Sweet Home Alabama, Where the Skies are Blue!!!

After a great weekend spent with Grandchildren, Teddy and I left midafternoon Sunday headed for Northern Alabama.

The Victory Tour has come full circle and is about to end for Diane. She is on her way back to DC after more than 12,000 miles exploring the west. We decided to meet her for a last trip before the snow begins to fly!

Northern Alabama worked well on many levels as a site to meet again. Our friend Deb lives in Gulf Shores, so an easy day trip for her. As well, Teresa from Tallahassee was able to combine the Veteran's Day Holiday and is here too. And of course, Luanne and Tucker are in the middle of all this keeping us busy!

We are at DeSoto State Park located just outside Ft. Payne in northern Alabama. It is a beautiful spot, heavily treed and rocky, with streams running all through the park. I arrived a day late and they had me hit the ground running!

Our first day lived up to the song, the skies were blue, puffy white clouds and beautiful.

Our morning began with a spectacular bike ride through the forest on a single track trail. It was rocky, rooty and lots of fun! We rode just under three miles and had a blast!!

After a quick lunch, Diane, Luanne, Deb and I headed for the golf course. It wasn't a bad little course but it needed to be mowed, we spent a lot of time looking for our balls, even when they were in the center of the fairway!! End result...Deb and Diane owe Patricia and Luanne a beer by two strokes! They are looking for a rematch.

Deb didn't tell any of us it was her birthday but in spite of it all we managed to pull a great birthday party together for her and had a reason for all of us to eat cake.

Today, Wednesday, dawned overcast and rainy. We all piled into Diane's car and went sightseeing. DeSoto Falls and a huge canyon are in the park so we dodged raindrops and did some sightseeing. We ended in Mentone, AL, a tiny little town with a wonderful, quirky restaurant The Wildflower Cafe. We poked around a bit in an antique store and headed back to camp. Everyone is tucked up inside their units as the rain comes down. This may be a movie night if the rain doesn't stop, and we're expecting to awake to temps in the 20's.