Alabama

We spent two amazing nights at my best friend's family ranch in Alabama. Galio Farms is a special place that I have been fortunate enough to visit several times. Now that my family gets to see it too is very cool. We had a very long car day Thursday from Asheville to Galio, about seven hours. The kids did pretty well all told. When we arrived it was about 4:30 and William, the property manager met us. Despite the heat the kids really wanted to try horseback riding. I wasn't sure what to expect given our lack of experience but after leading the kids around for a few minutes we all got on our own horses and went for a thirty minute ride together. The kids were SO HAPPY to be on their own horses and riding alone. Julia wore her cowgirl boots. Molly was adorable. Afterward we took a quick spin in the Polaris, and then showered up for dinner. Katie and Annie Belle cooked up delicious fried chicken, mashed potatoes and peas and of course ranger cookies for dessert. We took the kids out on another ride around the property after dinner in the quiter golf cart in the hopes of seeing some animals but the kids were laughing and talking so much I think they scared all the animals off. The kids thought driving the Polaris is the greatest thing ever. 
Friday morning I woke up and went for a run very early. The humidity was already through the roof. We enjoyed a big breakfast and went back down to the barn for another ride.  We each got on our horses. James rode Boss, I rode Cheif, Caey rode smoky, Julia rode Dale and molly rode Little Gal.  We rode for about two hours including a water break at the tea house. The kids enjoyed it so much and it made me very happy to see them having so much fun.  After our ride we went to the train tracks and put pennies on the tracks. Then we met up with Mike, who works for the timber company and he took us on a visit to a logging site. Mike took us into the woods and we saw the operation up close. We were able to see the cutter cut down rows of trees so quickly and pile them up.  Then another rig comes and scoops up the pile and drags it to the loader. The loader then picks up the pile and strips it off all the branches and loads it into a logging truck.
The kids were pretty exhausted so we went back to Galio and had some lunch and naps. After naps we tried our hand at fishing but with the heat nothing was biting and we did not have the patience to wait it out. The kids wanted to swim in lake Bob so we did. We all had a ball jumping off of the dock over and over until it was time for dinner. We ate fried catfish, hush puppies and stewed okra. A powerful storm blew through and knocked the power out but Galio has a generator so we were not effected. At dark we took another Polaris ride and went to get our smooshed pennies from the train tracks. Then william called to say it was time for a firework show at lake bob. He shot off a bunch and the kids did little ones too. It was a great night and lots of fun. 
Saturday morning we got everyone up at 5am and met william and his two daughters to go pig hunting. Unfortunately we didn't get a pig but that's how it goes. We had o ur last big breakfast, cleaned up, said our goodbyes and hit the road. It was an amazing stay at Galio.