Back in Noccalula Falls Campground

We stopped for lunch in Harpersville, Al yesterday. We arrived here late in the afternoon and set up. We all seemed to be tired so we just sat around and played a game until almost bed time. The park here is not as crowded as usual and the black squirrels are out playing. Temps are supposed to be in the 40s today and lows tonight in the high 20s. There is a nice walking trail here along the edge of the river valley.

The park is named after the falls which are flowing pretty good today.

They have a little wedding chapel here and I really like these holly bushes along the side of it.

Here is a short video of the falls.

Sherling Lake

We left Gulf Shores today and headed toward Gadsden,AL. Stopped for the night at Sherling Lake Campground near Greenville, AL We had to leave some new friends behind in Gulf Shores but hopefully we will run into them again down the road. This seems to be a really nice campground. Very wooded area and a lake below it. We have a pull through site with real easy access. We have a wooded hillside on one side of us. I took a short hike down the road to the lake and took a few pictures.

There are a lot of sweetgum trees here, there are little spiky balls hanging on the tree still, but many of them are on the ground. Not something that you want to step on!

There seems to be a golf course across the lake from here.

I couldn't resist a short hike on this trail along the lake.

This looked like some kind of holly.

Tomorrow we will head off to Gadsden.

Barber Marina

Yesterday afternoon we decided to take a drive, so we went to Barber Marina. It is about 20 miles from here and I had heard that it was interesting. When you get within a half a mile or so from the marina, you start to notice unexpected things in the woods.

But the best treat of all is the Lady in the Lake in the marina.  http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/36350

On the way out we stopped at a replica of Stonehenge in the woods.

Not a bad way to spend a little time on a Saturday afternoon.

More Pleasant Days in Gulf Shores

Time to catch up on here again, I've been lazy about keeping up the blog here.  On Jan 7, Janice's mom flew down to Pensacola and we picked her up there. She will be staying with us until we get back to Georgia on Feb 1. We are enjoying her company. We go to bingo on Monday nights and card bingo on Tuesday nights here in the park. Janice and I have each won a bingo and Mom has won 4 now. Saturday we went over to Mobile to the big flea market and another outlet store. Yesterday we drove over to the Gulf State Park Fishing Pier near here. It extends about 1200 feet out into the gulf. We walked out the the end of it and back. The highlight was getting to watch a couple of groups of dolphins swim past.
Heading up the ramp onto the pier.

Looking at the beach in both directions.

A long walk to the end.

Several pelicans waited along the railing for a handout.

Tornado Warning

We had thunderstorms predicted for most of today, so we just tackled a few indoor projects. About 2:30 the weather radio went off with a Tornado Warning for our area. Several of the residents were headed to the bathroom/laundry building, so we put the slides in to protect the slide covers from the wind and walked over to join them. Not sure if there was a nearby tornado or not, but suddenly we had branches and debris flying everywhere with high winds and followed by heavy rain and close lightning.  Scary for a few minutes, with branches hitting the building and flying by. The rain stopped shortly thereafter and we headed back to the motorhome. No damage to ours other than a torn up bicycle cover. Two of the campground lampposts are laying in the street, a tree is down across from us, one motorhome roof was lifted up on one side and another's awning torn off. Overall we were all pretty lucky. The power has been off since then, but we have the generator.