Let the Adventures Begin (POST FROM LAST SUMMER)

It's been a while since my last post but life is starting! I have started a new travel journal and gratitude journal.  I will be drawing inspiration from both of them.  (From my retirement  rules: travel to inexpensive places in the US and blissful pleasures.)

A couple of weeks ago Leon decided he would surprise me with a trip.  Now we use to go somewhere every weekend, but he is a caretaker for his 93 year old Mom now.  So the trip was very unexpected.  One thing this blog will have is my/our adventures and my photography locations/challenges.

 Our destination became Cullman, Alabama!  It is a 6 hour drive from Southern Illinois.
(By the way, it is closer to Huntsville than Chicago!) So off we went at 7:00 on Friday morning. Our first destination is Decatur, Alabama for BBQ at Big Bob Gibson.  It is our favorite place to go for BBQ!  Always a loaded potato.  Big Bob Gibson Restaurant has won many, many awards! A very dear friend introduced us to the restaurant and we miss her company but she is forever in our hearts!

Then on to Cullman, a little ways down the road, y'all!   We were on our way to discovering covered bridges and some of the most beautiful countryside.  Now I've been to Alabama numerous times, mostly Huntsville to take heirloom sewing classes.  This however was a complete adventure.  Our first stop was the Clarkson Covered Bridge.  It is a little west out of Cullman, but you feel in a different era, in a different country.  It is a park with a beautiful very rustic covered bridge and mill wheel.  There is a creek running through it with footpaths up and down the hills.  I loved the little water fall before the bridge.  Best of all bathrooms!!  My photography challenge was the extreme bright sunlight to deep shade.  You will see a sampling of my ambitions throughout this post.  Some good some bad!

The other bridges were in Blount County, Swann, Easley and Horton Mill Covered Bridges.

 They are definitely Alabama's Best Kept Secrets!  We felt like we found them all by accident and seemed to wind up and down country roads with no end. All three bridges can be visited in a few hours and are not far apart.  If you need to get away from job and chaos the roads and bridges are a welcoming salve.

Winding our way back home through Alabama and Tennessee, our last unexpected adventure was in Columbia, Tennessee.  We visited James Polk's home and my photography challenge was to photograph in a museum without flash.  James Polk's home and many other beautiful homes are in Columbia and we've decided this will be a city well worth revisiting.

(Well, pictures will follow just not sure when.)  This post was started last summer, so now I just have to find them in my thousands of images!  This truly is a great area to explore and reminds me of Nashville, Indiana.  (Yes, you read that right, Indiana not Tennesse!)