Camping

A couple of weeks ago we went camping at Smith Lake in Alabama. We rode over with Gary and Emily Friday to Hidden Cove Outdoor Resort to reserve out campsite. We left Gary and EMily's around 6am. Soooo hard to get up and going that early. Anyway, we got to the place around 8 and drove around looking out our choices for campsite. We decided on a site that was right next to a rocky footpath through the woods to the boat docks. We rented a pontoon boat from John, a Scottish man who lives right next to the campground. SO easy! He just pulled the boat around to the docks next to our campsite and it was there ready for us to go in the morning. After we got all that planned out, we headed to the store for food and drinks and came back for lunch. We grilled brats, admired our tents, and did a little fishing off the little water fall that was right off the trail next to the campsite. IT hadn't rained in 3 weeks, so the water wasn't flowing, but it was a good spot to hang your line from. The water is so clear you can see the fish swimming below.  There was a huge pool at the campground, so we took advantage of that for a little while. It was really hot that afternoon. After we got back from the pool, it started to storm. Lightning struck a tree next to our campsite, so we headed into Arley, the small town that was just down the road. We ate at some small family restaurant and headed back. On our way back through the entrance, we got an actual map of the resort and discovered they had a place you could get in the lake for swimming and jumping off rocks. After dark, we went down there and swam in the lake. That was kind of scary, but fun. Finally we went to bed. It wasn't too bad after the storm had gone through and cooled it off. We had fans too.

  Saturday morning we got up early ( it's hard to sleep in in a tent ) and headed into arley to a coffee shop for breakfast. Nothing like a big greasy breakfast for a day on the water! Mom and dad were on their way over , so we had time to kill. WE slowly loaded the boat with our coolers and bags of junk..... Lee and Gary took it out for a test run. Finally mom and dad got there and we took off. We rode for miles and miles, stopped and jumped in few times, we had the tube so we played around with that. We pulled up on a wooded beach and had lunch. IT was a nice day. I got burned a good bit, but not as bad as I did in FL.  That evening after we turned the boat back in, we went down to the swimming area and had fun jumping off the rocks. John, our boat rental guy was hanging out down there too. He brought some kine of donut things from Cullman that were delicious! I think he just spends his weekends renting his boats, and then hoping his renter come back and hang out with him. LOL. What a life!

  After we had supper at the mexican place in Arley, we started trying to figure out how to set up the HUGE tent that mom and dad borrowed from Phil and Melissa. OMG! It was like a circus tent.  I think it was an 8 person tent. OF course it had a roof leg things going every which way and the directions SUCKED AND it was totally dark. SO we are all trying to get this thing stood up by flashlights. IT was quite funny looking and lop sided. Whenever someone did drive by, we'd turn the flashlights away, so they wouldn't see a bunch of people standing on one leg and sideways holding up this deformed tent. Some of the poles were broke, so  the roof bent in places it shouldn't and was taller on one side than another. - IT was a good thing it was AFTER dark when we put it up. LOL. WE finally got it to where we thought it would at least stand through the night as long as no one sneezed or anything else ( we did have mexican ) and we went to bed. Amazingly the tent stayed up all night. Dad took it down at daybreak before anyone could see the hideous looking thing. HAHAHA!  The rest of the day was just riding home, then I crashed in the bed until we had to go to work. A very fun weekend!