It’s December! It’s time for us to be back on the road! Imagine - H drove across 3 states in one day - - - From Michigan, across Ohio and on to Lexington Kentucky. Once we reach Florida – it’ll be 3 months of driving in ONE state!!
Our favorite Kentucky Horse Park Campground was hosting a “drive thru” Christmas light display that started in the campground area and then wound around and thru the enormous Horse Park area. H decided we should WALK the part of the bright colored animated display that ran around the perimeter of the campground. As we carefully stepped on and off the campsites and roadways, admiring the bright lights and trying to guess what each design was to represent, H saw the road leading from the campground area out and thru to the paddocks and arenas. It was lined with even bigger and brighter displays - 12 of them! Each big bold bank of flashing LED brilliance represented the 12 Days of Christmas. And, Yes, we had to sing the silly song to remember the rhyme of each verse! Then H realized how far we would have to walk to get to the rest of the displays and knew his feet would not make it that far and still have to walk all the way back. Sadly we turned around and found our way back to the “condo”.
Clinton Tennessee is ALWAYS our Saturday night stopover on our way to Florida so I can visit with my oldest son Steve and his family. Steve had to work and even tho he was tired, he did stop over and visited with us before heading home. Sunday He also had to work but the rest of us still met at Golden Girls Restaurant. Kayla’s little guy, Ethan is still a sweet chunk of toddler. Still Charlie Brown! But H was getting restless so we headed down I75 to Chattanooga where we turned right instead of turning left at Knoxville. Off of hectic I75 and all of truck traffic and across the NE corner of Georgia to Alabama we went. The traffic was better but the roadway was pits - pardon the pun! Pits and bumps and cracks!
Once to Alabama, we left Rt59 behind and picked up our favorite kind of road – two lane and country. The road led by farms with already harvested empty fields. The fields looked like soybean fields but there was a dusting of white everywhere. There were huge round hay like bales lining the sides of the fields, but these behemoths were white! And the roadway was dusted with white as tho it had just snowed and the passing cars had blown the dry powder to the side. Yep, it was cotton! We were soon climbing the narrow winding roads of the Talladega National Forest. This mountain range is the highest area in Alabama and is their Smokey Mountains. Once at the top of the ridge, the road traversed from one peak to the next, from north to south and the views from the overlooks were spectacular! The Cheaha State Park is located just NE of the historic town of Talladega and the park buildings were built by the CCC men back in the 30’s. Near the campground were a small lodge and a handicap accessible boardwalk that stretched out and over a rocky outcropping of large boulders.
In Montgomery, we spent 2 nights in a Passport America campground – Woods RV Park. A huge big field with 3 small trees and a bunch of resident FEMA trailers on site. Full hookups and good facilities but no picnic tables. It was a good place to park because we could easily drive downtown and to the zoo from its handy location right off the expressway.
Montgomery is the capitol of Alabama and they were just decorating it and the other downtown historic buildings. We parked at the Visitors Center, which was also the beautifully restored old red brick train station and explored on foot some of that area. Another spin around downtown to admire more stately old homes, we saw the signs for Dexter Street where Rev Martin Luther King preached and led the Civil Rights March. The Montgomery Zoo is also a pretty good zoo with all the needed animals – lions, tigers, elephants, and a herd of giraffes! A North American pen had bison, deer and a bull elk with romance on his mind! We even splurged and rode on the cute little red train that ran around the whole zoo.
Three days in Alabama? It’s time we get to Florida!
