During the last few days in Oak Mountain Park, we wanted to hike at least one more of the many trails throughout the park. Of all the trails, mostly named by colors, Peavine falls seemed like the thing to see before we left. We both took an extended lunch break on a hot afternoon, taking water and bug spray and depending only on our iPhone’s google map to get us to the right roads. We had no idea how far the drive or hike would be and ended up on a long windey, narrow 25mph drive up and down mountains till we reached several viewpoints, a couple trails and finally the Peavine Falls trail. It was surprising how narrow the road was, especially with the dually truck. considering how popular the falls seemed on trail sites and review sites. There was rarely enough room for anyone to pass eachother and some of the viewpoints would almost need a 4×4 to get in and out of. The 2 times we saw other cars, either they or we were off the road or there was conveniently room at that moment. Contrary to the roads conditions, when we got to Peavine falls, the parking lot was large enough to accommodate 10 motorhomes and 30 cars – and was completely empty - so naturally we parked in the only place we probably weren’t supposed to, almost, but not completely blocking the visitor info sign and trail entrance.
At first the trail seemed “family friendly”, really wide and well kept. The entrance for the trail said it was only a half a mile so we thought it would all be… kind of lame really (especially since some sites said “take the kids!”). We did see just about the most aggressive spider ever along the way, one who had a giant web draped across a bush and hid in a web tunnel at one end. When we saw the web, the spider was franticly trying to figure out how to catch a bee who was hovering above him, almost taunting him with his juicy bee-ness. I’d never seen a spider who hunted proactively, rather just waiting for something to get stuck in its web. I managed to screw up any photo of the spider trying to get the bee, but did manage to get a couple shots of him before he zipped back into his tunnel. When I tried to get a shot of him in his tunnel, he ran towards me with the same jolt he did the bee, so I ran backwards (without falling on my ass) and let him be. He was probably about 3 inches across, also the largest spider I’ve seen in North America (outside of the petstore I worked in).
After we got past the spider of quick, 8 legged doom, the trail seemed a little less family friendly. It split into 2 options, lower falls or upper, both connecting to an even longer trail, one of the color ones, that could have you end up miles away if you so pleased. We decided on the lower falls trail, thinking we would get a much better view of the falls and maybe even get our feet wet. We also choose it because the sign said “steep and rocky, dangerous trail” and we imagined it was the way people did not take their kids (apparently people actually do). I was wearing adidas, because I have nothing else, but Ross had his nice new hiking boots. It was a little muddy from previous rain so while I tried not to trip and slide down the cliffy, rocky trail on my ass, Ross skipped and bound with ease past me, kicking mud in my eyes and laughing (not really but I do need some hiking shoes). On the hike down I think we pretty much just followed whatever seemed trail-like, generally staying on track and eventually, where one bend met another, we heard what seemed like roaring rapids. We were eager to see a waterfall that would put Oregon’s to shame. When we finally reached the bottom we were confused and doubtful as we saw only an almost completely dry creek bed with nothing but small flea like creatures running in hordes across the oversized rocks. There was a cliff face with the smallest little trickle of water coming down it, and that, was Peavine falls. We apparently missed its “peak” by showing up mid summer. It was so small, I didn’t bother taking a photo, not even to show how small it was. The roaring rapids had been wind in the deciduous trees around us.
The hike back up the hill basically kicked my ass since I practically have smokers lungs, but we managed not to slip or tumble down the rocky hillside and once we got back to the “family friendly” trail, we finished the last of our water and drove the long drive back down the mountain. Just before the Peavine Falls parking lot, some lucky person (and a little unlucky because of the long 25mph drive into town), possibly a ranger, had a great cabin and bit of land.
Although we didn’t get to see any waterfalls (having just come from Portland, it’s not like we hadn’t seen several before), we considered it a success that we got in one last hike before leaving. The first park we saw fire bugs at and were serenaded late at night by an army of frogs at the nearby lake. Oak Mountain State Park was our first taste of the south outside of New Orleans.
more interesting than the "falls"
Listening to:: the A/C of some beast of a bus next to me outside
We pulled into Oak Mountain Park late last Saturday, an hour after they closed but we were still able to check in for one night with the guard at the front gate. From the map we decided to go to the least crowded area of the campground and make our first attempt at backing the trailer into a spot, unfortunately the first time would be in the dark with no flashlights or 2 way radios – or any way at all of communicating the parking job into success. Luckily, as happens often, there was a guy waiting for his wife outside the bathroom who had a flashlight and at least one time more experience backing a trailer in than we did. I stood at the back of the trailer, feeling completely useless, knowing I couldn’t be seen – having no experience helping someone back in a 32 foot trailer is nearly as bad as having no experience doing the backing in. I couldn’t decide on hand signals and it didn’t matter because Ross couldn’t see my hands. The guy who offered to help used his flashlight to guide Ross into a reasonable position and Ross managed not to hit any trees, tables or drive off any cliffs. So although we were about 4 feet too far to the left, leaving us almost no front porch, we considered it a success and started setting up.
The next day, we wanted to settle in, knowing we would be staying here a couple weeks, so even though there was no room for the awning to come all the way out with our parking job, we half mast carported it (I made that term up myself), which means we took the awning arms off the trailer and staked them into the ground with the awning only half rolled out. It covers about 4 feet of ground, enough for us to park the bikes and motorcycle under and hang out with the animals while they sniff around.
The park is basically a huge thick multi tree’d (deciduous, coniferous and a few tropicals) forest with 3 large lakes. The forest has very little undergrowth, which is my favorite part, because although there are trails all over, you can go whichever way you want without having to turn back.. most the time at least. Because we are somewhere that is not an inner city trailer park (for once in months), we have made it a habit to actually get out of the trailer during the work day, both taking rides on our bikes (me motorcycle and Ross, bicycle) during our lunch breaks and trying to do as much as possible before dark. We also take the animals out regularly, and Susa is getting much better on her leash now that she has somewhere to go. The last place in New Orleans was always crowded or had traffic in and out so she barely left the 10 feet in front of the trailer. Now she takes us for walks down forest trails, climbs trees and catches crickets. Chena is about the same as anywhere, old and slowish but eager to walk in whatever direction she decides will get her the farthest away from the trailer.
This last weekend, we really wanted to look around while we were able to get away from work so we got up… ahem.. early.. (no we didn’t) and went for a 2 hour hike. On the map we got at the gate, there was a trail marked “Lake Trail” just next to us by Beaver Lake. We couldn’t tell from the map but assumed because it was called Lake Trail that it went around or at least next to the lake for a while. After less than a mile the trail branched off back to the campground but there was still a trail at the lake so we continued on. After another 100 yards the trail started to get harder to walk, definitely there, but unmaintained. First large trees fallen across it, then bushes and small trees and a fairly steep hill leading down to the water – not the lake at this point but the mouth of a creek. As we did our best not to slip in the mud to our splashy demise, we realized the trail in no way followed the lake because you would have to swim across the creek to do so, but we followed whatever seemed like a trail until we were just walking through forest again. It was hot, about 95, but the forest kept us fairly cool. The humidity kept us sweating and drinking water and by the time we made it to a road, the only place the trail lead after its migration, we were ready to head back to camp, still a couple of miles away by this time.
After hiking we went to an awesome place in Birmingham called Sloss Furnaces, an old iron mill that’s been closed since the 70s. The place is open to the public and throughout the industrial wonderland are safety rails and self guided tour phone numbers to call and get info about the machinery. In the pits and drains of the plant were little concrete ponds full of turtles, frogs and minnows and every wall was covered in vines and moss or just deeply textured corrosion and erosion. It was pretty great and I got just about 40 photos with my big medium format camera (all film to be developed whenever I can find a place that does 120 film). After that we desperately wanted food and found a great little vegetarian restaurant called the Bottletree Cafe, the only one in Birmingham, which just happened to be a couple miles from Sloss Furnaces. This was a relief after living in New Orleans for months where everywhere was at least 10 miles from us, everywhere – And we were technically in town.
Birmingham isn’t bad, although its pretty small for a city. They have a Whole Foods, an Asian Market, several restaurant options and Sloss Furnace so, although I don’t want to live here, I’m glad we’re nearby. It’ll be a nice transition for our belated leap back into the travel world in our new trailer. Next time we’ll be ready to head back to small town USA. There seems to be much less of that in the east so far – it’s so densely populated here compared to the southwest where we spent most our trip pre-NOLA.
Here’s a few photos from the park and trip. Soon to come: A video of Susa’s forest adventures and many more photos!
So we sold the Brougham, well rather traded. It was a sad day but much less so knowing it was going to a good home. Many people looked at it, a couple older men who wanted to live in it in their yards while they worked on their houses, a couple who wanted it for a mobile kitchen but found no way to get a full size fridge inside. One girl had been living in a warehouse with some people and decided to try in an RV in her friend’s yard instead – but she didn’t even care if it ran and didn’t have much money. After that, a few kids showed up wanting to use it for their band’s tour bus, none of them knew anything about cars mechanically so it probably wouldn’t have worked out very well since he did still need some work before he’s really treated hard again.
When I got an email from Rus, the new owner, I was actually excited about the Brougham’s future for a change. He offered a trade straight up for a 700cc motorcycle which unfortunately I was too short to ride. He just so happened to have a smaller motorcycle, a 1981 cm200T Honda Twinstar. Much more my size, physical and engine wise. The bike was worth a bit less than the Brougham, so he made up for it by sending a list of other things we could have to make up the difference. We ended up choosing an awesome Les Paul guitar (which Rus threw in a free Epiphone amp). My new bike also came with a helmet, harley gas tank (I could get fabbed on if I waned) and some nice leather saddle bags. I’ve yet to ride it more than a few hundred yards sadly so far, partly because I have no license. but now that we are out of city limits, It needs a new battery and I want some new tires before I go on a longer trip. I’m also still getting to know the clutch, though figuring it out quickly. Me and Ross have had debates over whether or not I should be down-shifting all the way to 1st but 2nd sputters out several yards from when I actually want to stop the bike, and neutral would just stop too soon – I’ll get it.
We bought a ramp (into the back of the truck) and after a couple interesting loads, I think we’re getting the hang of it. Its really steep but since the bike is only 300lbs and there’s 2 of us. As long as I can get a good run, it wont fall over and crush me. We also figured out how to strap the bike in pretty quickly, stiff enough to where you shake the truck if you try to move the bike but only half shocks down to allow the bike cushion. If you wonder how we figure all this crap out, forums and youtube for everything, even for the brougham. There’s so many things we wouldn’t have known if now for other people posting about it online somewhere. When you really don’t have anyone to ask, or want a consensus, that the way to go.
Rus was a good match for the Brougham because he both known about cars and fixing them and actually plans to use it – and in its natural environment, colder weather. The heater on that thing will keep anyone toasty, including people who just fell in frozen lakes if needed. For some places, when we were plugged in, we often just used a space heater and blankets, especially when we were sleeping – saved on propane and kept Chena from accidentally burning herself on the vents.
Of course, as always seems to happen when you buy a new car, he got home fine, 2 hours away in Mississippi, and on his next little jaunt, the alternator went out. We did get it used, as explained in a previous blog – it was a whole big ”stuck on Tonopah” ordeal, but we never had any problems with it so didn’t replace it for a newer one. Other than that it seems he has had many of the same problems we did when we got the Brougham, figuring out the electrical system and fixing mechanical quirks. We mostly did the big priority things like shocks, rebuilding the carburetor, new started etc and he got stuck with the little things we didn’t get to yet, like fixing the parking break (yeah it seems like a priority but somehow hadn’t been haha), and patching up a rusty hole in the floor.
With the Brougham gone, we were finally able to plan our escape from New Orleans. After we bought a ramp for the motorcycle, we finished up our work week and tried to make a run for it Friday night. An attempt which took over 4 hours of packing and preparing (we did live there quite a while) – just to end up with us having to stay another night. We had the truck all hooked up, animals in the car enjoying the A/C and just as Ross came back from the bathroom and we were about to leave, the trailer lights stopped working. Another 2 hours, with the neighbors help, was spent trying to troubleshoot the problem. I sat in the car with the animals looking up wiring diagrams and fuse box configurations while Ross and the neighbour tested all the connections between truck and trailer. The neighbour even pulled over his truck and hooked it up, which worked fine. We basically concluded that it must be a fuse or something on the truck side, and accepted out defeat. It was after 11pm and all the Walmart in town close at 11. The only other thing open would be a Walgreens, gas stations and bars. no fuses till morning. We hooked up the electricity, put the slide-out back out and headed off to a Denny’s for a garden burger before bed. Both of us exhausted and Denny’s being the first meal of the day for us both, we actually got to bed before 3am and rose at 7:30 the next morning to walk over to the parts store and get our fuse.
The drive was good and towing turned out to be surprisingly easy and comfortable with our nice new hitch. We had been worried about taking wrong turns or getting out of tight places but Ross was able to do everything just fine. After about 200 miles we stopped and got tires for the trailer, an ordeal that took about 3 hours of our day looking for a place that could get us in. We bought the tires at Firestone and took them to a mobile mechanic (Took them TO a MOBILE mechanic hah). He seemed a little pissed off, maybe about the heat (which was making me sick and the animals drowsy in the car) and after he changed the tires on one side of the trailer, he would let the hydraulic jack drop the trailer like a ton of bricks with no regard for the things inside of it. Its no wonder half my shit was on the ground when we finally got to a park. He may have also been annoyed that I took his photo but he dropped the first side before I had even gotten my camera out. Oh well, nothing broke.
The remaining drive to our semi planned destination kept us driving into the night. There were several parks along the way but this one was far from New Orleans and recommended by the neighbour who had helped us with the trailer lights. We kind of skipped over Mississippi, but we do have to come back this way, and did hang out in Gulf Port a couple times – so we didn’t completely miss out. We got into Oak Mountain Park around 10pm and had an interesting experience of trying to park the trailer in a spot for the first time.. in the dark. We are now about 4 feet too far to the left, giving us a less space out front than intended but a pretty good try given the circumstances.
Next blog will be photos from the park and more about how great this place is!
Planning to leave New Orleans is just like moving all over again. We don’t know anyone and we have a bunch of crap to get rid of before we can go.
Well most of it is crap except of course the Brougham, our home and/or project for the last 11 months. I would do whatever possible to leave it with some family or friends who can use it while we travel in the trailer till I can work on it more, but everyone I know is thousands of miles away. So we have to sell it due to the excessive costs of having an RV, trailer and truck – insurance, gas and possible extra costs at parks for being selfish hoarders…and I don’t have a drivers license.
Anyway, throughout our travels I have tried to take photos of the Brougham, most of them have Ross in them so I didn’t use those but what I had left over I made a video for its sale. I went into excessive detail with the craigslist add as well, going over every repair and addition I could remember to try to seek out people who actually give a crap about vehicles (as opposed to ads that say “74 dodge camper, runs and drives $####, mechanics special). So here is my sad sale video, well, stills made into a slideshow and put on youtube, with music from youtube’s music selection which is totally terrible.
Ross already sold the 5th wheel hitch, goose neck adapter plate (both came with the truck) and our hitch shelf and the only junk laying around outside now is the hitch shelf extension and adapter, and half of Ross’s extensive tool collection. We have no idea how moving and driving with the trailer will be, it hasn’t been moved since we bought it and neither of us have driven with a trailer this long. Truck and trailer together will be over 50 feet long and interesting to maneuver in.. or not maneuver in. Planing on how to pack things without them flying around while we drive, tomorrow.
Jude park has been really great to us. Even if we’re not the most social people, the owners, previous and present, have been really lenient about having the RV here and us staying so damn long. About 70% of the people here are men working locally, construction or otherwise, staying in older trailers and driving big trucks. The other 30% is a regular rotation of older couples you never see and people crazy enough to stay in tents in this humidity (usually they’re put in the very back next to the trailer shaking loud train yard). I guess when coming to New Orleans, staying close to town to party is better for most people than staying a little further, where you can see the swamps and armadillos in the state park.
Jude has a pool, which through the owners, has gone from bug infested mud puddle to clean, resurfaced and lit. It used to get used about once or twice a week by people who mustered up enough to bear the nastiness for a cool dip but now there is almost always someone in it throughout the day – or the hot tub next to it.
The only negative things, that I cant wait to have a break from, are the really cramped spots, with barely enough room to extend your awning (depending on who parks next to you) and the crashing train yard that I cant even go explore due to a massive poisonous snake filled wall of vines and barbed wire. Seriously.
The south itself is what has made it bearable to stay here so long. As much as I love the southwest, if this was Pecos, Texas, Id have driven off in the RV by now – even if only into a ditch or off a friendly canyon. The weather has been consistently interesting, storms, heat, humidity and always awesome clouds, and the fact that it’s one of the most interesting cities on the planet, has kept us fairly busy although with working weekdays, we don’t get out as much as I would have liked.
Hopefully these are the last few days, although we still don’t have a set destination (probably west Florida then west again?).
has_been_twittered: yes
Weather:: Hot and humid, supposed to rain tomorrow - hope all our sealing on the RV did the job.
Soon indeed! I cant believe we’ve been here SOO long. We’re basically partial year residents at this point. I had to look at past blogs to see when we arrived and it was EARLY MARCH?! And we’ve been in Louisiana since early February! So much for on the road huh? Hence my not writing much for a while. Besides an in-depth tour of New Orleans for Vegans, there wasn’t much for me to write about without this turning into a cook book and craft show.
In the last several months we’ve gained allot of stuff. The new trailer everyone knows about by this time but the new truck has yet to be talked about, and Ross has finally sold his car!! It took so long to sell and was sold under asking price but sold none the less.
As we speak Ross is setting up the trailer for generator power, something these trailers were never built to do. It’s a serious improvement on the value of the trailer to us and for resale. He has worked long and hard inventing a way to store our huge 6volt batteries safely and now hooking up our inverter to 12 volt power (really he knows way more about this, I’ll prod him for a blog about it). We’ve gone on innumerable trips to Home Depot, Radio Shack and Lowe’s looking for all the building material, wires and ventilation solutions needed for the project and still theres work to be done involving the breaker box but hopefully soon we’ll be on our way.
We also finally got our hitch, again, something Ross knows more about with all his hours of research on hitches.
Now that we have the truck to tow the trailer and the hitch to help us tow safely, we need tires for truck and trailer and a 100k mile service on the truck. We bought it literally miles before 100k, hitting it at the exact place we went to register is in Florida. The lady at the DMV said it was a first for her and hopping it didnt look like we faked the miles, I took a photo to remember its oddness but it doesn’t mean much without her amused face next to the instrument panel.
