able to kayak right on the lake in the RV park.

The first day we were at the park a small pop up trailer parked across the way from us and the owner started pulling all kinds of equipment out of his pickup truck.  We kept making guesses as to what he was doing but as the days went on we realized that he was building a beautiful built-in barbecue grill for the people who actually bought that site.  Over the days the empty space was like a blank canvas for a painting and we watched it progress each day until it became something really special.  We ended up sitting by the fire with the builder and with the manager of the campground and hearing all the stories of their lives in the area.  I can't leave out that we also learned to play a fun new game called "Aunt Sally".  It is a British pub game, that doesn't seem to have made it here to the states just yet.  You basically have a wooden head on a post that you throw sticks at until you knock it off.  Silly, simple and addictive.  You never know what you are going to learn.

One of our big "who knew" moments was a motorcycle ride to "The Little Grand Canyon of the East"  It was one of those trips where you make your first stop, are amazed by the scenery and think that is the best you are going to get.  Then as you travel along the road each "scenic view stop" becomes more and more amazing until you realize you are surrounded by absolutely gorgeous vistas overlooking this beautiful canyon.  It always amazes me to look down on what seems like a tiny little river and to try and understand that over the years, that is the water that carved all of the stone away.  That's one of those things I can't wrap my head around.


I think maybe my favorite day, tho, was a short trip we took, back out of Alabama and into Chattanooga TN.  Again, my Dad seemed to be on my mind this trip, and the song "Chattanooga Choo Choo" is one that I can hear him singing in my head.  The "choo-choo" is actually a beautiful hotel now, with the terminal as the lobby, restaurants and shops, and the train itself houses all of the rooms.  We sat at the bar and talked to the bartender about all of the different people he has seen come thru over the years and we took a nice walk around the beautiful grounds.  They had just finished decorating for Christmas, Santa was there and all of the little kids were dressed in their holiday best to see the big guy.  Being away from our traditional  Thanksgiving and Christmas are going to be difficult, but magical moments like these will help.

Although we didn't get around quite as much in Alabama, we did love the area and saw a whole different beauty than we expected.  Whether looking over a canyon you never knew existed, watching someone take pride in doing their daily job, learning a silly new game or hearing the "Chattanooga Choo Choo" play while you stand right in front of it - big or small - these are the experiences that make me realize that my Dad was right - the possibilities are endless in this country.