Gunter Hill COE Campground - Montgomery, Alabama (October 2021)

We were tired and the time was getting too close to sunset. We were heading home after being on a Rosie adventure for a month. (Rosie is the name of our Airstream trailer.) The thought of unpacking and parking Rosie in the dark wasn’t appealing, so we decided to extend our trip another night.

Our go-to place when we want to camp near home is Gunter Hill Corp of Engineers (COE) Campground.We called the campground volunteer's office and space was available, but we were told we needed to call Reserve America to reserve a site. 

If you have never called Reserve America, your call is quickly answered by a computerized voice who asks a series of questions. The detailed instructions and examples spewed out by the computer tends to drag on the pseudo conversation. The starter questions included what campground you want to reserve, when your plan to arrive there, how long you will stay, what type of camper you have, it’s length, the number of people in your party and if you need utilities. Eventually, the computer responds by saying this call is being transferred to an agent to complete the reservation. 

The “real person” agent starts off asking the same questions you spent the last 15 minutes responding to with the computerized voice. It is as if the computer portion of the call is to test your patience and to see if you really, really, really, really want to make a reservation. 

Sadly, information sharing between the computer voicemail system and the agent wasn’t the only problem. The agent was convinced that the campground we wanted reservations in was either closed or full. After multiple attempts to tell the agent we called the volunteer at the park before getting ensnared in the Reserve America phone tree and we were told the park had plenty of open sites for the night, the agent said that he removed his computer filters and suddenly discovered that Gunter Hill existed and had open campsites. He could book us in for one night. Finally!

I think we will use the app next time and save ourselves from more than 30 minutes of annoying conversation with a computer that doesn’t share information or an agent who couldn’t find an opening in a park that was half full. 

One of a half-dozen deer seen in this park

We arrived a few minutes before 5 p.m. and noticed the volunteer looked through a stack of check-in cards to find our information. When asked about what appeared to be a large number of late check-ins, the camp host said those were for the Halloween campers who reserve early to make sure they get reservations and he expected them to show up over the weekend, put their decorations up and enjoy camping there over the holiday. 

We camped in Gunter Hill several years ago over Halloween and it was fun. Many of the sites were decorated and children in costumes were going site-to-site trick-or-treating. It appears that this year will be well attended as some sites were already decorated.

Here are some specifics about this campground:

• There were two main loops in the campground. The Antioch loop is older, has only electric and water connections and sites were paved with dirt. The Catoma loop had paved roads, concrete site pads and full hook-ups
• Our site was a back in
• Our site had shade
• Most sites had ample space on both sides
• Our site was paved with concrete and level
• Our site had 20, 30 and 50 amp electrical service 
• Our site had a water connection
• Our site had a sewer connection 
• There was a dump station in this park 
• The trash dumpsters were at the entrance of each campground loop. It was easy to walk there with your trash
• There were several bathhouses in the campground. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, we did not check on their conditions
• The park did not provide WiFi service 
• AT&T provided 2 bars of 4G voice and data service over our campsites 
• We were able to watch ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC and PBS using Rosie’s TV antenna. More than 40 digital channels were seen including Antenna-TV, Buzzr, Circle, CW, Decades, Ion, Get, Grit, Justice, LAFF and ME-TV
• Restaurants and shopping are a 10 minute drive from the campground 
• This was a pet friendly park 

Unloading and cleaning Rosie after a trip is always tiring. We were glad we decided to spend another night in Rosie and unload in the morning. 

Foley RV/Airstream of Mississippi - Gulfport, Mississippi (October 2021)

RV'ers know that some roads are simply bad for their  rigs. The bouncing on I-12 in Louisiana damaged the legs on our first Airstream trailer's table. Another road to avoid is I-59 heading north from Birmingham, Ala. Somehow the state has never been able to smooth out that road so that it doesn't toss around your camper as if it was in the epicenter of an earthquake.

We recently found ourselves pulling Rosie, our Airstream trailer, from Birmingham to Chattanooga. We tried to go slow enough to minimize any potential damage, but noticed the door didn't quite close as easily as before and the deadbolt lock was hard to engage. That meant it was time to visit Foley RV/Airstream of Mississippi for some warranty service on Rosie.

We knew from purchasing our original Rosie that your RV dealer was important. We bought our first trailer from an Airstream dealer that was excellent in keeping our original Rosie in tip-top shape. That dealership was sold to a big RV chain that dropped the Airstream line.

When we started talking about getting a new Airstream trailer, we found in the Blue Beret, the Airstream Owners Association's magazine, that Foley RV was a "Five-Rivet" dealer. This is the Airstream Corporation's highest recognition for dealers, their service departments and their customer service. 

Sign at Foley RV

By the way, there is an Airstream dealer much closer to our house. We called once about a minor Airstream recall item. It appeared the service manager knew less about the recall than us. We followed by calling Foley RV and their service manager not only knew about it, he was able to tell us how to avoid problems until the recall fix packages were distributed to the dealers. That again pointed to the difference between a Five-Rivet dealer and a no-rivet Airstream dealer. 

Adjusting the hitch

There are a few "camping" sites behind the service bays and we would normally park there for the night. Rosie was ready in the morning, so we decided to get on the road early. We have a good chance of making it home tonight for a short break before we go out for more Rosie adventures.

Keesler Air Force Base FamCamp (U.S. Military FamCamp) - Biloxi, Mississippi (October 2021)

Our plans changed as they sometimes do. We were supposed to be at Foley RV/Airstream of Mississippi for some warranty work on Rosie, our Airstream trailer’s name, immediately after camping at Topsail. Then we found a rare opening at Grayton Beach State Park. This was one of our favorite campgrounds and we immediately booked that site. We called Foley RV and they kindly rescheduled our service appointment the following week. 

The problem was that we had to leave a Florida State Park on Saturday morning and our service reservation at Foley RV was for the following Monday. We needed a place to camp for two days. 

Experienced RVers know that getting campground reservations along the Florida/Alabama/Mississippi Gulf Coast is never easy especially at the last minute. During our search, we noticed several U.S. Military “FamCamps” that were near Gulfport, Mississippi. It was worth calling to see if they had an opening. 

The sign, such as it was, pointing to the campground 

What is a FamCamp? These are campgrounds operated by the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) for people currently serving in the U.S. Armed Forces, retired from the military or were diagnosed by the Veterans Administration (VA) with a military service connected disability. In other words, you must have a U.S Military ID or a VA Health ID (VHIC) to get into a FamCamp. 

Campground office

This was our first time camping in a “FamCamp.” I hoped that we would not run into some old drill sergeants who forced everyone to fall out for PT (military slang for physical training or exercising) at 4 a.m. I remembered that PT always ended with a multi-mile run before breakfast. To calm that fear, no drill sergeants were spotted patrolling the campground and I somehow avoided being put on KP. 

Campground rules!

What we did find was an amazing mix of men and women who shared a common bond of serving in the U.S. Armed Forces. There was a different feeling I haven’t felt outside FamCamps. Everyone had a story and it was interesting to listen to the Veterans talk about their service to the nation. 

A group of the campers in the common area

Our original plan was to camp in the Navy's Shields FamCamp, but we would be arriving after the base Pass and ID office closed, so we had to come up with an alternative. Keesler Air Force Base was a few miles down the road and we were able to schedule our check in time, so we switched our reservations from Navy to Air Force. 

Several people talked about the new Keesler AFB FamCamp currently under construction. It sounded as if the new FamCamp would be larger with more than double the number of sites and the individual sites would be much larger than the current campground. That sounded very promising to us. 

Here are some specifics about this campground:

• There were two loops in the campground
• Our site was a back in
• Most sites in our loop could be classified as "full sun" as trees were few and far apart. The other loop had some trees
• Most sites had some space on both sides
• Our site had a concrete pad and was level
• Our site had 20, 30 and 50 amp electrical service 
• Our site had a water connection
• Our site had a sewer connection 
• The trash dumpsters were at the entrance of the campground. It was easy to walk there with your trash
• There were two bathhouses in the campground. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, we did not check on their conditions
• The park did not provide WiFi service 
• AT&T provided 2 bars of 4G voice and data service over our campsites 
• We were able to watch ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC and PBS using Rosie’s TV antenna. Digital channels seen were Circle, Ion, Justice and ME-TV
• There were restaurants and shopping nearby
• This was a pet friendly park 

As mentioned earlier, this was our first time camping in a U.S. Military FamCamp. We enjoyed the experience and will camp in other FamCamps. 

Rosie, our Airstream's name, in the campground

Grayton Beach State Park - Santa Rosa Beach, Florida (October 2021)

We had just about given up on going back to Grayton Beach State Park. It seemed that too many people had discovered it and it was just about impossible to find an opening there. We were surprised to find online a cancellation and quickly made our reservations. 

There are two loops in this campground. One appeared to be older than the other. Our site was in the older loop, which was upgraded a few years ago to full hookups. 

Both loops were next to a dune lake and some sites had a water view. Not ours. Our site backed into the woods and had a thick tree limb that was low enough to keep an eye on when parking Rosie, our Airstream trailer’s name. It is always a good idea to inspect your site before parking your RV to avoid hazards that could damage your camper. 

Rosie in Grayton Beach State Park avoiding the low tree limb

This is definitely a bicycle park, but not for the trails inside it. The best trails are through the beach communities surrounding the park. You could call them bike friendly communities. 

Along the bike path in Watercolor, Fla

One of the parks along the bike paths near Grayton Beach State Park

Speaking about the bike trails, we were surprised to see the number of people using them. I thought that we would not see too many people riding bikes around Grayton Beach during October. I was wrong!

Why were the bike paths, beaches and communities packed with people? We arrived at the peak of Fall Break. That helped explain the large number of families in the area. 

We started identifying what we called “bike rage” on the crowded paths. These were people riding too fast and too close to hikers and other bikers. As much as we enjoyed riding our bikes on the paths in the past, it wasn’t as much fun this time. 

A quick adjustment at the Bike Repair Station

The real star of this park was the beach. The Gulf was a short bike ride in the park from the campground. As with the surrounding communities, we were amazed at the number of day users coming into the park to use the beach facility. 

Becky and Suzy on a trail near our campsite

Rosie in the park

Our campsite

This has been one of our favorite campgrounds for many years. Sadly, this trip was memorable for all the wrong reasons. We will try to avoid camping during school breaks in the future. 

Here are some specifics about this campground:

• There were two loops in the campground
• One loop appeared to us to be newer than the other
• Our site was a back in
• Our site had shade
• Most sites had some space on both sides
• Our site was paved with dirt and we needed to use leveling tools to correct a side-to-side lean in Rosie, our Airstream trailer. 
• Our site had 20, 30 and 50 amp electrical service 
• Our site had a water connection
• Our site had a sewer connection 
• The trash dumpsters were at the entrance of the campground. It was easy to walk there with your trash
• There was a bathhouse in the campground. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, we did not check on its condition
• The park did not provide WiFi service 
• AT&T provided 2 bars of 4G voice and data service over our campsites 
• We were able to watch CBS, NBC and PBS using Rosie’s TV antenna. Digital channels seen were CW, Circle, Dabl, ION and ME-TV
• There were restaurants and shopping nearby
• This was a pet friendly park. The sandspurs were abundant making it difficult to walk dogs without having to stop and pull sandspurs from their paws and coats 

Selfie at the beach

Shadows as we rode our bikes

Sunrise 

The famous Grayton Beach trees

Sunset

Sunrise