Alabama Trip – Part 2

One day we started out early to go hiking.  Still came back dripping wet from the rain forest feel in the air but it was so pretty and so much fun.  I like hiking that is hiking, not following a wide smoothed out and paved trail!!  This was a 2-footed path.  And their foothills are bigger than our big hills!  LOL!

Just starting out the path is wide and you can see down to the Three Caves.  JP knew the story behind them for us.  I didn’t expect less!

The red soil.  Gets me.

Clearly a man-made bridge but nicely done!

Then the 2 men wanted to go to the top of this rock.  We are on a path alongside it now.  We went back down a bit and then they took a rarely used path/made their own to the top!  Party at the top!!

My favorite photo from our visit!

At the bottom, the Three Caves are blocked off but this is the view from the gate and fencing.

Top of the hike, hot & drippy! But the 3 of us together!

I love that smile.
I miss that smile.

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Visiting Alabama – part 1

Both last summer and this year, we’ve been able to visit JP in Alabama.  A 10 hour drive that we have divided into 1 1/2 days but the hugs and fun times once there are wonderful!  Seeing him in person, chatting over meals, watching TV together, hiking, seeing his church, meeting friends and co-workers, his grocery, his world.  Fantastic!

Of course, photos of JP are difficult to capture!  Photos of his work or work site, not allowed!  So while I can’t highlight the big-deal fun we had, I can show you other things we did.

He is great at finding trails to explore!

I’m good at finding swings!!  🙂

The men going across the covered bridge.

How far can we lean out before mom freaks out?

Cullman County museum and another swing!

Roof of museum, the whole home, was lovely!  I wanted to get the 2 flags in the photo but no breeze that day.  Only like 102′ F!!

In case my friend or any family know this city.   This is in the museum.  The bedroom below is there as well for the man that came from Germany and bought the property for the county.  And a lovely old crazy patch quilt.

The same town had a wonderful antique store that was overflowing with antique pieces to add to your home.  Knobs, faucets, doors, fireplaces, wood planks… so much!!  So much $$ !!

 

The Crepe Myrtle trees were in bloom again on this visit.  I love them!!  And since I’m never sure there will be photos of me on a trip, I took a selfie.  The hot & humid melted look!

A visit to a Veteran’s War Museum.

The one & only store that sells what comes out of the bags lost and never claimed at the airports all over the country!  Nice quality but you had to hunt for affordable things.  I looked at the purses, but turned elsewhere at the $200 price tags!  I got 3 tunic/tops for a total of $24 so those were good deals!

Cooling off with the best popsicle ever!!  JP had been here with a church group so wanted to take us here.  So yummy!  Too bad I didn’t have a few more!  I think it was called Steel City Pops.  If you find one, stop in!

The food places he picked out to share with us were wonderful!!  Great BBQ places and southern food stops.  So much fun!

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First Time to AL – part 2

Tried several places of real southern BBQ — oh my, if only I could make a pork roast end up tasting that good!!
This place was small and full on a Saturday noon, but oh.so.worth it!  We ate outside in the shade and it was just lovely!
The Purple Daisy Cafe’ just at the bottom of Lookout Mountain.  Very good BBQ pork & chicken that we sampled as well as the sides.  Personally, I loved the window valance!

Saturday road trip to Lookout Mountain.

From Alabama, to Tennessee, to Georgia, to Tennessee… to get to Lookout Mountain in Chattanooga!

We rode the incline railway down and right back into the 1 hour line to go back up.  It was over 100′ plus much humidity so it was a long, snaking, cue-line waiting to get back on. The ride and view were fascinating though!

view from the top of the town and area below

We were only at the top view point, above the railway for a few minutes, just long enough for me to have the nerve to get to the edge for the photo above, when my text message went off that our car parking was ready to expire! We hustled back up more hill to our car and headed out for lunch.

After lunch, we visited the Chattanooga Zoo.  Not worth the cost of entry but they did have a steel giraffe!

Real giraffes would arrive sooner if only I had donated….

~~~

Back in Alabama, we walked through Lowe’s Mill… a very cool old cotton mill factory filled with studios of a variety of artisans.  I was so glad JP had found this as a place we could tour.  I loved seeing the shops even tho most were closed, the front side was glass for viewing their wares.

They had 2 large swings and I loved swinging!   P doesn’t know my childhood experience with swings so thought I needed pushed.  Meanwhile, I was glad JP got good photos.  🙂

 

 

A hike in the Caverns Cave National Park – 1 hour cave tour on Sunday.

After lunch and a bit of shopping – one of JP’s hiking spots after a lovely drive up the mountain side!

Other highlights of our 3 days there — Our first Costco visit!   The struggle of being in the Bible-belt and trying to find a place for lunch out on a Sunday! And we learned to make a U-turn tho we felt guilty every time!!

We had to tell him goodbye Sunday evening as he is early to bed & early to rise, leaving by 7 a.m. for work each day.  We stayed that night yet and then headed home the next day.  A wonderful visit!

There were 4 quilt – sewing shops in the town on the Row-by-Row Experience and with the travel theme most had rockets, missiles, and NASA, & Army themed patterns.  I made super fast stops at all 4, they weren’t too far from each other, the men tolerated me, and I’m excited to have them from the trip.  I picked up another pattern on the way down and one on the way home.  Yeah!

Hopefully we get another visit in the new year as well!

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