All About Relaxing RV Park (Theodore, Alabama) - November 2023

This was our second time camping in this park and we were in the overflow area both times. We were not alone in the overflow area this time as two other RVs joined us there. 

The main difference between the regular sites in this campground and the overflow area was that the overflow area didn’t have sewer connections. That was OK with us since we were there for only three days and we knew how to conserve the amount out waste water going into Rosie’s tank. (Rosie is the name of our Airstream trailer.)

Rosie in the overflow area

This was a very nice and well maintained “mom-and-pop campground during our visit. The owners made good use of their property by adding extra pavilions and individual site decorations. But, we were not there to enjoy the park. We picked this park because it was near our son, daughter-in-law and grandson and gave us an opportunity to share Thanksgiving with them. 

Due to our grandson's dog allergies, Suzy, our Yorkie, had to stay in Rosie while we visited our family. We would go back to Rosie several times during the day to check on her and to take her for a walk. We both enjoyed these breaks. 

Since this campground was all about visiting family and not a true camping experience, we didn’t experience the many amenities of the park, which normally would be a shame because this is a very nice RV park. Again, we were there to visit family and we enjoyed being with them. 

It rained more than two inches the first night we were there. Water drainage was good and our site did not flood nor did it have standing water. What it did was encourage ants to invade Rosie. We had to to start full ant protocol while there. We found our unwanted and not invited ant invaders days later inside Rosie. 

Here are some specifics about this campground:

• There was one loop in the campground plus the overflow area
• Our site was a back in
• Most sites had some shade. Our site didn't
• Sites in this park were closer than normal
• Our site was gravel and we needed to use leveling tools to correct a side-to-side lean
• Our site had only 50 amp electrical service 
• Our site had a water connection 
• Trash left outside your camper was picked up every morning 
• There was a bathhouse in the campground. It may qualify as the nicest and cleanest we have ever seen in a campground 
• The park provided WiFi service 
• AT&T provided 3 bars of 5G voice and data service over our campsite 
• We found more than 54 TV stations using Rosie’s antenna. This included network stations ABC, CBS, CW, FOX and PBS. Digital channels seen included Antenna-TV, Circle, Comet, Court-TV, Dabl, ION, ME-TV and Rewind
• There were restaurants and shopping nearby
• This was a pet friendly park 

Boon-Docking in Mobile, Alabama - Visiting Family (March 2023)

We were starting a new “camping season” and discovered a problem with Rosie, our Airstream trailer, while in our first campground. The water heater wasn’t working. 

We called the technical support teams at the Airstream factory and our dealer. They quickly diagnosed the issue. We were relieved when our dealer, Foley RV/Airstream of Mississippi, told us to be there around 8:00 Monday morning and they would take care of us. 

RV'ers know that you always need to plan for unplanned things. Our original plan was to travel from Destin to Keesler Air Force Base for a night then to the first campground on the Airstream Club's Cajun Caravan arriving on Monday. Plan B meant we needed to be in Gulfport, Mississippi on Monday. We needed to stay an extra day at Keesler. 

I-10 Tunnel near Mobile, Ala.

Instead of being a problem, we saw this as an opportunity to driveway camp at our son's house, watch our grandson's team play baseball and celebrate our daughter-in-law’s birthday a little early. 

Driveway camping in Mobile, Ala

This was the second time we ended up camping in their driveway after an unplanned change in our carefully planned camping trips. 

Our daughter-in-law’s birthday celebration came up first. There is an amazing seafood restaurant in Bayou La Batre that we enjoy. The food was amazing and we enjoyed her birthday celebration. 

Enjoying ice cream in Bayou La Batre

We went to our grandson’s T-Ball game the next day. We were impressed by his progress from his first year playing the sport. 

Slugger at bat!

We didn’t unhitch Rosie because we knew we would need to quickly leave after the game to get to Keesler AFB during daylight. We were glad that our Plan B allowed us to driveway camp in Mobile and visit our son’s family while there. 

Boon-Docking in Mobile, Alabama- Visiting Family (April 2021)

Our reservations at Fort Pickens Campground were canceled by the National Park Service because of flooding in the campground and on its access roads. We learned about this as we tried to enter the park. 

While we understand the need to keep campers safe, it left us without a place to park Rosie, our Airstream trailer. This problem was compounded by the fact that Fort Pickens has approximately 200 campsites and every site was reserved during our planned visit there. The campground closure meant all those RVs had to scurry to find somewhere else to stay. Every park we called was full.

Our son, daughter-in-law and grandson were about 60 miles away. A quick call resulted in an enthusiastic response. A few minutes later, our son called to say his neighbors were currently away. He texted them and they said it was OK for us to park Rosie in their driveway for the night. That was a perfect solution. 

It was wonderful to see our family members. Our four year-old grandson loved being inside Rosie. Needless to say, we loved being with them. 

It is always fun when our grandson is inside Rosie

We wanted to test boon-docking in Rosie before adventuring out to some national parks in the future and this gave us an opportunity to do so. Would Rosie’s solar panels keep the batteries charged?  Our results were encouraging. As a bonus, we discovered that the 1,000 watt inverter in Rosie had ample power to run our coffee maker.

Driveway camping in Mobile

We were able to make new reservations for the time we planned for this trip. We hoped our new park would  not be underwater when we arrived there. 

Our son and his family were up early the next morning to get to work and preschool on time. We got up in time to say goodbye and to hug our grandson again. 

Saying "see you later, gator" after a wonderful experience

This turned out be a fantastic answer to our Fort Pickens cancelled reservations problem.