DAYS 7- 9
9/11 – 9/13, 2015 – Guntersville, AL

As I mentioned, the Lodge was a great place to stay. They have a naturalist/hunting lodge motif going on, which is interesting, if not authentic (I don’t think the place actually existed before being built as a hotel in the 1970s). There’s the central “lodge” building where the office, restaurant and function halls are locations. There are two wing buildings with the hotel rooms on either side, right along the edge of the bluff so that most rooms have a great view of the lake unless your on the mid-level facing the parking lot. there are about a dozen individual “chalets” built along the bluff and then about the same number of individual “cabins” down next to the lake.

Although there is apparently a very steep hiking trail leading more or less directly from the lodge down to the beach area, it doesn’t sound like it’s used very often and most people drive the loop roads to get around the park. We stayed in one of the lake-facing rooms and ate the hotel restaurant food almost exclusively – not close to anything else and no kitchenette in our room. I’d rate the food as fair to good. Nothing spectacular and certainly overpriced as you are paying for the location and convenience. Some more shots of the hotel:

Some chainsaw sculptures from different local artists:
 

Our riding over the next few days consisted of a Friday shuttle trip for Char to Huntsville (50 minutes northwest) to help with wedding stuff and a beer run for the cookout to be held at the lakeside pavilion on Sunday. Learned I can fit four six packs of bottles in my saddlebags when needed. 🙂 The ride back and forth to Huntsville was relaxing rural routes (about 90 miles):

Cool barn in Alabama.

I picked a few more squiggly lines on the map for my return trip, just to see a bit of the countryside. Green Mountain Road heading out of Huntsville was a particularly fun little stretch as well as the stretch of Rte 227 between the town of Guntersville and the state park. No pics of these roads as the camera was in my tank bag. The rest of our time was spent either helping with wedding prep or relaxing in the room and typing up this ride report.

Everything worked out for the wedding, as usually is the case. People laughed, cried, said “I do” and generally had a good time. There was a cookout with some good barbeque down by the lake on Sunday afternoon, which was a nice way to relax and wrap up our stay. Being after Labor Day and with the cooler weather following the front that moved through on Friday, we pretty much had the place to ourselves. There was a Cornhole beanbag toss competition, kayaking, paddleboarding, and someone brought some fishing rods with which I unexpectedly hooked a small bass. Another nice sunset to end the day:

Char would be flying home and getting a ride to the Huntsville airport from family on Monday morning. I planned to head out from the hotel around 7am to start my solo return journey. Plans are always subject to change on the road, however…

(that’s called foreshadowing)