After leaving Florida we decided to head into Alabama for a few days. This blog will be a short one just to cover the Alabama stops. Once again, we passed through the Apalachicola National Forest where they continued to do controlled burns. We stopped at Grahams Creek Landing and had our lunch before continuing our drive. Our destination was Blue Springs State Park. After manoeuvring ourselves into an unlevel treed campsite, we headed over to check out the spring, passing the fishing pond on the way. The spring pumps 3,600 gallons of water per minute into two pool areas. The water is a constant 68F year-round and is a very popular swimming spot. In the playground we played a game of connect 4 and Sharon wasn’t watching closely enough, so I got a solid column of yellow rings. As we walked back to the campsite the ducks came out of the water and chased me as they thought I would feed them😉That evening while BBQing it was cool to see fireflies lighting up the forest. I hadn’t seen them in a long time. The light is actually a form of Bioluminescence, which is a chemical reaction in their bodies. They produce the light for 3 reasons:

• Defense: The larvae produce short glows to worn predators that they don’t taste good.
• Mating: Adult fireflies use unique flash patterns to identify and attract males.
• Predation: Some female fireflies mimic the flash patterns of other species to lure male fireflies so they can eat them!

Unfortunately, I didn’t get any photos of the fireflies.  That evening we had the worst storm we had ever experienced in the RV. The rain was coming down in buckets for hours, we had thunder so loud you could feel it vibrating your heart, lightning cracks that were fairly close, and our weather radio kept going off telling us to take cover and be aware of possible flooding! There was really nowhere in the campground to take cover. Needless to say, it was a sleepless night. The next morning, we were thankful that our treed campsite was not at the river level as some of the sites did have signs of the rising water. Since the storm had passed, we did a 6 km hike on the Magnolia Trail where they had also done a recent controlled burn. A few spring flowers were starting to bloom, you just had to find them.

Our next location was a Harvest Host, so instead of having to cook dinner while boondocking we decided to go out for lunch (twist our arms). A google search of the route led us to Kennys Hwy 198 Diner in Clayton, an eclectic place that had a country store where you could buy almost anything while being watched over by some “stuffed” animals, and then eat in the restaurant. We enjoyed fried cheese curds (they love their fried food in the south) and then we had a Smoked Chicken BBQ pizza. Hard to believe no seafood in this meal! We had fun exploring all the items they had outside at Kenny’s. Sharon wanted to try boiled peanuts, but they were all out.

It was a bit confusing when we arrived at Bama Bison Farm, as she had a paid RV area and a separate area for Harvest Host guests. She had tried to send us a message about how to get to HH area from the road but instead we drove across the field which was a muddy route due to the rain. Later she came to say hello and we paid $15 to get an ATV tour of the farm property and to see the Bison.  She currently has 10 Bison in the herd.  This is down from 80 but as she said, “there was a divorce involved”.  It was fun to tour the grounds and get up close in the Bison area.  Here are some fun facts on the Bison:

• The farmer said the Bison are a lot less work than the chickens, they primarily eat grass so she can just leave them in the fields.  In the winter she does supplement their food.
• Bison are fast (can run up to 35 mph), which we witnessed as they ran after the ATV knowing treats would soon be served.
• Bison meat is much leaner than beef.
• Bison can get worms that cause them to lose massive amounts of weight, so she has to watch for this and give them shots to kill the worms.
• She humanely kills the Bison in the field when they are 2 to 3 years old and then takes them to the nearby USDA approved meat processing plant.
• She was retired from the military and learned how to raise the Bison from an expert in Texas.

After the tour we went into the barn and bought Bison T-Bone steaks and some Bison summer sausage with jalapeno and cheese. We really enjoyed both types of meat that we bought.

Before leaving Alabama to head back into Georgia, we stopped for groceries and found out no alcohol is sold before 1pm on Sunday.  Got to make sure everyone goes to church sober😊 Speaking of sober, here are the next craft beers I have tried (two photos of beers sampled). The first one is one that our friend Danny would really enjoy. It was an IPA variety pack called Voodoo Ranger from New Belgium Brewery in Colorado. My favourite of this sample pack was the Cashmerize. The next craft beers included a Michigan Porter and a Florida Brown Ale and surprisingly enough (for me) the Hooter Brown ale from Oyster City Brewery was actually my favourite. The Hooter Brown was much closer to a cross between a brown ale and a stout.

That will conclude this short blog for our stops in Alabama. We’re now visiting several more state parks in Georgia, and we’ll cover those in our next blog.