TOR’s husband Mike managed a JC Penney store in Huntsville for a number of years, and as we left Blountsville, TOR remembered taking her three daughters to Spring Valley Beach in the summertime. “It was a great place to swim, and it had a water slide,” she said. When I hear “beach,” I think Gulf Shores, but this park has a two-acre pool with pavilions, grassy areas, and now four water slides including one called “360 Rush.” If you’re not four feet tall, you aren’t allowed on that one.
Morgan County has several towns with “Spring” in their names. Valhermoso Springs (Vale of Beauty), had a hotel and vacation cabins as early as 1823. Sounding a bit like an elixir ad, Valhermoso promised restorative waters to relieve symptoms of everything from rheumatism, insomnia, and consumption (tuberculosis) to ailments of the skin, stomach, and liver. The hotel closed in the 1920s, and the building was destroyed by a tornado (typical Alabama menace) in 1950, but the town has retained the name.
Our Road Trip Trio opted for a McDonald’s Drive-Thru lunch this trip. The car line wasn’t long, and there was shade in the parking lot. In fact, as you can see in the photo below, the shade actually tried to invade the car several times when a breeze came through.
Spring Valley “Beach” 
Famous and infamous visitors to Valhermoso Springs 
Guess who came to lunch!
ROAD TRIPS! 