Welcome back to Northwest Alabama. We tried to visit Dismals Canyon the first time around but the night tours were fully booked. Glow worms (or dismalites) are an unusual phenomenon. There are only two significant colonies in the world (Alabama and Australia/New Zealand). You can only get tickets the Sunday before the weekend you come and they sale out quickly. So what are dismalites? They are tiny bioluminescent creatures that emit a glow (or blue light) to attract their food at night. The night tour takes you through the canyon with a guide who points them out along the way. Definitely a unique experience. The canyon is a short walk, not strenuous and well shaded in the middle of nowhere.
Unfortunately we were unable to take pictures of the worms as it was pitch black. Check it out!
So how do you decide where to go first? We spent many of hours dreaming of travel to so many places but got quickly overwhelmed when deciding what to do first. We didn’t want to go far from home at first because we wanted to learn about the new toy and we have a older fur friend Abbey (14 years and happy as ever). And so we continued with our exploration of Alabama. It has been very surprising to say the least at how beautiful it is. Our week…
Day 2, we visited Little River Canyon, driving the rim and seeing the beautiful falls. We camped that night in Desoto State Park after an afternoon of hiking to see the more waterfalls and huge stones.
We wrapped up the trip with eating dinner at Rattlesnake Saloon, visiting Helen Keller’s birthplace and staying at McFarland Park campground on the Tennessee river.
So where do you go now that you have the RV? We have many ideas for long trips, but we still have to work. First things first, we need internet. There are so many options now. We looked at Starlink, cellular hot spots and other satellite options. We finally settled for a Verizon hotspot that works with the van. The van comes equipped with a WineGard Connect system. All we needed was the cellular sim card and we were good to go.
During our research we discovered Harvest Hosts. We wanted to find places to stay that would not break the bank (yea, we still have a mortgage, for now!!) and get an experience of some kind. Harvest Hosts fits right in nicely. They have farms where you can camp and get fresh eggs in the morning. There are breweries where you can park, enjoy their beers and are located near a downtown area for exploring. We found some wineries, distilleries, tea makers, drive-in movie theatres, and animal rescue and recovery farms.
Back to our first trip. We want to do each state and being new to the RV, did not want to go far from home on our first few trips. And so we chose to visit Albertville and Gadsden Alabama. We visited Noccalula Falls Park. The first Harvest Host we visited was a winery that offered wood fired pizzas. The wine was good, the pizza excellent and a cheesecake flight for dessert. We rolled back into the RV after. It was just outside Albertville and was a quiet spot to camp surrounded by wine (err… grape) vines and a quaint tree.
This trip broke us in. The month of March. It was 40 degrees outside. The wind was blowing quite a bit. We learned all about the propane system – hot water, furnace and gas stove. We learned not to store gallons of water on a high shelf. Kelly made us our first meal – breakfast eggs and sausage.
Jess and Kelly travel 