America · Living in an RV · On the Road, · Travelling with Animals · Wildlife · Working and Travelling
Crawford to Pelham, Alabama – 27 February 2024
Our campsite in the Oak Mountain State Park in Alabama was in the Equestrian section with day stables for those wishing to do trail rides in the park. A short walk away was a large horse farm with brightly painted red barns and stables. It reminded me of a book I had read as a child called “Willow Farm” by Enid Blyton which described the life of children living on a working farm. I could picture Willow Farm looking like that. Unfortunately the farm was off limits to people not boarding their horses but I was able to wander around the outside and could see the horses with their heads sticking over their stable doors, curiously watching me and Jax.
In a small field across from our campsite were a number of very colourful Bee boxes with signs warning us not to get close. These were installed by the Central Alabama Honey & Apiary, LLC to help the bee population flourish as well as the surrounding ecosystem. Each beehive had about 30,000 bees during this time of the year. The queen was laying approximately 2000 eggs a day, and the baby bees were expected to emerge from their cells 21 day later. Nectar is collected in the park during Spring months and beekeepers harvest excess honey in July. The honey is strained, bottled and sold locally. What a neat idea!
The Oak Mountain State Park is the state’s largest state park at 9,940 acres and is home to the Alabama Wildlife Center. There was three fishing lakes and sandy beaches. We drove up to the Alabama Wildlife Center but as we were with Jax we couldn’t go inside, so instead we used it as a starting point for a hike in the forest. Unfortunately it rained quite hard for the next couple of days but as I had a lot of work to do, I used the time to focus and get things done. I did love looking out of the windows during the day and seeing the horses grazing in the field next to us y. There was an electric fence separating us otherwise I would have loved to have petted them.
We topped up with groceries the night before leaving and stopped in at Applebees for a light dinner.
