'BamaGanza!

October 4-9 found us in Gadsden, Alabama for the 'BamaGanza FROG Rally. The rally was held at Noccalula Falls State Park Campground. Very pretty park with lots of trees, walking and biking trails.

Our Campsite

Above Noccalula Falls is a nine-foot-tall bronze status of a young Cherokee woman, Noccalula, who, according to local legends, plunged to her death after being ordered by her father to marry a man she did not love. It is a 90-foot drop. Unfortunately, the falls have been dry for quite a while. 

Can You Find the Trickle of Water in The Falls

 

Looking Down Into the Dry Creek

One of the Park Paths

While in Gadsden we ventured out for lunch at Pruett's. We were told it was a great place for BBQ. The ribs and side dishes were very good but the sliced brisket was very dry. Can't wait to get back to San Antonio and eat some delicious Rudy's BBQ brisket!

Food at the Pot Luck dinners was delicious! It was difficult to keep from overeating. Approximately 100 people attended the rally and John and I usually wound up towards the end of the line at meal time. On the last night they served cake for dessert. I saw Bob, one of the rally hosts, bringing out the cake and as soon as he announced that it was time for dessert I thought I'd be clever and hurry to be first in line. Well, no one was there to slice and serve the cake except for one man and he said we needed a lady to cut the cake because he didn't know how. I was the only "lady" around. So, I sliced and served cake to 100 people and got my slice of cake LAST! Oh well, I tried!

When we had some free time we decided that we should have an easy way of giving our contact information to new friends so we designed some business cards. Pretty good, huh?

We had fun at the rally. The campfires were fun (karaoke too!). Johnston RV provided a country western band that played on the last night and they were very good. We met a lot of nice people. Shout out to Lloyd and Kathy from Jonesboro, Arkansas. Hope we see you again!

Next stop is Little Rock, Arkansas for two weeks!

Ohio

Our next stop was Loudonville, Ohio.  We stayed at Mohican Adventures RV Park where we attended our first FROG Rally.  FROG stands for Forest River Owners Group.  We saw all types and sizes of Forest River RVs.  We met many nice people and enjoyed our FROG meals, campfires, and the Ohio weather (highs in the 70's!)  We were the only full-timers and a lot of people wanted to know how we made the decision to full-time and what steps we took to make it happen.  Shout out to Bud and Nancy whom we met at the rally.  They are planning a trip to Texas in January.  Hope we can meet up with you then!

Our campsite

Relaxing after a busy day

Ohio is every bit as beautiful as Iowa--and they grow corn there too!  The gently rolling hills are lovely. 

 

Every day we drove into nearby towns (Berlin, Walnut Creek) where there is a large Amish population.  It was interesting to see all the Amish people shopping and driving their buggies on the road alongside the cars.

 

Wal-Mart even had a sign directing the buggies to the hitching post.

 

To learn about the Amish we toured the Yoder Family Farm just outside of Berlin, Ohio.  It is a real working farm that is still worked by the Amish.  We also toured two houses and in one of them Leah, a young Amish woman, was busy in the kitchen juicing cooked tomatoes.  She had already juiced enough tomatoes to fill a 5 gallon bucket and she had used some juice to make fresh beef vegetable soup.  Sitting on the kitchen counters were fresh brownies, fresh loaves of bread and jams and preserves.  It smelled heavenly! We were able to purchase some of her fresh baked cookies.  They were so delicious that I purchased her cookbook which is a collection of Amish family recipes.  The book contained pictures of original handwritten recipes that were passed on to her.

Yoder Farm pictures:

 

 

 

The barn was built in 1885!
 

Pictures from the house

 

 


We enjoyed our visit to Ohio.  Next stop is a FROG Rally in Gadsden, Alabama.  On the day we headed to Alabama (October 4), the morning was foggy but after about an hour it turned into a beautiful sunny day.