Pelican Roost RV Park (U.S. Military FamCamp) - Mayport Naval Station, Mayport, Florida (May 2022)

I remember the Mayport area from my childhood. There was a seafood restaurant that my parents liked near there. My father would always drive the car onto a ferry boat that crossed the St. Johns River to get to that restaurant. The ferry trip made a big impression on me. 

The ride home was over several bridges. I didn’t put it together back then, but there was obviously another route that avoided the ferry. While I don’t remember much about the restaurant, I have great memories about the ferry and I’m glad that my father added an element of adventure while taking his family to that seafood restaurant.

I checked Google and the ferry is still in operation, but our route to Mayport with Rosie, our Airstream trailer, bypassed the boat. I guess that would have been too adventurous while pulling a trailer. I’ll admit that I looked for a reason to cross the river at least once via the ferry while camping in Pelican Roost. Somehow, it didn’t happen this time. 

Ever since we started camping in U.S. Military FamCamps, we have heard about Pelican Roost at Mayport Naval Station. Several people said we needed to get reservations along the water so that we could watch the Navy's warships pass by behind our trailer. Our attempt to make reservations there were successful.  

Pelican Roost is behind Mayport's gate. That meant we had to first register at the base's Pass and ID office before presenting our credentials to the gate guards. We called before we arrived at the Naval Station and we were told to park Rosie, our Airstream trailer, on the side of the road before reaching the Main Gate then walk to the Visitors Center to get our base clearance. We were not fans of that idea, but we realized that we probably were not the first people to be told that. 

It only took about 10 minutes to get our credentials in their files. We were told that it would take about 15 minutes for our information to migrate to the handheld systems used by the Military Police at the gate. We decided to walk back to Rosie and wait there. 

We were inside Rosie for just a few minutes when we heard a loud and authoritative pounding on Rosie's door.  Two armed MPs were there wanting to know why we were parked just outside the main gate. After explaining that Pass and ID told us to park there and showing them our newly created passes, they were very professional and told us to move on to the gate where the MP there asked why we parked just outside so long. It appeared that we caught the attention of the guards at the gate and the MPs by simply following the instructions given to us by the Pass and ID office. Maybe we were the first people to park a camper on the side of the road just outside the gate. 

It was easy to find the campground once we were on the base. Most of the sites had concrete pads. We were assigned one of the few sites paved with gravel. It didn’t matter because we had a great view of the mouth of the St. John’s River as it flowed into the Atlantic Ocean. There were two shipping lanes. The one farthest from Rosie went to the Jacksonville Port and we watched commercial freighters and cruise ships move in and out of port there. 

Pelican Roost RV Park

Cargo ship passes by the sign

Campground office

The shipping lane closest to Rosie was for the Navy’s war ships and they were impressive. We watched everything from destroyers to submarines enter and leave the port. It was easy to tell when a big ship was in the channel by the sudden surge of people running towards the waterfront to see what was passing the campground at that moment. 

Cargo ship on the St. Johns River

The fishing around the campground must have been great

Equally impressive were the dolphins who enjoyed swimming in the St. Johns River while the youngest dolphins played in the water in front of Rosie. 

A cruise ship that left the Port of Jacksonville

People who served in the military remember the annual PT (Physical Training) test. A group of veterans camping in this FamCamp spotted what appeared to be the Navy's version of the PT test and enjoyed watching the current people on active duty being put through the various phases of the test. The frequent comments from the "old" vets was about how much more difficult those tests were back in "the day.” 

Rosie in Mayport's  Pelican Roost RV Park

We were curious about the strange looking buildings near the campground. Our questions were answered as we were riding our bicycles one morning. We saw a sign that said "Fire Fighting School." To make sure we believed the sign, there was a group of sailors fighting a fire on what appeared to be a mock-up of an aircraft carrier's deck. A Navy veteran camping near us said that fires on ships are scary and every sailor must pass fire fighting training.

To add to the emphasis on fire fighting around this campground, we watched the "fire tugs" practice spraying water on an imaginary fire. We were impressed with the amount of water these boats were able to spray on their targets.

We both grew up near Florida's Atlantic coast, but travel to the Gulf coast now once or twice a year. Somehow we forgot about Atlantic tides. We were surprised at the vast difference in the beach area between high and low tides. The other difference between the Atlantic and Gulf coasts was the sand. We are now used to the soft white sand along Gulf beaches. The hard-packed sand of the Atlantic was dramatic at first until we started talking about going to the beach as children.

Walking along the Atlantic Coast

Speaking of children, I was able to visit several friends from my elementary through high school days while a we camped at Mayport. A planned one hour visit suddenly turned into more than four and would have gone longer if we hadn't encroached on dinner time. It was great to see my childhood friends and talk about our shared memories. 

It was easy to see why people kept recommending this campground to us. We enjoyed the sea breeze, watching the ships crossing in front of Rosie and biking around the base. And to make the camping experience at Mayport better, the weather was great. Yes, this was a good FamCamp.

Here are some specifics about this campground:

• We found one loop in this campground
• Our site was a pull-through with a waterfront view 
• Our site was "full sun" as trees were few and far apart
• Most sites had some space on both sides
• Our site was paved with gravel and we needed to use leveling tools to correct a side-to-side lean in Rosie. Most sites in this FamCamp were paved with concrete
• 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 across the street from the campground. It was easy to walk there with your trash
• There was a bathhouse in the campground. It was clean and well maintained 
• There was a laundry room with free washers and dryers in this campground 
• The park provided WiFi service. It had a download speed of two mbps. The WiFi seemed to work better from one end of Rosie and poorly from the other end
• AT&T provided 3 bars of 5G voice and data service over our campsite 
• We were able to watch ABC, CBS, CW, FOX, NBC and PBS using Rosie’s TV antenna. Digital channels seen were Antenna-TV, Bounce, Charge, Circle, Court-TV, Dabl, Decades, Get, Grit, H&I, ION, LAFF, ME-TV, MY-TV, Movies, THiS
• There were restaurants and shopping nearby
• This was a pet friendly park and it had a dog park 

Another Selfie

Cape Hatteras KOA - Rodanthe, North Carolina (July 2019)

We decided to head for North Carolina’s Outer Banks after the 2019 Wally Byam Caravan Club’s International Rally in Virginia. We traveled on a Saturday and some of our friends at the Rally told us about some good back roads we could use to avoid the backlog of traffic heading to the Outer Banks for the weekend. That turned out to be an enjoyable route to kickoff our first visit to the Outer Banks.

Welcome to the Outer Banks

We found the traffic as we pulled in to the Cape Hatteras KOA. The staff was trying to make room for all the RVs that were parked at the camp store to check in. After paying more money for a campsite than we had ever paid before, we were escorted to our site across the street from the dunes separating the campground from the Atlantic Ocean.

Our site in the campground

If you have read several postings from this blog, you know I have struggled with KOA campgrounds. Some are great while others fail to measure up to anything more that a parking lot. This is more of a square peg fitting in a round hole. 

For example, the campground is at a great location along the beach. Why distract from the camping experience by cramming as many sites as possible into the space? Our neighbor’s truck was close enough that we could touch it standing in Rosie’s door. (Rosie is our 25 foot Airstream trailer.)

The Atlantic Coast off the Outer Banks

The closeness of the sites and the narrow roads meant we had to plan our exit from the park at the end of our visit. We could only imagine how the rigs bigger than Rosie pulled out of their sites. 

This campground may hold some record for having the most families with small children. With more than 500 sites, the park is huge and July is prime time for family vacations. 

The campground had many features that would attract families. These included the beach, swimming pool, the playground, the huge jumping pad and the pirate ship. 

Speaking of the pirate ship, the park has one on wheels that was pulled behind a golf cart on weekend evenings and weekday afternoons. A pack of kids on bicycles followed the pirate ship as it meandered through the campground during the evening runs. 

It was fun to watch the evening pirate parade the first time or two as it rolled past Rosie. The enjoyment waned a couple of hours later as it continued to pass playing its loud “pirate” music and followed by fewer and fewer children. Mercifully, it stopped around 10 p.m. 

The afternoon visits had the pirate ship full of kids with super soaker squirt guns drenching anyone foolish enough to cross paths with it while the pirates were aboard. The afternoon pirate attacks ended when the buckets used to reload the water pistols ran dry. 

Only a couple roads in the park were asphalt. The remaining roads were very narrow gravel paths. That meant the paved road attracted walkers, kids on bikes and scooters. You have to be very cautious when driving in this park. 

There is no shortage of things to do when visiting the Outer Banks. The obvious draw to the area was the beach.

Sunset as seen over the Sound

We both grew up in Florida living near the Atlantic and remarked that these beaches were very nostalgic to us. 

Here are some specifics about this campground:

• Our site was gravel and a pull thru 
• Our site was slightly off level
• Our site was across the road from the dunes along the beach
• Our site had 30 amp electrical service. You could pay an additional fee for 50 amp service. Our site’s voltage tended to hover in the 108-112 range 
• Our site had a water connection 
• Our site had a sewer connection 
• The park had a popular swimming pool 
• The park had a very well used playground 
• The park had a jumping pad that was a favorite with the 12 and younger crowd 
• The campground had three restrooms we could find. These were probably inadequate for the park’s size and they were normally sandy due to the beach traffic  
• The park had a couple of showers for its guests. As expected, they needed to be cleaned
• The campground advised us when we checked in that the WiFi was terrible. That description may have been too optimistic 
• AT&T placed two bars of 4G service over our site 
• The TV Towers app on my iPhone could not find a TV station closer than 100 miles to our site. The park provided a basic level of cable TV service, but our TV antenna coax cable was only 25 feet and we needed double that to reach the box. Once again, our over-the-air DVR stepped up and provided our entrainment 

In addition to being on the beach, we were able to visit three lighthouses, a life-saving station (forerunner of the US Coast Guard) and rode the ferry over to Ocracoke island. We didn’t suffer from a shortage of things to do while on the Outer Banks.

On the ferry

Our truck was the last vehicle on the ferry

The GPS wasn't confused about being on the ferry

Suzy enjoyed the ferry ride

I started this posting by calling the Cape Hatteras campground a square peg in a round hole. You start to think this is a good campground only to be shocked back into the reality of this being a maxed out parking lot that you couldn’t squeeze another camper in for any reason. After talking to the families around us, our view wasn’t unique. It is a great place to take young children to. If you are traveling without children, you may find the park is not geared towards you. 

There must be better choices of campgrounds on the Outer Banks. I think we will hold out for a space in one of the National Park Service campgrounds next time. 

Bodie Lighthouse

Cape Hatteras Lighthouse

Ocracoke Lighthouse

Anastasia State Park - St. Augustine, Florida

We left the Canopener Rally in Topsail Hill State Park and headed east on I-10. Our next planned stop was Anastasia State Park near St. Augustine, Florida.

Near the water in St. Augustine

This is a park that keeps coming up in our conversations with other campers. Several people said it was one of their favorite places to camp. We decided to investigate for ourselves and reserved a site for Rosie, our 25 foot Airstream trailer.

Rosie at Anastasia State Park

Our first impression of the park wasn't positive. Two very rude drivers practically ran us down as we entered the park. Maybe they were hosting a road-rage rally that day.

Once we were checked in, we started looking for our campsite. We were thankful that Rosie wasn't any larger because some of the turns are very tight in this park. We camped in the Coquina loop, which probably has the larger individual sites in the park.

All of the Anastasia sites are dirt based and the dirt in our site was softer than I would have liked. That meant the blocks we used to level Rosie would slowly sink into the sand during our stay. That just meant that Rosie would slowly start to lean to one side.

We think the big draw to this park lies outside the front gate. Sure, the beach is a nice Atlantic shoreline, but St. Augustine is just outside the park's front gate.

Lighthouse outside the park

Old St Augustine

Flagler College

Flagler College in St Augustine

Another view of Flagler College

St Augustine

A church in St Augustine

St. Augustine is a positive childhood memory for us. It was a school field-trip destination for us as children. Although we attended different schools in Florida, we both made the trip to St. Augustine with our classmates to see the fort, old school, old jail and the Fountain of Youth. In talking with other campers in the park, the main topic is always St. Augustine. The nation's oldest city still has the same draw that beckoned Florida elementary school teachers back in the '60s to schedule field-trips there.

The old school

The fort

In case you are wondering, St. Augustine has much to see and do. We enjoyed exploring the town without worrying about having to stay in our group with our teacher.

But what about the park? It is smaller than I imagined. It is very close to a busy highway, meaning you can hear road noises. The sites in the Coquina loop were very shady and larger than most state park campsites. And while the park was nice, we still prefer our favorite parks along the Florida and Alabama Gulf coasts.

Here are some specifics about this park:

• It was a challenge to level Rosie in our campsite. We had to use lots of leveling blocks to help erase the left-to-right slope in our site.
• Staying level was impossible. Our site had lots of soft sand and the leveling blocks simply sunk into the ground.
• Our site had 50, 30 and 20 amp service. Several times while parked here, our electrical service stopped for a moment and that was long enough for our surge protector to cycle through a two minute restart cycle.
• Be careful with your electronic gear. We noticed that the park's power would occasionally dip below 100 volts and this can damage your electronics and your air conditioner unit.
• Our site had a water connection. Unlike some parks we stayed in, the water tasted good here.
• Our site did not have a sewer connection.
• There was a dump station in the park.
• Some of the camping loops shared a bathhouse. Our loop had a bathhouse in the middle of it and it was a hike to get there.
• The bathhouse was not heated. With "freeze warnings" all around us, that meant the bathhouse was very cold.
• AT&T placed "two-bars" of service for voice and data over the park.
• The park provided Wi-Fi service near the camp store.
• Speaking of the the camp store, it had a limited stock of camping and beach supplies.
• We were able to watch CBS, CW, Fox and PBS using Rosie's TV antenna. We also received Bounce, Decades, Get-TV, H&I, ME-TV, Retro and THiS digital channels.

We are glad we finally made it to Anastasia State Park. While we enjoyed being there, I don't think this will be added to our "Frequently Revisit" list.

The beach at Anastasia State Park

A manatee warning sign

This would look great inside Rosie!

French onion soup

Trees inside Anastasia State Park

Having a Cuban sandwich from the Columbia Restaurant

Hunting Island State Park, South Carolina

Welcome to paradise! That was the greeting given to us by a park volunteer as we checked in to Hunting Island State Park in South Carolina.

Hunting Island State Park

We started to doubt the "paradise" claim as we arrived at our camp site. There were little pockets of trash scattered around it. Did we arrive before the volunteers had a chance to tidy the site? Were the previous campers trashy? We found the answer to those questions later that night when we saw a couple of racoons examining our site looking for anything we foolishly left out for them and we noticed some trash treasures every morning shared with us by the racoons.

Setting up Rosie, our Airstream trailer, was more of a challenge than normal because our site had a strong left to right slope. We had to use every leveler tool we brought with us to get the level's bubble near the center circle.

Rosie at Hunting Island State Park

Hunting Island State Park is in the area of South Carolina called the "Low Country." You pass through salt marshes and swamps to get to the park and you can definitely see why the locals call this the "low country."

A salt water marsh at Hunting Island State Park

Low country has another meaning in this park. Beach erosion, which is normal along the Atlantic coastline, keeps shrinking the park. We talked to one couple who proudly said that they have camped in Hunting Island several times per year for the past 15-20 years, but their favorite site was now underwater as the ocean continues to claim more and more of the park. 

Several people, including park officials, said that an entire camping loop, a bath house and some camping cottages subcomed to the waves over the past couple of decades. We found traces of roads and buildings as we walked along the beach.

More evidence of the effect of erosion was seen at the lighthouse. We were amazed to read that it was built in the center of the island. Today, the surf is approaching it and they estimate that it will reach the lighthouse entrance within 15 years. 

The Lighthouse

While you cannot escape the effects of erosion on the changing face of the park, we were impressed with its size. This is a large park with more than 200 camp sites and there are lots of things to do here. But the big draw for this park is the Atlantic Ocean.

Becky and I both grew up living close to the Atlantic Ocean. I was about 10 miles from a north Florida beach and she was less than five miles from a central Florida one. This was our first trip in Rosie to see the Atlantic, a body of water that was a big part of our childhoods.

There was a path behind Rosie that led through the dunes to the ocean. Our site was less that 50 feet from the beach and the first sight of the water was very nostalgic for both of us.

The Atlantic Ocean at Hunting Island

Selfie along the beach

Evening clouds

We were amazed at the tides along the beach at Hunting Island State Park. We estimated that you have around 1,000 additional feet of beach sand at low tide. The waves came right up to the sites along some waterfront sites during high tide.

One of the things campers seem to love doing at Hunting Island is catching crabs. One person said she liked catching crabs better than fishing because you can see the results much quicker. It only took a few minutes to see these campers start reeling in blue crabs.

For the campers who love fishing, there is a pier on the south end of the park. Of course, many enjoy fishing in the surf or on the salt marsh side of the park.

Fishing Pier

Most of the camping loops have shade. The closer you get to the sites near the ocean, the less shade. Of course, the sea breeze makes up for that issue.

Modesty is not the operative term when it comes to the bath houses. I had a flashback to my Army basic training, which was also in South Carolina, when I saw the showers because there is no privacy. There are a couple of hooks across the walkway for your clothes, but no curtain separating you from anyone else in that bath house.

The park is less than 10 miles away from the U.S. Marine Corp basic training base on Parris Island. I could not help but wonder if some old Marine Drill Instructors participated in designing these bath houses.

A flimsy shower curtain went up while we were camping at Hunting Island. It blocked view from anyone in the restroom area from the showers. I wasn't sure if a camper or the park officials installed this. While this curtain was appreciated, there was very little privacy behind it between the twin shower stalls.

We saw a variety of wildlife while at the park. Deer and racoons were daily sightings. There was a large alligator near the park office. We found a flock of Wood Storks roosting in the trees near the campground and we saw a bald eagle one afternoon. Herons, pelicans and ospreys were common sights during our stay. One of our more interesting sightings was three baby alligators near the park's office.

While speaking about the "critters" at Hunting Island, we have to mention the bugs. Mosquitoes, ticks and chiggers where everywhere in this park. While talking to a couple from South Carolina about the ticks, their response was that we would get used to them if we lived there. I disagree.

We both came home with some chigger bites and one of us had a significant number of bites that continued to itch for another couple of weeks. Annie, our dog, brought home fleas.

Site selection may have contributed to our invasion of bugs. There were trees and dunes between us and the beach, meaning we didn't feel the ocean breeze. A couple of the camping loops were right along the beach and campers in these sites said the ocean breeze helped keep the pests away. If we return to this park, we will be camping along the ocean front.

We enjoyed the maritime forest in this park. Many petrified tree trunks were on the beach and in the Atlantic and this was an amazing sight to see. This alone is reason enough to visit the park.
Several people told us that the Vietnam scenes in the Forest Gump movie were filmed on the island. It was easy to picture Forest, Bubba and Lieutenant Dan being there.

Trees near the ocean

Trees along the ocean

Some of the petrified trees

More petrified trees

Petrified trees at high tide

Some specifics about Hunting Island State Park:

• There are multiple camping loops at Hunting Island State Park. Some are directly on the ocean and others are back in the woods. You can hear the surf and feel the ocean breeze on the campsites nearest the Atlantic.
• The park has several areas reserved for tents. Several of these are in the prime spaces facing the ocean.
• Most of the RV campsites have both 30 and 20 amp service. A few sites also have 50 amp connections.
• AT&T provided weak 4G and 3G service over the campground.
• Wi-Fi was available at the camp store. It was common to see several people trying to share the bandwidth to check their email messages.
• We were able to watch ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC TV stations from our antenna. We also saw ME-TV, CW, THiS and GET -TV digital channels.
• I talked about the restrooms earlier in this posting.There are multiple restrooms/bath houses scattered in the park's camping loops. They appear to have been around for a long time without updates, but they are well maintained. The volunteers do a good job trying to keep them clean.
• It is easy to ride your bicycles inside the park's camping area. We ventured out to the road connecting the park to the lighthouse and were amazed at how many cars were speeding past us on a narrow two-lane road. We found out that there is a residential area on the next island and those living there have to drive through the park to get there. We decided to keep our bike rides confined to the camping loops.
• You don't want to walk your dog to the trash disposal area. We were cautioned our first night that the racoons in that part of the park have been known to attack small dogs. After that, Becky would stop about 50 feet from the dumpsters and hold our dog and I would loudly stomp to the trash area to scare away the racoons before throwing in our trash bag. (Not all of the racoons were scared away by this technique. Several would simply stare at me as I threw our trash in the dumpster.)
• The park has water and electrical connections, but not sewer hook-ups. There are two dump stations in the park.
• There is a Publix grocery store about 14 miles from the park and it takes about 25 minutes to get there. Make sure you have your needed supplies before you start to camp at Hunting Island State Park.

We saw six Airstream trailers in the park while we were there. These ranged from a 1967 Safari to a new International. As we have experienced in other parks, the Airstreamers tend to be very friendly and willing to share ideas with each other,

We need to mention one additional point about Hunting Island State Park. We were warned about the narrow bridge on the only road leading to the park. It certainly was scary and I would not want to meet up with a big rig on that bridge.

The narrow bridge

One of the park rangers said that Hunting Island is the premiere park in South Carolina in that it has significantly more visitors than the other state parks. While we think the beaches along the Florida/Alabama Gulf coast are closer to "paradise," there are many things to see and do at Hunting Island State Park.

Watercolor painting by Becky

Becky's watercolor painting of the lighthouse