Staying at a Hotel? Help your driver find you (optional)Building Name or Subdivision Save Room I'm not staying at this hotel Tip a Flat Dollar Amount$ Tip a Percentage Amount Do not tip the driverIt was a perfectly lovely and sunny long weekend here, and on Saturday Kev and I took a quick drive over to check out the secluded and mysterious Dismals Canyon. It’s only a few hours south of our house, but with our 9th anniversary coming up (it’s today!), we decided to make a short trip out of it and stay the night nearby. We grabbed a hotel, and look at this cheerful room! Can you guess what hotel this is? This was our room for the night at the Holiday Inn Express, if you can believe it. We stayed in Florence, Alabama, and it was such a cute little town. There was a seriously good sushi restaurant just across the street from the hotel, and even a doughnut shoppe and cupcake bakery right on the way to canyon. The canyon walking path was gorgeous and Miley and Howie got right to exploring.

The trail is a short 1.5 mile loop that follows a quiet stream, but you could easily spend all afternoon exploring the canyon. Loved the beautiful high canyon walls covered in moss that would “weep” like a slow, trickling rain drops. The trail was filled with plenty of fun stairs and stepping stones. Although I guess Howie prefers a more direct approach by cutting straight through the stream! It was pretty hot outside, but the canyon is shady and cool. There were even a few very narrow passageways to squeeze through! At the end of the loop, a fallen tree had been turned into a bridge to cross to the other side of the stream. The trail made its way back to the beginning of the canyon, crossing one final swinging bridge leading to the entrance. What makes Dismals Canyon so unique are the mysterious Dismalites. The canyon is home to these rare and tiny phosphorescent “glowworms” that light up the canyon bluffs like a thousand stars on a dark night.

The canyon offers guided twilight tours to see these unique creatures, and is a completely magical experience. Dismals Canyon was such a fun day trip, loved spending the afternoon here and meeting the Dismalites. posted in Travel, Weekend GetawaysNot great wait times.” “The Best of Florence” “Great dinner in downtown Florence” “Wonderful service and food for lunch” “Always a good meal!” “Stopped in for Breakfast.” “Burgers and Fries and lots of chloresterol” “Wonderful Thanksgiving meal with the best...” Yumm Thai Sushi and Beyond “Great food, great environment” “Alabama Shakes keyboardist recommends the...” “Outstanding BBQ and hot dogs” Rice Box Asian Cuisine “Good food, nice layout” “Best Catfish in NW Alabama” Swampers Bar & Grill “Nice bar in the Marriott” “Long wait, but good food” “Dinner after walking downtiwn” “We love it so much we let them cater a wed...”

“If You Are In Florence You Must Visit This...” “Awesome flatbreads and dogs” “Coffee, Food and Gifts” Dick Howell Barbeque Pit “Always, always the best!” “Another great lunch drop in.” “Quick, fresh, and tasty!” “Best Asian restaraunt in Florence” “Kick some Field Goals” La Hacienda Mexican Restaurant Stanfield's River Bottom Grill “Great place to go”jiro dreams of sushi shokunin “I am probably prejudice...”sushi grade fish sainsburys Chick-fil-A Regency Square Drive Thrujiro dreams of sushi pps “Best Fast Food but more”sushi factory bremen online bestellen

© 2017 TripAdvisor LLC All rights reserved. TripAdvisor Terms of Use, Privacy Policy, and Cookie Policy. TripAdvisor uses cookies to improve your site experience. Learn more or change your . By continuing, you consent to our cookies.Anyone know about Golden Corral opening a Florence location? / for a Florence, Alabama location of Golden Corral.   Could be two possibilities.  A new location that a restaurant will be built or most likely (my own opinion) they will occupy and renovate the Ryan's building given it's great location.  sushi delivery london sw12Ryan's building though is quite a bit smaller than most of the Golden Corral restaurant that I have seen so either it will be a smaller scale restaurant but either way Golden Corral, by and large, is a much nicer restaurant than most Ryans.Has anyone else heard anything?itamae sushi hong kong delivery

Can't imagine they would be advertising these positions at this time unless they already had designs on an available satisfactory location, the former Ryan's being the obvious site.  Golden Corral is truly the Prince of the Pigouts! That was my thought but I do hope that they will either enlarge it or renovate it because it's an older building that has need of improvements.  That said if you were a Ryan's executive and knowing you have a building you were no longer going to use and wanted to get rid of in a great location wouldn't Golden Corral be your first call for the best chance of unloading it?  I know they are in competition but no doubt Ryan's has given up on the Florence Market so if they were to sell it to Golden Corral it really wouldn't be competition to them.     Then there is also a chance they have already purchased land but that's doubtful but there are other areas that they might find interesting such as where the old Hyundai  dealer was (ex IHOP) and also out near the new WalMart. 

Still, like you, I believe occupying Ryans and building on that location given they are similar concepts and restaurants it would be an easier transition and a logical assumption.   And regardless of other growth areas that location still is in the most prime location for Business in the Shoals.And regardless of other growth areas that location still is in the most prime location for Business in the Shoals. ___Agreed--with all you posted.  But I have patronized Golden Corral in locations where the facilities were no larger--and in some cases were  smaller--than the current Ryan's Florence building. So with some inside tuning up, GC should be able to get moving very quickly and have a place ready for those advertised jobs. Was told by the Hsv Golden Corrall manager back in January that they were looking for land in Florence to build on. Ryan's workers told me in January that the Ryan's regional manager had jumped ship at the end of January. So management knew at that time that they were going to close Florence.

I would think that they had already made plans to find a buyer for the building. A week ago I recognized a former Decatur Ryan's manager working the same position at Golden Corrall and he told me he was working in Hsv until a Golden Corrall building was ready in Decatur. Also pretty sure I saw a Hsv Golden Corrall manager at Ryan's as they were closing. I have been in a converted Ryan's building to a Golden Corrall building, they only appear to add a few more table partitions, connect the main bar to the kitchen, enlarge the dessert area and move the salad bar to the side & make general clean up remodeling. Is there rotted pipes in the floor at Ryans restrooms? Is there rotted pipes in the floor at Ryans restrooms?Well Contendahh, "is there"? I stopped eating at Ryan's when they stopped offering various Steaks to order, so a long time ago.  I never made it back to the purely buffet type offering.  Still though I heard from friends and others a constant and never wavering story and that was that the bathrooms were horrible.  

If Golden Corral does indeed take over the building and convert it for their use I do hope that they completely remodel or replace the existing bathrooms either building over them or relocating them to another location in the building. When UMI took over the old Quincy's (Barnhill's Buffet) restaurant with similar complaints about their restrooms they eliminated the existing ones and moved them to a new location in the restaurant and completely remodeled the building.  Sometimes that's what it takes for a new restaurant to make it in a once failed restaurant's building.  Still then at times failure seems to follow the building such as is the case in the old Danver's building that saw a few occupants, last being Crocodile Ed's.  Also was the case with Famous Dave's building where Rick's new BBQ restaurant is located.  Maybe it's just karma or bad luck but if Golden Corral does chose Ryan's I hope they address many of the complaints that plagued Ryans and I hope they offer as good of food as the other Golden Corral's that I have been to.

I don't like the buffet style/type restaurants but in Golden Corral's case they do a great job and I do make an exception or have in their case.  If/When they come to Florence I'll make another exception in their case. One thing that I noticed about trough restaurants is that all the food seems to taste the same, it's just different colors. Passed by the old Ryan's place last night.  Their sign, outside and inside lights were on, even though the place is empty.  Reminded me of Democrat politicians == the lights were on, but nobody was home. One thing that I noticed about trough restaurants is that all the food seems to taste the same, it's just different colors.____Maybe your taste buds need a tune-up. They sure are taking their time about it if in fact Golden Corral is taking over Ryan's Building.  But then it does take time for permits and plans to be drawn up so maybe they are planning a major renovation of the building before moving in if indeed they are moving in at all.