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!
Susa Ataris
Beware. by the end of this you”ll know more than you need to about our new cat.
Once we got a bigger place to hang out, we were finally able to have a cat in our lives again. I think we had the new trailer for a day when I started looking on craigslist for needy cats and within a week, on a routine dog food stop at Pet Smart, we walked in just as they were closing the adoption counter. There were tons of cute cats, mostly adults or sister brother pairs, and one young orange cat. I often say stupid things for no reason so I saw the orange cat and said “I don’t like orange cats, they’re terrors.” What my mind had used to come to that conclusion was that every orange cat I’d ever known was a horrible half wild tom cat (and maybe I’m a bit of a ginger-cat generalist). Since 80% of orange cats are males, because orange is basically the calico of male cats, I assumed the orange cat, although the prettiest one, was a male. I read the card above the cage anyway, and it was a girl! I immediately and illogically changed my mind about her and decided to make a connection. I put my hand to the glass and she put her paw to the glass and it was done. There were several other females that were pretty but I was happy with a young cat, not a kitten, and one not too set in their ways already. All the cats were from the New Orleans Animal Control and had either been dropped off or caught feral, they didn’t have any clue which one she was.
We did all the paperwork and took her to the RV parked out front in a little cardboard cat carrier. She was surprisingly calm, didnt meow, didnt scratch, just quietly worried and hoped for the best. We went back inside to buy some things for her, and $150 later (egads) she was the most spoiled cat in the trailer park. I took her out once during the drive back home to give her some water, she just walked around the RV curios and sniffing everything, then mostly quietly went back into her box (except for the part where her water spilled and she got all wet - didn’t like that).
When we got back to the trailer without any issues or noise. When I opened her box, Chena -lover of all things box, was right over top waiting for the surprise. I knew it might not be the best idea to introduce them that way but I had high hopes. They would have to be best friends eventually, it’s a condition my pets have to endure (within reason). As I’d hoped, the cat didn’t even look at Chena, almost looked right through her while curiously looking around the trailer. After that she made herself right at home. Never once hid or peed on anything, didn’t meow uncontrollably, hiss at us or try to escape. Just laid out in the open or played with her new toys. She spent one night in the bathroom just in case her litter box skills werent perfect and after that shes been with us almost every minute of every day. I even gave her a bath on the second day because she smelled like kennel and pee and she was fairly decent about that, didn’t scratch, just a little worried.
Susa And Chena
As far as her personality, shes very trusting and affectionate but sometimes she would duck from us when she got in trouble, like she thinks we’re going to whack her one, but shes getting used to the idea that we wont be doing that. She has the “I want to trust you so badly and love you unconditionally but some bastard kicked me” syndrome. She came to us with 2 shaved areas. Her belly from being spayed and the side of her back leg. We considered at first, that although strange, maybe it had to do with the spaying but upon closer inspection the hair was longer (more grown out) and there was a 1 inch scar. She may have got cut on a fence, beat up by a raccoon.. who knows. Shes also pretty scared of loud noises, as is Chena but for different reasons. The first time she got scared was by a storage chest closing loudly, she ran from me for several minutes. It was painful that she was so afraid of me but after hours of apology and showing her that what she was scared of wasn’t so bad, shes started to understand. Now when she gets scared she looks at you intently and wide eyed to make sure you give her a sign that you didn’t mean it to scare or hurt her. You have to walk up to her and pet her or pick her up and apologize – If you don’t, she’ll run off and be scared and overall lose trust. Sensitive little kittehs!
It took us a while to name her. We went though all the cliche names for orange cats, and cats in general ans since she nibbled your hand, nose or face while she’s being brushed, we considered Nibbler (from futurama) but decided on a completely different little black monster, Susa Ataris from My Neighbor Totoro. They are soot sprites that hide in the shadows and are said to be good luck – there’s no real connection between them and her personality but it sounded like a cute name and we were sick of having nothing to call her. Within a day she was coming to Susa and it was set.
She’s super curious, what cat isn’t though right. Every time you’re doing something at the counter shes up on hinds mewing at you to know what’s going on. We encourage her curiosity by showing her every single thing she wants to see. Whether its a running tap, sink full of soapy water or jalapeños. After the first 2 times of climbing up my legs, she figured out she could get picked up if she just taps them with her paws. I find that the more you show cats willingly, rather than making things and places forbidden, the sooner they get over it. She walked all over my camera equipment and art supplies twice (on the top bunks), getting hair on everything, then never cared to hang out up there again (save the random kitty freakout and run around the trailer session).
Although I got her the cutest little princess bed, she lays on the hard floor and wont even go into the bedroom except sometimes when we’re sleeping. Good for me because I prefer my clothes stay somewhat hair free before I put them on. When I work she often sits on the breakfast tray beside me and lays her head on my arm. Making it hard for me to type but too adorable to resist. She also likes Jalapeno chips so any time we snack on them she gets her own little crushed chip to snack on.
Susa at work
Susa says hi to Ross
All in all I think we’re pretty lucky people and got the best cat we could have possibly found.
She’s undergoing lessons in fetchology, climbing the walls control (claw control), lick the doggys face and ears and most exciting of all, harness training! Shes going to be even more awesome than she already is!
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