Road Trip 2024 Day 3

November 12, 2024

 

I love glamping! What a wonderful night it was with the perfect temperature in the tent due to the heater and ooshy gooshy beds. I’m a believer.

 

We had another leisurely start to the day and decided to drive to Huntsville which is an hour away from Lake Guntersville. There is a well-known botanical garden there and despite our concerns about lack of flowers in November, decided to give it a try anyway. The welcome center was gorgeous.

 

They had a circular path going around the perimeter of the garden and then gravel paths to explore the center and other areas of the gardens. They were also getting ready for their Christmas season with a “Galaxy of Lights” to illuminate the garden and we were able to get an inkling of what it would all look like. Unfortunately, the light festival doesn’t begin for another 6 days otherwise we would have happily come back to see it.

My favorite part of the garden was the herb garden where they had a section of plants mentioned in Shakespeare’s work along with the quote and why the plants were meaningful in his work. What a clever idea.

 

The garden was an inspiration to go home and start planting herbs and flowers but then I remembered that I have a black thumb. I absolutely did not inherit any of my mother’s skills and talent with plants. Even during the lockdown of the pandemic when I was home 24/7 to take care of the damn plants, I still killed them. I had always thought I had bad luck with plants because I wasn’t home enough. Nope! Turns out I suck at keeping plants alive. Lesson learned – enjoy botanical gardens but don’t go getting any fanciful ideas about suddenly becoming a master gardener.

 

For lunch, we stopped at a restaurant that had some excellent southern food options (artistic photo courtesy of Terry).

            

Mum and I opted for pulled pork with sides while Terry had a ginormous salad. Mum also tried collard greens for the first time and said they tasted like dandelion greens which is my cue to never try them since dandelion greens are yucky (I last had them when I was a kid, hence my erudite review of them).

 

On the drive back to our campsite, we drove by the Lodge that is a part of the state park. We are able to see it high on a hill from our campsite and were intrigued so we stopped by to take a gander. It was a beautiful view from there and we spotted our teeny weeny tent in the distance.

 

We also paused for the obligatory selfie       .

 

After that, it was back to our glorious glamping tent for an afternoon of relaxation. It was heavenly. We reprised our dinner of hot dogs over the fire and Walmart salad and ended the day with s’more breath. Not a bad day. Off to Montgomery tomorrow. Good night, y'all.