White Oak Creek COE Campground - Eufaula, Alabama (March 2021)

It’s funny how you get out of the habit of loading up your camper after parking for the winter. Unique to this year, the “COVID Safer at Home” time compounded our apprehension. We felt like “newbies” trying to remember the must-haves for o this camping trip. 

As we hitched-up Rosie, our Airstream trailer, for our new adventure, we were confident we had everything we needed packed away inside the trailer. We quickly discovered we left something at home and would have to drive back the next day to get the missing item. More about that later!

During the COVID-19 pandemic, we wanted to camp in parks with large sites and we didn't want to be too far away from home in case we needed to quickly return there. Core of Engineer Parks were perfect because their fees are reasonable, they are usually along a lake or river and their individual sites are normally larger than what you find in a privately owned campground. 

There are about half-a-dozen COE campgrounds near our home, so we started looking for reservations for a one week stay. One-by-one, parks were eliminated because they were booked up. We were able to find a week available at White Oak Creek COE Campground. If that sounds familiar, it was where we camped only five months earlier.

Sign at White Oak Creek COE Campground

Only one camping loop was open when we camped there in October. All of the loops were open this time and the campground was close to being full. It appeared that we were not the only people wanting to get back to camping and the large sites found in most COE parks were appreciated by us.

This campground is along the shore of Lake George in Alabama. Lake George is somewhat confusing to the "locals" as they call it Lake Eufaula. We noticed that the water level in Lake Whatever was significantly higher this time. 

View from our site

Rosie in our site

We also noticed what appeared to be multiple family gatherings in the park. We were curious about a family gathering of about four trailers in our loop. They had a full-sized ping-pong table that was well used by the group. This was the first time I have seen a ping-pong table brought to a campground.

We knew from our previous camping trip to not expect too much TV service from Rosie's antenna. PBS was watchable about 50 percent of the time and a CBS station was watchable only about 20 percent of the time. Just as the last time we camped in this park, we brought a DVR loaded with TV shows and movies we wanted to watch. The problem was that I left the power cord home. 

A visitor to our site

Another visitor

Suzy looking out Rosie's window

My first reaction was to suffer the consequences of leaving the power cord home to remind me to always check for it in the future. That was before our "Informed Delivery" app told us an important document was being delivered to our home and it required quick action. That meant I was going to drive the 90 minutes home to deal with that mail. It also gave me an opportunity to get the power cord and a few other things we might need while camping.

It turned out to be a good thing I was able to pick up a few overlooked items because it rained several days and turned colder while we were in this park.  Back in our tent-camping days, a cold rain was a sure-fire camping ender. Our move to camping in a trailer meant we were able to enjoy the park while staying warm and dry inside.

Here are some specifics about this campground:

• There were four loops in the campground. 
• Most of the sites in this campground were on the water. It appeared that sites not on the water had water views. 
• Some loops have more shade trees than others.
• Our site was paved with concrete and was level. It appeared to us that the sites in the other loops were also paved with concrete
• Our site had 20, 30 and 50 amp electrical service 
• Our site had a water connection
• Our site did not have a sewer connection 
• There were two dump stations in this park. Both were a distance from the camp sites and you ended up having to drive there to dump your sewage tote
• The trash dumpsters were at the dump stations. That meant it was too far to walk there with your trash
• There were multiple bathhouses in the campground. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, we did not check on the condition of the bathhouse near our camper.
• The park did not provide WiFi service 
• AT&T provided decent 4G voice and data service over our campsite 
• We were able to occasionally watch PBS and a CBS affiliate using Rosie’s TV antenna. The PBS station came in mostly mornings and evenings. Reception of the CBS station was random, but mostly unwatchable. We were glad we brought our DVR with episodes of TV shows and movies we wanted to watch
• The campground was near Eufaula, Alabama. That meant there were restaurants and shopping nearby
• This was a pet friendly park 

We did not see any problems with ants this time. We came prepared with ant powder, but noticed the campers around us were not in what we call "RV Ant Mode." Several camping neighbors said they had not noticed any bug problems in the campground.

Full "Ant Mode" with all utilities off the ground

This trip was during what we call pollen season in the South. We were thankful that the rain storms washed the pollen off Rosie and our truck.

Getting ready to launch the kayak

Suzy enjoying the kayak on the lake

Another relaxing trip using the kayak

Rosie in our site

We understood the elves baked cookies in this tree!

Rosie as seen from the lake

There are hills in this campground that add a challenge to your bike rides

An original watercolor painted by Becky of flowers
seen in this park on a rainy day. (This was painted from
photos of the flowers and they were not picked for this painting.)