On March 18, we pulled out of Shady Acres Campground in Mobile, Alabama and drove the three hours to Chewacla State Park in Auburn, Alabama. The trip was smooth and uneventful – about time we have a drive without losing something or something breaking! The only issue we had was upon arriving at the park, the clerk told us that we couldn’t bring the tiny house in. Apparently they had some issues with people parking tiny houses and leaving them permanently –and even renting them out! We assured them that this was our home (we weren’t looking to leave it behind anywhere) and that we were really only staying one week. After escalating to management, we were finally allowed in.
The site was gorgeous! The campground was setup as a series of loops branching off of one central road. Each loop had a grassy area in the center with a restrooms and showers and a playground area. The sites branched off the loop and were each surrounded on three sides by woods. A walking trail ran through the woods behind the sites. The sites were long enough for the house, truck, and car to park all in a row and wide enough for the house and a large outdoor area with a picnic table and firepit. We set up our lawn chairs around the fire ring. It was the perfect peaceful retreat.
We got the house set up and decided to go for a bike ride while it was still light outside. We rode to the very back of the park and John hiked down to the waterfall. I was still having trouble with my leg so I waited at the top while he scouted the trail. He found that it was a fairly short trail – a little steep but not terrible- so we made plans to come back another day. For now, we were hungry.
The awesome thing about this park is that it sits down a long, quiet road in the middle of a forest. If you drove out of the park about 15 minutes, however, you found yourself in the college town of Auburn, Alabama. There were tons of shopping options, activities, and restaurants. We had dinner at ChickChickPorkPork and ordered the Menbosha (shrimp toasts), Dae Ge Kal Bi (marinated pork), and Yangyum Chicken.
We spent Sunday driving around town and doing some shopping. We visited Auburn College and visited a few sporting goods stores in search of some hiking shoes for me and a hammock for John. Our campsite in the woods was the perfect place for a hammock so we were happy to find the Eno Doublenest Hammock in a shop in town. We ended the day with dinner at The Hound and shopping in a local bookstore. We had the Bacon Flight (house cured bacon, Canadian bacon, and spicy Italian bacon), Shrimp and Grits, and a Ribeye Steak with fries.
One night after John got off work, we went back into the park to hike to the waterfall. The trail started at the top of the hill and there was a shelter house with picnic tables and a beautiful view.
The trail itself was a very short trek down the hill. It was a little steep but the waterfall was absolutely worth it. We had taken the hammock and John hung it in the trees along the water while I explored the rocks downstream from the falls.
We were having a hard time with getting hot water in the kitchen and, without hot water, it was really hard to do dishes so we ate out pretty frequently during our week in Auburn. We visited Agave Loco for some fajitas one night. Another night we had dinner at Bow + Arrow where we ordered the Helote Fries, Shrimp Tacos with sweet corn rice, and the Three Meat Platter (brisket, sausage, and turkey with hashbrown casserole and mac & cheese). We also visited a food hall near campus and tried a variety of different dishes from several different vendors inside.
We also tried to make meals at home that didn’t involve many dishes – like hotdogs on the campfire! We spent several evenings sitting outside – either in the hammock or our lawn chairs. It wasn’t too cold in the south but the evenings got a little chilly and it was the perfect weather for sitting around the fire in our hoodies while listening to podcasts or reading a book.
We also spent a lot of time walking the trails behind our campsite. Harley absolutely loved running in the woods and exploring the stream.
On Friday, John took a vacation day and we visited the Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site and Museum. The site was located at Moton Field which was the location for Primary Flight Training for the Tuskegee Airmen. Two airplane hangars have been converted to museum space and we were able to see some of the planes that these men were trained to fly along with reading personal accounts and viewing artifacts belonging to the pilots. There is still a working runway in back of the site and as we walked around we could see planes taking off and landing throughout the day.
On the way back, we also took a few minutes to drive through Tuskegee National Forest.
I wish that we had more time to spend exploring but our week in Auburn had come to an end and it was time to prepare for our next move.
