Gadsden, Alabama

It was foggy when we left home and it didn’t lift till about an hour into our drive.  The weather has been, to say the least, “different”.  Here it is in late December and the temperature is in the 60’s.  By lunch, the fog changed into a misty rain and by mid-afternoon, it was a constant down pour.  On top of that the traffic was terrible.  I managed to maintain safe distances to the auto in front of me but there was always some zig-zagger that wants to get to the head of the pack and cut right in front of me spraying a good water fog on my windshield.  It was a tiring 350 mile day.

It rained all night but we woke up to a nice drizzle and by 9am the clouds had cleared.  When we stopped for lunch, I checked the weather for southern Alabama. We were thinking of spending a little time along the gulf coast in Mobile but the weather did not look good in that area, it’s suppose to be constant rain for the next few day. We decided, since the weather is nice where we are at, let’s find something close by and spend a couple of nights.

We are at Noccalula Falls in Gadsden, Alabama, camped next to  a 90-foot waterfall named for Noccalula, a young Cherokee maiden who plunged to her death rather than forsake her true love. With all the rain the area has had, it looks like Niagara Falls (nice video of the Noccalula falls taken a couple days ago).

There is an easy 3.5 mile walking trail that follows along the creek. We took it for our morning walk.  The little rain that we met didn’t discourage us.

We were told about this artsy town not to far away that is worth the drive for lunch.  After our morning walk, we drove to Mentone, Alabama and found Wildflower Cafe.  The menu has unique and interesting food.  Denise tried the tomato pie and I had a very interesting chicken salad sandwich.  We both  totally enjoyed our meal.

We are leaving tomorrow and going west.  The weather forecast is partly cloudy to clear skies. We are definitely going into the right direction. We will stop somewhere when I get tired of driving.

We are staying at Noccalula Falls Campground in Gadsden, Alabama.  We paid $21 per night with a Good Sams membership discount.  We have 50 amp electrical service, water, sewer and cable TV.  Our site is P3, a pull through, with a concrete pad.  We would definitely stay here again.