We were on the road shortly after 9 to head to Alabama. I had no idea the route we were taking I just hopped into the driver's seat and set the GPS. I did know that I wanted to go back to the visitor's center for a sticker for our cargo carrier since we didn't have one from The Smoky Mountains. The kids were excited to watch the rest of the first Lord of the Rings movie and had their fingers crossed they'd be able to fit the second one in as well. I was just glad I hadn't been driving 5 hours a day like many previous years!
We ended up skirting around Chattanooga after a lot of sleepy interstate miles then even more into Alabama. Dave fell asleep reading in the passenger's seat a few times so I knew he wouldn't be much better!
We finally arrived at the highest point of Alabama and got set up. I picked a spot near the top of the campground near the lookout tower but within walking distance of the pool this time. It was a terrible campsite for tents - we have definitely been spoiled by our perfect little tent pads this summer! I struggled to find a good spot for either of our tents that was even close to level but we settled on a dirt sorta level spot for the adult tent and a grassy tree-covered spot for the kid tent. Within 10 seconds of setting up we were walking down the road to the pool.
The weather was nice and the pool felt great. Unfortunately I'd forgotten my swimsuit so I was the penny thrower and referee once the chicken fighting and wrestling began.
After about an hour a dark cloud started to make it's presence known in the distance so I went back to the campsite to get dinner going. I laughed most of the way back thinking about the whining from Dave as it was a straight up hike back up the hill to our site.
They were about 15 minutes behind me so dinner was in full cooking mode when Dave walked up. I asked him to turn the heat down on the boiling pot and I was met with silence. Both burners were on full blast and neither would turn down or off. We couldn't have asked for a better time for our trusty stove to die than the last meal of the last day of the trip! To add to the chaos it started pouring at that moment so I grabbed all the food and the pot of boiling noodles and headed to the picnic shelter across the street. We made do with watery macaroni and cheese and cold pizza quesadillas. The kid thought it was a great dinner however it left a lot to be desired for me for sure.
Lucky for us I had one of the kids grab the game box so we had some entertainment. We ended up playing card games while the storm passed and chatted about our fun memories of the trip.
Once the weather seemed to have cleared we headed back down to the pool again. I wasn't sure Dave would want to go with that big hill to climb but he didn't complain! Brayden brought his football this time so the kids had a good time jumping in to catch it.
This one-handed catch was my favorite of the night!
The kids eyes started hurting after too much longer from the chlorine so we decided to call it a night and head back to the tents. Dave did catch a tiny piece of the sunset before we left though!
