Sardis Dam, Batesville, MS

We enjoyed our past two weeks in the John W Kyle State Park  below Sardis Dam near Batesville, Mississippi.  Being on the lake was great...but a bit windy.  You just never know.  Still enjoyed it and plenty of walking in the area.  3 small trails near the park but huge camping and picnicking areas on the lake that were virtually empty to walk around and enjoy.

Loved the white pelicans that hung around. Appox 100 seemed to make the lake their home.  In Batesville we did find an area of interest, the remains of some ancient mounds:

on a nature trail near our park

fishermen out every day on the lake

The Batesville Mounds....or what is left of them after a couple thousand
years.

Early to middle Woodland Era,
1-400AD

Mound C

a nice little trail at the mounds

Birmingham, AL

Enjoyed our 3 weeks in the small town of Brookside near Birmingham, AL.  Well, Mike enjoyed it for the most part.  I was visiting grandchildren in WA for two of those weeks. However, we did manage to get around Birmingham.  It has some interesting history in addition to being the heart of the civil rights movement. We did visit the 16th Street Baptist Church where the 1963 KKK bombing took the lives of 4 girls.  We were not able to make it to the Civil Rights Museum, perhaps next time through.

We did visit Vulcan, cast in iron and forged to represent the state of Alabama at the 1904 St. Louis Worlds Fair, Vulcan has overlooked Birmingham from Red Mountain since the 1930s. Interesting history about the statue.

We did visit Sloss Furnaces National Historic Landmark.  For 90 years Sloss was an operating industrial site.  You can climb and walk all over the site where they made iron in a blast furnace.  Very cool!  I was surprised at how much we could see and get close to.  You are given a self guided tour map and let go to explore the old iron making operation at your leisure.

And of course, breweries.  Birmingham has some good ones!  And, if you are like me and enjoy them, they have sours!!!

We are on to Sardis, Mississippi next for 2 weeks!

In the hill under Vulcan is an old ore mine

this reminded me of being at the State of Liberty

Birmingham from Red Mountain

The museum was interesting giving a nice history of the iron industry in Birmingham

Mike really liked one of Good
Peoples IPAs and was able to
buy it in cans.

Good People Brewery

Ghost Train Brewery

Trimtab Brewing

Rickwood Caverns is near the small town of Warrior, AL, not far from Birmingham .

some steep steps!!

we had to splash through some water in this one. Mike looks like an apparition:)

this cave had a lot of bats, many of which were very close to us as we walked through.  I'd never seen them like this before!

Cahaba Brewery

Avondale had some nice IPAs
and....a barrel room with
several really nice sours!!!

Freeport, FL

Tomorrow we head north out of Florida!  Time to move on.  We'll be heading north and west this year.  Do enjoy Florida....in the winter, of course!;)

We had a busy week in this area as we are very close to the gulf and there are a lot of cute gulf towns and great places to eat as well as breweries and lots of walking trails!  Grayton Beach State Park is about 15 miles from our campground and has an absolutely lovely beach!

 Driving (on 30A) through and walking around the cities of Sea Side, Water Color, etc. was very nice. And Grayton and Idyll Hound Breweries in the South Walton area are very good as well as Destin Brewery in Destin:

crossing the dunes to access Grayton Beach

miles of pristine pure white sand, thank goodness it was overcast and breezy this day!

seems mushrooms will tolerate most environments

one happy fisherman!

Valentines dinner at The Bay!

Enjoying grilled oysters at
Idyll Hound brewery!

They had a great sour and a
couple good IPAs

At Grayton Brewery we attended
a Brews, Blues and BBQ night.
What fun!!!

band was great and food so good they ran out of it!

Destin Brewery, no sours
but some good IPAs!

Sunset from Beauchamps restaurant.  Till next time Florida.....