About half way from Red Bay, to Tuscumbia is a turn off called Coon Dog Cemetery Road. After 5 miles of winding wooded country road you com to the coon dog cemetery. Yes this is the real thing with only coon dogs laid to rest here.
They do not want any little yappy house dogs here as that would be disrespectful of the loyal hunting dogs that find this hunting camp deep in the Alabama woods to be their final resting place.
We wandered thru the various stones reading the inscriptions. Obviously folks really miss these dogs, since they have purchased regular marble headstones for many of them.
Having lost our beloved pet Brandy the Bichon this past summer, we understand completely.
On the way back from the cemetery, there is a popular restaurant on the corner of the two main highways where they meet. This is about 4 miles East of Red Bay.
Swamp John’s has somewhat mixed reviews, and was summed up by one review that stated it would have been nice if they had cleaned up the inside of the old gas station before they made it into a restaurant. But remember you are in rural Alabama.
They have a catering business that is run out of Semi Trailers pulled by small tractor trucks. They bring the kitchen to your facility in the form of this trailer. We followed one to a local Cooperative, so perhaps they do meetings.
The meal of choice is catfish, and comes in two piece, three piece and four piece sizes. I had a two piece with mayo slaw. The thick slice of onion on the top of the slaw was unexpected, and went un sampled. Actually the meal was OK, and the baked potato seemed normal, but how do you mess up a baked potato?
Loyce had something called a smashed potato, that had chicken and onions with green peppers and shredded cheese. It came with a special sauce that looked a lot like thousand island. She ate it all, but complained that it came with a lot of burps afterwards.
They never bothered to take the old gas pumps out. The driveway was blocked with buckets of sand so folks couldn’t actually pull up to a pump and try to buy some gas. I assume the tanks are long since empty.
I have been unsuccessful in my attempts to convince Loyce to return for a second encounter, I wonder why?
Today we went back up to Florence and ate at a Cracker Barrel. It was almost 5 PM when we got there, so we declared it as supper. But it was a big dinner type of a meal, with way too many biscuits. Tonight I am stuffed.
We are hanging around the campground as there really isn’t too much to do in Red Bay other than read, sleep and watch the tube.
Retired Rod
Great post and pics, Rod. You sure look like you are in the middle of the deep south for sure. coon dogs, catfish and Swamp John's - says it all. I've never tried catfish and can't say I'm eager to try. Loyce's potato sounded pretty good though! I think you should have gone back for breakfast and see what that would have been like. Maybe get some biscuits with fresh 10-30 wt. gravy!!
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