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"

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!

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!

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?).

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.

Today is the 4th of July and although I don’t usually watch local news anywhere, I’ve been keeping my eye on Hurricane Alex (because being in a travel trailer in a hurricane is a death sentence) and of course watching news on the oil from a very up close and personal point of view here in the South. Our plans originally intended us to see as much of the country as possible and have a nice hot summer. As far as the South goes, we haven’t stayed in Florida yet, still need to see an Alligator in the wild and have only been to the beaches of Gulf Port, Mississippi for a couple hours one weekend. When we went to Gulf Port the oil leak was only a couple weeks old and hadn’t reached any marshlands or beaches yet. We swam, along with 2 wind surfers nearby, and although it was warm and overcast, there were no other swimmers on the beach. We later wondered the reason, sharks? because it certainly wasn’t oil. Either way, now the beaches have potential swimmers and open beaches but tar balls and oil are all over the beach and getting on anyone brave enough to swim. Other places like Grand Isle, Louisiana, a place we had wanted to go months ago, are completely empty of tourists. Today being a day that the island depends on its usual 20k tourists to keep the economy alive.

The news cast about Grand Isles problem reminded me of the movie Jaws which we just watched last week. In Jaws, the Mayor insisted the beach stay open because he decided the small shark they caught the day before was the man eater the were searching for – Selfishly putting lives at risk to keep the economy going. For Grand Isle that’s not even an option. The Mayor cant lie to everyone and tell the public that there’s no oil on their beaches. Unlike a man eating goliath shark, oil is something that cant be stopped, hidden or avoided.

New Orleans is still happening, Essence Festival is in town with Janet Jackson and many other top r&b artists. Downtown is pretty busy with tourists going on their little mule rides through the French Quarter and booking their Haunted Tours for this evening. Even swamp tours are still going on since the swamps nearby are far from the gulf oil invasion, but the mood is somber among some locals. The other day we worked all day in a coffee shop, overhearing conversations between locals about the oil affecting someone they know. People being forced to look for work elsewhere, moving away from family and friends to cleaner water. Businesses suffering from the lack of tourism in areas and of course the dwindling of the South’s famous seafood industry. The moods were surprisingly matter of fact and hopeful besides all the complaints. After living through something like Katrina and spending years rebuilding, although the problem is much different and will have continual environmental effects, no one really knows what else to do but be hopeful.

My fashion related statement regarding this issue is that in my very strong opinion people should NOT be buying Anti BP t-shirts from the hundreds of companies doing their best to market on this disaster; but rather give that $30 you planned to spend on the shirt to the National Parks (DONATE NOW AT WWW.NATIONALPARKS.ORG OR TEXT “PARKS” TO 90999) or the Gulf Coast Oil Spill Fund, a New Orleans based organization.

Of course we all want to tell the world how much we hate BP’s irresponsibility and the whole disaster itself but think of other ways please. Handmade posters, take a marker to your own shirt for godssake.

But unless the company is giving all or most of its profits to the oil spill fund, they aren’t helping.If a company gives 100% profit donations it is a true favor to the gulf. If they only give a small % of the profit just to keep from getting a guilt trip, they should just stick to making tees with gangster bears on them and stay out of the “profiting from disaster” market.But unless the company is giving all or most of its profits to the oil spill fund, they aren’t helping.

If a company gives 100% profit donations it is a true favor to the gulf. If they only give a small % of the profit just to keep from getting a guilt trip, they should just stick to making tees with gangster bears on them and stay out of the “profiting from disaster” market.

As you can tell I feel strongly about this and I will not write about or feature any company who markets on disasters.

Here are some designers donating 100% of the sales to the Gulf:

Kenneth Cole Customized Tees - http://www.facebook.com/KennethColeProductions?v=app_10467688569&ref=ts

Etsy Stores Craftivism – http://www.etsy.com/storque/craftivism/etsians-help-clean-the-gulf-8846/

Seriously EMAIL ME if you are a company giving 100% of your profits to the Gulf Relief or know a company that is.

Thanks and have a good 4th of July!

Susa has been doing really well on the leash. I had put the harness on her a couple times in the house before finally jumping into the leash on her first visit to the vet. She was really good besides destroying my shirt at the sight of people, cars and especially a weed whacker. She sat in the waiting room and watched the other animals go by, not even flinching when a huge hyper dog went by. We don’t have a cat carrier but who needs them anyway when you have a leash cat! I’ve always wanted a cat that would walk on a leash. Shes got the leash part down, and she doesn’t struggle with it or freak out at all.. but the walking has actually yet to be seen.

Chena is as always adorable and unconventional. I got her into the habit of climbing on tables and walking on concrete walls in Argentina during walks at the park. Though once she went to jump onto a wall, unleashed, that had a 12 foot drop onto concrete on the other side. Now I make sure to keep a close eye. I guess I got into the habit of wanting dogs comfortable with height having had a wolf hybrid as a kid that would climb trees and a boston terrier as a teen who would walk up and over cars while we walked and balance on my wood fence. Plus I’ve always wanted to be in the circus (my own of course) so strange animals is kind of my thing.

With all the time not moving so much, I’ve started making some more time for crafts. Trying not to spend every waking hour at the computer though I certainly have enough work, projects and photography to occupy me for years. I bought pewter trays for necklaces and tons of jewelry stuff, though still having trouble perfecting the drying process of the epoxy on the trays, I can use my own photos or drawings in each. I also made a hideous little felt monster of which I hope to improve on soon but I mostly don’t have time till the weekend.

Susa and Chena suffer much from the heat and my crafts. Susa is often in trouble when my craft things are out because she cant keep her paws off them and Chena is forced to lay on the floor while I use the couch. When the AC is not on they pretty much just rest and wait for it to come back on. Once in a while the AC throws a switch so we don’t push it too hard. Yesterday the power got shut off outside because of a short or excess power usage (no idea what caused that except the AC) and we had to flip a switch at the source. Hopefully the AC holds out for us, this weather is mostly too much to bear alone, especially when we’re trying to work all week.

Rent is due tomorrow and it’s looking like we’ll be paying for another month. We didn’t want to be stuck here this long but don’t have much choice without a truck. I’m not so sure the people want us here too badly anymore though. There are several long term people here but I get the feeling with the combo of us technically being “stuck” and the Brougham taking up extra space (and looking funky parked out front like a car  - or even in the back covered with a tarp), they are starting to get annoyed. I’m paranoid though, especially when it comes to what other people expect of me – so maybe Ross should just talk to them.

We started the day with Apple pie, ice cream and coffee, then headed out. Since the new trailer we’ve rented a car once but mostly use the RV for our around town car. While empty it’s great. We don’t have to worry about our things crashing around and with all the weight gone it actually drives like a pretty decent van. This weekend we finally decided to commit to riding our bikes and went to the great and awesome New Orleans City Park, a park that spans about 60 square blocks with several lakes, rivers and bayous. throughout. We had gone there previously while looking for a dog park I saw from the freeway, a dog park that turned out to be a members only club with a yearly cost. We ended up just going to some great abandoned buildings nearby with a big open field for Chena to run unencumbered by other peoples lame dogs.

After taking Chena for a bike run, the most exercise she’s gotten in months, we went on our own, leaving Chena in the RV in the shade. Since pretty much everything east of central Texas is flat so far, it wasn’t a very challenging ride but it was nice. We rode along StJohn’s Bayou and saw baby ducks, fish jumping like skipping rocks and the worlds ugliest duck-geese-turkey things. Ross forgot his clip-in shoes but it didn’t stop him from some track stands.

I found a new use for my luggage carrier on my bike, poop carrier!  Since the park had garbage bins every 3 miles, it was a fun and exciting challenge to see if I could make it to one before the bags hit my tire and exploded. I did, but just barely.

Sunday

Once again, we started the day with apple pie (no ice cream) and coffee.
Since we didn’t get to it Saturday, the plan was to clean and recaulk the roof. We spent a ton on all the supplies the day we got the RV and have been either busy or putting it off every weekend. After I cleaned the house and was midway through 5 loads of laundry, we climbed up on the roof and started scrubbing the areas we needed to recaulk with the gallon of rubber roof cleaning solution we bough. After a couple minutes it was clear to me that there was no way to really clean the areas without cleaning the area around them, and at that point it looked so good clean, I had to clean the whole roof (or try). Ross scrubbed the old sealant and I scrubbed at everything in between. Eventually having to rinse, rescrub and rinse again, making it over a 2 hours aerobic workout – trying to avoid actually getting on my knees and pushing sponges and scrubbing brooms non stop. I intended to start on the Brougham too but by the time I was 2/3 done with the trailer roof I knew my arms or legs would give out on me (and 14 feet up is not the best place for that). While I was scrubbing on the roof, Ross suffered my water heavy endeavor on the side of the trailer struggling with our loose and funky black/grey water outlet. Surrounded by cat shit filled grass (from the tons of strays around here) and at constant risk of touching old poo from the previous trailer owners who never cleaned their tank, he further suffered from my constant splashing and dripping from above.

After I finished as much as I could muster, I was going to move on to installing a shelf in the pantry but decided since it was 5 and we hadn’t eaten all day I would start up the BBQ and make us some corn on the cob, grilled squash and tofurkey dogs. I hadn’t actually hooked up the grill, to the potentially explosive 20 gallon propane tank, nor had I BBQ’d since I was.. um.. well maybe never, but I learn from watching others so the cooking part I knew I had down. I managed to hook up and even light the BBQ without catching on fire and cooked for 40 mins while Ross finished up the caulking on the roof.

While we ate, in came the clouds and we watched a thunderstorm make its way our way, hoping to hell we could finish our food before we had to put the tarp on the RV. We did! A first even.. Now we sit here not moving much, suffering from the busy day, considering going to the hot tub in the thunderstorm.
I think its a plan.