Noccalula Falls - Gadsden, AL

Left Warner Robins, Georgia on Wednesday morning and heading west! It's been a wonderful trip to the east coast and Florida but everyone has finally headed in their own direction! We all have had so many memorable memories! Lots of fun times, people and places!

I left plenty of time to get to Little Rock (our next "real" stopping point) so Don and I took off from the highways and meandered through areas of "real" America! It's a slower pace and lots of traffic lights but we consider it an adventure! It was incredible to see some of the houses - from very elaborate to very dismal! Lots of land in between and since it's the beginning of Spring, we saw lots of blooms and buds! Incredible color all around! It was just beautiful! It was made into an even "more" adventure when Don first missed a turn...he decided to turn on a street and when we got to the end of this VERY tight road, I had to get out and hold a bush out of the way so that the tow car would make it around the corner without hitting the pole at the corner!! So we go around again (it was this circular road) and he turned on the wrong street! I wouldn't let him make anymore turns that we weren't sure about so while I quickly scanned the map, we decided to just follow this road and see where it took us! Our GPS recalculates so we knew that ultimately we would end up at our chosen destination!

Even with the little distractions, we made it to our campground within the time we expected. Lots and lots of trees which we were concerned about! Lots of trees = no satellite. No satellite = no t.v. and no internet. No t.v. = grumpy husband, no internet = grumpy wife AND husband! The campground parked us at the end of the campground and we actually DID get satellite! We were amazed, thank goodness there weren't more leaves and/or branches! It's actually a beautiful campground in the mountains. Quiet and peaceful with full 50-amp hook-ups, water and sewer!

The park is actually owned and managed by the City of Gadsden and has recently undergone about $3 million of renovations! Today we went to the Falls...a park separate from the campground. The area was originally known as the Black Creek Falls but legend has it that an Indian Chief's daughter who was known for her beauty and loveliness of character was filled with grief after her father refused to allow her to marry the love of her heart and instead promised her to another rich neighboring Indian Chief. Overcome with sorrow, she wandered off on her wedding day where the soft call of the water beckoned her. One leap and her troubles were over.

There is a walking trail down to the waterfalls and the pool below. It was an easy walk and beautful to see. After seeing the bottom of the falls we wandered through the many pioneer cabins and buildings that have been restored throughout the park. If any repairs and/or restorations had to be made they have been made using primitive tools or methods! After that is was through the petting zoo and walking by the animal exhibits that are here. We saw a tiger, lynx, llama, deer, and many others. They have all been disabled in some way and wouldn't survive in their natural environments. There is also a train that wanders around the park but it was out of service today for repairs. There is a separate miniature golf course, but we didn't pay the extra to use it!

Tomorrow we head to West Memphis, AR to the Tom Sawyer's Mississippi River RV Park. It's ad says to "call ahead, sometimes we are on the river and sometimes we're in it"!