Road Trip 2024 Day 2

November 11, 2024

 

After a leisurely start to the day, we were off to Alabama! We had a very short travel day of 3 hours so we had to find things to do given that our reserved tent wouldn’t be ready until 4:00 (but more on the tent later). Terry did some research last night and found a cast iron museum that was on our route which boasted the world’s largest cast iron pan. Terry’s daughter Kelly and soon-to-be son-in-law, TJ had encouraged us to find the wacky and the wonderful during our adventure and the world’s largest cast-iron pan totally fit the bill!

 

It was the Lodge brand of cast iron cookware, and they had a shop and museum next to their factory. It was wonderful! We immediately bought tickets into the museum and got a nifty little tour of how cast-iron pans are made. It made me wish my father was still around as he would have absolutely loved it. 

 

 

And then we turned a corner and there it was - the largest cast-iron pan in the world measuring over 18 feet and weighing a whopping 14,360 pounds!!!

 

 

It was epic! We had a wonderful time in the museum and an equally wonderful time in their shop afterward. We are in Kelly & TJ’s debt for encouraging us to explore the wacky because we had a great time.

 

After leaving the wonderful and wacky behind us, we continued on our way to Gunter Lake, Alabama where we had a reservation. Of course, as we passed into Alabama, I had to get a photo of the welcome sign since this was state #49 for me, #48 for Terry, and #47 for Mum.

 

 

Our quest for spotting all 50 state license plates on the trip has stalled a bit as we didn’t visit any rest areas or Buc-ees which we discovered were a gold mine for difference license plates, but we hope to spot more in the coming days. We stopped for groceries and lunch and found a picnic table along the way to have lunch next to Lake Gunter. It was beautiful but we were again the only people having a picnic. I think this might be the trend for our trip. We had some time to kill before our check-in time, so Terry guided us through the rules of gin rummy, and we played a few hands. This time we were able to keep the family card shark (aka Mum/Honey Boo/Meany Pants) in check and she won only one of the three games we played.

 

 

And then Terry got a text that our tent was ready early so we jumped into the car and drove lickety split to Gunter Lake State Park where we eagerly searched for our tent where we will be glamping for the next two nights. And there it was – complete with a tacky scarecrow on the front porch.

 

The inside of the tent more than made up for the scarecrow! Absolutely glorious!!!

 

It comes with a fridge, wall heater/AC, fan, incense burner (seriously!), carpets, lights, a s’mores kit, and ooshy gooshy beds including a king size bed and two bunkbeds. It’s camping heaven and I will never be able to go back to regular camping again. I am ruined for life <insert dramatic sigh here>

 

For dinner, Terry (Veteran Girl Scout of Camp Natarswi fame) lit the campfire and soon had a roaring fire going. We happily speared hot dogs on sticks and roasted our dinner without charring them into carcinogenic oblivion. It was pared with a lovely Walmart potato salad followed by a chaser of gourmet s’mores that were also not charred into carcinogenic oblivion. We all have mad skills!

 

 

We spent another hour by the campfire enjoying the beautiful moon and stars and decided that it's bed time...at 7:00 pm. Party animals - that's us! See you tomorrow.