DeSOTO Cavern Park at Childersburg, ALABAMA

We arrived at DeSOTO Cavern Park in Childersburg, Alabama, to stay for a week and were greeted by grey squirrels galore . We parked and set up under the trees and set out to enjoy the week visiting relatives, and sight seeing in the surrounding area, Tuscaloosa and Birmingham (which I have already showed you in previous Blogs. We took the time to go through the park's cavern before we left and were glad that we did. The entrance to the cavern was in the middle of the amusement park surrounded by beautiful scenery . For the tour into the cavern we had an informative guide and in the center of the cavern we got to listen to the creation story from the Bible narrated during a light show. She told us that this can be done because the park and cavern are privately owned. The tour was interesting and beautiful and it was surprising to see this in an area that was just rolling hills. The campground also had an amusement park that was very nice and used by a lot of schools for their field trips. There were anywhere from 3 to 6 buses there daily. After a week of daily groups of children we thought that the weekend might be very quiet, but actually it was not. There were a lot of visitors even then. The sound of laughter and screaming was not an unpleasant sound while we sat around. It must have been the terrain that softened the sound.

There were other campers in and out daily, even tent campers. They also had a couple with a fifth wheel who were work camping there, who managed the gift shop and such. It was a nice and large gift shop. Also another lady was there with her SUV and trailer. She travels full time all over the United States and has been doing so for over a year. She is from Idaho and works full time at night as a WEB supervisor who handles calls from people needing help with there WEB site. So she sleeps during the day and that shows you that the sounds from the children was not offensive. There is a nearby large pavilion where the children picnicked also.

Check out the rides operated by foot power, the bathtubs and potties run by battery. Sure would make potty training easy, right? There there were pedal cars also run by battery. This little fellow looked so cute but, Oh my gosh, then a fender bender!! There was pedal boats , train rides, kids hunting for gem stones , rocks to climb , hoops to shoot , mock cannon wars , a fort maze , water dodge and a stockade to put Gary in. Then there was water balloon battle , water golf and water fountains to run through! My grandson would love this! I had to laugh one day when one of the children there was not satisfied, he wanted to be swimming. Just goes to show you can not satisfy some!!

We were there only a week, but the day before we left we went into Childersburg and attended Sunday School and church service at First Baptist Church. The service was very good and the pastor, very friendly. As luck would have it, it was Youth Choir Sunday and the youth were having a carry-in dinner for a fund raiser. Boy was it ever a LARGE assortment of covered dishes!! We decided to stay and help them out by buying our dinner. Needless to say, we did not go away hungry!

The Sunday School group was very nice and we had good fellowship with them! One of the couples had just returned from their six month snowbird time in Valley, Texas. It really sounded like a very good park, much like the one we were at in Bushnell, Florida. We will have to check it out sometime. Other days were filled in with me on the computer and Gary working at varnishing signs to hang outside the motorhome. Gary had my brother cut one in the shape of Ohio as a conversation starter. Knowing where you are from is all it takes!