The start of a new camping season is always exciting as we look forward to having new adventures in Rosie, our Airstream trailer. It also means that we were successful in making camping reservations for the coming year.
Speaking of reservations, the process of getting into campgrounds has changed since the COVID pandemic. Prior to the COVID days, we felt confident that we could find a site in one of our favorite state and federal campgrounds. Not so today. It takes time and effort to find a place to camp near one of our favorite locations.
Still, we are grateful to be at the start of a new camping season and that we have some reservations. It is wonderful spending time in Rosie.
Getting Rosie ready for this trip was different from last year when we stored Rosie in a warehouse with a 30 amp power connection. We parked Rosie in that warehouse for more than ten years and had a solid working relationship with the property's owner. Then he sold the property and retired.
The new owners drastically increased the storage fee and started parking RVs and cars in the warehouse on a first come, first serve system. We noticed that trailers and motor homes that had shared a space alongside Rosie for years were going elsewhere. It didn’t take long for us to sever ties with that storage facility and move Rosie to the RV storage lot on a nearby military base. We were thankful that we had access to military bases.
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| Rosie parked in RV storage on a military base |
One of the good things about the new facility is that there are armed MPs at the gate and only authorized people are allowed on the base. They don’t mess around! We feel Rosie is very safe in this storage lot.
The negative is that Rosie is now stored outdoors and we have to be careful about winterizing and we cannot turn the air conditioner on while loading for a trip.
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| The low temperature inside Rosie was 16.3 degrees F while stored on an Air Force base. |
Prepping for a new camping season meant checking on some of Rosie's general maintenance items. Tires were at the top of that list. We learned the tire maintenance lesson nearly a decade ago when our first Rosie suffered a blowout in Arkansas. RV tires carry significant weight and wear out faster than the tires on your tow vehicle. Rosie’s tires were five years old and we knew they needed to be replaced. It was alarming, but not surprising, how much tire costs have increased since the last time we replaced Rosie's tires.
The weather forecast played a role in planning for this trip. It predicted that rain was going to fall all day along our route. It isn’t fun to hitch-up and travel in the rain. We called the campground and were able to arrive a day earlier than planned. That meant we lost a day to prepare for our trip and had to scramble to get everything ready on time. We were glad when that we had good weather while traveling.
We saw three Airstream trailers within 30 minutes as we drove south pulling Rosie to Eastbank COE Campground. They were heading north and we quickly realized that the Airstream Club's Cajun Caravan ended the night before and we were probably seeing people from that caravan heading home. We were on that caravan last year and we knew those Airstreamers had a great time on the Cajun Caravan.
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| Sign at the entrance to the campground |
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| Check-in station at Eastbank COE Campground |
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| Our first site in this campground was a pull-thru |
We immediately saw a problem with Rosie. There was an army of ants inside her. We put out the ant bait traps and that cured the problem.
We did not have problems with the water, meaning our winterization of Rosie was successful and we didn’t have any damage from freezing temperatures during winter.
Our site on the lake was available early the next morning. We both remarked that it was a very nice site. The camp hosts helped us move.
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| Rosie's site was on the water |
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| Rosie parked in our site |
We did find a problem with Rosie's shower. The hot water wasn’t working. A quick consultation with YouTube diagnosed the culprit. We bought and installed a new shower water cartridge to fix that issue.
This campground was less than a mile to a dam. There was a paved path to it. We were amazed at the number and variety of birds heard along that walk.
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| The lake was created by this dam |
The campground was also less than a mile from the Florida and Georgia state lines and the Eastern/Central time zones. That confused our GPS and phones.
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| Standing on the Florida/Georgia State Line. Georgia was the Eastern time zone and Florida was in the Central. Our iPhone spent the week very confused about the current time. |
Of course there was a reason why I selected this specific campground. It was about 30 miles from where my maternal great and great great grandparents were buried and I wanted to visit those graves. We were able to find and photograph them.
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| Church cemetery where some great grandparents are buried |
There was a big lightning storm one night while we were there. We opened the window shades and enjoyed the storm. It was very cozy inside Rosie.
Here are some specifics about this campground:
- There were three loops in the campground
- Our site for the first night was a pull-through. Our site for the rest of the week was a back in and located next to the lake
- Most sites could be classified as "full sun" as trees were few and far apart
- Our site had a little shade
- Most sites had some space on both sides
- Our site was paved with concrete and we needed to use leveling tools to correct a slight side-to-side lean in Rosie
- 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 was a dump station in this park. It was easy to pull our sewage tote to it.
- The trash dumpster was between the three camping loops
- There were two bathhouses in the campground. Strangely, both bathhouses were in the same camping loop
- The park did not provide WiFi service
- AT&T provided 2 bars of 5G voice and data service over our campsite
- We were able to watch ABC, CBS, CW, NBC and PBS using Rosie’s TV antenna. Digital channels seen were Antenna-TV, H&I, LAFF, ME-TV and Outlaw
- There were restaurants and shopping nearby
- This was a pet friendly park
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| Bridge near the campground |
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| View of the dam from Rosie |
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| Selfie |
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| Walkway between two of the camping loops in Eastbank COE Campground |
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| Yes, that is Gabby the alligator in the inlet near Rosie |
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| Sunset |
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