Monday, May 7, 2012

Monday, May 7, 2012 - Travel Day to Warden Station, Talladega National Forest

 Set the alarm for 5:15, so we could get out early, it’s a long day ahead of us. Managed to arrive at the dump by 6:30, out of the park by 7:00. Made a quick stop at the local Southern States to get horse feed, only to discover they don’t stock any, so we were out of luck. Headed up to Dothan where we stopped at a Flying J to refill a propane tank and have breakfast at Denny’s (we only make coffee before leaving), stopped once at a Tractor Supply along the way for oats and again at the only Walmart on the way for groceries. Dished up an ice cream cone for lunch before arriving at the ranger station in Heflin around 3:00 (would have been sooner, by once again, Verizon GPS took me to an old address, 7 miles in the wrong direction). Got directions and some trail maps as well as information about the availability of water, then headed out the extra 15 miles or so to the Warden Station Horse Camp. Despite postings on the National Forest website (and the many other postings that copied their info) that they can only accommodate "small RV’s", there is PLENTY of room for large rigs here! In fact, with a paved road leading right up to the entrance of the campground, this is one of the BETTER parks for big rigs that we’ve seen! The only limitation here is that there are only 3 access points for water, one with a threaded faucet and the other two are the "tower" type, with a valve at the bottom and a long springy hose that stands about 10 feet tall, the kind usually seen at an RV dump. We filled up the RV with water, then Hubby decided the best chance he had at a satellite signal was a campsite just a stone’s throw away from the water spigot anyway, so we were settled in no time. High line posts were everywhere, and obviously saw a LOT of use, with a lot of leftover hay and muck, so much so that I decided to highline the horses between a couple of trees rather than on the highlines. We filled the water barrel and the horse trailer tank, got up the satellite dish, then settled in for the evening. Still warm, but MUCH cooler than Florida, and once the sun set, the temps really dropped to a very comfortable temperature for sleeping. Really looking forward to our first trail ride tomorrow!

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