Sweet Home Alabama

That's a good lookin' Southern breakfast!!

Our next stop was to visit my Mimi and Papa in Dadeville, Alabama. They have a really nice house on Lake Martin, but the lake is drained in the winter so we couldn't go on a pontoon ride. If you have a chance to go out on Lake Martin, you have to find Chimney Rock! It's this giant rock out there in the middle of the lake covered in spray paint that you can jump off of. It's really fun and probably a 20 ft. drop. We only spent a couple days here and mainly just worked on the robe. Mimi made some of my favorite meals while we were there: chicken and dumplings and breakfast gravy. I helped make the breakfast gravy, because I've tried to recreate it on my own, but it never comes out quite right. After making it with my Mimi, I think I realize I had my flour milk ratio way off. In order to make the gravy, you'll need a cast iron skillet, some bacon grease, a little bit of flour, and quite a bit of milk. And that's it!! You start by browning your flour in the bacon grease (this is called a "rue") and then add your milk. Stir until it starts to thicken, add salt and pepper for taste. Volia! It doesn't get much better than that.

Lance sporting his new drinking regalia. 

We were anxious to hit the road once we finished the Crown Royal robe. We wanted to hand deliver it to Kyle's Uncle Lance, so we set out for Huntsville, Alabama. When we arrived, we pretty much immediately gave him the robe and it fit perfectly! I was so pleased and he was stoked on it. Uncle Lance and Aunt Stephanie invited us to stay for as long as we wanted and even told us we could help them with some projects. They have two little boys, both younger than 10, who kept us pretty busy also. We did a couple projects: painting an equipment locker yellow for the boys' football gear and moving some furniture out of a storage unit... For the most part we spent the week exploring Huntsville. My dear friend, Lauren, from St. Augustine grew up here, so I asked her for some recommendations. She suggested a crystal store called The Dream Maker and to check out the state park, Monte Sano. We did both and I can see why she recommended them! The Dream Maker is such a unique little store, with every crystal and stone you could dream of! Plus, they do massages and have many other cool knick-knacks to check out. The Dream Maker used to be this little old lady's house who would paint pictures on cobwebs!! They have some of her art displayed. The whole vibe in that place is on point.

I'm a peachy mama, so I picked up some of these
Peach Quartz at Dream Maker. 

We actually didn't go into the Mante Sano State Park (which cost $2), instead we parked in the hiker's parking lot, which is on the way to the state park gates and asks only for a donation. From there you can hop immediately on some trails. We took the Natural Well Trail, which leads to this GIANT hole in the ground. On the way there, you have to cross over this part of the trail, which a tornado must have ravaged because there are all these huge fallen trees. It's cool though: you get to walk along the trunks and hop from tree to tree. There are also rocky bluffs that you can climb along the trail. The well is surrounded by chain link fence to prevent people from falling in, but you can crawl underneath it to the very last ledge of the hole before you'd go plummeting in. We had fun shouting into the hole and hearing the echoes. We tossed a rock in and it felt like forever till we heard the ker-plunk. We also found the local skatepark, Lydia Gold Skatepark, which has a nice street section, a small bowl, stairs, boxes, and quarter pipes. It's located at 200 Cleveland Avenue Northwest.

It's not easy to capture a giant hole in the ground,
but this is the natural well at Monte Sano State Park.

Lydia Gold Skatepark 

I am an astronaut!

Recreation of the moon landing and the moon's surface.

Lance and Stephanie had some coupons to the U.S. Space and Rocket Center and since I hadn't been there since a 7th grade space camp field trip, we decided to go get galactic. The museum was cool, I guess... you'd have to be a serious nerd to even understand half of the plaques. Many of them break down how they built the engines and go into detail about crazy space inventions. Wasn't really my cup of tea. Luckily, there were rides and a lot of interactive exhibits. We climbed a rock wall on Mars, experienced a G of force on our bodies, and rode the Space Shot which is supposed to simulate blasting off. We got the "Stars Combo" package, which included access to the museum and an iMax movie for $25 (we had a $6 off coupon and they give discounts for AAA members, Alabama students, and military discounts). iMax theaters are always cool. We saw a movie called Hidden Universe, which followed an astronomer's journey to the largest telescope in the world (the E.L.T or Extremely Large Telescope), located in Chile. I was surprised how much military paraphernalia was at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center, but I guess there is a huge crossover in space technology and military technology. 

Hanging out in space!

We had a great time in Alabama, but were ready to hit the road again. We still hadn't spent a night in our tricked out truck bed, so we were itching to be on our own!! We stayed for the Super Bowl, which is a big deal in this household because they are football fanatics! We had a B.F.F.Y, or Beast Feast Fuck Yeah, as Lance dubbed it. This included white chicken chili, buffalo chicken dip, venison and wild turkey with pepperjack cheese and a jalapeno wrapped in bacon, summer sausage (venison, pepper, and chedder cheese), and shish kabobs. We O.Ded on protein and left the next morning with our bellies full!