Monday, August 13, 2012 Guntersville Alabama

The destination was Guntersville Lake State Park in Alabama based on recommendations from several who had been there.  It would be the first time we drove 500 miles in one day and actually traveled on two lane back roads pulling our 39 foot second home.  I have to say, Jim really did a good job of maneuvering our rig despite its excessive length.  We made a few wrong or missed turns and he still managed to find places to turn around.  What a guy!  Anyway, after driving for 11 hours we finally arrived at our destination and the natural beauty driving to the campground was pretty.  I understand why people were so quick to recommend it as a destination.  It had been raining and unfortunately there was quite a bit of mud and puddles of water to contend with but we still felt optimistic about our adventure.  We had been told a tornado hit the park in April 2011 but they had made great progress and there would be plenty of sites to choose from.  We were assigned a site and sent on our way to find it and set up.

Since we are inexperienced, we often pick pull thru sites because unfamiliar spots can be narrow and hard to get into.  Once we found our spot and pulled in, we realized the grass had not been mowed in some time and the sewer hookup was not back to normal.  In fact, the only reason we could even find the hook up was because Jim found a rock in the tall grass and it was covering the opening.  We were getting frazzled when several deer came walking by curious about what we were doing in their park.  It was almost like they were saying stay calm, everything will be OK.  There were lots more issues with leveling after we disconnected the truck and finally we decided this spot was not going to work.  Almost prophetically the clerk who signed us in had said, “If you don’t like the assigned site, just move and let me know”.  So off we went in our pick up to find a different site that was more prepared, without two foot high grass.  All through the campground you could see deer that had come out of the trees to spend the early evening watching the people.  They were lying under trees and in campground roads without much fear.

We found another spot and moved the RV thinking this is probably the best of the worst.  The automatic leveler got the RV level, but it entailed raising the jacks to the point where the right tires were no longer touching the ground.  We were not happy but too tired to care.  At this point, all I wanted was to sit down and have some dinner.  We had been driving since 5:30AM that morning and stopped for a sandwich around 11:30AM.  It was now close to 6:30PM and everything we had to eat was frozen. The signs in the park indicated there is a lodge and we felt logically if there are people staying there, it would be necessary to have a restaurant.  We were right! We found a beautiful restaurant with a solid wall of glass overlooking the lake.  It was breathtaking.  In front of the glass was a huge outdoor patio overlooking the campground and we could see our RV (picture above).  From up there, the world below looked idyllic but up close we knew better.  We had a nice dinner (of course, at this point cheese squares on saltines would have looked good) and went back to our RV to relax for the evening.  We did one more thing while we were at the lodge; we used their internet to find a new campground.

That night it rained on and off all night.  The sound of the rain on the roof was a welcomed relief from the sounds of whatever animal it was tap dancing up there the rest of the time.  With morning came breakfast and bidding farewell to our “nature adventure”.  I can imagine how wonderful the park was before the tornado hit but we have decided we are not the kind of campers who enjoy nature in the rough.  I won’t speak for Jim, but I think I am more the concrete pad, landscaped grounds kind of camper without the mud and tap dancing animals.

Off we went to find Cave Spring, Georgia and our new campground for the remainder of the week.