Day 6 & 7 at Desoto State Park

Little River - typical scene

Desoto State Park - Rear Entrance

It is Wednesday, October 14, and I'm setting at home thinking back on today. It rained hard last night -1.5 inches - as Grammy and I snuggled warm and dry in the Montana. Happily when we arose this morning it had slacked off a good bit. Trust me a little chill in the air and a heavy mist is a lot better than a down pour when you're breaking camp and hitching up the 5th wheel.

The rain / heavy drizzle followed us all the way home making for a nerve wracking trip though steep mountain highways and Atlanta's interstates. Praise God, we made it home without any mishaps though.

Desoto Park's roads after rains.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yesterday Grammy and I spent the day exploring along the Little River Canyon Parkway with Jack & Sherry White and John & Judy White. We all stuffed in Jack's F-350 and had a ball - even as we tried not to hurl chunks - the road is very curvy with a lot of up and downs..

The river was very high and many more water falls than when we were there last July.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As the below photos depict I was a little rusty with my rock climbing skills - but as it turns out my embarrassment turned the small crowd of friends to hero worship as I boosted the rock that almost crushed poor John.

A little help from my friends?? Watch that hand Grammy!

I only try to do my humble best:)

I humbly accept John's thanks and adoration:)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This yellow dog is the same old dog that we saw last July - pretty much laying in the same place on the same rock. We think she lives across the road and spends her days lapping up attention and a few biscuits from the park visitors. This old pup is well fed.

That pretty much wraps up this camping trip. All in all I'll give it **** four stars - but then even the worst camping trip would rate a few stars wouldn't it! Hope you enjoyed some of the pics - Grammy and I can't wait to tell you more about it... or better yet, ask Brice about it:)

Trip Stats:

Home to Desoto State Park 175 miles 4 hours

Desoto State Park to Home 175 miles 4 hours

Total 350 miles

Chow, Pappy

Day four and five at Desoto State Park

Sunday morning: We all went to church at Howard's Chapel (Methodist). This little church is built around a bolder which makes for it's uniqueness. The congregation was very friendly and we all felt welcome. The hymns were all gospel favorites ....and they really sang:)

(yes, yes I know if you look at the pic dates you'll see they are different - I stole the July pics from out last trip here)

After Church: We headed over to Desoto Falls to check it out. With all of the rain this region has had the river was raging with a lot of water coming over the falls. This looked very different from when we were here in July!

Sunday afternoon: We hiked a little more and found a great river (the "Little River") and more falls to explore. Huge rocks/bolders all over the place. Perfect for climbing and playing on.

Monday morning: Well it rained all night and this morning. Really wet! So now it's laundry and blogging instead of exploring:(

We are hoping that Tuesday will be dry for exploring the Little River Canyon.

...till next post, Chow, Pappy

Day three and four at Desoto State Park

As I write this posting, Brenda and Sherry White are driving Brice back and are meeting with Mandy right about now. The sun has slipped deep beneath the tree line and it's beginning to darken ... and turn a little cooler. Oh, how I love this season of the year!

It rained pretty good Friday night - in fact the camp staff passed out "what to do in case of a tornado" instructions. It wasn't too bad here but we heard that a tornado had hit Huntsville AL. No damage here. If there was any damage, it was at Desoto's park restaurant. They served a Friday night seafood buffet - so our crew hit that pretty hard. There was a pretty waterfall behind the restaurant - that's it below with Brice ...it's a bit dark already so it's a little hard to see.

After supper we all headed for the nature center where we took in natural artifacts and a lot of animal mounts. That's Brice posing with "Charlie" the (live) king snake. The staff even showed a halloween movie! How's that for finding shelter while it rained:)

Saturday morning we all headed over to Cathedral Caverns State Park about 30 miles West of Desoto and spent a couple of hours touring this giant cave. I never guessed that Alabama hid such wonders. This cave is larger and has more natural features than CarlsBad (sorry for the spelling) Cavern! Unbelievable! Alabama, like GA, just doesn't have the budget for marketing and advertising.

Saturday night we celebrated an early birthday party for Brice. (He'll be 8 yoa on Oct 24th). He happily said that it was "the best ever". Glad he liked it - and we all enjoyed cupcakes around the fire.

As you may have noted this post was for Friday night and Saturday. Today (Sunday) was a full day too with church in the morning and hiking to more waterfalls in the afternoon ...and with any luck, I'll hopefully get to Sunday's posting tomorrow! Too bad Karl and Cookie had to leave today :(

Chow, Pappy

Day two at Desoto State Park

These days and dates on theses posts may look a little weird but that's because I can only get wifi from the camp store and registration office - not at our camp site. I post when I can get to the office . So, I posted yesterday - today; today this morning ... and so forth.

Grammy and Cookie-Mama went to Mandy's house this a.m. to sew and pick up Brice who will spend the weekend with us for a camping birthday. Hope it doesn't rain too much this weekend - Brice won't like that - and neither will Pappy!

Chow

October camping at Desoto State Park

Day 1 (10/8/09) at Desoto was great. Mild weather - perfect. This week Grammy and I are camping with Cookie Mama & Honey, Jack & Sherry White, and John & Judy White. The hiking trail that we took to several small water falls was very soggy - a result of the heavy rains that Desoto's had during the past 3 weeks and there's talk about it storming Friday night. As you can see, Lightning led the way and set the pace.

Cookie Mama bbq'ed a boston butt and we feasted on it and then capped it off by tell lies around the camp fire for a couple of hours. Lots of fun!!

Camping at FDR State Park

Well since last posting, Grammy and I went camping in our Montana at FDR with Cookie Mama and Honey in their new Minnie Winnie. FDR doesn't have WIFI or any other means of allowing a post - so, I'm just now getting around to it. It really was perfect week for camping though. The weather was mild. Mandy, Rick and the boys stayed the weekend and Lain, Steve and the girls visited one evening and we all went up to Pine Mt. for dinner. That was the only time it rained - no problem . All in all, a very relaxing week.

Oh yea, Hunter got sick and had to go home and later to the hospital, but it turned out to be less serious than thought. He's doing fine now!

Here are a couple of pics from the week.

Trip Stats: Home to FDR - 140 miles, 3 hours

FDR to Home - 140 miles, 3 hours

Total mileage - 280 miles round trip