Gillikin Adventures: Girls Gone Mild Part 1

My sister Michele and I have our birthdays within a week of each other. We joke that we are twins separated by 11 years. So we had a combined birthday celebration this year. After we had so much fun rock climbing in St Louis we went to the climbing gym in Pensacola. We had talked about going rock climbing in North Alabama but I knew that we would probably never get around to doing it. So, I decided to give Michele a rock climbing trip for her Birthday. I made a card that said that I would take her to the Econolodge in Cullman(haha). So she opens her card and her eyes light up and she says "we're going rock climbing?" So then I open my card and not only has she given me the same gift she made the same joke. Her card said that I was getting 4 nights in Robertsdale, Loxely or Stapleton or, and you turn the pages, Cancun, New York or Rock climbing in Colorado. So of course I picked Colorado. Labor day weekend we took our North Alabama trip and the last weekend in September we are going to Colorado.

We left after work on Friday and drove to Cullman. We ended up at the Super 8 instead of the Econolodge. It was not a 5 star resort but all we were doing was sleeping there so it was fine for what we needed. The next morning we went to Cherokee, Al where this great gun fitter works out of his home and had Michele's trap and skeet guns fitted to her. She was already a great shot so I can't wait to see how she does not her gun actually fits her body. It worked out great because Michele has been wanting to go see this guy but it is hard to justify the trip just for that so I am glad we were able to fit it in. Unfortunately it took all day so we weren't able to go hiking as we had planned but, whatever. I got to sit around and relax and read and not work or clean or do laundry all day so I was happy. I had packed a cooler with sandwich stuff because I did not know if there would be places to eat so we had a nice picnic.

Sunday morning we went hiking at Dismals Canyon. This place was really cool I can't believe i have never heard of it before. It is a 1.5 mile loop through the canyon and it is full of beautiful scenery and interesting history. It has been featured in National Geographic Explorer and was one of the shooting locations for the Discovery Channel's "When Dinosaurs Roamed America". At the entrance to the canyon is a little store and a swimming area. The first thing you come to on the hike is Rainbow falls. The falls were used for a mill that was destroyed about 50 years ago but you can still see pieces of it in the river and the swimming area was used for baptisms in the early 1800's.