Anchors Aweigh RV Resort - Foley, Alabama (May 2024)

When we heard that the Alabama Airstream Club's Spring Rally was being held at the Anchors Aweigh RV Resort in Foley, Alabama, we checked our calendar and noticed that we did not have anything planned for that weekend so we penciled it in. We had attended Alabama Airstream Rally twice before but we had schedule conflicts in recent years. It would be nice to see our friends in this event. 

Another factor in attending this rally was that the campground was less than an hour from Mobile and our grandson was scheduled to play a baseball game there on Saturday. We could slip away from the rally and watch him play ball then spend the afternoon with our son and his family. 

When we checked the Rally's schedule, Saturday was a free day, allowing us to spend the day in Mobile. That was all the "convincing" we needed, so we made our reservations to attend this rally. 

Airstream trailers heading to this rally taking a break in a Rest Stop on the Interstate

There were more than 55 people and 27 Airstream trailers at the rally. That was a larger group than I remembered at previous rallies. The main event at the rally was attending the Foley Hot Air Balloon Festival. We joined the crowd and saw what they called a “glow” one evening. It was impressive to see the inflated and colorful balloons across the field. 

Selfie at the Balloon Festival 

The "Evening Glow" at the Balloon Festival

The balloon festival spanned across several days. In fact, we were concerned about the traffic around the balloons when we left on Saturday morning to travel an hour to watch our grandson play baseball. The balloons were scheduled to lift off and float away about the same time we needed to leave for Mobile. Our worries were relieved when we left Rosie that morning. Traffic around the Balloon Festival would be minimal because there was a thick fog. The balloons could not fly in fog. 

We discovered that the new technologies available in our truck were very helpful while driving in inclement weather. The adaptive cruise control system was able to spot cars ahead of us before we saw them and adjusted our speed to stay behind them. 

After about half an hour on the road, the fog lifted and we were able to arrive in time to watch our grandson’s 9 a.m. game. We were amazed at how much he had improved since last year. 

Grandson playing the "pitcher" position

Grandson at bat

Celebrating winning the game

We made it back to Rosie in time for the Rally’s Low Country Boil. It was very good. 

The rally ended Sunday morning and we watched as most Alabama Airstream Club members hitched up and left. We planned to stay an extra day because our next campground did not allow checkins on Sundays. 

Rosie in the campground

We spent our “bonus” Sunday looking for a public beach to walk on. We ended up at Gulf State Park and enjoyed our time at the beach. We were amazed at how good we felt being at Alabama’s Gulf State Park. 

We were surprised to see that about 10 Airstream trailers were still in the campground when we returned after spending some time on the beach. I guess we were not the only people who decided to spend an extra day in this park. 

The weather deserved a special mention. While it wasn’t too hot, the humidity was oppressively high. Rosie and our truck were covered with condensation. It was hard to breathe. We saw the results of the humidity when we opened the awnings in the mornings. They were very wet and it took a long time to dry out. 

One of the lessons quickly learned in the campground was that traffic in Foley and the campground were impossible to deal with. Logically, you would turn right exiting the park and travel about half a mile to Foley's main road. We did that once and ended up waiting a painfully long time to safely cross the highway. Turning left adds a few miles to your trip, but you ended up at a traffic light. That was a much better option, especially when exiting with Rosie. 

Another lesson learned at this campground was to frequently inspect the anchor points on Rosie's bike rack. An Alabama Airstream Club  member asked if he could look at our bike rack because he was thinking about adding one to his Airstream trailer. He quickly noticed that one of the anchor points had vibrated loose. I was able to add "Locktite" to the screws, reconnect and tighten that anchor point. I also added checking the bike rack to our safety check list that we use before departing any campground. 

Here are some specifics about this campground:

• There were multiple loops in the campground
• Our site was a back in
• Most sites could be classified as "full sun" as trees were few and far apart
• Most sites had some space on both sides
• Our site was paved with concrete 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 exit to the campground. It was easy to walk there with your trash
• There was a bathhouse in the campground 
• The park provided WiFi service 
• AT&T provided 2 bars of 5G voice and data service over our campsite 
• We were able to watch ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC and PBS using Rosie’s TV antenna. Digital channels seen were Antenna-TV, Bounce, Comet, Court-TV, Cozi, CW, Dabl, Grit, ION, LAFF, ME-TV, Outlaw, Rewind, Start and TBD
• There were restaurants and shopping nearby
• This was a pet friendly park 

I doubt that was the "real" tow vehicle!

Visiting our son's family from this campground

Mystic Springs Cove WBCCI Airstream Campground - McDavid, Florida (February 2020)

It was easy to spot the Mystic Springs Cove Campground as we drove up to it. The unmistakable shapes and silver colors of Airstream trailers pointed us to our destination. There were more than a dozen Airstream trailers in the campground when we first arrived at the park. That number would double over the weekend.

Sign entering the campground

The Mystic Springs Cove Park is owned and operated by the Pensacola  Unit of the Wally Byam Caravan Club International (WBCCI), the Airstream owner’s association. That meant this was an “Airstream Friendly” campground.

Checking in

We arrived at this campground in Rosie, our Airstream trailer, for a combined rally of the Alabama and Pensacola Clubs of the WBCCI. 

This park is located between the Alabama state line and Pensacola. It is situated along the banks of the Escambia River. It is wooded and quiet. Make that very quiet.

Along the river

The park had a clubhouse with a kitchen, a needed amenity for Airstream rallies. Several group meals were prepared in that kitchen.

Inside the clubhouse

Dinner time!

Discussing grits and eggs

A little entertainment in the club house

I’m not sure if this is exclusively an Airstream park. There were only Airstreams there while we were in that park, but some “Airstream” parks allow other brands in as space allows.

The rally was our excuse to take Rosie, our new Airstream trailer, out for a second shakedown trip. We needed to figure out where to logically put things in Rosie. We also wanted to hunt for any “bugs” that Airstream needed to fix. 

The temperatures dipped below freezing one night. Our heat pump automatically switched over to the furnace as needed and that kept us warm and cozy inside Rosie. 

Here are some specifics about this campground:

• Our site had 50 amp electrical service. Some sites had 30 amp service. 
• Our site had a water connection 
• Our site had a sewer connection . 
• Sites were paved with dirt. Our levelers sunk into the dirt during a rain storm. 
• AT&T placed a marginal signal over the campground 
• Park documents said that WiFi service was available at the clubhouse. We couldn’t find that WiFi service, but we didn’t invest too much time trying to find it 
• We were able to watch ABC, CBS, NBC and PBS using Rosie’s TV antenna. We also saw digital channels Charge, Court, Grit and ME-TV. 
• This is a pet friendly park.

There were some historical photos of the campground in the clubhouse. These were probably from the 1960s. What amazed me was that there wasn’t a pickup truck in the park. All of the Airstreams of that day were being pulled with family passenger cars. It is amazing how cars have changed over the past 50 years because you need a powerful truck to pull a travel trailer today.

Airstream trailers in the campground

More Airstream trailers

Sitting around the campfire

Talking with other Airstreamers

Suzy, our Yorkie, enjoys the company of other Airstreamers

Anchors Aweigh RV Resort - Foley, Alabama (April 2019)

While making our reservations, I said to the person at Anchors Aweigh RV Resort that I hoped the Alabama Airstream Club's WBCCI (Wally Byam Caravan Club International) rally wouldn't be as eventful as it was the previous year. That drew an immediate response of "I hope so, too."

This visit marks the second time we have camped in this park in Rosie, our 25 foot Airstream trailer. Both of our visits were connected to the Alabama Club's Spring rally. The final day of the rally last year is what sticks out in our minds. We left early because of some storms heading to the area. When we arrived at our next campground, we saw on the news that a tornado had struck Anchors Aweigh RV Resort and several trailers were blown over.

By the time the storm hit, all of the Airstream trailers had traveled on except one. Our Airstream friends said they felt the wind, but their trailer was never in danger of tipping over. While many factors may have been involved in keeping that trailer upright, I like to think the aerodynamic design of Airstream trailers was a contributing factor.

Checking in at Anchors Aweigh

In case you are curious, tornados didn't make the agenda this year. That adventure was replaced with the enjoyment of being with the members of the Alabama WBCCI Club attending the rally and a little rain one evening.

A double rainbow

Storm clouds over Rosie

Once again, about a dozen Airstream trailers gathered at the campground for this rally. We always enjoy seeing our friends and fellow members of the Alabama Airstream Club.

We ended up skipping several rally events, but we had a great reason to do so. Our son, daughter-in-law and our two year-old grandson came over for the day. We had an amazing time playing with our grandson along the bay's coast and taking him to the zoo.

A tiger in the zoo

Spending some time with our grandson

Here are some specifics about this campground:

• Our site had a level concrete pad
• Our site had 20, 30 and 50 amp electrical service
• Our site had a water connection with good pressure
• Our site had a sewer connection
• The park provided a cable TV connection with a good lineup of channels. Since we are having problems with our TV antenna, we elected to connect to the TV cable service
• There were five or six individual restrooms with showers around the Clubhouse. They were well maintained and clean. We found all of these occupied several times during our stay in this park
• The park provided WiFi service with adequate speeds
• AT&T provided strong 4G voice and data service over our campsite
• The park had a non-heated swimming pool. The water was too chilly for swimming
• There was a hot tub in the park
• The park has a good clubhouse, which was the meeting room for our rally
• This is a pet friendly park

Eating dinner with our friends in the Alabama Airstream Club

Dinner time!

Driveway Camping - Central Alabama (September 2018)

We made a decision to renovate our home instead of moving. We like our home and it’s location. After looking at several options, we couldn’t identify anywhere we would rather live.

The next step was to find a contractor to take on our planned upgrades. It didn’t take long to settle on a local company with a strong reputation for quality work. Of course we needed to pack our “nic knacks” to help protect them from breakage when the workers moved our stuff from one room to another for the project. 

 It was amazing how the definition of nic knacks morphed into packing nearly everything that wasn’t furniture into boxes and how many trips we made to Home Depot to buy more boxes. I couldn’t wait for the workers to show up so I could watch them work instead of us packing. 

There is one other problem that we need to put on the table. One of us has asthma and removing tile floors and ripping carpets was guaranteed to kick up enough dust to launch that medical issue into orbit. Staying in our home during the renovations wasn’t an option, but we had be there because decisions must be made on the spot while the crew was working. 

Rosie, our 25 foot Airstream trailer, was the perfect solution. We could camp in our driveway while the crew worked. To help make this idea better in our minds, we placed a 30 amp electrical connection near our driveway a couple of years ago. That allowed us to use Rosie’s air conditioner while unloading her during the summer months. Now that electrical connection would allow us to be comfortable while camping in our driveway. This was a perfect solution. 

Rosie in the driveway

Well, maybe not as perfect as we thought. In less than 24 hours after parking Rosie in our driveway, an email arrived from our HOA (Home Owner's Association) demanding to know how long our trailer was going to be in front of our house because they have rules about such things and rules are rules. After an exchange of emails where we pleaded there was a medical necessity that brought Rosie to our home, our HOA manager said she would note our justification on our record. I wonder if this is a continuation of the permanent records that haunted us all through elementary and junior high schools?

Our adventure kept Rosie in the driveway for two weeks. I guess we became less of a curiosity as the huge red dumpster parked next to Rosie started filling up with the remains of old carpeting, tile floors and our never really loved counter tops. I was convinced that nothing else could be added to that dumpster by the end of the first week, but the workers were adapt at stacking more stuff in it as the renovations progressed. 

Updating the family home

The workers declared our renovations a victory late on a Friday afternoon and raced away leaving us in a cloud of dust. Did I mention how much dust is created when you remove tile flooring? The larger dust particles were easy to remove as they quickly fell on everything we owned. The tiny dust particles are worrisome as they are going to take a while to settle. 

During this process, we kept joking about this being one of the worst campgrounds we ever stayed in. Our view was our driveway and the looks from our curious neighbors. Some neighbors were brave enough to ask what we were doing. I guess the others saw the big red dumpster, the sign from our contractor and figured that we renovating our home. 

With the workers gone, we went back to work on a campaign to eradicate dust. We were amazed at how the dust permeated the drop cloths. Dust was everywhere. How did dust get inside the microwave? How did dust get inside places that were “protected” by multiple layers of plastic?

The next week was a blur. We wiped dust off everything in the house. We washed every dish and glass item in the kitchen. Rosie was our calming sanctuary in the evenings. We could lock up the house, go inside Rosie and rest after a full day of hard work trying to make our house livable again. 

Rosie in the driveway

The deciding factor in taking Rosie back to Fort Rosie, the warehouse we store her in, was the dumpster. We knew that we wanted Rosie out of the driveway before the truck arrived to pick up the dumpster. We completed cleaning Rosie, hitched up and parked her at Fort Rosie. 

We had asked Rosie this time to serve as a safe place of rest and relaxation during our home renovations. Rosie is mostly our adventure pod, but she proved that she can always serve as a refuge when necessary. 

We were exhausted on the day we took Rosie back to storage. Besides getting Rosie ready to travel, we spent the day cleaning up dust in the house. Our local unit of the Wally Byam Caravan Club International (WBCCI) was holding its monthly meeting that evening. We needed a break from cleaning and it was great to see our “Airstream” friends and to relax. 

By the way, we love the updates and renovations to our home. And we loved that Rosie played a staring role in that process. 

Diamond Lake RV Park - Crater Lake, Oregon (July 2018)

Our trip to Crater Lake was a spontaneous idea. We needed somewhere to camp for a few days before heading to California and Crater Lake National Park was a great place to visit. 

We made reservations for Rosie, our 25 foot Airstream trailer, in the large federal campground along Diamond Lake near Crater Lake. Similar to most federal campgrounds, this was a dry camping experience without any utilities. As we were getting closer to that campground, we noticed that warm temperatures were in the forecast. The other factor was the wildfires in Oregon and the growing possibility of smelling smoke during our stay. We saw the haze from the fires as we traveled and we realized that we needed a plan B. 

We found Plan B on our iPhone's AllStays app. There was a private campground with full hookups across the street from Diamond Lake. That meant we could run our air conditioner and air purifier. It also meant we would have to forfeit the camping fees already paid for the federal campground. 

The choice was easy. We opted for the private campground.

Sign at the campground

As we were checking in, a campground staff person came out and looked at our hitch. He used his radio to inform the person checking us in that we had a ProPride/Hensley type hitch and that we needed one of the more level sites. That turned out to be a very helpful observation as we heard some sites in this park had front-to-back slopes. 

I was surprised to hear someone say my name as I was working outside Rosie. A fellow member of the WBCCI Alabama Unit was also camping there. It was great to see our Airstream friends in Oregon.

Meeting a member of our Alabama WBCCI Unit near Crater Lake

Here are some specifics about this campground:

• Our site was paved mostly with dirt 
• Our site had 30 amp electrical service 
• Our site had a water connection 
• Our site had a sewer connection 
• The park did not offer a WiFi service, as far as we could tell 
• We did not see any service from AT&T over our site 
• We could not see any tv signals while using Rosie’s antenna 
• The park had good restrooms and showers that were clean and well maintained 

We think the reason people camp in this park is to visit Crater Lake National Park.

Crater Lake National Park

Crater Lake is a beautiful park and well worth visiting. Our decision to come inland from the Oregon Coast and to move ourselves to a campground with full hookups turned out to be very good.

At Crater Lake

At Crater Lake

Haze in the background from the Oregon and California fires

Crater Lake

Anchors Aweigh RV Resort - Foley, Alabama (April 2018)

Our participation in Wally Byam Caravan Club International (WBCCI) events up until now was limited to going on caravans and attending their International Rallies. The Alabama Unit people were good about inviting us to their meetings, so we decided that it was time to participate in one of their rallies.

We arrived at Anchors Aweigh RV Resort in Foley and and started setting up Rosie, our 25 foot Airstream trailer. It was fun watching the dozen or so other Airstream units arrive.  

The park's large clubhouse was the focal point of the rally. Many meals, the unit's meetings and the nightly entertainment were all centered around the clubhouse.

Getting ready for a "Low Country Boil" in the Anchors Aweigh RV Park

Our favorite excursion sponsored by the rally was the Five Rivers Boat Tour. This started from the Five Rivers Delta Center near Spanish Fort, Alabama, and was very interesting.

The Five Rivers Center

View from the Five Rivers area

The tour boat in the Five Rivers area

A live owl who is unable to live in the wild being taken care of in the Five Rivers Center

Riding on the tour boat

Here are some specifics about this campground:

• Our site had 20, 30 and 50 amp electrical service 
• Our site had a water connection with 38 pounds of pressure 
• Our site had a sewer connection 
• We think there was a dump station in the park, but we didn’t find it 
• Our site had a level concrete pad
• There were five or six individual restrooms with showers around the Clubhouse. They were well maintained and clean. We found all of these occupied several times during our stay in this park 
• The park provided WiFi service with decent speeds
• AT&T provided good 4G voice and data service over our campsite 
• The park had a non-heated swimming pool. The water was too chilly for swimming 
• There was a hot tub in the park
• The park provided a cable TV connection with a good lineup of channels. We elected to skip the cable connection and watch the over-the-air signals in that area
• We were able to watch ABC, CBS, FOX, PBS and NBC using Rosie’s TV antenna. We also received digital channels Antenna, Charge, Get, Grit, Me and Stadium, a channel that aired rebroadcasts of college football and baseball games that were played anywhere from one to ten years ago
• This is a pet friendly park 

The Alabama Unit Rally ended on Sunday morning and we decided to quickly hitch up to avoid the rain storm predicted for that day. We saw the news stories as we arrived at our next destination about the tornado that touched down in the Anchors Aweigh RV Resort less than three hours after we left that morning.

TV Coverage of the tornado that touched down and blew over five RVs in the Anchors Aweigh RV Park

We were amazed watching the TV news video because we recognized the motor home that had been parked next to us and saw that the five rigs blown over were parked close to our site. One member of our Airstream group was in the park during the tornado and said that his trailer swayed some during the storm but stayed upright and safe. We were thankful that our group escaped injuries and that we were in Florida when the tornado hit Foley. We were also thankful that the campers taken to the hospital after the tornado were quickly released. 

Things could have been much worse!

Gunter Hill COE Campground - Alabama (April 2018)

The email we received said that some members of the Alabama WBCCI Unit were planning to stop over at Gunter Hill Corps of Engineers Campground while in route to the Unit's annual rally. We enjoyed our previous camping experiences in Gunter Hill, so we decided to meet our friends there in what they were calling a rolling rally. 

Similar to most Corps of Engineers campgrounds we have seen, Gunter Hill is a beautiful park with large camping sites in its two loops. We stayed in the Antioch loop during our first visit to this park. It appears to be the older loop with many trees throughout the site. It also has some excellent views of Catoma Creek, the large body of water that borders the campground. The drawback to this loop is that it only has water and electrical connections. That is probably why it doesn’t fill as quickly as the Catoma loop.

View of the creek

The Catoma loop adds sewer connections to the standard water and electric connections. There are fewer trees in the Catoma loop and that may be why the sites appear to be larger.

Rosie parked in Gunter Hill Campground

After setting up in our Catoma loop site, we noticed that the area around the water connection was starting to flood. A quick check of our hose connections confirmed that they were tight and that meant that the problem was coming from the park's spigot.

A quick call to the camp host suggested a possible cure. The water spigots in this park have weep holes to prevent them from freezing during the winter. If you fail to completely open the water valve, water can leak out of the weep hole. When I checked, the camp host was correct in that the water spigot wasn’t fully on and making that simple adjustment fixed the problem. 

About half-a-dozen Airstream trailers showed up for the night. We enjoyed meeting those members of the WBCCI's Alabama Unit. 

Here are some specifics about this campground:

• Our site had 20, 30 and 50 amp electrical service 
• Our site had a water connection with 46 pounds of pressure 
• Our site had a sewer connection 
• There are two dump stations in this park, one for each loop
• Sites in the Catoma loop have concrete pads
• Sites in the Antioch loop are dirt 
• Our site in the Catoma loop was level
• There were two bathhouses in the Catoma loop. Both were modern, well maintained and clean
• The park does not provide WiFi service 
• AT&T provided marginal 4G voice and data service over our campsite 
• We were able to watch ABC, CBS, FOX, PBS and NBC using Rosie’s TV antenna. (Rosie is our 25 foot Airstream trailer.) We also received digital channels Antenna, Buzz, Escape, Get, Grit, H&I, ME, Movies and THiS 
• This is a pet friendly park 

We noticed something this time that we didn’t have to deal with before while camping in Gunter Hill. We caught a whiff of a bad smell as we we setting up Rosie. We couldn’t decide if we were smelling sewage or if there was a dead animal in the woods near Rosie. Our camp host said we were in the section of the campground that when conditions were right the wind carried the smell from the paper mill across the creek. Conditions must have been right because we smelled the mill at our site and didn’t smell it about two sites away.

Another view of the creek

A walking trail in the park

We hope the wind will be coming from a different direction the next time we camp in this park. 

Rosie's site in Gunter Hill

Gunter Hill COE Campground